We arrived early morning and hopped onto the bus to the hostel. At 2 Yuan each we couldn't grumble. We arrived at our hostel and checked in nice and quickly. After a quick shower we headed out to grab breakfast. This was easier than we thought as across the road in a little side shop a lady was selling pickled cabbage buns. They were yummy and at 5p each breakfast was just 20p each!
The city is quite small with many shopping malls and an annoying pedestrian system which means having to walk 700m every time you want to cross the road. Usually we were at either end of this.
After a few beers in the hostel with some people we met we got an early night ready for the terracotta warriors.
The Terracotta Army ( Warriors and Horses) is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210-209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.
The army was discovered in 1974 by some local farmers in Xian.
The army was discovered in 1974 by some local farmers in Xian.
We decided to go to see the warriors alone and had heard that it was cheap and easy to do. Most of the tours were quite overpriced and we like a bit of a challenge so we headed for the main train station in Xian where we caught a bus for 7Yuan. An hour later we arrived (dumped on the side of the road) It was drizzling slightly but not to bad so we headed for the main entrance, following the signs. Around 1km later we arrived at the main gate only to be turned away by the guards and told to go to the main car park (where we had just come from) to buy our tickets! I was rather annoyed and being wet didn't help! So we trundled back to the front entrance and queued to get our tickets. We then started over again!
We had heard that the terracotta warriors were a bit of a tourist trap and a let down to some people. So we went with an open mind.
There were 3 sections of the warriors. 1, 2 and 3 we were told by other people to go backwards as it was a better route and it was a better buildup to the many warriors.
The first section was basically a museum and mostly in Chinese. You could rent an audio tour but for what we paid for entry (over 100Yuan) we thought asking for more was just cheeky! Plus you couldn't even hear yourself think with all the tour groups floating around. It was truly packed out! Plus the rain didn't help as i think being indoors brought more people to the attraction. Most of the artifacts in the museum and some of the warriors were actually replicas which ruined it for me!
Section 2 was work in progress. Archaeologists were slowly digging away to find more soldiers most were broken and fallen over but i think there were working on restoring them. It was quite a sight.
The third section was just jam packed with people. The 'stage' area where the warriors had been excavated was probably around the size of 3 football pitches side by side. There were all standing in perfect rows with horses and carriages. Each individual warrior has its own face. Thought to be one for each of the warriors that served for the king. Its quite weird to look at. You can see that at a distance they would have looked like a guarding army!
It was just all spoilt by to many noisy, rude, spitting Chinese people. Tours everywhere whistles being blown and just not a nice environment. I think we spent around 1 hour there and then we headed back home.
We found the street food in Xian some of the best we have ever had. Dave found a lovely fish ball stall which he gorged on and i did the same with the pork balls. We found a street stall making fresh seafood noodles (very clean with disposable chopsticks) and another noodle lady serving up veggie noodles to all the locals so we had to give it a go. One of our favorite treats was a stall where you could 'Make your own pitta' with a Chinese twist of course! There was an array of veg including broccoli much to Dave's delight! All sorts of meat, fish, breads and salad herbs. You grabbed a tray and piled up your veg, meat and salad and they cooked it for you there and then. After heating a massive pitta bread they shoved all thew cooked contents topped with salad and away you go. At 5Yuan each (50p!) we went back most days!
As with most of my posts i rabble on about food, so i have to tell you about the Muslim quarter in Xian. Its where most people are recommended to go for good eating. We headed out early in the evening and were pleasantly greeted with a massive choice of places to eat. We weren't to sure what we would end up with but generally they know how to accommodate westerners well!
We were pulled into a little place that looked quite busy by a guy that spoke a little English. We ordered some soup, noodles and i ordered some BBQ skewered meats. I think one of the soups was cow intestines so didn't go down very well with Dave! I thought it was OK. Plus we got a cheap beer! After wards we found an amazing bread stall and we had some sort of veggie stuffed bread which was a nice finish to the meal!
We met up with Dan the Aussie guy we met in Chengdu who was staying the other end of town and we also bumped into our Canadian friend Derek (who was actually in our room).
It rained most of the time but was still a great time in Xian...
Next onto Beijing...soft sleeper baby!
To see our pictures of Xi'an please click on the link below;
https://picasaweb.google.com/112941139607408893724/XiAnChina2ndTo5thSeptember2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIq0zaTTwOyDEg#
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