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Published: October 6th 2006
blog by Dave & Bronia Xi'an
It didn't take us long to discover that there's more to this city than just the
Army of Terracotta Warriors for which it is famed. It is surrounded by an ancient wall for a start - which is in itself a monument that can be climbed and walked along. It is a spectacular vision as you approach the city limits with vast elaborate watchtowers dotted evenly along its length.
Inside this imposing barrier are the
Bell Tower and the
Drum Tower which are huge buildings of Chinese design that initially date back to 14th century being rebuilt four hundred years later. They were built to be used in tandem for time keeping in the city and warning of impending attacks. Nowadays they have been fully restored so that tourists can ascend to their upper levels and get a great view of the surrounding landscape.
There is also the large and very old
Great Mosque deep inside the heart of the city. We spent quite a while here soaking up the tranquil atmosphere and the unique history which seemed to drip from the buildings and hang in the air. In the
tiny lanes just outside here small trinket shops and traders are clustered together to form a great market which we also browsed. Here it felt like old
China. The streets were dusty and filled with the smell of cooking food and burning coal.
Later we walked to see the
'Forest of Steles' which is a museum dedicated to a huge collection of stone tablets on which are written Chinese characters. Some of these steles were used by Confusious to write and record his teachings upon.
Close to this museum was row after row of craft stalls selling paintings, statues, artifacts, jewelry and various items made in traditional style. We spent a good few hours scouring these markets for a bargain or two.
On our first night in
Xi'an we actually sampled the local Chinese food for the first time. We chose a grubby little restaurant populated entirely by Chinese customers. The waitress produced a tatty piece of paper with some vaguely English descriptions on it. None of the staff spoke any English so we more or less chose at random, hoping that keywords like 'pork' actually implied that pork would be present in the dish. We have
to say the results were exceptionally good and we would recommend this dining technique to anyone ! Not only was this a success in terms of taste - it was probably the cheapest meal we had enjoyed in the country thus far.
In order to see the
Army of Terracotta Warriors it was necessary to book an excursion from one of the many travel agents competing for the huge tourist business that passes through here. The best deal we could find also included some detours to several other sites of interest along the way in what would prove to be a very long but rewarding day trip.
First up were the natural hot springs and ancient royal baths at
Hoquin Palace about 30km away from the main town. This was a complex of public bathhouses where naturally heated water is funnelled to 60 or so elaborately decorated pools set amongst some lovely frost clad mountains. We could actually dip our hands into the warmed spring water which was recorded at 47 Celsius. It was hot.
We then visited
Li Shan Museum which houses the first five
Terracotta Warriors which were excavated from the province. These now stand
proudly in a rather shabby building along with some other relics recovered from the initial discovery site. Also housed here are the alleged remains of the Buddha's skull which are said to have been fished from his funeral pyre. This seems a little far fetched but who are we to argue. All that can be seen are a few tiny clear crystals of superheated 'bone' inside a glass case.
Next on the agenda were the appetizers for the main event later on. The
"Underground Palace" and the
Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. These deserve a little explanation. In 246BC
Shi Huang (The First Emperor) ascended the throne of the state of
Qin and set about conquering all his enemies until the task was completed in 221BC. He also achieved a standardised written script and currency along with a united country. He had by this time however cultivated a reputation as a savage tyrant.
Some time during his reign he had built a huge necropolis which consisted of an underground tomb, hundreds of metres beneath a huge earth mound, protected by all manner of booby traps and ingenious defences, amidst a fortified town unpopulated and reserved for the deceased
Drum Tower
Xi An, ChinaEmperor. These were designed largely to protect the mausoleum from thieves and robbers who would be eager to get their hands on the vast fortune in jewels and gold that would be buried with the Emperor.
In order to further ensure his security in the afterlife,
Qin Shi Huang had those responsible for the design and building of the tomb incarcerated alive with their secrets never to be seen again, and an army crafted from clay (the famous
Army of Terracotta Warriors) to protect his spirit.
The
"Underground Palace" we visited is a replica of how the still intact tomb would look based on historical data. Soil testing of the actual site shows that real rivers of mercury, representing the main rivers in
China and built as an additional poisoning deterrent to potential thieves, are still intact, hence it has yet to be explored safely as the ground is simply too toxic for archaeologists to excavate.
The
"Underground Palace" Museum is some way from the actual site of the
Tomb of Qin Shi Huang which is the actual burial mound under which the Emperor still remains, which we went to see along with many of the relics
uncovered here. We climbed up to the top of the actual mound which is like a small mountain with panoramic views over farmland and even despite the many centuries of erosion which have reduced its size enormously it is still almost a miniature mountain.
