Xi'an "completed", Shanghai on deck

Wow, I didn't realize how difficult it is to keep up with this blogging thing on the road. Fortunately I have some time to burn before AV gets in so I can catch up here. Don't want to stay too long because it's 20:22 and there are still beads of sweat on my forehead even though I'm just sitting here.
Anyways, the train ride to Xi'an was smoother than I thought. Got a good night's sleep, met some friendly people on the train too. The most striking thing to me on the ride over was the number of radio spires there are dotting the countryside, and in the city too, whether they're on the ground or on buildings. My (un)educated guess is that they're remnants of Communist China; they have that sort of ominous aura about them in their jet-black/Eiffel-tower-like structure. Or maybe I'm just on crack.
Got into Xi'an around noon and right off the bat you can tell this place is seeping with history. The first thing you see are the massive city walls surrounding the city which is pretty cool. I didn't get a chance to bike on them this time around, but really there is so much to do/see in Xi'an. Spent a couple of hours getting the next train ticket ready, settling in, etc., before heading over to the Big Goose Pagoda. Got off the bus in front of the square that is right beside the pagoda, but the opposite side of the entrance. It's a big slab of concrete, but apparently there's a fountain show that they have late in the evening which I missed (oh well). Upon gaining entry to the pagoda's grounds, it's really amazing seeing the different Buddhist carvings, sculptures and figures throughout the area. Pictures aren't allowed though, but I was caught offguard - I was pretty blown away by what they had inside the temples. The pagoda itself wasn't anything special unfortunately. It towers over the area around it, but inside is pretty much just 7 flights of stairs with some Buddhist artifacts along the way. Again, the buildings around the pagoda were much more impressive and made the site worth visiting.
I headed over to the Muslim Quarter in the evening. They had lots of cool little stands there, but being the cheap-ass I am, and knowing that most figurines/knick-knacks I buy end up just sitting in a corner of my house after a while, I didn't buy anything except for some tea for my dad. I wandered around so much that I got to the Great Mosque after it had closed. Oops. But yeah, the Muslim Quarter was quite cool, and I would've gone back the next day had I not been so pressed for time.
The next day was pretty much all Terracotta Army! I took the bus to the railway station and was looking to connect to another bus there, but it took me about half an hour to find the right bus because that station is so damn huge. From the station, it took an hour to get to the site. On top of that, it takes a good 15-20 minutes to get to the pits themselves. I followed Lonely Planet's recommendation of visiting Pit 1 (the biggest, most famous one) last and I'm glad I did because it made me appreciate what I saw in the smaller Pits 2 and 3 a lot more. For some reason, I found the higher-ranking officials particularly interesting. Maybe it's because of the contrast between the way they looked so boss-like and authoritative, and the pawns in Pit 1 looked so dinky hahaha. But yeah, Pit 1 is gigantic and I'm pretty sure they're not even halfway done uncovering the whole thing. One thought that came to mind - they paved/developed pretty much everywhere behind and around the pits... how do they know there's not more underneath? There's probably some easy, fast and high-tech way of doing it that I don't know about. Meh, I'm not an archeologist. Anyways, it'll be cool to see what it's like again in 5-10 years from now to see how much more they've uncovered and if there's been any headway with the mausoleum nearby.
So after I was finished there (I took my slow, sweet time and was done in about 3 hours), the buses back to the hostel were so dreadfully slow that I almost missed my train. I sweated my brains out running to the train, only to realize I got on the wrong car and had to do the walk of shame through 5 other carriages on the way to the right spot. I was exhausted.

Ok, that's enough for tonight!