overnight trained into xian on xx/xx/xxxx from a nonentity town called guangyuan near songpan. noteworthy in our research only for being a major plutonium (?) producer for china, the city was surprisingly pleasant in its treelined greenery and spotless streets. nuclear money at work, perhaps. ended up actually not being a bad stopover point, as it gave our backsides a few hours of break in between two veerrry long stints of rural travel. we made it into the downtown area for a dinner at dicos... once again proving to save our stomachs and tastebuds in these parts, and a few hours to while away at a pc bang.
the overnight train into xian passed uneventfully and easily, as these train rides tend to do. walking out into the city upon arrival, the historical significance of this town was immediately palpable. once the country's capital, the ancient walls that boxed the perimeter are still standing today. other remnants of the past: the grid structure of the streets, which makes exploration on foot or bike quite accessible (beware the sun, even through the pollution ridden atmosphere, however).
three other hallmarks of this appealing city? heat, pollution, and traffic, all of which bombarded us (and, after the elevation and remoteness of northern sichuan, were welcome nuisances of urbanity) on the taxi ride to our hostel. incredibly central in location, our hostel was minutes walking distance from extremely useful landmarks such as the bell tower and the lively muslim quarter, which would prove to be our gastronomical lifeline for the duration of our stay.
terracotta warriors
in a word? underwhelming. or, on second thought, underwhelming may not be the right word, as it wasn't much of a deviation from what i'd been expecting, as we'd heard reports ranging in variety from the first sight of these marvels of archaeological discovery being mind-boggling to underwhelming, with more inclination toward the latter (being armed with background information on the history of the warriors and their creation was much encouraged). some research done on wikipedia (funny enough, wiki is banned in china, but its entry on the warriors didn't fail to pop up, and quickly at that), and we found ourselves hopping aboard the ubiquitous green "warrior buses" to bring us to the site, an hour out of town.
the exhibit, consisting of three pits, a small museum for display and explanation of some of the chariots and weapons unearthed, and a cinema playing a 20 minute ditty about the history and discovery of the relics, were set amidst immaculately kept grounds that sprawled in a 15 minute walk toward the parking lot. it's quite apparent the this is one of china's pride and joys, judging by the obvious upkeep that goes into maintaining the facilities' luster. like beijing, the foreign tourists here were more of the "wear matching color t-shirts to follow your tour groups" vein.
per recommendation, we started with the cinema to hopefully give us some background knowledge that we hadn't already gleaned. what we experienced ended up being an interesting 360 panoramic setup of movie screens, and a far less intruiging mockumentary about the dictator behind the warriors, and their discovery by some lowly peasant digging a well (who has since, apparently reached a level of fame only dreamed about by middle class products of the one-child policy). hoping for more from the museum, we made our way over there (museums don't do too much for me, unfortunately), and afterward, started with the least impressive of the pits, the third, to save the best (and first) for last. pit three showcased the unearthing of the warriors in as original a state as could be hoped for, i suppose. most of the warriors and horses in this pit lay in a state of carefully preserved ruin, and weren't much to look at. onto pit 2, which showed more of the same, on a bigger scale. and finally, the piece de resistance: pit 1, the image most engraved in any conjured by mentions of the words "terracotta" and "warriors" in the same sentence: rows upon rows of painstakingly reassembled soldiers and their horses. i think there are supposed to be something like 6000 soldiers in this pit, although i may be totally off, as the number of figures didn't look nearly to be that many. this pit was actually pretty worthy to behold, and though almost surrounded on all sides by tourists trying to get a picture of the massive sight with themselves in the foreground, a sense of awe-inspired solemnity pervaded the hall. and in case anyone could possibly, even to the remotest degree, be interested, the museum offered "professional" pictures with the warriors (at a distance) for an affordable $25. one quote plastered on the ad poster even had an anonymous chinese-american visitor sorely regretting not getting a $25 picture taken when he had the opportunity. maybe the figures were the most amazing thing ever beheld in his entire life, and he'd somehow forgotten his own camera?
our walk around the whole compound took slightly less time that we'd thought it would (~2 hours). i can appreciate the fact that these relics are one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the past century (although, "eighth wonder of the world"?... dubious), but there's only so much you can do after the obligatory walk-arounds. ultimately, they're just some earthen soldiers standing in pits. they all look the same, despite individual facial characteristics having been etched into each, and it's not the great wall or anything, on which, being a real trek, one is left with little option but to spend hours getting from one end to another.
i'm glad to have seen them, however. another thing to check off the list, right? and xian, after having seen the most countryside than i'd ever had in my life, and being in some thoroughly unattractive cement block-ridden cities, was a welcome change to the urbanite i am at heart.
More thumbnails ...
1 vote 
