Travel Adventure in the Middle Kingdom : Xi'an

Day 1 - Bullet Train Beijing to Xi’an

The high-speed ride on the bullet train from Beijing to Xi’an (Shee-aan) was excellent. Very modern train cars, very comfortable and quietly travelling at a high rate of speed.

The tracks pass through agricultural landscapes interspersed with 10MM person cities.

Eiffel Tower Antenna
Shijiazhaung

So many massive buildings, presumably warehousing people. There was even an Antenna tower on a building roof along the way. It was a ringer for the Eiffel tower, located at Shijiazhaung an 11MM person city. Gustave would be proud.

We arrived in Xian in a little over 4 hours, a magical 1200 km train ride at, yup, near average of 300kmh.

We were met at the train station by our Xi’an guide Ellen. It was pouring rain but by the time we got to our hotel the rain had stopped. Like home, wait a few minutes and the weather changes.

Construction cranes a
common sight

Ellen set us up at our new hotel avoiding any language confusion The centrally located Novotel Bell Tower Xian offers fine accommodation and an excellent breakfast buffet. No onsite restaurant but many are close by. As breakfast was large; we opted for a combo late lunch early dinner.

Thick noodles are a specialty in Xi’an. We found a noodle shop a 5-minute walk from the hotel that had good reviews. The menu was like the simple “My Cousin Vinny” diner menu (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner): Choice of big bowl, small bowl, extra meat, extra vegetables, extra noodles. We chose small bowls no extras. After the fair size “small bowls" were delivered to our table one of the ladies working there came over to our table, and using chopsticks she expertly mixed the meat, vegetables and sauce all together. Tea was also provided. Very helpful for us rookies. It was very delicious.

After that we walked back stopping to pick up some beer at a convenience store to take back to the hotel. The famous China brew, Tsing Tao was priced at 4.5¥ /500ml bottle, as were other similar beers and a nasty 12% alcohol one (that one was a struggle). At the hotels and restaurants, the beer markup was steeper, typically 20-25¥/each. The Novotel is very well-equipped accommodation, we took advantage of the free modern laundry facilities, a nice add to get a weeks’ worth of clothes ready again. After an early morning and the train journey, we were beat and called it an early night.

Day 2 - Terracotta Warriors

This morning we were picked up at 8 and drove for about an hour east to visit the Terracotta warriors. They are said by their promoters to be known as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. Of course, there are a number of other places and people including Jerry Springer, King Kong, the Rogers Centre among dozens of others that also claim this title.

Qin Shi Haung
Terracotta Army Museum

It’s a massive tourist attraction, in the top three in China. The story of them is incredible. I will try and be brief. What is known as the Qin Dynasty was short lived (less than 50 years), but it laid the groundwork for the future dynasties.

Qin Shi Huang was the first Emperor of China (he personally created the title). He unified China in approximately 250BC and created the Qin Dynasty. He was quite the leader and warrior, commanding a 500,000 strong army! Just speculating, but what do you do with a massive army and no wars to fight? Keep them and many others busy or they will with get restless.

What you ask might keep them occupied for 30-40 years? The Terracotta Warriors near Xi’an are an amazing example of leadership focusing people on tasks to get them working together and keeping them busy. A project initiated over two millennia ago, went on for over 35 years, brought many people together with a single purported purpose; to create life size warriors and weapons to protect the Emperor in the afterlife 🙄.

This project lasted some 35+ years, a testament to gullibility of most of us. An enormous project, it required artisan and engineering skills be developed to construct the life size clay army in such detail that no two looked the same. Quin Shi Huang died in about 208 BC, without him his dynasty collapsed. The clay army was buried under the sands of time. (and was extensively looted, apparently unable or unwilling to protect the deceased Emperor).

The ancient make work project was “discovered” by farmers drilling a well in 1974, the project now breathed new life. Over 2 millennia later it is again a major economic engine for Xi’an and China. This incarnation of the project has been rolling on now for over 50 years. The ongoing process of excavating and restoring the warriors (most broken into many pieces) will keep the new generations of workers and artists busy for many more years. The scale of the attraction is enormous, the main pit is about 230m long, 60m wide and 5m deep. The reassembly process painstakingly plods on.

There are only a few of warriors that were found intact, the rest were and are a massive jigsaw puzzle for archeology students to play with. Judging from the size of the crowds of visitors, and ongoing new exploration, it appears that this project can continue indefinitely. Well at least until the CPC dynasty falls and the sands of time once again reclaim the site.

A truly amazing exhibit, a few more years of digging and gluing and it might get into the top Seven World Wonders. I have much admiration for how these projects are conceived and executed by both ancient and current governments. These leaders are masters at creating purpose for humans. We could use a project or two like this in “The West”. Well at least could think up projects that do not involve military action. Might give meaning to the lives of the many lost souls. It was enjoyable seeing that there may still be hope for mankind, just need leadership.

As an aside, while we were circling the Pit above the warriors, I asked our guide why there were “no crossing” signs at the warrior pit. Seemed unnecessarily obvious.

Apparently not; she answered that the signage was installed because a German exchange student entered the pit some 20 years ago in costume… she showed us a WeChat video similar to this one on YouTube! 😂

Terracotta Warrior land is a busy place and we got there early. We had to jostle with many other anxious visitors near the exhibits. In particular to see the very few completely preserved warriors.

Souvenir

Terracotta Warrior land is a busy place and we got there early. We had to jostle with many other anxious visitors near the exhibits.