Having obtained some background we made our way to the truly amazing
Army of Terracotta Warriors. In 1974 some farmers digging a well uncovered what would soon become the most major archaeological discovery of the 20th century.
The site itself is split into four main areas: The first underground vault of earth and timber measures 210m x 60m at a depth of 5-7 metres. Here there are approximately 6000 terracotta figures of warriors and horses in battle array. The second site uncovered in 1976 contains about 1000 figures and the third only 68. The fourth site contains a pair of bronze chariots and horses discovered in 1980. Each individual human figure has unique features and there are Generals, Officers and Soldiers in the uniform of the day.
You can't help being blown away by the scale and age of the whole thing, and we actually found it difficult to comprehend the magnitude of
what we were seeing. Experts even believe that these warriors could be only part of an even vaster army still buried closer to the
Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. The real weapons that were held by the soldiers and that were found here include swords that are rust-resistant and razor sharp. Technology that was centuries ahead of itself.
This was a once in a lifetime experience and hopefully the photos below will convey something of what we saw.
Beijing
After
Xi'an we were really excited at the thought of
Beijing and all the famous landmarks and Chinese history that is holds. The city did have its fair share of concrete eyesores, but it had also retained a very special charm which we savoured.
It seems a shame then that our first experience here entailed yet another hotel shambles.
Our technique for finding cheap hotels from the airport had been sound up to this point, but this time when we turned up to our budget choice we knew we'd made a mistake. In summary, it was a grimy, seedy little place, up several flights of broken escalators with a nightclub above it. An initial check of the
rooms confirmed our fears about hygiene or lack thereof and we explained that we would not be staying.
We were told that they understood and that as a gesture of goodwill we would be allowed to stay at a superior 4-star place down the road under the same management for the same price. Sounded too good to be true, and it was. It soon became clear that the 4-star place was indeed under the same management because the rooms were in the same state.
We stayed for the first night only before heading out and finding a hostel that was not only cleaner and more nicely located, it was about a quarter of the price.
This became our base for the week that we stayed in
Beijing, despite having to change room a couple of times on the first day to avoid leaky plumbing and sewage problems but we eventually ended up with a superbly clean room with hardwood floors, TV and double-glazing. Just shows what can be achieved with some persistence and a bit of whinging.
We were close to the main shopping area of
Beijing,
Wangfujing Road, which provided us with an ideal opportunity
to stock up with some supplies like shampoo and new trousers. We were also lucky enough to be amongst a huge selection of restaurants and eateries both traditional and western.
Some of the food on offer was a little unusual to say the least. For example the list of available items that had been skewered and prepared for cooking at one market included :-
baby sharks (one per skewer), scorpions (large and black or small and brown), crickets, pupae, snakes, chicken hearts, cows stomach, frogs, sea urchins, sea horses, centipedes, beetles, mantis shrimps and much more besides. Euw ! Our bravery did not extend to sampling any of these 'delights' but enjoy the pics we've attached. We got as far as trying the fare at a Chinese dumpling shop, and we liked it so much that we went back four or five times during our stay. Unfortunately for our waistlines, the same can also be said for a superb Italian ice-cream counter that we stumbled upon.
Our first cultural visit in the capital took us to the
Lama Temple. This is the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of
Tibet and is a huge complex of various ornately
coloured and delicately carved buildings. Other than the buildings themselves, there are many artifacts and religious items of note to see, as well as various statues of Buddha including one that is 55ft tall and carved entirely from sandalwood. Apparently it's in the Guiness Book of World Records.
Just nearby we found the
Drum Tower and the
Bell Tower, which are actually very similar to those of
Xi'an, but climbing up each of them was a very different experience with a tremendously different view waiting at the summit. The whole of
Beijing stretches out before you. The drums are still beaten on the half hour by some local performance artists which adds nicely to the atmosphere at the top of the otherwise quiet tower. These structures alone are magnificent and we found it strange that there doesn't seem to be too much fuss made about them in the tourist blurb.
By contrast, the
Summer Palace features very heavily in the tourist brochures and with good reason. It isn't really a palace as such, but actually more of an immense garden containing various temples perched on and beside a large hill. The park is dominated by the huge
Kunming Lake which takes up about 75%!o(MISSING)f the grounds and there are a cluster of buildings constructed for the amusement of the Emperor of the time and his concubines.
Did you know that it was common for Emperor's to have approximately 3000 concubines at any one time? And that many he never even met, let alone had children with, so they just lived isolated lives in the concubine quarters of the palace their whole lives, yet when the Emperor died they all (unless they had born children) had to be buried with him in his tomb alive?
