My trip to Xi'an in Shaanxi province was mainly about coming to see the famous Terracotta Warriors and the Wild Goose Pagoda.
The Terracotta Warriors were built to 'protect' Emperor Qin. It's pretty incredible to think that a farmer came across them when he was digging a well to find water, only in 1976! You can still see the site where the well was and about 7000 life-sized figures in front of it stand ready as if they are going in to battle.
I went to a workshop before going to the main site to see how replica warriors are crafted. I couldn't afford the life-sized ones so bought a medium sized one instead and had it shipped back home!
The Terracotta Warriors are in three 'pits', pit 1 being the largest. As I walked up to it, there was a crowd of people and then once I muscled my way in, there they were, it's pretty huge! A large building has been constructed around them and they can tell more exist beneath the surface through sonar images. In pit 3 they can tell cavalry and more soldiers and archers are underground which they will excavate. Most of the warriors have their heads intact but some are missing or broken. The most amazing thing to me is every face is different, the sculptors carved their own face on to each statue and carved their name in to the back so as to identify them. The emperor apparently was not happy if the quality wasn't good! The warriors are all facing East so as to protect the emperor from evil spirits from other provinces at the time. His actual mausoleum is about 1.5km away and underground as a deterrent to grave robbers. It's also surrounded by an underwater chamber, poisonous mercury and boobytrapped with ancient crossbows. Sounds like something out of Indiana Jones to me!
Pit 1 is by far the most impressive and you can do the while site in a few hours.
Next stop was a bike ride along the old city walls with my fellow travel pals. The old part of the city is within the city walls, a massive 13.5km long! However, we all hopped on our bikes and cycled around, stopping for a breather at each corner. It was actually good fun as it wasn't too hot so just took our time and did it in about 2 hours. I was glad to see the 'finish line' as the last stretch was pretty bumpy on those old cobbles.
For lunch I had a go at making my own traditional hotpot. It's basically a small stove fire on the table and you bung a load of food in, wait for it to cook and then serve yourself. You make your own sauce from chillies, sesame seed oil, onions, paste etc. I also had some free time to look around the market in the Muslim quarter which is inside the old city walls. You have to haggle haggle haggle! Nice to walk around the bazaar and there is an impressive mosque too that you can visit. The food market bit on the main strip is a real eye opener though. A totally new meaning to 'crabsticks' for example....literally, a large crab stuck on a stick!!
Last stop of the day was a visit to the Wild Goose Pagoda. Legend has it that the monks were looking for food, prayed, and a flock of geese flew over and one dropped dead in front of them, hence the name. Fair enough! The actual pagoda building is built at an angle so it's not straight and my pictures aren't wonky! A nice temple complex to walk around, peaceful with nice gardens and lots of Buddha statues. I rubbed the belly of one of them as apparently it brings you good luck! One of the highlights here was a Chinese calligraphy lesson. Like students, we all sat around while we were taught how to write Chinese the traditional way. The brush tip is made from animal hair, like rabbit or horse, and the stick is made from bamboo or jade. We practiced how to write 'forever' in Chinese and what each of the strokes mean. It was good fun although I asked the local calligrapher to write my name in Chinese which he did on rice paper which i bought from him and will have framed when i get home.
See more on my vlog here.
