We left the big city of Beijing today and traveled to Xian with a population of around 6 million. We took an easy 2-hour flight and met our new tour guide, Josie. She was a lot of fun, and a very good guide. Josie group!! Xian is most famous for the discovery of the Terra Cotta Warriors in the 1970's. Since then Xian has become a booming tourist attraction. But don't let the Terra Cotta soldiers fool you, there are a many other great qualities to the city too. Xian is one of the four oldest cities in the world and still remains surrounded by a city wall. Xian is also the first capital of China.

The first site we visited when we landed in Xian was the city wall. We went to the south-side entrance where we could view the Bell and Drum towers. Ancient China used them to tell time, but as Josie said now the monks have watches so they don't need them anymore. We then went to the Stone Carvings Museum and saw the tablets with Confucius sayings. The scholars would come and copy the text in order to study for the imperial exam. We then checked into our hotel: Xian Garden Hotel. It was a gorgeous hotel, with lots of beautiful landscaping in the middle of the hotel. My view from the hotel room was of a Chinese Garden, a gazebo and a little pond.