古人的读万卷书、行万里路...

For folks that had been to Mt Kinabalu... You will see a famous phrase... "i see.. i climb... i conquer..." For  this terra-cotta trip, it's like the chinese quote... "读万卷书,行万里路..." It meant that in the olden days, the folks had correlated learning from reading scrolls together with experiencing via voyage.  It's like the right formula in their pursue for knowledge.  Well, this trip had been very educational and relaxing (own time, own target).  It's almost like a physical walk down the history time-line of ancient China and seeing it for yourself, how the conquerors of China build their era empire.  Ironically to me, most of the historians were remembered and closely studied if they left behind magnificent architectural structure (in large scale).

MAS Flight Meal...

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Shanghai Last Meal...

As we played safe and reached the airport quite early, we have to buy ourselves nice breakfast to compensate the early morning rise. Tuck-in!

Lambs on sticks....

we passed by.... really couldn't resist and we only 甘愿 to walk away when we each have a stick in our hands... 好吃,真好吃.... surely they do know how to BBQ well...

Best Rated Dinner...

This restaurant is ranked first in our food tasting days... mm says if there is another night in Shanghai, she would return for more... Surely, it is not just our stomachs that was captured by the chief here, there were plentiful of locals too.

we wasted no time when sitting in queue near the entrance... as we carefully flipped the deliciously photographed menu pages, our minds started to rank which items we should order for our dinner...

Fresh steaming crabby xiao-long-bao, braised meat ramen and the shop's best selling shrimp wonton swimming in hot soup topped our order list...

The steamy hot food matched our high expectation and not to mention, the "b" beverage is heavenly too...

南京步行街的夜市...

Craving for noodles....

Hand signaling to mm that it's lunch time and we should eat before heading back to our hotel, mm replied with a nod. Once the Shanghai airport bus dropped us at the pit stop, both of us wasted no time to find the noodle shop the bus had just grazed by... the noodles were okay, not the dumpling snack... obviously it was frozen foodstuff... wei... why like that?

More Plane Food...

This trip is full of taking off and landing.... cos the MAS flight transit in KL first before reaching Shanghai. And we had the additional Xi'An leg... so all-in-all, we had about 6 pairs of taking offs and landings...

The China Southern inflight meal comes with a cold bun (without butter, can someone feedback that butter is an essential please...) and a hot oriental dish... the apple chips are nice, too bad we really have no chance to grab them at the local supermarket.

Xi'An Local Specialty

Okay, one of the role of a tourist is to hit the street and try the local's specialty... as a responsible tourist, we did just that... and tried almost all the items as recommended on the book... checked, checked and checked...

Nice Dinner...

I love the egg noodles, and we went back for more.... i needed to catch the drama serial "铁齿铜牙纪晓岚4" on Beijing Channel 8.45pm, so the good plan was... Tabao!

Taxi... Taxi...

Surviving the narrow stairs climb, we were both tired and just wished for the warm hotel bed to jump into... wanting the locals experience, we hopped onto the local scooter improvised "tuk tuk" (a nasty bargaining price of rmb$9). Well, could not see the street as the vehicle was moving as we were shield from thick blankets to block the cold wind... but you can tell we were busy taking pictures anyway... oh, mm was busy taking to mr lew on the phone too...

西安成墙 2/2...

i insisted and wanted to set foot on this ancient wall... i watched many battle movies, all of those enemy who wants to attack the city had to break through the fierce defence army at the city wall first. Often, the walls were the last defence-line and brutal fights were inevitable.

This was build during Tang Dynasty. and i read somewhere that during that era, the area behind the walls is actually the Tang Imperial City. If i have 3 hours, i would really love to spent the time to survey the entire perimeter...

Pix above: They are closing in an hours time, and visitors had long gone home... Only 2 folks up here, a road sweeper and me.

Pix Left: Is the railway station outside the Wall (环城北路东段)

Pix Right: Is their bus-interchange, the hustle and bustle modern city within the perimeter of the Wall.

西安成墙 1/2...

Were there scary moments? Have Lah... this was it.... certainly does not feels threatening looking up from the ground... Try the other way (12 meters)... Orrhhh.... stupid me, why never think of the descending part before i paid the ticket (rmb$40)? The only consolation i have is that mm is not with me... as i have no idea how to carol her down this narrow-metal plated stairs...

Pix Left: Its mm below, waiting for me when i climbed up to the platform.

Pix Right: i should have bench-mark the narrow metal strip by placing my feet there. it's less than half of my shoe-sole. When i made my way down, i must say, i had mustered plenty of courage, each step in caution. It was even horrific when the dome-shaped metal grips had erosion condition. i sat down on the metal strips twice to calm myself... i focused only on the steps, not the ground.

水煮饺子,羊肉泡浮...

our hot soupy lunch, after the long day of traveling... just that i got a shock when my dumplings were served... i forgot to tell them to delete the red... ai yo... ai yo...

3D Blanket...

MM loved the handiwork and we bargained with this nanny till we became friends... Well, we passed by and nanny was sitting at a low stool sewing. Attached by her art-pieces, mm choose the 3-D blanket. Naturally nanny quoted a price & we counter bargained, testing the water by using a super low price... and nanny kept persuading us that she need to spend 1-full week just to complete the embroidery piece. We also tried the Walk-away-method, she kept calling us back, but could not concur to our price... We soon realized our counter price was too low and she had such a heartache to let go at the low price... Well eventually, the final price met midway and mm walked away with the beautiful piece. A picture for the friendship! Nanny smiled broadly when i showed her the digital picture... Cheerio!

Frozen water fountain....

Mother nature in the cold...

Our Persistence Tour Guide...

Back @ the Emperor Qin' Tomb, we were told that it was unnecessary to hire a guide at the 兵马俑, just tail behind a tour group and we can tag-along their service. That's why when we arrived at the ticket booth, both of us were shunning the swam of licensed guides... BUT i was extremely glad that this nice lady persistently asked us if we needed her service (rmb$40). i remembered our Egypt tour guide mahmood, if it is not by his wealth of experience in narrating the ancient temples history and showing us specifically where the interesting icons were, our trip werent so fruitful and complete... All the local guides had their license tag displayed vividly and i guess it must be the state regulations to maintain the history telling consistency among this trade and needless to mention, it was to match visitors' anticipated high standard. With her no-discounted narrative old tales, both of us had a comprehensive understanding of the soldiers formation, the intended usage and a better appreciation of the legacy Emperor Qin had left for himself.

i recalled her words, she said "三分用看的,七分靠听的..." After the tour, i totally AGREE.

1 of the 3, who found the Cotta...

He (Elder Yang) is 1 of the 3 farmers who was digging a well when they discovered The Cotta Army. Now he greets the museum visitors @ Exit of Pit 2 (last stop). This is where visitors can purchase the miniatures cotta as souvenirs and also the museum-pictorial-book (that gives the full comprehensive and exclusive photos of the discovered army). Elder Yang will autograph on the book upon purchase...

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