We had a great time here and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves wandering amongst the temples and taking in the scenery. The glorious weather made it even more spectacular and we felt happy and gratified to have visited the
Summer Palace. We had decided to catch a taxi to the nearest subway station, and we jumped into the nearest one in the car park. It very quickly became apparent that the meter in the taxi was in overdrive and we were in danger of being on the wrong end of an astronomical bill.
It's a common scam for illegal taxi drivers
to set their meter to charge you for 10km when you've gone less than 2km. That can mean the difference between $1 or $10. With this in mind we as we watched the meter racing far too quickly we chose to bail out, and ordered our driver to pull over. This was the cue for a huge screaming match between Bronia and our driver about which amount should be paid and that the driver should be reported to the police, culminating in an uneasy compromise. The driver had locked all the doors stopping us from getting out of the car until we paid far too much money for what should have only cost $1 and then was refusing to give us change.
We finally got out of the car, having lost our money and feeling shaken but at least we were free and safe. We then had a huge trek to the subway, but at least it gave Bronia a chance to let her blood pressure settle down.
Next on the agenda was the
Temple of Heaven which has come to be one of the key symbols of
Beijing. These superb buildings are set in a large circular
walled park with a gate at each major compass point. It was originally constructed as a place to pray for good harvests and to enable the farmers to make offerings to the gods.
The park and temples here were the finest we had yet seen in
China, and are still the best to date, with pristinely kept gardens and magnificent temples at the centre.
Our hostel advertised a number of excursions, one of which was a trip to see the Chinese acrobats at a local theatre. We'd heard several people comment favourably about this show and also seen posters everywhere. We took the plunge and booked ourselves tickets because apart from anything else it was reasonably cheap. The performance was simply awesome. Balancing acts, tightrope artists, gymnasts, jugglers and all sorts of strange and wonderful speciality artists took our breath away. We would totally recommend this to anyone who visits
Beijing.
We had been building up to the biggest and most auspicious of the tourist attractions here and so toward the end of our visit we went to see the famous/infamous
Tiananmen Square. The place is as imposing as you would imagine and is a huge expanse
of paving punctuated by the
Mausoleum of Chairman Mao (which was closed when we visited), and the
Monument to the People's Heroes(A 40m high obelisk). The square is formed by large grey government buildings and museums at each side and an elaborate double entrance gate formed by two towers at the south.
At the northern end of the square is the
Gate of Heavenly Peace which apart from serving as one side of the square is also the southern entrance to the
Forbidden City. There are five doors to this gate and seven bridges spanning the stream that runs in front of the gate. The main feature of this building apart from the fact that it is bright red, is a gigantic portrait of the ex-chairman which was pelted with eggs during the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, after which thousands of people were massacred just outside
Tiananmen Square.
The
Forbidden City itself is superb. It gets its name because it was off limits for 500 years to all Chinese citizens and was built as a personal citadel for the Emperors of the
Ming and
Qing dynasties. It is now the largest and best preserved collection of ancient buildings
in
China. The main ceremonial buildings and the grandest halls are situated on a north to south axis of the city, with the smaller palatial living quarters and functional rooms at the east and west. It took us the good part of a day to properly explore the interior of the city and we found it absolutely amazing.
If we had one complaint it was that like many of the tourist attractions in
Beijing at the moment, the renovations that are now underway because of the Olympic Games of 2008 are somewhat spoiling the sights for those tourists arriving prior to the games and many of the buildings within the
Forbidden City were covered in scaffolding. Indeed, such is the number of historical sights being renovated 'spoiling' the view for current visitors, that one irate Chinese lawyer has tried to sue the sights for not advertising properly how little they would see of the 'real thing' and reduce the entrance fee accordingly. The 'upgrade' even extends to the
Hutongs, which are the networks of tiny alleyways between the shanty houses and lean-to's that make up the vast majority of working class housing in the city. Presumably these little lanes
and tunnels are deemed an eyesore, despite us finding them amongst the most charming of
Beijing's sights.
During our stay we visited a couple of parks in the very midst of the capital. These little oases of greenery and quiet are a lovely way to unwind for many of the super-stressed inhabitants. It is also where you will often see Tai-Chi, badminton and other forms of exercise taking place in the cool early hours of dawn.
Jingshan Park contains a hill that was formed from the excess dirt when the moat of the
Forbidden City was dug out, and from this hill there are meant to be incredible views of the city sights. Unfortunately the temple at the summit was also being renovated, thus denying us that pleasure. At
Beihai Park there were no such renovation works and we were able to climb the giant
White Dagoba in the centre of the
Jade Islet built for the current a previous Dalai Lama's visit long ago. We really enjoyed just strolling round here simply soaking up the relative peace and quiet, sitting by the lake with the weeping willows providing shade from the hot muggy sun.
