Xi'an Xerophyte

---

Xerophyte – A plant specially adapted to survive in areas with a low water level.

I have no doubt that no such species of plant as the Xi'an Xerophyte exists and can safely say with even more conviction that, even if it did, it would have no relevance to our time in Xi'an. Alas, after the recent titles of the blog I was struggling to think of an appropriate word beginning with an “X” and this was the best that “I feel lucky” on Google could throw up.

Anyway, arriving in Xi'an we had our first ever meet at the train station for a free pick up. This all sounded great in the e-mail but as the train was late our free bus had gone and so we had to take the public bus. Not quite the same but at least we didn't have to pay for it, though it only cost 1 Yuan (about 10p).

The hostel tried it's best to make a bad impression as, after the problems with the free pick up,, the air conditioning doesn't work so you have to restart it every couple of minutes to get it to work. That said they do give you a free drink in the bar every day, free coffee/tea on arrival and have a free dumpling party, but more on that later.

After we had flung the bags in the room we headed straight out, on a baking hot day, to explore the ancient bell and drum towers that are roughly at the centre of Xi'an. Built a long time ago these large buildings do exactly what they say on the tin, namely house large bells and drums respectively. Whilst the views from the towers are not the best this is more than made up for by the cultural shows, where the staff come and play a few songs on the instruments. I was particularly impressed with the drum show, who knew you could do so much with the drums?!

After the show we headed out and explored the Muslim quarter. Promising some more market stall food we were a little disappointed to find that there was very little in the way of vegetarian food to be had. We eventually had some lovely, if stupidly greasy, veg between two fried crispy pancakes. All very nice but not good for my diet.

Having been suitably refueled we continued our efforts to find the Grand Mosque, which had so far eluded us. After darting down a long street of shops, being offered many dubious pairs of Calvin Klein underpants and some rather dodgy watches, we eventually arrived at the Grand Mosque which we promptly decided not to enter on the basis that 1) I object to paying to enter a place of worship and 2) I especially object to paying to enter a place of worship covered in scaffolding so you can't see anything.

Despite seeing some impressive architecture, excellent cultural shows and some dubious pants, we then clapped eyes on the best sight of the day Baskin Robbins. 20 minutes later, after sampling half of the 31 flavours I was sitting in an air conditioned room on a blisteringly hot day, scoffing some of the best ice cream I have had in a long time. Needless to say this soon became a habit for Xi'an.

All that remained for the day was to head back for a free drink and some free pool before retiring for the night suitably happy, if a tad hot, ready to explore the famed Terracotta Warriors the next morning.
Now, when I said that we were going to see the Terracotta Warriors the next morning I had not accounted for the general stupor in camp Will and Steph. As a result it was late morning by the time we got breakfast and even later morning by the time we were on the bus to the bus terminal.

Technically it was then midday by the time we were on the bus to the Terracotta Warriers and we arrived a little after lunch time. Having purchased a ticket we then had to take the scenic route through tacky shop central before arriving at the proper entrance to the museum. We then decided to catch a historic, if slightly bizarre, history movie about the warriors before descending into the exhibition museum where I caught my first glimpse of the Terracotta Warriers. You'll be happy to know that they were exactly as I remembered them when I saw them in London!

The point of traveling a long way to see something we had already seen before may be lost on a lot of people, it often is on me. However, the real purpose was to experience the full scale of the tomb and the warriors.

Built about 2000 years ago, I think, when he first ascended the throne, and before uniting China, the would be first Emperor of China to be ordered work on his Mausoleum. In a grand, if slightly egotistical statement, he effectively built himself an underground palace, from which he could rule the afterlife. It was as part of this that he ordered the 8000 soldiers to be made, his army to conquer the afterlife, along with scribes to help him rule, and acrobats and animals to entertain him. Alas, his dynasty did not last long, as after conscripting 700,000 people for 30 years to build his palace, he also conscripted the same number to build the great wall, so shortly after his death a peasant uprising destroyed a lot of the warriors and tomb. Even this wasn't so bad as, 2000 years later, the world would gain the biggest 3D jigsaw ever!

Anyway, we decided to do the pits in reverse order, so that we would go in pit one last as it's supposed to be the most spectacular. Seeing them all ranked up was truly impressive and would have been even more enjoyable if you didn't have to fight your way through the Chinese tour groups to see it.

Suitably impressed we eventually left the museum and returned to the hostel for dinner. We were slightly hindered by the bus driver who refused to stop long enough for us to get off at our stop. Thankfully a suitably enraged Steph - she was alsp pushed in the back as she got off the bus to be fair - walked at a fast pace and we were soon back at the hostel for a quick bite to eat before free drinks finished off the day.

The next day was had one of those boring practical planning days where little gets done but are very useful in the long run. It was as a result of this day that we had some more clean clothes, a better idea of where we were going in Beijing and no idea what time train we could get – the woman just waved me away from the counter when I tried to book tickets to Beijing - Gggrrrrr!!

That said we had great fun in the evening as we went to the dumpling party. Standing around a table with a load of strangers we watched as the chef mixed the ingredients for the filling before we started making dumplings. A little more tricky than the chef made it look we eventually got the hang of it and were soon in full swing. Heck, they even tasted quite good and (mostly) stayed together during the cooking.

The next day we went off and explored Small Goose Pagoda. I never truly got to the bottom of why it was called this, but it was a pagoda, partially destroyed due to earthquakes, that was in a former temple complex. It was good fun as we got to climb the pagoda, for some good views of the city, and saw the work of a local Chinese artist, which was very impressive. We had a brief look in the museum, but didn't stay too long as a lot of the exhibits were similar to those in Shanghai. They did however, have a collection of intricately detailed Buddhist statues that were very impressive.

We were also able to buy some train tickets to Beijing, however, due to a shortage of tickets for sleepers, this time having only the deluxe soft sleeper, we ended up extending our stay in Xi'an for another few days.

We also went for a free cookie party at the hostel. Why there were not more people there for it I don't know but 45 minutes later I was eating pretty much all the cookies I could eat – or more to the point all that Steph would let me eat. Still quite a lot considering I didn't have to pay for any of them.

After being slightly lazy the day before, we decided to have a proper day of sightseeing, and decided to take in the entire old town in one day. Whilst this might sound somewhat difficult it is actually made much easier by an intact/restored 14.5km long city wall that you can walk around.

The nice stroll was made slightly more demanding by the heat, popping up to a rather unpleasant 36 degrees, it was possibly too warm for such a long walk, nevertheless we persevered undaunted and 5 hours later, with numerous stops for photos, inspections of drum/bell/arrow towers and the occasional stop for drinks and an ice lolly we eventually arrived back where we started.

With no freebies in the hotel we had to make do with dinner, after well earned showers, and then some more ice cream - I know, it's a hard life for some! - before yet more free drinks and then to bed in a rather hot room - boo!

---