Xi’an – Terra-cotta Army

We arrived bright and early at 7 am this morning in Xi’an. It was still pre-dawn here; China uses one time zone, and it’s as wide as the continental US. Oops. Guess those silly ignorant peasants can’t handle it. If you ask me, it’s just further insult to injury for poor Tibet, because that means it won’t get light until about 10am in winter and dark until after midnight in the summer out there in Lhasa. Yuck. We looked around for a taxi again this morning, yet AGAIN having issues getting a taxi. We finally got an offer for 40 yuan, which is only 7 bucks. Considering that our trip out to the summer palace was about 30 for 4km or so, this seemed reasonable for a 6km trip. We also had a bit of a problem spotting our hotel, as the entrance to the lobby was along the side in a small alley despite having a big sign out front along the main road.
We checked in, then went out to get our tickets to Shanghai. We had some initial problems finding the ticket place, but after asking a guard he showed us to the line that was really long. Awesome, while waiting in line, Bethany pulled some more cash out and then we got our tickets. Next up we took the bus for the first time; returning to the station and then taking a bus out to the Terra-cotta army- 15km outside of town. The trip took a while out there, but it was no problem.
The place was pretty devoid of people, being a regular Monday during the off season. Gauging by all the gates and stuff we saw, this place must just be swarming with people during the summer. There is also a ton of tourist shops set up as well as food stalls. We were both pretty hungry by this point, our last meal being about 20 hours prior and a quick one at that. We ended up getting three dishes that were piping hot (as we were the only people there) and fairly reasonably priced considering this place was obviously geared towards tourists.
Afterwards we made our way in, having paid the killer entrance fee of just over $10 each. (only some sarcasm here :P) We entered the main pit first; it’s the largest and makes the most dramatic impression. Having done a project on this back in May, its worth mentioning that this gigantic pit is a tiny blip on the whole complex that was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in ~230 B.C. (it was an ongoing process that took over 30 years) Still, the silent army that greets you upon entering is still breathtaking. We walked around the perimeter, noting that further back you can see the state they were found in: toppled, broken, fused with the packed earth surrounding them. It’s a meticulous and painstaking job to restore these to their original state. We also visited two other excavated pits, some with archers, cavalry and the like. There was also an exhibition hall where we could see them up closer; as well as the two ½ size bronze chariots that were built (at least its thought) to shepherd the emperor around his complex and to the afterlife to converse with the gods. We then made our way out and caught a bus back to the rail station. This bus took a longer and different path back – giving us a much clearer view of what Xi’an is really like. A marvelous blend of old and new. Dusty and green. There are huge stretches of brick buildings being torn down, rubble strewn everywhere; something out of a post-apocalyptic book. The older people wear thick dusty army jackets; the young wear nike apparel. I saw a man walking through rubble kicking a brick – while talking on a cell phone. We passed a corner that had brown rubble in every direction for over 100 yards – a bright blue sign on the corner said “Northwest Nuclear Research Facility”; I couldn’t help but think ‘would it look any different if something went terribly wrong? Or did it already?’ We got back to the station finally, took a bus to our hotel, and have been relaxing since then. I’ve had the pleasure of spending the last several hours catching up on the last three days of adventures finally being blogged about. :-P