Tag city

Xian


XIAN


At first glance Xi’an is just a big, industrial, dirty and polluted city. Unfortunately, subsequent glances don’t do much to change this opinion. However, it is a city of historical significance. It should be visited for this fact alone.

During Xian’s 3,100 year development, 13 dynasties such as Western Zhou (11th century BC – 771 BC), Qin (221 BC – 206 BC), Western Han (206 BC – 24 AD) and Tang (618 – 907) placed their capitals here. So far, Xian enjoys equal fame with Athens, Cairo, and Rome as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals. Here you will find the terracotta army of the Qin Dynasty. This guy also built the Great Wall. The old city is completely surrounded by a huge city wall and moat. It is considered to be the best preserved ancient wall in the world. No doubt, it looks almost new and is quite impressive. The Bell and Drum towers are also beautiful and stand a mere 200 meters from each other. There are interesting museums as well to see. Xi’an has a park that is said to have the largest water fountain in the world as well. In the evening they host an outside show here starts 500 dancers on the water fountain. I didn’t get to see the show myself, but it is supposed to be worth a look see.

The specialty food here is the dumplings, which I must say are out of this world. Other than that, nothing special to eat here. Oh, they do have 4 Starbucks here. I would say 2 days here will give you plenty of time to see Xi’an and get out before your lungs explode.

Xiamen

I just returned from a visit to Xiamen. This coastal seaside city has got to be the cleanest city in China. Located on the Southeast coast of China in Fujian Province consisting of Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, the north bank area of the Jiulong River and Tong’an County. Rich in history and the first free trade zone in mainland China. Xiamen has been called the Egret Island because of the hundreds of thousands of egrets inhabiting there. This is due to the beautiful natural scenery, the fresh air and the clean environment of the city.

The old and new come together in the city beautifully. You can see the Spanish and Portugal influence in the old sections of the city. Water is everywhere. I huge lake sits in the center of the city with parks and fountains. Everything is clean and well cared for.The local food is delicious and is famous for the fresh fish dishes.

There is a lot to see in and around Xiamen.

A few hours drive outside brings you to the Hakka Earthen Castles which fascinate foreign and Chinese tourists, international architects, and even the Pentagon (Reagan and the CIA thought their spy satellites had revealed hundreds of missile silos). Many earthen houses are round. some are over 1,000 years old, and are so aesthetic they appear to have sprung from the very earth itself. Earthen homes are rammed into shape, layer by layer, using a mix of raw earth, sand, lime, glutinous rice, and brown sugar, and reinforced with ‘bones’ of bamboo and wood. Only upper floors have outer windows, and the massive wooden gates are sheathed in iron.

You can do a tour of this area in a day and should not be missed while visiting Xiamen.