Day 22 - Warriors

Alan is being forced to write the blog today, but it may not be the usual length as we’re a bit short of time. Forced? It was your turn.  Suck it up.

We awoke from our one night in Xian to a smoggy morning. Not quite as bad as when we arrived the night before, but still very smoggy. Room service brought us breakfast to our rooms, although none of us were particularly hungry.

We had a pre-arranged tour booked for the day, so we checked out of our hotel at 8.30 am and met our tour guide and driver. We had discovered the night before how crazy the drivers are in this city, so we all buckled up and hung on for dear life. There is a really good reason why you can’t, as a foreign, hire a car.

We drove through the city to the ancient wall. It was built about 600 years ago to protect inner Xian from invading forces and is still in remarkably good condition today. We paid the fee and climbed the 75 stairs up onto the wall. Apparently they hold a marathon on top of the wall once a year (3 times around is approximately 42 kilometres), but the runners would have to be very careful not to trip over or twist an ankle on the uneven stone surface.

   

Next, we drove to the Wild Goose Pagoda. We were given our own personal tour guide in the pagoda grounds and he was very thorough, taking through all the different areas and explaining all the stuff we needed to know. He wrote our names in Chinese characters on rice paper for us, although this was more an attempt to make us interested in buying paintings or jewellery from their gift shop. We didn’t walk up the 268 stair, 7 storey pagoda. I don’t think any of us were keen on climbing the narrow, steep stone staircase.

 

After that, we were driven to the terracotta workshop, where they make new terracotta figures. Once again, it was more or less just trying to get us to buy stuff. We did have an opportunity to take photos as terracotta warriors, though. That was good fun.

Finally, it was time to do what we had come to Xian for, to see the terracotta warriors. They drove us to the site and we walked in. In fact we walked in, got on an electric car thingy to take us to the pits.  However, they won’t bring you back, wanting you to walk through the markets.  Our guide knew a shortcut to avoid the markets and cut the return walk time down to 10 minutes. Thankfully it’s off season here at the moment so the crowds weren’t too bad. We went in pit 1 first, which is the biggest of the 3 pits. There are some 6,000 terracotta figures in there. The size of the place is amazing.

The terracotta warriors were ordered built by Emperor Qin, 2200 years ago, to protect him in his afterlife. They were placed in battle formation in rows under the ground and then covered by a wooden roof and earth on top. Some time afterwards, a rival army found them and smashed them to pieces, so when they were rediscovered by accident in 1974, there was pretty much nothing but a jumble of broken terracotta pieces. The last 38 years has seen a painstaking job of reconstructing them to the way they once were. Of the 6,000 figures in pit 1, around 2,000 have been restored. Some of them have been covered by earth once again to try to preserve their painted colours from oxidisation, as they lose their brilliant colours shortly after being exposed to air. All of the wooden chariots have long since been destroyed, but there is one section where you can see the imprint of a wooden chariot wheel in the earth.

 

Next, we went into pit 3, which houses only 68 figures. These are different though, in that they are not in battle formation. It’s almost like the warriors are facing each other, talking.

Pit 2 was only opened to the public a few years ago. It contains over 1,000 pieces, but most are still covered by earth. In a glass cabinet in pit 2 is proudly housed the one and only terracotta warrior to be found perfectly intact. They call him Mr Perfect. There are also iron and bronze weapons which were found buried with the warriors.

It was something which we’ve wanted to see for a long time, and it was well worth the trip to Xian. Pictures are great, but you have to see it in person to really appreciate it.

By now we were thinking it might be time to head to the airport. They drove us the hour or so there and we checked in for our flight to Beijing. Once through security, we had a late lunch in a cafe and waited as many flights were either delayed or cancelled due to poor weather conditions. I think that’s their way of saying that the smog is too thick to see anything at the moment. As with yesterday, the smog was now very, very thick. Maybe it gets worse as the day goes on.

We had to get a shuttle bus to our plane and then board on the tarmac. It was very windy and I held on to my boarding pass tightly.  We did see one flying down the tarmac. We took off half an hour late, but at least we didn’t get cancelled. 90 minutes and one pretty dodgy meal later, we were landing in Beijing. It was darn cold!

We’ve been warned about not getting into a fake taxi here, so when a guy beckoned for us to come over and get in his minivan, we said no. We got in a real taxi, which were in plentiful supply and gave him the directions to our apartment. He didn’t speak any English and didn’t know where he was going, but after making a phone call he found the place.

We’re staying in a very nice serviced apartment. The 2 guys downstairs on the front desk spoke no English at all, but they got Sarah’s contact on the phone to translate for us. This place is nice and warm and spacious.

   

It was 9.30 pm and Sarah and I went outside to try to find something to drink. It was absolutely freezing so we didn’t want to go far. We walked up a dark alley and around a corner and found a McDonalds. The lady there didn’t speak any English either, but we managed to order something. Strawberry passionfruit shakes. Ok then. It was pretty good.

Tomorrow we’ll be off to explore Beijing.