Western Relief

Many people who have yet to visit China may not know this city.  Those that do often know it for its famed Terracotta Warrior Army.  Odds are though, that even fewer know it for being the artistic and cultural center of old China.  The Qin dynasty, from which 'China' probably comes, used the Xi'an area as its capital.  It was the beginning/end of the famed Silk Road.  It was home to emperors and poets, traveling merchantmen and Buddhist monks.  It was a melting pot of religions and artistic styles long before Europe had Martin Luther or its Renaissance.  This history is still very much alive in the now 4 million-person city, it just happens to sit adjacent to high-priced retail outlets, laser-light and water shows, and salsa clubs.

For me, Xi'an began with a train and party people.  There are four types of train options when riding the rail in China: hard-seat, soft-seat, hard-sleeper, and soft-sleeper.  In my opinion, any self-respecting and self-proclaimed 'budget' backpacker will pick one of the first three options, with three being the compromise between price and comfort for any overnight journey.  I highly recommend using the trains in China, especially if you happen to have a group with whom you are traveling.  Six beds to a compartment and six newly formed friends left Beijing.  Even though our arrival was before sunup, the warm smiles on the staff at the Shuyuan Hostel set the tone for our entire Xi'an experience.   There was little to nothing the hostel lacked, and the city itself followed suit.  Originally planning for just two or three days in Xi'an, we were all enamored enough with it that the count totaled six in the end.

We came to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Army, and that is exactly how we started our sightseeing.  Groggy but excited, we arrived at the museum (built around the pits) just before noon.  There are three pits so far discovered with only two completely unearthed.  The grounds are modern and stylish exemplified by a 360-degree cinema telling the story of the army from its creation to its discovery.  The pits themselves actually seem plain if the warriors are hyped in one's mind, as they were in mine.  However, history and craftsmanship are the owners of awe here.  The statues aren't 500 or even 1000 years old.  They were built before Christ's and Rome's time, yet many are still completely intact and retain patches of their original paint.  There are several different types of warrior: kneeling archer, cavalryman with horse, and officer; but each is unique in his face.  The bodies were mass produced, but the heads were modeled after Emperor Qin Shi Huang's actually army.  In Pit 3, the officers' pit, that's less than 100 different faces.  Pit 2 boasts around 1300.  And Pit 1 dwarfs them both four times over with 6000 warriors in an array the size of a football field.  Impressive, yes, but if it lacked anything in realism, our re-enactment compensated justly (see the photo). :)

Aside from the underground army, Xi'an's most significant attraction, in my opinion, was not a temple, mountain, or nightclub, but a section of town.  The Muslim Quarter is home to the Great Mosque, one of China's oldest being founded in the 8th century, which is a clever blend between Chinese and Arab architecture and color.  The spirit wall at the front keeps demons away while its minaret is disguised as a pagoda.  And framing every rooftop is turquoise-colored tile unseen in any other temple.  This area of town is also home to souvenir stalls, Muslim grocery stores, and textile merchants, but what makes it rank so highly and kept me returning 3,4, 8 times over was its food.  The sheer variety was enough to bring us back, but once coupled with its prices, it was unthinkable we'd
 go anywhere else.  Cold noodles in sesame-peanut sauce, fried minced beef in pita pockets, and pork kebab skewers are just a few of the savories for dinner.  For dessert or in-between-meal snacks, dried kiwi, pistachios, or peanut cakes cost a mere 1-12RMB (about $.14-1.70).  Knowing I might not find another snack street quite like this one, which I haven't, I sampled nearly everything I could and carried with me all my day pack could hold.  Hopefully, one day, my taste buds will take me back there.

Xi'an has become synonymous with the Terracotta Army, however this site is more than an hour away.  The most famous landmark of the city proper is the Big Goose Pagoda.  To this day, I have no idea why it has this name.  It was built in the 7th century to house the numerous sutras a Chinese monk brought from India.  Nothing in the guidebook nor on the limited English-language signs mentioned anything about a goose.  Nevertheless, the landmark brought me to it twice.  The first time was in early evening to see Asia's largest fountain-music-light show.  Set on one end of the park encompassing the pagoda, the 100-plus meter by 50 meter matrix of spigots begins its performance near sundown.  Set to famous pieces of classical music and accompanied by large floodlights, it was indeed impressive rivaling a good fireworks display.  On my second visit to the pagoda, Jason, Ofer, and I decided to climb the seven-story monolith to glimpse the city from one of its oldest skyscrapers.  The view from atop was hampered severely by the mirky skies, but the surrounding gardens, which are only accessible with the admission ticket, did not disappoint.

I mentioned before that we first arrived in Xi'an before sunrise.  However, even in darkness it was easy to appreciate the massive stone walls that surround the city center.  At one time most substantially sized Chinese cities were fortified with large stone walls.  Xi'an is one of the few cities in which they've survived.  It wasn't until our second to the last day that we walked on top of them, but their 18m-thick, 12m-high physique couldn't be missed on any day in Xi'an.  From atop, the noise and people congestion disappears and a pleasant dichotomy of older buildings within the walls and the parks and moat outside of them is all that remained.  Their current rectangular perimeter of 14km encloses approximately 12 sq km.  The walls built by the Tang dynasty prior to these built in 1370 by the Ming dynasty enclosed an area seven times larger!  Yet another reminder of China's ability to accomplish massive construction projects using its endless supply of people.

In closing, the overwhelming factor which kept us in here three times longer than we'd planned was the first thing we felt at 5:30 in the morning: atmosphere.  The hostel had it with its Traveler's Cafe, movie room, and dumpling-making class.  The daytime strolls had it thanks to the Muslim snack street, the merchant stalls near the South Gate, and the walls themselves.  And the nighttime had it as well, whether we were captivated by a musical water ballet, dancing in one of the many nightclubs, or just sipping cheap beer on our patio.  Xi'an, the "City of the West", celebrated the character traits that differentiated it from Beijing; the same traits that have kept it as my favorite city more than three weeks and half dozen cities later.