One of the optional add-ons for this tour was the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show. It’s a cultural performance that you enjoy after dining on 20 different kinds of dumplings. Plus Samantha Brown visited this place in one of her shows, so it was a definitely yes for us.
Dinner. Oh, the dinner. First of all, they had lotus root on the famous Lazy Susan. (The Chinese love their Lazy Susan’s, if you haven’t noticed). Back to the Lotus root, isn’t it pretty? 11 o’clock in the picture below. SO GOOD!
But the centerpiece of the dinner were the dumplings. Let’s eat!
There were 18 different kinds I believe. Each one is shaped like whatever is inside of it. For example the pork ones looked like little pigs, the fish ones were shaped like fish, the chicken looked like chicken and the walnut dessert ones were shaped like walnuts! I only ate the vegetarian ones (they even brought me a plate of different vegetable ones just for me!) But I was stuffed by the end. I ate a LOT of dumplings!
And then it was on with the show! It was filled with traditional music and dance. So fun to watch.
I loved this part. It looked like a painting and then they ‘came to life’.
After the show, our bus took us back to our hotel and then most people were going out clubbing. We knew we didn’t want to partake that night, so when the bus got close to the hotel, we asked him to pull over so we could get off and walk the 1/4 mile back from there. The city walls were all lit up and we wanted pictures! How gorgeous is this bell tower?!
Oh… side note… fake apple stores are EVERYWHERE in China!
Even the Terra Cotta statues are fans of iPads!
Ok, back to city walls. They were so impressive in person. Like the most beautiful Christmas light display you’ve ever seen!
Here’s an outline of the walls with the guard towers lit up. 
We played with the exposure a bit to try to capture it, but it was best enjoyed in the flesh. The camera couldn’t quite grab its beauty.
A wonderful introduction to Xi’An. China is definitely proving to be pretty amazing.
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