A Burried Army Lost in Time

So after all our train adventures, we have nothing to report but a pleasant journey.   We had two companions who were only staying on the train for 2 hours, and just like that they were gone and we had the place to ourselves for the rest of the night.  The slight problem was getting the tickets as Bill couldn't explain to the Chinese train office what he wanted so like the other tourists we paid the fee at our hotel and sure enough we had tickets later that day.

We arrived in Xi'an around 10:00, but the first bit of we needed to figure out was which station we were at.  The problem with the Chinese Lonely Planet is that China is still adding subway stations, new train stations, etc at a pretty rapid rate so when the book publishes many of the items may or may not be out of date.  Lonely Planet said a new station was almost finished and put that location, but considering we came out by the city wall, we realized (or Bill realized) quickly that we were at the old station.  Yes, part of this city still has a wall that surrounds it, it's probably 2 square miles around.

So the Terricotta Soilders we saw were cool and all, but I got to touch a Panda!!

As far as accommodations go, we've been going mostly between the higher of the low end to the mid range end.  But in India, we seemed to stay towards the higher end of the mid range.  What I've started to realize in city areas, that might be to our disadvantage.  The reason being is that Youth Hostels have a range of accommodations so we can still get nice places, but what they have that other hotels might not have is internet access, laundry areas, a decent cafe with comfort food, and the one we chose this time even had a pool table and area to watch movies almost like you're at home.

The hotel we stayed at in Shanghai was definitely a nicer hotel but it lacked all the other items and so we had to search for internet unless we wanted to pay about a $1 every 10 mins in the business center when that should be at least an hour and pay an arm and a leg for laundry which in that case it would be cheaper to buy new clothes. And so, I'm leaning back towards the Youth Hostels which really provide most things you as a long term traveler need.  And so, we stayed at Hung Tang Youth Hostel.

After showering and getting settled, food became the next need of the day.  As we were venturing out for the day, we opted not to try the traveler's cafe located in our hostel but try to find a place.  I'm starting to learn that after a train ride that this option might not be the best choice as we walked through the narrow streets of Xi'an fighting space with honking cars going both directions, pedestrians who know nothing but pushing right into you, and carts of all kinds making it almost impossible to walk down this shop ridden street.  Where's all the food, maybe a stall or two or an open door restaurant and being our first cold location, not really an option at this point. As so, we made a large square shaped walk through these streets coming up empty to get back to where we started.  In the shopping center next to our hostel was Ivy Cafe, but as we finally found this cafe, it was deserted and left us back to square one trying to find our way out of this mall. Once again, you can get in but if you want out, you better do it kicking and screaming to find the exit or you never will.

And so, after all this we finally settled for good old KFC.  It seems there's one on at least every block and at one spot close to the wall, they have a huge two story KFC followed by a smaller one directly, parallel, across the street.  I never knew the Chinese liked the Cornell so much, but as we walked in, the whole entire menu was in Chinese.  We thought there had to be some English somewhere, but finally we were handed a menu with some English choices. We made due and tired some of their sandwiches which leads me to yet another thing the Chinese love, mayo.  They load mayo on anything that is suppose to have it with about three more squirts than you needed in the first place, and it's got a strange tangy taste that I can't put my finger on.  But Bill finally tried some popcorn chicken, which his youngest brother, Nick, would be proud of.

Now that we had full bellies, we headed towards the Drum and Bell Tower.  The Drum tower which was situated in the center of the old town once housed a collection of large drums used to signal the town during the night and in times of danger.  Inside there was a drumming performance that showed off some of the different drums used in ancient China, but nothing using the large drum that used to signal the town.  The Bell Tower which looked very similar to the Drum Tower but was located in the center of a roundabout, housed the bells that were used to mark the passage of time in ancient China.  There was a bell performance here however we were only able to catch the very end of it.

After walking around out in the cold to see the Drum and Bell Towers Michelle decided that she deserved to stop at Starbucks to get some coffee to warm here up. So we sat around and played some cards while we enjoyed the warmth of a fire and Michelle enjoyed here cup of coffee.

The next day we woke up early and caught the public transport out 50 km to the Army of Terracotta soldiers. When we got there we first went to the theater to watch the 360 degree movie about the history of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses. There was a lot of showing off what the camera could do but now that much about the history of the army.

So we headed off to the first pit (the largest) which houses some 6,000 statues. This is envision when you think of for the Terracotta soldiers: 10 lines of soldiers 4 wide with dirt walls between them going off into the distance. A very impressive sight. However as you walk around the pit you realize that only the first part of it is excavated, and many of the statues have been badly damaged. One of the few useful things in the movie was the fact that shortly after the emperor died his tomb was ransacked and burnt (all though the Terracotta soldiers are only a small part of the tomb that is the size of a small city) Then shortly after that it was flooded causing the whole thing to collapse and be lost to time.

The second pit housed some 1,500 Terracotta Warriors, but this had only a few exposed but all of these were broken and showed how the statues rested for 2,000 years. There were a few teams of archeologist working on excavating more of the statues, but that is about as much fun to watch as paint drying. The only interesting part of the second pit was the actual statues that had been put up on display in cases for people to get to see up close (well if you could push your way through the crowd of Chinese tourist). The third pit was tiny with less than 100 statues, but had been fully excavated and the statues were put in a representative position of where they were originally. However after the first pit, it was not very impressive.

