Xi’an — The root of Chinese civilization
After enjoying Chengdu, my next stop was Xi’an in Shaanxi. I spent 15-hours in a night train to get there, with some friendly Xi’an students as my neighbours. The thing you will quickly learn when taking nights trains or cheap trains in China is that if you are an obvious Westerner you’ll be the star of the show for the whole train journey. People come and pass, try to talk, try to interact, and may offer you peanuts and dry beef (delicious!). The whole trip may not be relaxing, but it is a privileged moment to try to interact with locals, and at the same time get some tips on your next stop!
I arrived in Xi’an super early, at around 6:30am, and I had only one thing planned in my mind: to see the world famous Terracotta Warriors. As well as the Warriors, Xi’an has a lot more to offer, making it one of my top three Chinese destinations.
Outside Xi’an station you will see the big North city wall ahead of you (I will talk about this later on in this post), and a large amount of buses. To get to the Terracotta Warriors you will need to catch Bus 306, it’s (usually) where the biggest queue is. For my case, at around 6:30, the queue was more like 6 people waiting there for the next bus to come. The bus will cost you 7CNY and will take about 30/45 minutes depending on traffic to reach the Terracotta Warriors. Arriving at the parking area you’ll need to get to the ticketing offices — there are two sad things at this point: it’s one of the rare places where there is no international student discount (only Chinese students have discounts), and you must pay your 150CNY entrance ticket with cash only…. which I of course didn’t have on me. So I began searching around for an ATM that accepts foreign cards, and found that there are none around, I had to take a taxi about 10 minutes back to the city to reach the first bank and get some money out. I was lucky to arrive there early and slightly before it’s opening at 8:30AM, so I finally got my ticket around that time. One little thing I forgot to mention in the previous China posts is that most of the tickets in China are actually postcards that you can send for free in China or keep them as a souvenir.
Once I had my ticket in hand, my excitement was at its peak, I walked through a small park area before I reached the entrance of the excavation sites, there are three pits and one museum (Exhibition hall) here, the third pit was closed for restoration when I was there (August 2016). I went straight to pit number one as it’s the first one in front of the entry. Entering the building you’ll see directly underneath you a breathtaking amount of warriors. It’s a truly amazing experience to be able to see those 2,000 life size warriors, each of them with a unique cut and absolutely different. The army was built for Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum on his death in 210 BCE. It’s important to understand that you are not just looking at a bunch of warriors and horses from the past, but you are looking at the precise moment the Chinese empire started to become a civilisation as we understand it today. Qin Shi Huang is the one who ordered the building of the first parts of Great Wall of China, and he is known as the first Chinese Emperor, the first of the Qin dynasty. In it’s globality there are over 8,000 warriors, 500 horses and other non-army related figures standing underneath the grounds. Going around the excavation site I had the chance to see archers, horses, generals and others distinguished army figures.
It took me a good 30 minutes to get out of the first pit because I was truly shocked, amazed and feeling very lucky and privileged to be able to see it all with my own eyes. I then moved to the second pit, it is a slightly smaller one but here a bunch of warriors have been raised up by some mud piles, so you have the ability to see them at eye level.
When I’m done visiting the two pits, the last part of the visit is the Exhibition Hall, where the most precious discoveries are kept. In between walking from pit number two and the Exhibition Hall I crossed paths with a bunch of Generals from various African countries. After speaking to them in French I learn that they have been invited by China for a trip (we know Chinese intention there…) and for some military courses. Leaving my new friends, I access the exhibition hall, which is like a small museum with the historical context of the whole area, numerous potteries and previous artefacts, and the world famous Qin Bronze Chariot. The chariot is one of the 64 relics that will never leave China, its is about 50% of the size of a horse and is made purely of bronze and gold. Overall, the Terracotta Warriors site was amazing and despite the fact that it’s one of China’s main and most busy touristic attractions, it’s a historical must see.
Cooling down from the exciting Terracotta Warriors I recalled reading that there are shuttle buses that operate between the Terracotta site and the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. After about two-miles on the bus, I arrived at the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum and its 24-square kilometre park. The park is huge, and you will likely get lost like I did. Fortunately, a nice lone Chinese tourist helped me out with the directions (well she was actually a bit lost too…), there are a few pits to discover and it’s a very nice park — a perfect place to rest and relax from the busy Terracotta Warriors.
