Lai Yuan - Baishishan World Geological Park & Shipuxia

Our project team was taken on a 2-day team building trip to Lai Yuan, roughly 4 hours drive outside of Beijing. The first day included a several hours hike up some lovely rocky mountains/peaks up above the clouds. The views were amazingly beautiful and nothing like we had seen before. We were located within the Baishishan World Geological Park and within it hiked to the Twin Stones and the Buddha Light Summit. Below are a handful of shots along the way...you should be able to click on each to enlarge.

Below is the Twin Stones...looks like the right one is ready to fall right over

 After only a little climb, we turn a corner to find stairs, stairs, and more stairs. These Chinese love walls and stairs!

Once to the top of Buddha Light Summit there was a beautiful 360degree view of the mountain range. Here's a couple shots...and video :) Enjoy!

Day 2 of our Team Building trip was a hike up Shipuxia which translates as 10 waterfalls canyon. It was an equally beautiful day as the first. Enjoy the pics!

 Below, was the top of the hike...a fresh cold spring "waterfall" to fill up your water bottle. I was a little unsure, but it seemed to be filtered and ok to drink.

 And finally, the wonderful view we had on the way down.

The hikes we did on both days were long and a bit strenuous, but well worth the visit, the sore muscles, and the heat!  This was our first trip getting out of Beijing to a non-touristy site. We were literally the ONLY non-Chinese people in the town or on the hikes. But like the rest of China, the people were friendly and helpful with anything we needed.

China BBQ

A couple weekends ago a coworker of mine invited us to go to a BBQ with some other coworkers and her friends. Of course, we said yes! Early Saturday morning we all met up and carpooled up to the mountains...a couple hours outside of Beijing along the Yong-Ting River.

We weren't sure what to expect in a Chinese style BBQ. We asked what was on the menu...answer: skewered pork & chicken, steak, and sides of veggies. ok! sounds good! Once we arrived and found a spot along the river we started to get everything ready. My friend's husband got the bbq pits ready while we got the meat skewered.

Yep, that is a small metal box they just throw the coals into and light the fire...skewers are just put across and cooked right up. :)

Above we had some deliciously seasoned pork and some marinated chicken...not sure what spices/sauces they used, but it was awesome.

My friend's husband broke out the red wine to cook with the steak...also extremely delicious.

After we ate the delicious food, some broke out cards and played "poker"...which is just what they call card games. Not sure what the game actually was, but it looked like a variation of spades. The rest of us headed down to the free water "park" they had alongside the river...with a type of ropes course to get across the water.

Jesse and I did not risk attempting to get across...because that water did not look too clean and neither of us wanted to come close to falling in! But it was great entertainment watching other folks try and succeed and many try and fail. 

After a long day of bbqing, good food, good laughs, and lots of sun it was time to head back. On the way home we stopped by a temple that the pregnant couple with us wanted to visit since it is said that if you worship there you will have a baby boy. We shall see if it worked...

Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors

I know it's been a couple of weeks and I'm sorry for the late post, but here's the story of our adventure to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Thursday night, May 31st we head to the Beijing West Train station to catch the Z53 train to Xi'an. Roughly a 12 hour train ride we take off around 8pm to arrive in Xi'an about 8am the next morning. For 442RMB each (roughly $65USD) we get a soft sleeper ticket. Pictured below is the soft sleeper room: 2 lower beds and 2 upper beds (each ticket says which bed you are assigned), with a little table and pot you can fill with hot water which is provided at the end of each car.

Once we arrive to Xi'an we exit the train station and head South down Jiefang Lu to X Yi Lu where our hotel, The Bestay Hotel is located. For 169RMB a night (roughly $26USD) we get a bed, TV, desk, toilet and shower. Not the biggest place, but it's clean and has all that we need.:

After we put our things down at the hotel, time to head to see the Terra Cotta Warriors! We walk back to the train station to catch Bus #306, which for 7RMB (just over $1USD) per person we ride for 1hr out to the Terra Cotta site.We have arrived early so not many people there. To get to the entrance gates, we must walk by several kiosks of food, snacks, sodas, trinkets and other little shops with various items. Once to the gates, we pass by many locals offering tours, we say no and buy our tickets, 150RMB per person. The site is quite large, has 3 pits, a building that shows a 10min history video of the site and Emperor Qinshihuang, a museum, and plenty of garden area. We decide to start at the video room, then the museum, then go from pit 3 (the smallest) to pit 2, and finally to pit 1 (the largest) and most well known.

Pit 3 was larger than we had expected (622 sq yds), it had horses and several warriors in an oddly shaped pit. It was said that this pit was the command center for the soldiers in the other pits.

Pit 3:

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Pit 2 was much larger than pit 3 at 7,176 sq yds. Because of its L-shape I couldn't get a full pic of it. Much of it was not completely excavated. As you can see in the pic below the roof that was built over the soldiers is still there but sunken in. Some parts were excavated and we could see parts/pieces of soldiers and horses many were broken or toppled over, etc in this pit.

Pit 2:

       

Pit 1 is, of course, the largest at 19,136 sq yds. Walking into Pit 3 was amazing, then walking into Pit 2 was a lil more amazing, and finally walking into Pit 1 was unbelievable. Imaging the time, the effort, the labor, everything that went into building and making each warrior, each horse, each chariot, digging the pits, making roofs, covering them up, etc. Unbelievable! Here's some pics of this Pit, and how close we could get

Pit 1:

       

       

       

       

       

       

We spent most of the day walking the pits of the Terra Cotta and its museum. This marks one of the places I have always wanted to go to but never thought I would. If this was the only thing we did during our trip to Xi'an I would still be happy...but we still had the evening and one whole more day.

After the Terra Cotta Warrior visit, we headed back to our hotel to clean up and head out to Tang Le Gong, the Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show. Prior to the show, dinner is served. We eat a lovely variety of dishes while listening to a live band playing traditional Chinese music. As dessert is served the show begins. There is a mix of story telling, dancing, mock fighting, and of course a live band playing music from the Tang Dynasty with original instruments from that period. It was a beautiful evening and a wonderful way to end our first day in Xi'an.

Day 2 in Xi'an we wake up early and grab a taxi down to Da Yan Ta (Big Wild Goose Pagoda). This pagoda was built around 652AD with only 5 stories. It was rebuilt later to the 7 stories shown in the pic below. And yes, we climbed to the top to see a great view of Xi'an.

After we left Da Yan Ta, we visited the Shaanxi History Museum, and walked around the city of Xi'an seeing the Bell Tower, the city's wall and moat, and what appeared to be an art district. After a long day of sightseeing we headed to the train station for our 12 hr over-night trip back to Beijing. All in all it was a quick trip to Xi'an, we LOVED seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors, and we will need to come back to hike in the beautiful Xi'an Mountains.