One of the things that I found most interesting was how the area was built. The walls were built from compressed dirt then lined with mud bricks. The floors of the alleys were all paved with larger pavers to ensure that it was flat for the soldiers to stand. Once the soldiers were put into place large timbers were put over the top between the walls to act as a roof. Then a series of mats were laid across the timber roof and covered with dirt to completely conceal the army. Pretty ingenious and much safer than digging a long tunnel. After a long day of walking around we were a little hungry so we stooped at KFC for some more popcorn chicken to hold us over on the bus ride back to Xi'an. As we were walking to the bus stop a girl asks if we are going to Xi'an station and says the bus leaves from over here. It is a different numbered bus, but she assured us it goes to Xi'an station so we get on since it is leaving right away. Our mistake, as apposed to the express bus which travels the 50 km on paved roads making very few stops, we got on the local bus which stopped at every intersection along a road that might have been paved once, but most of it has washed away a long time ago. Needless to say we were glad that we grabbed a snack as we were leaving.

So the Terricotta Soilders we saw were cool and all, but I got to touch a Panda!! Our youth hostels offered a Panda tour, but it was cheaper if it was at least four people. When we had checked in, Bill told them we'd be interested if others were going. We opted to see what Lonely Planet had said and found a small part under the tour section that mentioned that youth hostels were doing this, but that it was more like a zoo than a Panda reserved and to make sure what you were getting with the tour. It turns out, others were going, so we figured it was worth a shot.

This turned out to be one of the better tours we had in China as the first one in Guillin didn't go so well and you can read about our tour to The Great Wall later. But this panda reserve was more like a zoo; however, it was a zoo we had all to ourselves with a tour guide taking us around pointing out all the details about each panda and how old they were. He also mentioned that this park let you see the pandas closer up because if you go to Chengdu, where the panda area is the most famous, you may not see very many pandas but you can pay to hold a baby panda. That was all I heard because I wanted to hold one.

I may not of held one here, but through the fence, I was able to touch a 1 year old panda for a couple of seconds, he was more prinkly than soft and I was so scared that I pulled away before Bill could get a picture of me touching one but I did touch a Panda! We spent the day seeing almost all the pandas in this zoo, and each one had it's sperate little section expect for some of the younger ones which could still share a cage. But pandas are solitary animals and like their own space or they start fighting, even mates only share a cage during mating season, and they're separated.

The zoo also contained black bears, vultures, eagles, red pandas, and even golden monkeys. The golden monkeys were in cages with their mothers though as our tour guide brought fresh leaves for the monkeys, the mother snatched them all leaving none for her babies. Bill had a run in with a Golden Tartan as he was brave enough to go to the bars and pet him as he made the weirdest cry almost like a really deep belch. We had heard it by the pandas and wasn't sure what it was, but Bill showed no fear and went to pet him until he squeezed on him, but the best part is that I got a video of it. It's pretty funny, but sorry don't know how to upload videos on this site or if I even can.

And the normal tour lunch which you expect to be a buffet turned into our guide asking each of  us our favorite dishes and they were brought out to share.  I had the best sweet and sour pork in China so far as they weren't any bones in it and it was what I expect to get in America but tasted so much better.  It was at lunch that we learned more about group which consisted of Danish couple and a pair of British guys.  The Danish couple had been traveling for 11 months already and were on their last bit of traveling.  They had made it to the US and believe it or not feel under the Vegas bliss and were married as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. The British pair had just started traveling two weeks now, and we shared our stories of India with these pair and they were glad they weren't going.  Though the Danish bride was very found of the place while her groom shared our views.  Indian is an experience, and we did encourage the Brits to give it a try but I don't think they will.

After the Panda trip, Michelle rested in the hostel while I went out to explore the small streets of the old town.  I wandered around the small streets of the old town through the markets and small temples that dot the area.  Eventiually I ended up at the Great Mosque, which is not what you expect to find in the center of China.   But Xi'an once the captial and end (or start depending on perspective) of the Silk Road has a large Muslim population that has remained to this day.  The most interesting thing about the Mosque is it really looked like a Chinese Temple, even the Minuret was disquesed as a Pagoda.

Our last day we left in the morning to go to the Big Goose Pagoda and surrounding temple complex.  I am sure there is a good reason, but the Pagoda does not look like a typical Pagoda but rather an ancient stone sky scraper.  None of the multiple floors with decorative balconies that are traditionally associated with the term Pagoda.  But there was a large temple complex around the Pagoda which was nice to walk around.

After this we took a bus to the east gate of the old town, which is still ringed by a huge wall that has been restored.  We walked along the top of the wall to the South Gate (Main Gate) walking past the series of lookout towers that stick up from the top of the wall every couple hundred feet.  The wall itself was quite wide and even had bike rentals for people who wanted to ride around the whole thing and for the lazier people it had electric golf carts that would caddy you around the top.

That night we headed back to our hostel to get our gear and go to the train station.  We planned to leave about 45 minutes before the train as the train station was a 15 minute cab ride away.  As we tried to flag down a cab it started to rain.  We finally got a cab to pull over and he refused to take us.  After two more rejections, we decided we should try the bus or we were going to miss our train.  We caught the bus and counted the minutes as it slowly wound through town towards the train station.  When we got off the bus we ran through the parking lot, cut in the line to get in the train station.  We found our platform and ran to catch our train.  Not having looked at a watch since leaving the bus, we were suprised to find that we were on the train with 10 minutes to spare, but we were still one of the last passengers to board.  The rest of the train ride passed, uneventfully and we awoke in Beijing.

Bill and Michelle (Working as a Team)