Camels and Terra Cotta Warriors

This is part 2 of our Silk Road Trip that we took during the National Holiday from October 1 through October 7. 

We took an overnight sleeper train from Turpan to Dunhuang.  Dunhuang is right at the edge of the Gobi desert where camels are still used to haul tourists and some goods through the desert.  We had the opportunity to have a camel ride for a couple of miles up and around the dunes. The ride was long enough that we were getting quite saddle sore by the time we were finished. 

There were hundreds and hundreds of camels being ridden by tourists. It was quite the experience!

The next day we visited Mogao Grottos which is a UNESCO site. The grottos are dug into the hillside by Buddhist worshippers.  The grottos were dug and covered with paintings over a period of 1400 years. They are now protected and preserved. The paintings are very, very beautiful. 

This is a sample from the gift shop.

We flew from Dunhuang to Xian where we spent the next 2 nights. Our hotel in Xian was really nice and quite western with all of the amenities. 

Early the next morning we toured a shop where they showed how reproductions of the terra cotta warriors are produced. Of course, we bought Rick one for his birthday since it was his day!  We bought a larger sized one and had it shipped home. We also bought a smaller one to take back to our apartment to enjoy for now.  

Our next stop was of course to see the real deal!  It was so amazing to be able to see the location where 7,000 unique warriors were uncovered just in the mid 70's. The warriors were created around 220 BC. 

The next day we were able to take a bike ride on the ancient city wall surrounding the city of Xian. 

We returned back to Guangzhou and to our students at SCUT after a week of traveling. Thankfully we had a day to recover before we started teaching again on Friday.