Jiayuguan to Xi'an

Last time I posted, we were on our way to Jiayuguan (I think). I can't remember and internet here is by the hour. We had a five hour bus ride to Jiayuguan. It was a good time. We all got to catch up on some sleep and get to know eachother a little bit more. I haven't talked about any of the people I've met yet, but we're all starting to get to know eachother a lot more now that we're settling in. Me, Jim, and Devon all knew eachother before the trip, and most of our classmates had at least someone else they knew. It was easy for us to meet up with Matt and Brittany. They both were really good friends, having known eachother at Gonzaga. Matt actually knows some people from my highschool. All us of pretty much keep eachother laughing at stories from home and just some of our life experiences. Ryan and Jeff are roommates together too. Ryan is from Las Vegas, but he's lived all over the US including Laguna, St. Louis, Florida, Georgia and Nevada. He goes to St. Louis University and his roommate Jeff goes to Georgetown. Jeff is a laid back guy and has a great sense of humor. I can't place what kind it is but he's a good time.

When we got to Jiayuguan everyone checked in and ate before we left for the Jiayuguan Fort. This fort is the last fort on the Great Wall. Criminals and corrupt officials were banished here and thrown into the Gobi. Most of the people, after leaving through the last gate, simply sat down to die. Walking through the same gate, it was pretty cool to see the mountains and desert ahead of you for miles. Nothing else (Well there were people selling horseback rides for Y5, but when you live in a 99c store you can't buy everything all the time so we didn't do it.) It got pretty windy while we were at the fort and for a while a sandstorm blew through.

After the fort, we ate a group dinner, paid for by TBC and we all went out for a friend's birthday. We woke up early the next day to see some last things before we boarded our 20 hour train to Xi'an. We saw the Weijn tombs, which were awesome. They were underground tombs that had three original rooms. The last of the rooms was the actual coffin room where the owner and his wife were put to rest. They were really small, no more than 6ft high and 8x8 square. There was no cement, and all of the 1700+ yr old paintings on the bricks were original and visible. This is one of 1400 tombs in the Jiayuguan area. The rest remained unopened until China has the technology to prevent the oxidization of colored paintings. That is some pretty good planning and patience by the Chinese. Props.

From the tombs, we went to the Hanging Great Wall. I think it's called the Hanging Great Wall because it is practically vertical. The Wall is the wall, so I took a few pictures and moved on. We left for the train station and spent most of the train talking and sleeping. We played a few games but were able to pass time fairly quickly. We got to Xi'an today and pretty much are taking it easy. We took a bike ride along the oldest completed wall around a city. It was awesome and the weather was fantastic. It's nice to be back in a modern city. We're in a pretty high end part of town and our hotel is really nice. Great service. We're about a block away from a mall with all of the name brand stores. The real stores haha. Tonight we have another group dinner with the other half the TBC groups. Tomorrow is the terracotta warriors.