Xi'an and those famous warriors

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Our final stop in China was Xi'an, which is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors. Xi'an is definitely on the tourist trail and I was keen to squeeze it in, Paul less so, but then we found a bargain basement airfare from Zhangjiajie and it seemed crazy not to stop by.

The price you pay for a cheap ticket is flying at an ungodly hour. Although it was a short hop from Zhangjiajie we didn't arrive in Xi'an until 1.25am and decided it was easiest to stay at the airport for one night. Ten years ago this would have meant crashing on the airport floor, but now we are much older and wiser, i.e. definitely too old to be sleeping on floors!

We had another flawless flight with China Eastern; leaving and landing on time. Just 35 minutes after we landed we had our bags and had checked into our hotel which was inside the airport. We had concerns we'd never find it because as far as Google and TripAdvisor were concerned it simply didn't exist.

The next morning (or that same morning) we slept in late and went to Pizza Hut for our lunch before jumping on the public bus into Xi'an city. Up to now we'd stayed in hotels but we'd struggled to find anywhere in Xi'an we could afford so we booked a private room in a youth hostel. It was much more basic than anywhere else we'd stayed (and much cheaper) but had lots of advantages. The staff all spoke amazing English, there was a cute bar, they served English tea (Twinning no less and in proper mugs), the clientele was mainly westerners so we could have real conversations again and possibly the best thing, they did laundry! After over two weeks of travelling having fresh clothes to wear was such a luxury!

After we emptied our rucksacks and gave practically all our clothes to housekeeping to wash we wandered out to the Drum and Bell tower. I don't think I mentioned the ones in Beijing because they were a little ugly if I'm honest but the Xi'an versions were much more impressive. We then jumped on the subway and headed over to Big Goose Pagoda. The main draw here is the nightly light and water show which had been recommended to us. The Pagoda itself was quite plain but the surrounding park and fountains were great to wander around, especially as it was such a warm evening. We went for food in a local restaurant, paying about a quarter of what we'd paid for our Pizza Hut lunch (about £5) and had an amazing meal of noodles, dumplings and the exceptionally tasty Chinese burger. The light show attracted loads of people and was great, especially with the Big Goose Pagoda as a backdrop (which looked much prettier all lit up).

The next day we took the public bus out to the big Xi'an attraction; the Terracotta Warriors, a life size army of thousands. The reason for the army? The general consensus is that the first emperor of China expected his rule to continue in death as it had in life and needed his army to protect him. Whatever the reason it was a pretty impressive sight.

The Lonely Planet, which has been frankly a bit of a let down in China, recommended visiting the smaller of the three pits first and working up to the impressive Pit 1, and it was good advice.

Pit 3 has around 70 warriors and horses and was a good place to start as it's much smaller than the other two pits so gives you the sense of being closer to the warriors. Pit 2 was much larger but far less of it has been excavated so for me it was less impressive. However, you could get a good look at five of the warriors up close. Apparently no two warriors are the same, so this was a chance to see if it was true.

But it was Pit 1 that had the real wow factor. The sheer size of it is overwhelming. There are over 2000 warriors on display but it houses 6000 in total. Pit 1 was discovered by local villages in 1974 when they were drilling for a well. You can see the site of the well and it's amazing that they didn't completely miss it. A few meters east and it may never have been discovered.

Our final evening in China was spent in the youth hostel bar reflecting on the themes of China and the cultural differences. The sights and scenery are breathtaking and the cultural differences wonderful and frustrating at the same time. I'm not sure we could have spent another three weeks here, but we would love to come back some day.

Our flight out of China was with Tigerair and when we originally booked it was due to leave at 8am in the morning. About a month after we booked they rescheduled everything and moved the flight out to 11.30 at night. This meant we lost a day on the Gili Islands (in Lombok) but gained a day in China.

We paid to keep our room on for an extra night so we could pack and shower after a day of sightseeing. We managed to cram a couple of things into our last day. Our first stop was the City Walls which you can walk or cycle around. We opted to walk around it as we'd heard that cycling around was a little painful on your bottom - not what we needed before a nine hour flight. Plus we needed to leave a ¥400 deposit which we just didn't have given it was our last day. After buying entrance to the city walls we had ¥22 left, not even enough to rent the bikes let alone pay the deposit!

We spent a couple of hours walking on the city walls, starting at the South Gate and exiting through the West Gate. The walls are dotted with lovely red flag and lanterns and there was Chinese music playing. It was surprisingly quiet so we had a peaceful walk.

We then headed back towards our hostel and stumbled upon a wonderful gate, up to Beijing standards. Behind it was a street market with flags strung overhead. We decided to walk down and see where it led us. Our curiosity paid off as we found ourselves in a courtyard with a beautiful temple. Again, the detail and condition of the temple was up there with some of the things we'd seen in Beijing. And best of all it was unbelievable quiet (and free!). We consulted the lonely planet to figure out where the hell we were, but it wasn't even listed!

All too quickly it was time to head back to the hostel to pack. We did it super quickly (we're becoming experts!) leaving time for a quick walk around the Muslim Quarter, a neon lit street full of (questionable) food stalls. Given our lack of funds this was the perfect place to grab some food before getting our taxi to the airport.

As we got into the taxi we both looked at each other; had we actually done China independently without any hiccups? Apparently not, as it turned out we faced one last challenge.......





***Please scroll down for more pictures *****

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