Terracotta Warriors

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  Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

We arrived at 11am in mad chaos, that is the Xi'an Railway Station.  Sooooo many people everywhere, and loads just sitting under the wall for some reason.  Our hostel claims to do free pick-ups but they dont (seems to be the ongoing trend in our trip) so we stood in the enormous taxi queue to our hostel.  The hostel is very nice, we have been impressed so far by the hostels here and the hosts speak english which is crucial.  It has a courtyard in between buildings and adorned with Chinese artifacts, a painting and calligraphy station, and lanterns, etc.  The other lie on the hostel brochure is that they do train booking; they dont.  For some reason in China, you cannot do onward booking for train tickets, you have to wait until you get to the next destination.  After walking to the ticket booth we discovered they were out to lunch.  We only wanted to stay in Xi'an one night, so booking a ticket was essential especially since millions of Chinese are also on holiday and travelling.  So we heeded the guide book warning about the train station ticketing chaos and headed to the train station.  It was overwhelming, there were at least 30 tellers each with a maxed line of patrons.  We had the hostel employee write down our destination in Chinese but luckily our teller could speak English.  We were able to get on a train the next day at 10:20 PM, so we decided to wait and go to the Terracotta warriors before departing the next day.

After lunch we hopped on the public bus and went to the Bell Tower.  The Bell Tower once housed a giant bell that was rung at dawn which is now in the middle of a roundabout, surrounded by shopping complexes.  You could get your picture taken ringing a smaller bell for an extra 30Y.  About 200 meters away is the Drum tower once housing a giant drum that was struck at nightfall.  We happened to catch parts of the bell and drum shows at each of the attractions.  From there we caught another public bus to the big goose pagoda.  It was a very long walk to get to the pagoda, and again they charged an additional 30Y to climb up.  One of the biggest watershows happens in front of the pagoda, but we didn't want to wait 3 hours for it, as we were tired. 

Today we took a bus to the Railway Station and then took another bus one hour to the Terracotta Warriors.  These warriors where only recently discovered in 1974 by two guys digging for a well.  It has been called one of the largest and most important finds of the 20th Century.  They uncovered a vault that housed thousands of Terracotta Warriors, horses, and weapons.  Although the complete reason is unclear, many believe that the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang had the soldiers made to continue his rule after death.  I believe there are 5 different ranks of soldiers, all with impressive details, it has been said no two faces are the same.   They even have individual hairs, folds in their clothes, and tread on their soles.
Also unearthed was a pair of bronze chariots, on display behind a case.  We started out in the smaller pit 3 with 72 soldiers and horses.  In Pit 2, there were not many soldiers unearthed as they are continually excavating but we did have a chance to view 5 solders up close, behind a glass case of course.  We left the best for last: Pit 1 which is the largest vault and also the first one discovered by the peasants.  There are 6000 warriors and horses in the pit battle ready and facing east.  It was very impressive and also extremely crowded, you have to do as the Chinese do and battle your way to the good spots.   We are not big fans of the two cities we have been in so far; they are overcrowded, hard to get around, and lots of smog. Admittedly, it would've helped our China trip if we were better prepared and not just straight off the boat. Right now we are waiting another half an hour before we head to the train station for another all nighter.  I would take the train over a sleeper bus anyday but we do plan on flying the next leg. 

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