We visited three buildings, two were Pits with Warriors and equipment, one a museum with many artifacts. Oh, and of course there was gift shop at the end where we enjoyed extensive retail therapy. As noted by Goodman/Prine more than a half century ago, it takes years to get those souvenirs... All in, about 3 hours', time very well wasted.

The threatening rain became a warm sunny day. We reunited with our driver and headed back to Xi’an, very much enjoying the iced coffee and snacks that he kindly provided for us.

Wild Goose Pagoda

Back in Xi’an, we stopped at the Wild Goose Pagoda for a short visit. A skyscraper monastery in its time, 64m in height (7 stories) and was originally constructed some 1300 years ago. The site is home to much Buddhist paraphernalia as well as some 300 monks still reside there.

A few folks were also looking for selfies.

Back at the hotel, we caught our breath, had a short rest before heading out again on the hunt for another local delicacy.

Today Xi’an is a clean beautiful city, lots of trees, flowers and park areas. It, like all China cities, is very safe. No fear being on streets at night. Rule of law is an actual thing here. Air quality is moderate ranging from 25-80 on the AQI scale. This is a major upgrade from how a friend described what he observed there in 1987. “Xi'an was extremely polluted and my wife had a horrible lung infection (could not see a city block for the black coal dust)”. It seems things can and do get better.

Chinese Hamburger

We did indeed find that delicacy. No not Donkey this time, instead it is Roujiamoa, commonly called a Chinese Hamburger, and no it was not like a McDonalds product. The burger is made from slow cooked spiced mystery meat (hmmm maybe it could be Donkey?), stuffed into a flatbread called Baijimo.

More like a Donair than a burger, it was nevertheless very tasty as was the Tsing Tao. From there we tried to find the ‘Drum Tower’ but alas, google maps did not lead us to the correct location, should have used AMAP.

Time Traveler

Giving up on the Drum Tower, we returned to the awesome Bell Tower area. Over 650 years old, the Bell Tower is another amazing structure, but no longer a teller of time. The tower now resides in the centre of a very busy roundabout after the main wood tower was moved about one thousand metre’s nearly 450 years ago!

Bell Tower

The wood structure stands about 36m above the intersection on a 9m brick base. Around the Bell Tower we observed more ladies in period costume. Some call them “Time Traveler’s”, a nod to the ladies dressing up in early dynastic costumes and participating in photo shoots. The streets surrounding the Bell Tower were well equipped with sales folk selling a complete transformation into the past, young ladies pay a fee of 300¥ to 600¥ depending on extent of the “past” experience.

Day 3 Xi’an Museum and City Wall

Today was a relatively easy, restful day after the excitement of yesterday’s warriors. A leisurely start at 9am and short drive to the Xi’an Museum. Very impressive displays of artifacts from the various dynasties that had controlled Xi’an over time and that the British did not loot and place in the “British Museum”. A busy day at the museum as there were quite a few school groups.

This was not a problem as everyone was orderly and polite moving through the exhibits. Some of the artifacts dated back many 1000’s of years yet are in fine condition.

We saw very early money, tools, and sculptures all presented in as interesting a manner as possible for stuff like this.

The grounds of the museum were beautiful with many trees, bamboo and a pond with many goldfish. We spent a few hours there and visited all the display rooms except for the Virtual Reality room… I have enough difficulty with actual reality.

Xi'an City Wall

After the museum we went for a short visit to the Xi’an City Wall which is a 14 km rectangle with 4 main gates that in the old days could be closed to keep out invaders.

We walked for a little way the top of the wall, spent about a half an hour among the souvenir vendors and time travelers. Very well reconstructed and maintained structure. We decided against the 14km rental bicycle adventure that one can enjoy on the wall.

From the City Wall, we drove to Xi’an’s “Muslim Quarter” which are streets with markets selling mostly food. Apparently, it still is a Muslim enclave within a largely Han City.

We sampled a few items. The fried squid was OK but did not look the same as the marquee versions which were likely lacquered.

The delicious looking nuts that appeared to be loose were actually candied and found a bin awhile later.

Still was only early afternoon, we were weary of the chaos and headed back to the hotel. Supposedly the Muslim Quarter is much busier in the evening, must be insane. We picked up a few food items to take with us on the train tomorrow. Essential as we will be out the hotel door at 6AM and sadly will miss the massive buffet breakfast at the hotel.

Of course, there were cats and dogs to see and also a small garbage truck, fascinating how specialized vehicles are developed to service difficult to access areas.

For our Xi’an “last supper”, we opted for Hot Pot again. After aimlessly wandering about the food floor of a shopping plaza next to the Bell Tower, we were unable to locate the restaurant Google Maps said was located there. Possibly because It was actually a couple miles away.

Horrifyingly we had to ask for help to find an alternate. Third time with Google Translate was a charm and we found a Hot Pot restaurant and did enjoy a fine Hot Pot dinner.

After dinner, it was late enough / dark enough to head to the roof of the shopping plaza and see the Bell Tower in all its brilliantly lit evening glory. Spectacular indeed.

An early morning awaited us.

Day 4 Onward to "The Roof of the World"

An early morning, our bags have somehow become larger? We manage to stuff 15kgs of crap into a 10Kg bag. We meet Ellen and the driver at 6AM and head to the train station. This Xi’an train station is also a massive structure.

Could land a plane there. Not much open early, not many coffee shops, but eventually Starbucks does open and Cappuccinos are acquired. Soon we are aboard the train, not a high-speed bullet version, rather a modest 160kmh speed.