[plinko]

Ahh Xi'an, an ancient city undergoing mass growing pains. An intact (albeit renovated and rebuilt) city wall, amazing museums, and a pure demonstration at what happens when you introduce the automobile to a city not really prepared for it. I highly recommend it to anybody headed to Beijing or Shanghai (IIRC it's a 120 minute flight to Beijing). The terra-cotta soldier museum is absolutely surreal. I didn't spend a great deal of time there, but I certainly had a very good time.

I don't have alot of skyline shots and the air quality is absolutely vile...but I did manage to snap a few photos along the way...

Lost in Translation?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA289.jpg

Nice air quality...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA295.jpg

Quake damage?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA306.jpg

BRICK...house...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA323.jpg

Interesting cemetary...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA327.jpg

Big Goose Pagoda
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA328.jpg

At the Emporer baths...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA343.jpg

Legions
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA356.jpg

Useless, but awesome
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA374.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA380.jpg

The hospital
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA393.jpg

Don't fuck with Qi
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA433.jpg

It takes a village
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA450.jpg

Fishy!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA459.jpg

Better light
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA463.jpg

great, but not the GREAT wall
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA472.jpg

Mass transit
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA478.jpg

Decorative
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA486.jpg

Urban renewal
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA492.jpg

'We have to walk HOW far?!?'
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA493.jpg

Impregnable
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA497.jpg

Berlin-esque
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA503.jpg

Corner
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA504.jpg

Modern
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA510.jpg

Contrast
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA516.jpg

Inner-urban
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA519.jpg

Outer-urban
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA520.jpg

Traffic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA524.jpg

Human scale
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA526.jpg

Lookout
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA530.jpg

Grow the skyline
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA529.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA531.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA532.jpg

Rooftops
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA533.jpg

Bring me down
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA536.jpg

Infill
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA537.jpg

Gateway
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA541.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA544.jpg

Dusk
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA546.jpg

Bell Tower
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA551.jpg

Xianyang International Airport (clean, easy and modern terminal)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA558.jpg

My ride...China Eastern served me well on my trip...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Xian/CHINA555.jpg

[fflint]

Amazing. I *so* want to see the Chinese cities.

Awesome.

[Sacto]

Great!

[urbanflyer]

Another stupendous thread.

How does it feel to view the thousand soldiers for the first time??

[sbarn]

Thanks for the tour... I visited Xi'an about 2 years ago. The air quality was equally (and disturbingly) as awful as your visit. Interesting place to visit, wouldn't ever want to live there...

Thanks for sharing!!

[giovanni sasso]

intense. the "gateway" shot with the sun poking through the haze is pretty great.

well done, pinko.

[plinko]

*threads that go bump in the night*

I really do wish I'd spent more time in Xi'an. I went just for the soldiers and found that there's much more to offer within the city itself (particularly the city wall).

The soldiers were absolutely surreal, and while I know you can see them on TV or in museums (or I'm told also at DisneyWorld), there really is no substitute for being in that huge hangar of a building and looking out over them.

I wish I had more photos to show, but that's really about it from this portion of the trip. Onward to Beijing next!

[The Chemist]

I'm off to China next year to teach English (most likely in Shanghai), and Xi'an is one of the places on my list to visit while I'm there. Great photos! It doesn't look quite as gleaming and polished as Shanghai or Beijing, but maybe that's a good thing.

[keninhalifax]

It seems like a world away. Thanks for these wonderful photos and the accompanying 'imformation'!

[oliveurban]

Nice.

[jiaodagongjian]

the Fog, isn't because of the bad air quality, but because Xi'an is in inland region, high mountains on all sides ,the clouds is very thick, this is the natural phenomena

[M II A II R II K]

Never heard of this place.

Interesting tour nonetheless with it's numerous sites.

[Kingofthehill]

Impressive.

How long were you in China for?