Xi'an

After a few days in Nanjing we boarded a plane and headed to Xi'an, a city of immaculate walls, wonderful Muslim street meat and the Terracotta Warriors.

Our first visit took us to the Bell Tower, a giant building in the middle of downtown Xi'an that used to house a bell that would toll in the morning to awake the citizens and signal the time for their travel to work.


The tower itself is nothing spectacular, however it has a lot of history and gives a great view of the incredible mix of old and new that is Xi'an (and most of China)---you can't see it well, but there is a McDonalds right in front of the Drum Tower (the sister tower of the Bell Tower).


There is a huge Muslim community in Xi'an. Beside the Great Mosque (the biggest Mosque in China) there is an entire street full of Muslim stores with some of the best food I've eaten in China. Walking down the street is also just like stepping onto a movie set. It was really great.


The Big and Small Wild Goose Pagodas were visited immediately after the Shannxi History Museum (Shannxi is the province Xi'an is in). The pagodas were built in recognition for the monk who traveled from China to India and returned with the teachings of Buddha. From his travels, Buddhist thought was brought to China and is now the most practiced religion in the country.


One interesting thing about the pagodas is that the height of the floors gets smaller as you climb up. We're on the 11th floor (which is actually the 11th and 12th)...there is no standing here.


The city of Xi'an was great but the highlight of our trip was visiting the Terracotta Warriors outside of the city. We hopped on a tour bus (which we rarely do), but we were still able to spend a fair amount of time at the Museum, as well as seeing a few other museums along the way.


There are just massive amounts of soldiers. There are 3 pits with soldiers and horses, the first of which houses an estimated 6,000.


The warriors were built by the first Emperor of China approximately 200 B.C.E. and were destroyed by the uprising of the people. Over the years they were forgotten until they were discovered in the 70s by a farmer digging a well.


Though archeologists have unearthed many, there are still more burried under centuries of dirt. They've discovered that exposing the warriors to sun/air deteriorates them almost instantly, with the 2000 year old paint disappearing before their eyes.


These are replicas of the original warriors and so are not original, but will give you a better understanding of the detail that was put into the creation of this site. The history here is bewildering and mysterious, since no one knows (or even seems to ask) why these warriors were built in such detail and with such distinguishing characteristics (they all seem to have an individual face different from the rest). Mat and I have come up with some theories of our own about the construction of the warriors and I've become adament in believing them to be true in my mind. Who knows....they might even be.