Xian
So here we were at the legendary start (or finish) of the Silk Route and China’s original capital city in bygone days for a 3 day stay.
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| Drum Tower, Xian |
From Xian airport we caught the airport express bus, a much cheaper option than taxi, where it dropped us off inside the walled city centre. Our hostel in Chengdu had phoned ahead and booked our Xian hostel for us, giving us their recommendation as to which one of these were better. With the help of Max’s trusty compass, our guidebook and a local woman who spoke no English following us to ensure that we got there, we eventually found the place tucked away near the South Gate wall.
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| Our hostel entrance |
The Xiangzimen Youth Hostel, set just inside the ancient city walls, was behind a traditional Chinese gated entry. Whilst the room was quite basic and on the small side, I loved the traditional architecture within the hostel and its great restaurant/bar area that served a wide range of food. Staff here were also friendly and most helpful especially when it came to booking tickets and transport to sights as well as airport transfers and rail and flight bookings. They booked our flight to Beijing for us as only hard sleeper compartments on the overnight train were available – no thanks. Again, we didn’t need convincing that a 2 hour flight instead of a 12 hour train trip was a good choice. Plenty of time to savour the discomfort of overnight rail travel when we complete the Trans-Mongolian route.
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| The Army in battle formation |
Our small group tour to the Army of Terracotta Warriors lived up to our expectations and more. Our hostel arranged for us to be picked up by minivan where we joined 7 others from Belgium, Holland, India and England. Our group gelled well and it was an entertaining drive out of town and back again as we all got to know each other better and laughed at the light-hearted rivalry and banter between Belgium and Holland. First stop was to the pottery factory where we were shown the kilns and how they make the reproduction statuettes (wallet tightly closed here), on through to the furniture gallery (beautifully painted and tempting lacquer furniture but hardly packable) and finally to what we’d been waiting for.
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| Detail of soldier's hairstyle |
Nothing prepared us for the sheer scale of this famous archaeological site or the vast undercover halls of excavated terracotta warriors. This massive site of China’s first Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s army was truly mind-boggling - and still it hasn’t been completely dug up. In various pits were army headquarters, terracotta horses and of course all the individualised warriors numbering in the hundreds (dug up, so far) in position ready for battle.
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| Tang Dynasty show |
A prettier aspect of Xian’s history was booking tickets for a Tang Dynasty cultural show, a very colourful display of songs, masks and elegant dancing in elaborate costumes. This was followed by a dumpling banquet at the theatre restaurant. Max and I ate our way through dumplings with pork, dumplings with chicken, dumplings with mushroom, dumplings with beef, dumplings with pickles……(pause, catch breath)……. dumpling soup, dumplings with fish, dumplings with scallops, steamed dumplings, boiled dumplings, dumplings with duck, dumplings with shrimp….. with warm rice wine and Chinese beer. The waitresses kept bringing out more just when we were relieved to think that that was the end of it. Very tasty, but we are now well and truly all dumplinged out. This certainly aided and abetted us in developing that General’s belly.
Like ourselves, I guess the only reason most tourists come to Xian is to see the Terracotta Warriors. However, we loved exploring the many facets to this city, especially the small neighbourhoods within the old stone walls, which are an attraction themselves. The city centre is dominated by the huge Bell Tower at one end of the street and the Drum Tower at the other. Climbing up these towers gives you great views across Xian and an overview of its many floral displays (not all of them natural) as Xian, one of the driest cities in China, gears up for its 2011 Horticultural Expo.
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| Simple pleasures - tea & cigarettes |
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| Muslim Quarter |
The Muslim Quarter near our hostel is a hive of activity within a small pocket of narrow alleyways, food stalls and mosques. It is home to the Chinese Muslim community of the Hui people who have been here for centuries and are distinctive with their Muslim skullcaps and headscarves. There were souvenir stalls, hot bread ovens, soups being ladled out of furnace-hot stockpots, displays of massive dates and dried fruits, decorative flatbreads and unusual sweets for sale such as Eight Treasure rice pudding.
Another fascinating neighbourhood within walking distance from our hostel was filled with small, traditional built homes that look as though they are being revitalised. We followed the city’s stone walls then followed our noses down the laneways until we reached a crowd that had gathered around a temporary stage in one of its tiny squares where a talent show was in full swing. High-pitched male and female voices pierced the air with shrill Chinese melodies.
Further along we stumbled across an arts and crafts street where stalls were getting ready to close down as dusk was falling. All manner of papers lined shelves and calligraphy brushes from the smallest to the most enormous sizes hung in doorways. Strangely, out in front of all these stalls was a man who had brought out his space telescope mounted on the back of a 3-wheeler motorbike. He was showing it off to interested passers-by – and for free! As we edged closer for a better look, the man took the camera out of my hands, set it to full zoom, pointed it through the telescope lens and took a photo. “Saturn” he told me. And there on the camera screen was a planet with a clearly visible ring. Wow!
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| Space telescope |
Our final tourist stop in Xian was to the Big Goose Pagoda, a short local bus ride away outside the city walls. This 7-storey high Buddhist pagoda was built to store important Buddhist texts brought across from India by a monk. We climbed all 7 levels (just because the steps were there, really) where we got great views across the city and to the park and square below. It was fortunate that our arrival at the huge square coincided with a fountain show. During the half-hour performance, hundreds of fountains spray, spout and squirt water in synchronised movement to music. This outrivals Las Vegas’ Bellagio fountains for size. Chinese tourists couldn’t help themselves – they ducked and weaved in between the streams of water to pose amongst the fountains for that special photo.
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| Huh?? Xian alleyway |
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| Big Goose Pagoda |
Our time in Xian ended all too quickly. It was time to fly on, this time with Hainan Airlines, to the big daddy of them all – Beijing.
Hi, I'm Eva - world traveller, cultural explorer and experience seeker. Together with my husband Max, we've been globetrotting for over 20 years.
Ooo, the photos on all your posts are just lovely. I went to Xian last year and loved seeing the terra cotta army. The other places you've gone in China also look amazing. I'm taking notes of all the pretty places for my return later this year!
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