Post #29 – November 9, 2012 – Xi’an, China

What we did: Terracotta Army, Muslim Quarter
Budget: 450 Yuan / $75; Spent: 615 Yuan / $102.50 

Jeff here. Another great day in Xi’an. This is really turning out to be a phenomenal city. We had planned on getting up bright and early to check out the Terracotta Army, but when our alarm went off at 8:30 am this morning our bodies said ‘No way!’ I think both Patty and I are fighting off a cold right now and some extra sleep was dearly needed. We slept in until about 10 am, which isn’t really all that bad for us. We had bought some breakfast at a nearby Wal-Mart the night before, so ate a banana, orange, some raison biscuit type things and bought some coffees from our hostel’s restaurant. I think our bodies were badly in need of vitamin C, so the oranges helped with that. I don’t think we ate any fruit while in Pingyao and I think that killed us both! 

We had the option of going to see the warriors through our hostel, but it was much more expensive doing it that way compared to getting there by public transit. So we hopped on a bus to the train station, and then on another that took us directly to the site. It was very easy and the whole trip took about an hour. Coincidentally, we sat down next to a Chilean couple, Alfonso and Catalina, that we had sat next to in a restaurant in Pingyao, but hadn’t really talked to. Turns out they had both also quit their jobs and were on a one-year world trip. It took a bit of coaxing on our part, but once we got them talking they really talked! They gave us a lot of good advice about India, where they had just come from. It really made the bus ride fly by.

The bus didn’t drop us off in the parking lot of the grounds, but a little outside. As a result, we ended up walking right by the ticket booths without even knowing it. We were also pretty hungry at this point so we were more concerned with finding a place to eat than buying tickets. So we walked along this path that would eventually lead to the entrance to the site, and there were tons of little shops and restaurants. Nothing really piqued our interested, so we actually ended up eating at a subway. It was decent. I was hoping to find some more of those fried potatoes. It was not to be. 

Anyway, so after eating we walked to the entrance where they informed us we had to walk back down to the parking lot to get our tickets. Keep in mind this is a 15 minute walk. I can’t understand the insistence of the Chinese to keep their ticket booths as far away from their entrances as possible. This has happened to us on several occasions now. So we ended up wandering back down the street, sort of aimlessly looking for the ticket booths. We came across a couple who must have been from Australia who were kind enough to give us directions. In exchange, we told them where we got Patty’s North Face jacket from in Beijing and taught them a little bit about haggling. It was a good deal. 

So we made it down to the ticket counter and noticed that tickets were not the 90 Yuan that our book had promised, but a ridiculously high 150 Yuan! I mean, to put it into perspective, it is one of the top sights in the world and it is only $25 per person, but I was pretty furious at the time. We had it in our minds what the price would be and we felt like we were getting screwed once again by the evil tourist trap that is China. After paying, Patty decided she wanted an audio guide (recommended by our book, but a waste of money we discovered), so we paid another 40 Yuan and put down a 200 Yuan deposit with the warning that we had to bring it back by 5:30 pm or they would be keeping our deposit. That really lit a fire under our butts. We pretty much speed-walked all the back to the entrance and into the site. 

I think both Patty and I would agree that the $25 per person is well spent on this site. For those of you who do not know, the Terracotta Army 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 the afterlife. 

Our book recommended starting at Pit C, which is the smallest excavation site. This site apparently represented the higher ranking officials in the army and would have been where the generals devised their war strategies. Here are two pics: 

Pit B was far more impressive in scale than Pit C. We are a bit in the dark concerning what exactly this pit represented, but there were many different kinds of soldiers, including foot soldiers, archers, and chariots in war formation. This was mostly indiscernible from the site itself, but we learned this from the audio guide and signs. Here are some pics:

From here we moved onto by far the most impressive site, Pit 3. Pit 3 houses the foot soldiers and is the primary room people have seen in pictures. The entire pit is absolutely gigantic. Here are the pics:

We were quite impressed by the complex. Every warrior and animal was unique. Apparently there is something like eight different types of face representing people from across the empire at the time. Soldiers were also holding a variety of weapons, including swords, spears, crossbows, and bows. These weapons were mostly made out of bronze.

It was a pretty cool site. I think it would have been better with a guide, but we got the gist of it. By the time we had looked around Pit A we were freezing and decided to head home. The bus ride home was long because it was during rush-hour. It took maybe about an hour and a half to get back to the train station. By this point we were pretty hungry and decided to head to the Muslim Quarter of the city, which was highly recommended by our book. And for once our book was correct!

The Muslim Quarter is kind of hidden away off some larger streets and it a collection of narrow streets where vendors are selling food, clothing, jewellery…pretty much everything. We were in awe of the place when we first saw it. Here’s a pic of one of the streets:

We walked along the street for quite a while before we found a little soup restaurant, which seemed to be run by a family of four or five who were cooking the soups right on the street. We had a soup called "Mee – eh” and it was fantastic. I think it was Patty’s favorite dish in all of China! We also learned the name of another dish someone else was also eating at our table: it was called “Jow – za” and it had dumplings in it and looked spicy. We want to go back to that restaurant to try that soup! Here’s a picture of the restaurant (sorry, the best one we have!):

From here we wandered around for another hour or so buying this and that. We had some excellent baked goods. We also witnessed some absolutely insane driving through the crowded streets by motorcycles, cars, and even trucks! I don’t understand how people don’t die regularly in this country. 

When we arrived back at our hostel we sat down for a drink with the Chilean couple, who offered to give us some advice on India. They had saved their pictures to a portable hard drive, but when they plugged it into our computer, our virus scanner picked up a bunch of viruses on the drive. We removed the viruses but this had the terrifying consequence of apparently removing the pictures from their hard drive! After about 20 frantic minutes of the couple thinking their pictures were deleted, I restored the viruses onto their hard drive and they could access the pictures again. I think they realized that plugging their hard drive into random hostel computers was a bad idea!

Anyway, while they were showing us some of their pictures, it just so happened that a guy from India sat down next to us and started commenting on some of the pictures. His nickname is Chendu and he turned out to be a really great guy. He recommended several places to us, including a massive festival that only happens once every 12 years that will be happening in January and February next year. We are thinking that will be a must! The five of us then chatted about traveling for the next couple hours. Here’s a picture (from left to right: Patty, Jeff (in case you’ve forgotten what we look like), hard drive, Alfonso, Chendu, Catalina):

Overall, it was a great day. We ended up deciding to go to the Jingdi Tomb with Chendu tomorrow at the very end of the night. Should be a good day!

Good night everyone!