Mid Autumn Festival = Trip to Pingyao + Xi'an

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!  It's an excuse for all of China to take a whole week off of school/ work and eat yummy mooncakes :D  For my break from school, 7 friends and I went on a 5 day trip to Pingyao and Xi'an. We took an 12 hour train ride in a sleeper car from Beijing to Pingyao.  It was quite the experience being in a sleeper car for the first time and it was actually pretty comfortable! (minus the random sudden breaks and creaking noises from the rails)

bed in the sleeper train

Pingyao turned out to be a pretty interesting place to visit.  It is well known because it is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world dating back to the Qing dynasty.  We definitely got that feel when we visited as the city wall surrounding Pingyao was still intact and buildings inside of the wall were very well preserved.  Inside the city, you can pay 75 RMB (~$12)  and get a pass to see any of the museums they have.  They had a variety of different museums dedicated to weapons, banks, currency, and newspapers just to name a few that you could visit.  They also had a lot of temples with Buddha statues.  The food in Pingyao was surprisingly delicious!  Especially compared to the food I've had in Beijing, I found the food in Pingyao to be more unique and tastier.  I've also discovered a love for eggplant!  I wasn't the biggest fan of it back in the US, but they cook it differently here and always have a sauce with it that makes it super tasty.

City streets inside Pingyao

Inside one of the museums

Pingyao special noodle dish

During this entire trip, we stayed in hostels.  I have never stayed in hostels before but after this trip, I don't see why everyone doesn't just sleep in hostels!  The ones we stayed in were really nice and totally worth it since each of us only paid about $10/ night.  The owners at the hostel we stayed at in Pingyao even provided us a home cooked breakfast each day we were there.  The hostels we stayed in at Xi'an were even nicer.  The had tasty food, clean rooms, spoke English, and just had good service all around.  You can easily meet young people from all over the world as well because so many different kinds of travelers stay there.

Entrance to our hostel

Home cooked breakfast at our hostel

Our bed at the hostel in Pingyao

After two days in Pingyao, we headed to Xi'an.  It turned out to be quite an experience as we took an 8 hour private bus ride over and had multiple questionable instances.  One included being stopped by the Chinese police because our driver seemed to be driving with an outdated identity card and the second included having our driver go up the wrong way on a ramp to the freeway into incoming traffic.  But we made it safely to our second hostel! =)

Going from Pingyao to Xi'an was a pretty drastic change.  Xi'an is much more modernized and had an overall very different feel from Pingyao in terms of surroundings, people, and food (which was definitely not as tasty as Pingyao).  Xi'an is most famous for the Terra Cotta warriors and of course we had to see them.  For about 270 RMB (~$45) the hostel was able to arrange transportation, a tour guide, and entrance into the warrior sites.  It was pretty crowded when we went to visit because we visited on the actual day of the Mid Autumn Festival.  However, we were still able to see everything.  When I first heard of the Terra Cotta Warriors, I pictured having to walk down dirt roads and into a cave or something to see these warriors.  Instead, China has built these huge buildings over all of the warriors and made it more of a museum type thing instead of leaving it in it's natural environment.  It had a really touristy feel which detracted from it somewhat, but I'm still glad I was able to experience it.  Also, having a local tour guide with us to explain more about the warriors made the experience more educational and we were able to take away more than we would have just walking around.  For example, we learned that all the workers who helped create the warriors were killed after it was all constructed.  Also, that the person who discovered the warriors was a farmer who was originally digging for a well and was only compensated 10 RMB (~$1.50) for discovering it (the poor guy got ripped off).  

Our tour guide with her cute teddy bear on a stick to let us know where she was

Kneeling archer

Pit #1 of 3 - This was the most impressive one out of all them

Dome covering the soldiers

While we were in Xi'an we also visited an area called the Muslim Quarter.  There was a lot of street food and shopping there.  I noticed that everything seems to be cheaper in Xi'an than in Beijing; at least for the goods sold at the stalls in the Muslim Quarter.  The street food in Xi'an was just ok.  I've been spoiled by the amazing street food in Taiwan so I have yet to be impressed by what I've seen in China... I need to lower my standards :P A big thing in China for street food is meat kabobs.  Every stall puts a special seasoning on the meat and then grill it.  The night we went to the Muslim Quarter was crazy.  Since it was the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, there were a ton of people there.  Just getting food took extra long and trying to keep the 8 people in our group together turned out to be a pretty difficult task.  Surprisingly, Xi'an didn't have any big celebration for the Mid Autumn Festival and fireworks are actually illegal in Xi'an during that time which was disappointing.  I've been envisioning the fireworks in China to be absolutely amazing since they were created here so I really want to see fireworks while I'm here.  In spite of that, in honor of the holiday spirit, our hostel we stayed at gave us free moon cakes!  So we still celebrated a little bit haha.

Wild Goose Pagoda with the world's biggest water fountain in front of it

One of the ubiquitous meat kabob stands

Muslim Quarter craziness

The Bell Tower in the center of Xi'an

Overall, I had an amazing time on my trip.  I had a great time with the people I went with and we got to see, eat, experience a ton of new things.  I need to keep pinching myself all the time when I'm in China to remind myself that I'm lucky to be experiencing everything and to make the most of my time here. 

So guys, I've made a life changing discovery here. Birthday Cake flavored Oreos.  They are absolutely DELICIOUS.  If you haven't tried it yet, do yourself a reallllly big favor and go buy some.  I'd even go so far to say that they're better than the original Oreos.  Yep, I went there.  While I've been in China, I've been trying to find new things/ flavors  that I wouldn't usually find in the US.  My first attempt almost scared me off from trying any new flavors.  I tried mixed berry flavored Oreos.  Definitely not one of my smarter decisions while I've been here.  Imagine an artificial gum flavor with hints of fruit creme.  Now pair that with an artificial chocolate flavored cookie.  I should have known better not to buy it. It was not good guys.  I should have chosen one of the other flavors such as green tea, vanilla milkshake, or mango (actually another fruit flavor would probably be just as bad).  After the mixed berry experience, I really hesitated buying any more Oreos.  However, in need of a snack for the train rides around China I decided to give Oreos one more try with a safe sounding flavor, Birthday Cake.  Sooooo good.  You're welcome in advance ;)