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Published: August 8th 2007
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So, Xi'an, the end or the beginning of the legendary Silk Road, and another city encircled by colossal stone walls, only this time, though they appear on the map, some of the walls no longer exist. But still, the size of the original walls was impressive, like they planned for modern day urban sprawl, so far apart they can comfortably encompass the modern city. Xi'an in nice if, again, horribly polluted. This has probably been the worst pollution in terms of visibility we've experienced so far, you can't even see the end of the street, Xian should be in the Hayward Gallery right now, as part of the 'Blind Light' Exhibition by Antony Gormely
But it's a very nice city, you can walk around it easily and there is plenty to do, there's a Muslim/Middle Eastern quarter (a result of trade influences) and a beautiful Bell Tower in the centre of town (originally on the outskirts but moved to the centre as the city expanded and now sat in the centre of a huge traffic roundabout). There are pagodas and nice little cafes. The south part of the city seems the best place to stay, with some wonderfully designed (and
colourful) guesthouse's and hotels, squares and lawns filled with people doing...something, whatever people do in crowds. And there are red lanterns hung up all over this part of the city too.
But most people come to Xian for one reason, The Terracotta Warriors. We wanted to see those as well as the Huaquing hot springs.
Being a bit sick of being herded round in tours (and all the places near us were charging over 20 pounds for a tour with two extra sights we weren't interested in, PLUS a damn shop). We took the local bus for about 3 pounds return which also went past the hot springs. Perfect.
The Terracotta Army was suitably impressive, just like the pictures, although there are 3 pits so far, pit one is the most famous, with the 6,000 whole and broken figures. The other 2 pits are more confusing, one contains pretty much nothing but earth, the other was supposedly the 'command centre' for the army, with bronze carriages and generals in elaborate dress.
Although there were less whole warriors than I imagined there to be it was still a wonderful sight. Many of the thousands and thousands of
Terracotta warriors2
Pit 1, the most famous pit, but most of the guys are broken, however this pit is still being explored warriors were destroyed in the rebellion against the emperor who commissioned them (the first emperor of the Qin dynasty). The workers broke in to the tombs (for they were all carefully arranged by rank and file in battle formation in tombs with rammed earth walls and wooden ceilings covered with earth and grass etc to avoid detection) and smashed everything up.
Originally each warrior was hand painted in bright colours, with real weapons (there are swordsmen, archers, cavalry) and chariots made of wood. There were even bridles for the horses. Imagine that! Thousands of 'em, painted brightly, each different and unbroken. It's immense. Emperor Qin's tomb is just down the road.
On the way back we took a wander around the hot springs, also built by Qin for his concubines, and I'll bet they were impressed. Built at the base and all along the mountain, 42 degree water, he built a private bath for his favourites. It's really beautiful and tranquil, the whole complex is stuffed with twisted pomegranate trees and giant koi.
We got back that evening, just about to email the Irish lads to enquire on the state of stitches and if they'd made it
out of Beijing yet, when they walk through the door! This of course called for drinks. I dashed off to an Internet cafe for an hour or two, leaving the four of them and Nilam in the lobby with a few beers, when I return they've gone so I think they must have gone upstairs (it's about 11pm), but no, I turn the corner and there is about 25-30 people crushed round tables pushed together, about 10, 10! bottles of vile Chinese vodka (8RMB a bottle!). There is also an empty Baileys bottle and too-many-to-count-beer bottles. There's a Spanish guy on Colin's guitar, strumming Latin songs so fast you can't even see his fingers move, just another normal night then as people start signing Oasis in unison while hotel staff look on helplessly, torn between asking us to keep it down and a profit. Someone makes room for me in the fray and hands me a 'vodka' and coke, the smell makes me gag so I get handed a Bailey's instead. Service or what? It's a proper model-UN around the table, British, Irish, American, Spanish, Brazilian, Swedish, Belgian. All drinking and singing.
There are two older Chinese guys in
the group who are so generous we are not sure what to do, we offer money to pay for drinks and they refuse. One of the guys buys 2 bottles of Bailey's, a bottle of Jim Beam, 2 CRATES of large beers, orange juice... at one point one guy disappears, when he returns he's carrying two huge bags of fruit. And a watermelon! someone immediately sticks a bottle of vodka in the melon and we wait for it to drain. It was good melon. They wanted nothing it return but to see us have a good time. Lovely people. They left us to carry on about 3am after many goodbyes.
I went to bed about 5am, only a few of us left, after everyone else had passed out, still sober (terrible alcohol will do that to you I guess). It was quite funny seeing everyone in the morning, those who were checking out along with us. But it was a good night, we probably won't see those Vodka train guys until Australia now.
Only an 11 hour train journey and we'll be in Shanghai!
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