China - Shaanxi (Central China) 14/08/2005

Trip Journal From 14th Of May - 21st May 2005



We have hit some wet weather, travel has been slow through the beginning of the
Province. The roads continue to be either 1st class highways or very second grade and riddled with potholes very tough on some of the vehicles. The highways have lots of tunnels, great engineering, there are massive plantings of trees along side the new highways, conifers, cherry and topiary trees, also lots of box hedging

But where is all the traffic?? Lots of trucks hardly any cars, in 10 years these roads are going to be so congested. Huge road construction, just continual through all the provinces we have traveled in. Chinas certainly making up for lost time. We wind our way through valleys and gorges and we choose to stop early after the road deteriorated and the rain got heavier. We had an amazing drive into Chao Tian, along side the river, the road went under huge overhanging rocks that the motor homes just managed to squeeze under, and we booked into a hotel for the night. We were just nodding off to sleep when we got summoned to the reception. The local Police were there with Li to check our passports, visas etc. Given the all clear we headed back to bed.

We are a day’s drive from Xian when we get held up in the small town of Foping, due to all the heavy rain there had been some massive slips on the road we were traveling on. They had to blast the rocks to clear the road. There was another route we could take but it was not suitable for some of the vehicles the other alternative was to backtrack about 320kms.So the decision was made to spend an extra night in Foping but it did give us a chance to catch up on some vehicle maintenance.

Wednesday May 18th we have finally arrived in Xian. The beginning of the Silk Route The highlight of our visit would have to be the Qin Terra-cotta Warriors. Our first sighting of them left us all speechless. They were bigger than expected 1.8mt tall, exquisitely made with ancient technology, each head had been individually modeled with its own unique facial expressions, and they stood in battle formation with chariots, horses and infantryman. They were placed in corridors, divided by earth rammed partitions walls. It was an amazing fluke to think they had been discovered by farmers putting down a well in 1974, they had lain buried for 2500 years. They are still excavating to this day and you can see the work in progress. We used local buses to get out to the Terra cotta Warriors as it was 30kms from where we were staying, a lot of fun until Paul hopped off the bus thinking we were all behind him, leaving him stranded all alone at the bus stop. Again the CBs came into their own and it wasn’t long before we had him back in the fold again. We all gave him a huge cheer as his bus pulled in.

Our camp site was in the middle of the city within the Old City Walls in a small car park directly behind the night markets, quite noise and not much privacy for us , so we decided to stay in a hotel next door. The Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Great Mosque and several, huge shopping malls were all within a 5 minute walk from us. Xian was a modern city with a nice atmosphere and it was great strolling around the markets and more importantly being able to have a fix on western food again. The place of choice for us all was Pizza Hut, we all left there with doggy bags for the next day.

On our way back home we stopped in the square to have our portraits painted, we all looked like pinups, no wrinkles, no double chins did wonders for the ego. We stayed for 3 days in Xian so a luxury for us on morning was a lie in, bliss. We caught up on internet and had our first chance for a serious shop. I saw some lovely little toddler’s outfits but they would all have the split in the pants which is very common over here. Ruefee is starting to groan under all the extra weight from the shopping.

Saturday 21st May saw us all sad to leave Xian but today we follow the Silk route and head into Gansu Province.