Our visit to
Beijing, or
China for that matter, wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the
Great Wall, for many the very symbol and icon of
China itself. The
Great Wall, once complete across
China to protect from invasions by the Mongols now lies in several sections, some more complete (read: renovated) than others, and each now being assigned a particular name to distinguish which part of the wall you are visiting.
The most sympathetically renovated, public friendly, and offering the best views is
Badaling - Great Wall and then there are others which are in a state of ruinous beauty which, with good hiking boots, a decent level of fitness, and an optional guide you can hike along. For those into more extreme hiking (particularly in the summer heat) you can walk from one section to another and carrying your camping gear. Reading up on our options and consulting on what we felt was our level of fitness, the time we felt we could afford visiting the wall, and how much of the wall we felt was hikeable with the gear we had, we decided that we would do two separate day trips.
Day One would be to
the more touristy
Badaling that we felt would give us a sense of how the wall once was and to see the
Wall snaking into the distance over the hills as we had dreamed about. On
Day Two we would hike the
Samatei Great Wall a 10km trail with a group up and down rough wall which was crumbling in patches ("surefootedness required" was stipulated in the guidebook) but that would give you an authentic feel for what the wall was like now along the majority of its length after hundreds of years of erosion and pillaging of its stone. The 10km we knew would be arduous as temperatures were still in the 30's Celsius and you had to carry your own provisions etc. for the day. But we were up for it.
Day One came and we were picked up by a mini-van with a few other tourists that included a French, Swiss, Japanese and Canadian. Our day would incorporate the
Badaling Great Wall, some
Ming Tombs, plus two mandatory stops at shops of the drivers choice for us to be 'encouraged' to buy items whilst they gained the commission. Not ideal, but we didn't find any other
tour that would avoid the shops.
The day got off to a reasonable start: Forced Shop Stop #1 was a Jade factory. All nine of us in the tour van didn't buy. We then stopped at
Chang Ling one largest and most impressive of the many
Ming Tombs. The
Ming Tombs are nestled in the V of a valley surrounded by mountain ranges. From the top of the
Chang Ling tomb we could see the multi-eved Chinese roofs of numerous other
Ming Tombs that were present. It was very serene and the forested mountains sliding down to the valley were spectacular. Unfortunately we only saw the one tomb, despite the tour promise that we were to see several. This was our first problem with the tour but we accepted it thinking that if we saw any more it would take time away from the
Badaling Great Wall which was a prime purpose of the expedition.
From the tombs we then had Forced Shop Stop #2 which was a Cloisonne factory. All nine of us in the tour van didn't buy. We had lunch and set off again. We were taken to Forced Shop Stop #3. It's a Ceramics
Terracotta Army - Site 2 - still not fully excavated.
The rolling dirt is the old form of the caved in roof that protected the army. Terracotta Army Soldiers are buried under this. Xi An, China factory. We've now all had enough and want to see the Wall and protest by barely getting out of the van. We are finally taken to the Wall and our eyes light up in glee and wonderment as our van snakes its way along the highway between high rounded old mountains along the ridges of which the
Great Wall snakes. It's spectacular. We are in complete silent awe. Our guide tells us we have 1.5hrs before we leave again. Hang on a minute - wasn't this the whole point to the day? And we only get 1.5hrs? Bronia protests on behalf of the group - diplomatically of course - and we are granted 2hrs. Better than nothing we suppose.
We are thrilled to be at
Badaling. Okay, so maybe parts of it are over-renovated but who cares? This is
THE Wall we are talking about. Just looking at the feat of mankind that was built is incredible. We hike up the wall which basically ascends the slopes of the mountain in a straight line. It's like climbing up a steep ski slope and our hearts are pounding and calves screaming as we attain turret after turret in a dizzying
ascent to views and peaks that are simply stunning. We joke about how this is the restored 'easy' part of the Wall and we've signed up for the tough 10km hike tomorrow. We'll be fine, we say. It's only 10km. Two hours passes in a flash. After many clicks of the camera button and endless oohing and ahhhing and wowing at the sights we descend. Strangely enough we both feel that it wasn't exactly what we expected. We'd expected really wide wall sections and more views into the distance and here it was only a couple of steep slopes and you could practically touch the wall on either side. Still, it was
THE Wall and we were thrilled.
