Xi'an home of the Terracotta Warriors

On the 18 Aug we arrived in Xi'an from Nanning....by plane. We had the option of a 32 hr train trip or a 2.5 hr plane trip. Although it would have been good to say we over landed from the south of Thailand to Europe, we realised that we were running out of time and flying was the way to go. Arrived in Xi'an and went straight to the train station to try to organise tickets to Beijing leaving on the 21st. Train station was hectic and crowded but we gamely joined the melee aided by our large backpacks which proved highly effective in scattering the locals trying to push in  when swung from side to side. Didn't get our first choice of tickets but we did manage to organise a soft sleeper departing on the same day on train K118 . Held up the queue for a good 5 mins while we fumbled with our lonely planet, pointed at destinations and searched for staff that could translate for us. Anyone complaining should remember that we are the same people who buy their tacky souvenirs and 'tourist priced' bottled water etc. First thing you see in Xi'an when leaving the train station is the enormous walls surrounding the center of the city, really quite impressive and our first taste of historical China. Headed to a hostel near the station and checked into a dorm room as there were no doubles available. Our first dorm room! Turned out to be really nice and our only room mates a nice Brazilian couple (ended up staying in the dorm room for 3 nights). By the time we stepped back out onto the street it was just past lunch, considering we only left Nanning that morning we could see ourselves quickly warming to this flying business. We ended up making the most of that afternoon, walking through the city and eventually onto the walls where we hire a couple of bicycles for 20y each. The walls (whilst repaired/rebuilt many times) were really interesting and spanned about 13km in total. There were north, south, east and west gates complete with watchtowers and courtyards and we had a really good arvo riding around and peering back into the city from the height of the walls. One of the things that i liked most about being up on the walls was seeing all the kites being sent what seemed to be 100 - 300m high. Many small kites, one after the other on the same line stretching out across the walls and city. Was great to see. After circumnavigating the old town on the wall we descended into some markets and spent the next couple of hours working out what we might buy next to send home and meandering back to the hostel. Got back at about 8.30pm and were both shattered, not surprising considering how much we crammed into the day. Booked tour to Terracotta Warriors departing the next day.

cath riding the walls

Up early and ready for our Eastern Tour which was to take us to the Army of Terracotta Warriors, the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang and the Huaqing Hot Springs. First stop (as usual on these sorts of trips) was a factory that made imitation terracotta warriors and other Chinese handicrafts. Cath and I normally dont go for these sort of tourist trap rubbish but the factory turned out to be interesting and some of the furniture they were also making made us do some quick calculations to see if we could possibly afford to buy bed side tables to send home. Next was the Hot springs and a small museum which was also out that way. I won't go into details about either of these as probably, like us, the big draw card is the Terracotta Army.

si the warrior

To sum it up, the Terracotta Warriors were awesome and inspired. This is a life sized army (laid out in battle formations) that has stood guard over the Emperor Qin Shi Huang for over 2000 years. Unfortunately just after the tomb was sealed all those years ago there was a revolution and the tomb was broken into and most of the warriors damaged. Archaeologists have (since they were discovered in the 1974) pieced many of the warriors back together. Although you can't get really close to the warriors they still looked amazing and I ended up taking heaps of photos. We spent about 3 hours there and wandered between the three pits which are still being excavated today. It was on the way back to Xi'an that we stopped at Qin Shi Huang's tomb. All that there is to see is a mound, but underneath is still a mystery but described in historical volumes as 'containing palaces filled with precious stones, underground rivers flowing with mercury and reputed to have taken almost 40 years and 700,000 workers to build (many who were buried in it to help keep its secrets)". Modern technology has been used to xray the site and they have found enormous concentrations of mercury stretching for over 1km which lends credence to this story and has made it impossible to excavate. Cool...

terracotta warriors

Got home exhausted yet again from another full day.

We had one more day to spend in Xi'an and we headed out to the Shaanxi Museum (supposedly thaving one of the best collection in China) and the Muslim Quarter of the city. The museum was really interesting but not quite as dramatic as we might have liked. Instead smaller, detailed works of pottery and jewelry. Still well worth a visit with exhibits covering the last 6000 years or so.... The Muslim Quarter was just what we like, exotic smells, food, narrow alleys and plenty to spend our money on. Bought a really cool terracotta warrior chess set which we will post home from Beijing.

Train from Xi'an to Beijing was 13hr and quite relaxing. Will post again about our time in Beijing.

Xi'an