Warriors and Fountains

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We took a 1 hour bus ride (#300 from railway station about 2 Yuan - saving 80 Yuan each on a tour bus) out of Xi'an to see what the Chinese believe to be the "8th Wonder of the World" apparently. As we headed for the ticket booth we were approached by no less than 5 guides touting for business offering their knowledge for between 50-80 Yuan explaining that there was no english within the complex and we would know where to go - this sounded like a challenge so we turned them down and went in. Tip: if you're student (not sure how to prove this!) you can get in half price (45 Yuan). We battled through another wave of doom and gloom guides before reaching the first building - pit #1 which not only came with a clear english label it came with loads of english information too. Excellent we thought saved another 50+ Yuan.

Ok, some brief history - basically Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China wanted to be protected in the after life so had hundreds of warriors, horses and chariots made from terracotta to be buried with him, which actually makes a refreshing change as most of the burial sites we've visited so far the Emperors seemed to have living animals and even people buried with them from pets to concubines. The scale of the terracotta burial site is huge and the attention to detail and craftsman ship on each piece was truly remarkable a real testament to the advanced technology China had back then. There were 3 pits in total and a museum - took us about 2 hours to go round, we're not convinced it's the 8th Wonder of the World but still worth a trip. Perhaps the guides we turned down could have persuaded us otherwise but we doubt it.

Back at the youth hostel we just happened to over hear another backpacker asking about the fountain light show that evening (Saturday). Nobody had mentioned this before either at the hostel or on the city guides but we decided to check it out and really pleased we did. It's at the Large Wild Goose Pagoda at 8pm (not sure if its on every night though - possibly just Saturdays) - take the 609 bus. The fountain display was well worth the trip and really enjoyable - best of all it was completely free. Tip: Stand on the steps running between the fountain sections for the best view although you might get a little wet if its windy.

Incidentally Xi'an is a great city to explore, surrounded by a large ancient wall with very nice buildings like the Drum and Bell Towers as well as a great night market near the Islamic sector.

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Photos

Emperor Qin Shi Huang Horses
Taken especially for Alison C. ;o)

Large Wild Goose Pagoda with Fountains of Light Show
Definitely worth checking this out and its free. Will try to pop a video on too.

Comments

[AlisonC]

Horses
Yes lovely photo thanks - sorry for delay in posting but had to do it from home not work!