I managed to get back to Xi’an center, inside the city walls, with public transportation, and I reach Xi’an Ancient City Youth Hostel that I managed to book for free with my tricks. After a great nap, I decided to go and explore the city.
Inside it’s walls, Xi’an is basically a square with Xi’an Bell Tower at it’s centre and four main roads starting from there, North, South, East and West road. With such configuration it’s really hard to get lost in Xi’an centre, which is pretty rare in China… so enjoy. I start heading south to the Bell Tower (on North road if you followed correctly), the roads are full of small street shops and food vendors until I arrive at the Bell Tower in the middle of the roundabout that is surrounded by flowers. It is a really nice Tower that you can access by underground paths, but more interesting, starting at the north east of the Tower is the Muslim Quarter. I was visiting during Ramadan 2016, so I believe it may be a special period to discover the Muslim Quarter.
When you arrive there, some smoke and scents from local cuisine will fill your senses, lambs hang in the streets, and some spicy skewers are made freshly on barbecues, I can also see some noodles, and middle-eastern style bread and cakes. The deeper you’ll go in the Muslim Quarter the less tourists you will cross, and you’ll find some super small shops or noodles places where you can get food for a ridiculously cheap price. Walking deep inside the quarter I crossed a nice open gate which has a Chinese styled Arabic inscriptions on it, it intrigued me and some kids playing Pogs behind the gate were quite interested in me too. So I stepped in the area, and saw a group of old Muslim people preparing the Ftuor (when they can eat at dawn), I could clearly see I was not in my place but I continued to look around a Chinese mosque and sat down to enjoy the architecture until a guy basically kicked me out, maybe it was a Muslim only area, but it felt rude. Heading back to the centre I cross The Drum Tower which is very close to the Bell Tower itself. The Drum Tower was used to signal the end of the day where as the Bell Tower was used to signal the beginning of it. The Towers are from the Ming dynasty and you can visit the inside of them (which I did not). As I looked from the outside, dawn settled, the sky turned amazingly pink and birds flew around the Tower.
Waking up quite early from a comfortable night, I planned to go to Xi’an City Wall and bike around it. Michelle Obama described it as “a wall that has withstood war and famine and the rise and fall of dynasties” which sounded cool enough to me. So I walked down to the south gate of the City Wall and paid the student fee of 27CNY. Going up the stairs and accessing the wall you’ll have a high view of Xi’an city. The wall is in rectangular shape, and it’s total length is 14km (8,7miles) which I didn’t really understand going up there! I decided to hire a bike which cost 45CNY for 2-hours and can be returned at three different points on the wall. I began riding and it just felt so weird to have fun on a 14th century wall. I manage to do the whole round with few stops in about 1 hour and 20minutes, but I went really really fast. It probably takes 2 to 3 hours at a normal speed. I made a stop at the archery tower and other various towers that are on the wall. Once I finished this incredible experience I went back down the wall and started hunting for some food. I ended up in Shuyuanmen Ancient Cultural Street, a pedestrian area, where I saw some handcrafted art pieces and a lot of Chinese calligraphs and paintings. Crossing that area I ended up further east where I enjoyed a variety of street foods.
After a little while resting on a bench, I started walking towards the Shaanxi Historic Museum, a little bit further south of the wall. The museum is known as a the best museum in China, every day it delivers 4,000 free tickets to the first to arrive, and limit the entry to 6,000 visitors, so try to go as early as possible, I arrived there at 2pm, but I recommend going way earlier if you’re not visiting at a low season on a weekday. Once I finish queuing up for about 30 minutes, I showed my passport and received my free ticket. I entered the museum which has numerous galleries of art and ancient Chinese relics from various Chinese dynasties. I personally thought the museum was great, but still slightly over crowded for me.
Feeling really tired, I decided to go the big park I saw on my map. Going there I walked through a smaller park, with a pagoda, and then reached the entrance of “Tang Paradise”. I was really disappointed to see that I needed to pay 130CNY to access the park which is basically composed of a fake lake with fake Chinese buildings and a fake waterfall. I don’t understand why the locals really like those places, I guess it makes them relax or something. Anyway, long-story-short is never pay to access a park.
The sun started to set and I had to head back to the train station as I had a night train going to Lanzhou, further north of the Silk Road. Xi’an’s vibrating communities and historical attractions makes it a truly unique Chinese experience and I highly recommend you to visit.
