China - Xi'an - Warrior Territory

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We finally boarded the train to Xi’an after a week in Shanghai. This was going to be interesting as we were the only westerns on the train. I'm guessing everyone else got the 12 hour train, except for us two eejits who ended up on the 24 hour train. Anyway we settled in with our new cabin mates - a Chinese father and daughter. For two people who had traveled all the way from Greece to China via train; this short train journey should have been a breeze, but instead it seemed unusually long and cumbersome. There were several kids in the carriage running up and down all day, screaming...so we decided to remove ourselves from that annoyance by going to the restaurant carriage, however here we got turned away! It was apparently too late to be served even though there were locals munching on food all around us! So, we ended up back in our cabin. Unlike the previous train to Shanghai there was no fancy LCD TV’s on this train so it was bed early for both of us!!

The following morning and just over 24 hours after boarding; we stepped onto the platform in Xi’an and headed out into the chaos. It was absolutely boiling hot - the kind of heat you could get burned in 5 minutes. We negotiated with a local rickshaw driver who agreed to bring us to our hostel. Ahh good planning by me, as the hostel was on the main street, just a few minutes away.

The first thing we wanted to sort out before anything else, was a connecting train to Lhasa in Tibet. We had heard that it’s sometimes difficult to get connecting trains for Lhasa and some Chinese 'Guanxi' could be needed. The Chinese train network is somewhat esoteric. The computer systems for different areas don’t seem to be connected up. We weren't able to book this ticket when we were in Shanghai, as the Shanghai office couldn’t check the train availability from Xi’an to Lhasa. So we made a novel suggestion that they might ring them, but apparently they don’t answer the phone! Basically, you need to be present in Xi’an to book a train ticket if this is going to be your starting point. This is like saying you can’t book a train ticket tomorrow from Dublin - Cork if you are currently in Limerick.

We quickly became enlightened to the fact that this was going to be very difficult. Seemingly there are 3-5 trains every morning but all booked up with Chinese tourists and students during holiday season. Not being ones to try and jump the queue and as our schedule was somewhat flexible; we said we could go any day within the next 3-4 days. Solemn faces still greeted us and things weren’t looking up. The hostel rang around to see could they swing some tickets but to no avail. Disappointing as it was, we had to keep this travel show on the road and we got some help booking flight tickets instead. Sadly, this was actually going to be my favourite train journey, as it’s the highest train in the world (climbing to an nose bleeding 16,000 feet and all the compartments have oxygen masks!)....maybe next time!

Well that disappointment wasn’t to consume my thoughts for very long, especially once the bank machine decided to consume my bank card (Doah!). I marched straight into the bank and tried to explain what had happened. I mean how hard can it be to explain in sign language that the ATM machine had swallowed your bank card... and that you want it back? Well obviously in Xi’an it's difficult, and after a few awkward minutes I was forced to go back to the hostel, and get one of the staff to come to the bank with me and get this mess sorted. After filling in about 4 different forms and undergoing some tricky questions of a personal nature, such as what’s the number on your bank card (which I didn’t know - hey who does?), as well as some ID scrutiny - I had shaved my head the previous week so I looked completely different from my passport picture, which they insisted on checking and pondering over. Many heads mulled around to discuss this in a whispered tone. Why they felt the need to whisper I'll never know as they knew I couldn’t speak Chinese Mandarin! So I decided to ease the situation and put on my baseball cap back on to deflect the attention from my now very bald head. Suddenly there seemed to be a few more "ahhh’s..." and they appeared happy enough that the picture was me!

We spent the rest of the day touring about the city and taking in the surrounds. Home to well over a burgeoning 8 million people, Xi’an was a hive of activity. No foreign tourists though and not really your traditional melting-pot of West meets East. I think over the 3 days we spent here we didn’t see any westerns except one or two in the hostel. If we thought we stuck out in Shanghai or Beijing, we certainly stuck out here as people virtually stopped on the street when they saw us. Me probably being the tallest man in china at 6’4, didn’t really help the situation either!

The following morning we were up bright and early (as always!) and got a small bus with some others to go and see the Terra-Cotta Warriors. Suffice to say this is truly a splendid site and the primary reason we came to Xi’an. The Terracotta Warriors were found in 1974 on the east side of the tomb of the First Emperor Qin (259 BC - 210 BC) located near Xi'an. While digging a well on their communal farm, local farmers stumbled across the most priceless archaeological discovery of modern times. The site is now the famous Terracotta Warriors Museum, which consists of three main buildings, Pit 1, Pit 2 and Pit 3, housing about 8,000 life size pottery warriors and horses. The emperor had constructed an army of warriors to protect him in the afterlife. The Terracotta soldiers were left as standing armies in large pits, with a ceiling constructed above them. For over several acres, these warriors with their horses stand in these pits in battle-ready position; fully armed, battalion after battalion.

Luckily when we arrived at the main pits where the soldiers are positioned, the guy was there who actually found the original site back in the 1970s when digging as a farmer. He’s paid a salary by the Chinese government to hang about a few days a week now...a slightly easier job than his previous one I'm guessing. He has become somewhast of a celebrity having met many country presidents, including Bill Clinton. We did some negotiation around the purchase of a DVD and a book, and he agreed to have a picture taken with us (i.e. No DVD and book, no picture was the message we got!). Afterwards we went to see the warrior pits and spent several hours taking pictures and listening to the guide informing us of the detailed story of the warrior pits. As former French President, Jaques Shirac, called them when he visited here some years ago - ‘the 8th wonder of the world’.

Xi’an city is surrounded by high walls, built several hundred years ago to keep attacking marauders out. You pass through wide gates to enter the city (like an arch way into a castle). Believe it or not, the walls are actually wide enough on top to not only walk on, but for two-way bike cycle traffic. I would even go so far as to say, you could race cars up there! You can actually go around the whole city on top of the wall. Highly recommended for sight seeing and for the adventurous! A slight disappointment here again for us though. We had wanted to ride around the whole city, about 13km on a tandem bike, but due to rain from the previous day no tourist cycling was allowed, and we had to get an "official tout” who had a cycling rickshaw to do the cycling for us and bring us within the sections which were open. Not too bad I suppose and we were happy enough with that.

The following morning we organised a taxi from the hostel to the airport which was about an hour away. I was sure we were dead several times with the chaotic driving, lane skipping and what not; but no, we finally made it to the airport. You can’t beat a final show of Chinese hegemony and sure enough prior to boarding the plane, our Tibet travel permit (which I proudly displayed) was requested and scrutinized on several occasions. After a few uncertain moments (you’d hate to be turned down right at the airport), we were allowed though security and 30 minutes later we caught the short flight to Lhasa, Tibet.

Onwards to meet the Tibetans!

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Photos

So that's how they make them!
Terracotta warrior factory

Killing time at the airport
(with a nice cup of tea!)

City centre
shopping downtown in Xi'an