Until we got to Forced Shop Stop #4, a pearl factory. All nine of us decline and sullenly kick our heels in the dust outside as the driver and guide staunchedly refuse to drive away until the 25min at the factory is up. It was whilst all nine of us were kicking our heels with full teenage angst that Dave, having a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right, pulls out the ticket to the
Badaling Great Wall section that we've
been to and compares it to the write up in our guide book. Not only does it not match the description, but in bold clear letters upon the ticket is the name of a completely different section of Wall that we'd been to -
Juyongguan - where ?
Our guide, having pre-bought the tickets, gave them to us as souvenirs reluctantly when we'd asked after we'd left the wall and had we not asked we'd probably still think to this day that we'd been to
Badaling, but we hadn't. Our driver had in fact taken us to the closest section of
Great Wall to
Beijing, thereby saving him time (for us to spend in shops!), petrol/gas, road toll fees and a higher entrance fee cost, all things that we as visitors had supposedly paid for in our ticket. Times that by nine visitors and that's a lot of extra money in his pocket. Furious we all demand an explanation. He refuses and tells us to get in the van telling us we are going to Forced Shop Stop #4 - a tea factory. We downright refuse and demand to be taken back to
Beijing. We are all so disappointed.
It was the
Great Wall that we visited, and yes - it was truly fantastic, but now the day has been marred by the fact we all feel cheated and stupid. He drives us back and we don't stop at Shop #4 thank god.
Back at the hotel Dave and I complain to our hotel manager who had booked the trip for us. She genuinely was shocked that we had been taken to the wrong part of the wall and agreed to call the tour company and complain. The hotel couldn't have been kinder and gave us a 50%!r(MISSING)efund on our tickets which was a small consolation.
Faced with the fact that we hadn't actually seen
Badaling Great Wall as yet we were then faced with a dilemma. Should we abandon the plan of seeing it and simply do the 10km hike as originally planned? The decision was to make our own way the next day to
Badaling by public bus allowing us as many hours as we wanted to wander the length of the wall returning again by bus when we'd had enough. We also felt that the 10km hike would be more of a physical
workout than a day enjoying the wall as we'd be spending most of the time trying to get from A to B within a certain time with the tour group rather than being able to simply sit on the wall, gaze across the landscape and soak it all in.
So for Day Two we chose
Badaling and we were so glad.
Badaling was fantastic. It proved to be an entirely different kettle of fish. In contrast to the manicured section of blockwork and cement that we had seen before, this section of wall, whilst still immensely tourist focused, retained an air of historical importance that had been missing previously. At the entrance to the site you can choose to turn left or right and we were very lucky with our choice. As we went left there were barely any other tourists on the ramparts, whilst looking back along the Wall we could see that the other section was swarming with more and more people as the day progressed. There were untold amounts of breathtaking views that we had to stop and absorb as we ascended the steps of each turret, our favourites being those in which the wall snaked
off into the distance over the far hills and mountains. Here we found a real aura of ancient
China that had been conspicuous by its absence so often.
We left
China a couple of days later on a plane from
Beijing to
Vancouver via
Hong Kong. It was now four weeks since our first entry into Chinese territory. What were our thoughts upon leaving the place?
We had come to
China for history and to see the icons and symbols that the Western world perceives of
China and we had been thrilled to have seen them and learnt so much but we hadn't expected the scale of modernisation and growth that is going on all along the east coast of the country. To us we felt this was unfortunate. Perhaps that is a naive view to have when you realise that
China needs to grow and develop in order to compete on the world economic stage. But from a tourist perspective, much of what you idealise about
China is missing. It is ploughed down to make way for the perceived 'American' way of life to which very obviously every affluent Chinese person aspires.
China is growing. And quickly.
Travelling through
China also made us realise how four weeks simply isn't enough. The place is massive, and travel is restricted when you leave the urban sprawl. If we were to return, we have both said we'd like to go deeper into the north and west, towards
Tibet and
Mongolia to explore the land which, so we've been told, is still rural and undeveloped.
And now it is on to
Canada and the
USA.... a very different sort of travel and goodbye to
Asia who has been our host since we started on Jan 30/06. It is with mixed feelings that we leave. Glad in many ways to be moving on to Canada but tinged with a real sadness at leaving something that has become so familiar in its intoxicating sights, sounds and way of life.
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Patty and Whitney
non-member comment
Hi Bronia and Dave!!!!
Hi Guys, I am so glad that Yuko shared this with us. I hope you are enjoying the world. I know, how could you not!! Take care and all the best. I hope to see you soon and meet this great guy (Dave). You deserve all the happiness the wold has to offer. Patty and Whitney