Scotsman's journey the east: Xi'an Terracotta Warriors,China travel news,tours news in China,China tourism city news

Scotsman's journey the east: Xi'an Terracotta Warriors

While studying Chinese in Beijing's CBD, our school offered us the chance to go to the city of Xi'an. This city was once the ancient capital of China during the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It is a city where local peasants unearthed one of man kinds greatest archaeological finds; the Terracotta Warriors. Ready in battle formation Our trip starts with a 9 hour train ride form Beijing and a 2 day whistle stop tour of the city of Xi'an that includes a visit to the ancient city wall, the Muslim quarter and of course the Terracotta Warriors. All the students that go on the trip pay around 1500 rmb each. Which buy's a room in a 3 star hotel for a night as well as a couple of meals per day. For most of us this seems quite a reasonable price…. 333www.Chinakindnesstour.com

As is the norm with 9 hour train rides in China, we drive through the night arriving at our destination in the early morning. We all get off the train bleary eyed form lack of sleep and are welcomed to China's ancient capital by a tour guide and a cool drizzle in the air.333www.Chinakindnesstour.com
333www.Chinakindnesstour.com
333www.Chinakindnesstour.com

Cramped market streets

333www.Chinakindnesstour.com
333www.Chinakindnesstour.com
We drive through the city's wet streets trying to keep our tired eyes open as our tour guide enthusiastically tells us our itinerary. Our bus pulls over at a hotel, next to which is a restaurant that the tour guide ushers us into for breakfast. Stomachs empty, the prospect of food is on top of everyone's list. The guide tells us that the breakfast will be a buffet, and will consist of local dishes. Before coming to Xi'an we have been told on more than one occasion of how good the food is. But on looking at the dishes on offer many begin to loose their appetite. Some of the group manages to force down some of the local delicacies before slowly making their way back to the hotel to clean up. On first impressions the local food has not lived up to its lofty reputation.333www.Chinakindnesstour.com
333www.Chinakindnesstour.com
333www.Chinakindnesstour.com

Covered market in the Muslim quarterAfter we shower and rest for a few precious minutes we are whisked off to see China's most complete ancient city wall. Xi'an's city wall still runs in a complete circle around the inner city. But perhaps its "ancient" title should not be taken too literally considering new bricks have been laid as late as the last feudal dynasty. As the drizzle continues to fall we head into the old centre of the city. Here we visit the Muslim quarter. Here we visit narrow streets packed with stalls and tourists. We wind our way towards a large mosque in the centre of the market. Its unusual not for its architectural style but for its function as a mosque and not a temple. In almost every way the mosque is like any Buddhist or Daoist temple in China, the most striking differences being the large gold inscription in Arabic above the large hall's entrance and the shoes placed neatly outside its door.

Arabic writing above the door

The following day we get to go to china's "piece de resistance" the Terracotta Warriors. Ranking as one of the worlds' top historical sights, the Terracotta Warriors should not to be missed by any visitor to China. That's the opinion held by many local Chinese and even foreigners who have yet to visit China. As if to get us in the mood our drive to the site takes us past a replica of the sphinx and pyramid of Egypt. Of course now we really knew that we were about to see one of the ancient wonders of the world. As is the pattern with tourist sites in China; first there's the car park the size of Luxembourg, followed by the construction of new largely unoccupied buildings and then the main attraction. The warriors stand guard in battle formation over Emperor Qin Shi Huang's (China's first emperor) Mausoleum which has yet to be excavated. Their discovery in 1974 by local farmers was perhaps the most significant archeological discovery of the 20th Century. Although the warriors were discovered in pieces, many have since been painstakingly repaired, and work is still ongoing at the site. The warriors are divided into three main pits, housing around 8,000 life-size pottery warriors and horses in total. Each pit is covered by a hanger that looks remarkably like the inside of a factory.

Needless to say each hanger is filled with Chinese tourists. For every one of the 6000 warriors in the first pit there are at least 2 Chinese tourists clambering for a photo opportunity. The pit is divided into corridors between the warriors who stand in battle formation. Our guide lets us continue round taking pictures as we go. The first pit is so big it's a little difficult to get too close to make out the features of the warriors. But even so, we can begin to make out something that makes the warriors so unique; the facial expressions of no two warriors is the same. The second pit is smaller. Our guide tells us that it contains an estimated 1,000 pottery figures, 500 horse-drawn chariots and saddled horses. We can now see clearly the differences in each warriors face, it's quite remarkable. Pit 3 is the smallest of the three, containing 68 pottery figures and one chariot. In the area around pit 2 and 3 there are a couple of warriors and replica chariots that are displayed in glass cages. In the cages are some fine examples displaying in great detail the remarkable talents of an ancient civilization. There are even some splashes of color visible on one of the warriors.

The entrance to a mosque that looks like a temple

posing outside the city wallWe learn from a nearby factory that now produces replica figures of the warriors in all shapes and sizes that the warriors are hollow from the thighs up. A worker told us that the head and hands were modeled separately and attached to the mass- produced bodies. Each soldier has different features and expressions and wears marks of rank which is usually defined by the shape of the hat. Our eager guide keeps dispensing information like a well oiled machine telling us that originally the troops carried real bows, swords, spears and crossbows, more than ten thousand of which have been found. The metal weapons, made from sophisticated alloys, were still sharp when discovered, and the arrowheads contained lead to make them poisonous. We come to the conclusion that our guide is understandably taking advantage of the situation to impress us with his competent English skills, and he's doing a good job.

The hanger in pit 1 covers some 8000 warriors

We later find out that archeologists now agree that the warriors discovered so far, may be part of a larger army buried in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. However it may take years to complete this excavation. So it looks like this tourist site will just keep getting better.

The individual features on each warriors face

We spend the rest of our time in Xi'an eating some more local food which we don't really enjoy too much. Perhaps that's not an accurate reflection on the quality of the local cuisine but more our tour operators poor choice of restaurant. Noodles with hard bread put into boiled water was not as appetizing as other traditional dishes on offer in China. But with that aside we saw many a wonderful site here in Xi'an and I hear the New Year celebration here is also very spectacular so maybe I will come back for that.

The wide city wall stetches into the horizon

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Scotsman's journey the east: Xi'an Terracotta Warriors