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Published: February 9th 2010
Excavation Pit 1
6,000 Warriors and horses in this sight aloneHey there
So here is the second entry on my blog (I'll try to improve on the spelling on this one - thanks sis :-P)
So after finding out that it would be a 24 hour train journey from Guangdong (just over the border of China from Hong Kong) to Xi'an, I decided it would be a shame to waste a day and better to take a flight instead. So on Friday evening I took a flight from HK to Xi'an. It was just a 2 & 1/2 hour flight with China Eastern and was pretty comfortable. On arrival there was a bus that collects for all people going into the city and so I hopped on that and about 1 & 1/2 hours later I was in centre of Xi'an.
It was a short walk to the hotel. I was staying in City Hotel, and it was down a dingy alleyway. However it was 4* standard. The room was well equipped with kettle and fridge, shower/toilet combo (again!) but all very nicely finished. The rate was GBP15 a night and that included a breakfast. Its not quite backpacking - but at a backpackers rate ! First night
The Bell Tower
The centrepoint of the City my sleep I was interrupted at about 12:30 by the phone ringing and a faint female voice offering me a 'massage'.. ! I presume someone at the front desk tipped them off about the single male guests in the hotel.. and they just ring around. Same thing happened the following night.. and twice on my last night !
So.. Xi'an is in Shaanxi province, and was the former capital during many of the ancient dynasties for over 1,000 years, then it was known as Chang'an. So it is steeped in history. Xi'an is surrounded by the orginal walls which are now 700 years old and still standing strong.
First day in Xi'an I organised the tour for the next day, to see the terracotta warriors. This was only GBP20 for the day trip and lunch included. I set off to pick up a jacket when the shops were open (I forgot to mention how cold it was ! - tittering around 0C) .. and then took a wonder around the city. There is an ancient Bell Tower which is the centrepoint for the city, and not far away the Drum Tower, an old Taoist monument, which sits in
Street Market
This old man living the way he has all his life and probably doing the same things his ancestors did to earn a living. the muslim quarter. Both are very impressive and well maintained. There was also a market which I took a walk around. Mostly dried fruit and food products, but some interesting things to see too. Notleast the old Chinese men still living as their ancestors have for 100's of years. I was stopped just before I left the market by 3 Chinese students who wanted to practice their English for a school project. So we chatted for half an hour about me.. basically. It was horrible :-P
The second day was the first big part of the trip, a lifetime ambition achieved. We set off at 9am in a bus and I immediately met an English girl who was living in Nanjing (not too far (by train!) from Shanghai) and her mother who was visiting. We were also joined by some American tourists, though I wont say too much about them as they spent the day moaning and being very annoying (!). We had a Chinese student called Jason as our guide. He was full of interesting information, and chatted to us the whole day through. We drove through some really dismal sights of incompleted towns and some areas of
people living in quite poor conditions. There is such a contrast in China, and only a short drive apart. Anyhow, so first we visited a factory where they showed us how the warriors were made using clay.. and the had a large selection on display and for sale.
We then set off to the main excavation sites. Over time they have built a huge mass of shops and restaurants around the site, on what used to be just a field of plants and trees. It was only one day 30 years ago when a farmer was digging a well when he came accross some fragments of a warrior and from there it all began. Interestingly enough that man now sits on a chair at the exit of the museum and signs his autograph on information books for tourists ! Talk about lapping it up..
First we went into pit 1.. the largest of them all. Wow.. its mind boggling to see... 6,000 warriors and horses in this pit and more still being dug up and put back together. You can actually see the sections of broken warriors sticking out from the earth. Its breathtaking to see.. each of
The Bell Tower
The view of The Drum Tower & Muslim Quarter the warriors is individual, each member of the army that made the model of himself had to sign his name and hometown on the back.
Pit 2 is a generals room. It has heads-of-state and horses. We alse went into pit 3 but there are 5 in total. I understand that in pit 5 they have discovered different animals, so emporer Qin was literally trying to create a whole town infront of his tomb. They will be excavating for abother 100 years before they can finish the picture, I think. The tomb itself has not been touched. Its believed that his body lies on a bed that floats on a pool of mercury, and the tomb has been decorated with all manner of things. It is also believed that there are great booby-traps waiting for anyone who tries to enter.. so for not the tomb lies untouched.
Afterwards we had a spot of lunch which was delicious and then headed back the the city. The Americans (who decided not to join us as the GBP3.50 price for lunch was too steep for them) were dropped off to do their own thing, and then the couple that I had
met and the tour guide went for an impromtu look at a museum nearly which held some ancient stone tablets. Some of these were dating back 1500 years.. and you can still read perfectly (if you can understand the language !) the writing on them. The tablets used to sit outside in formation and were known as a kind of forest of stones. Now they are protected inside but its amazing how pristine some of them are. After that the couple I had met went on their way to the train station to go back to Nanjing.. and I set off back to the hotel.. dinner, beer and bed.
Final day in Xi'an.. catching the train in the evening. I set off early to organise the hotel for my next few night in Beijing. Then I walked to the south gate of the city and decided to walk around the perameter. The guide book says it a leisurely 4 hour walk, and I had plenty of time. You can also hire bicycles or little electric cars to go around. It was totally freezing.. but nonetheless an excellent way to see the city. Some amazing sights, and also some terrible
Nan Daijie
The view to south gate ones as on one side it appears that buildings have half-collapsed and are just left there to crumble further. I completed the walk in about 4 hours and ambled dead-legged back to the hotel to taxi then to the train station. However the taxi tired out to be a tuk tuk ! So I had a near-death experience to top off the day !
Well.. that's enough of my rambling for today.
Next stop.. Beijing..
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Maria
non-member comment
Maria
You never told us whether you took up the massage offers on any of the nights!