Xi’an

Day 323 (May 17, 2019) – Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China

As soon as we arrived in Xi’an it felt like we were back on China’s main tourist trail. During the last week or so, we could have counted on a single hand the number of westerners we saw. Now in Xi’an, it was like we couldn’t get away from everyone. International tourists, like us, stick out like sore thumbs and tend to congregate at the same restaurants, bars, and tourist sites. But being on the tourist trail has its conveniences. We never had an issue finding English menus and the woman running our accommodation spoke perfectly to us and was able to give us all sorts of advice about the city. She even directed us to an affordable Belgian beer bar where we were able to get the fullest bodied beers we had had in over a month.  

A corner of the Xi'an city wall.

Most people, us included, visit Xi’an to see the famous Terracotta Warriors, but Xi’an turned out to be a pretty cool city itself and well worth the time we spent there. Xi’an is another one of China’s massive metropolitan areas. Architecturally it is best known for a huge city wall that runs around the perimeter of the old town. We walked along the wall one rainy and misty afternoon. The wall really gives the city some character and walking along it provides some interesting vantage points to look over all the buildings. The wall is enormous. It’s about four floors high and rectangular in shape. When we looked down the length, we could only barely make out the turn at the corner way off in the distance. We walked for over an hour and only made it a quarter of the way around. The wall can’t contain all of modern-day Xi’an and plenty of skyscrapers make up the skyline of the city outside the border of the wall.

Giant buildings and gates are dotted all along the wall.

It looked like it stretched on forever, but there was a right-hand turn way down at the end.

We had some pretty great meals in Xi’an. Most notable were the dumplings, which could be found just about anywhere. We tried all different kinds. The best were small fried ones that we found at one particular restaurant not too far from our accommodation. They were oily but had little bits of fried goodness on them that made them extra delicious. The traditional steamed ones were always a solid choice too. Xi’an was really the first city we came across where dumplings were so prominently showcased in the cuisine.

The Xi'an Muslim Quarter.

Xi’an was also home a Muslim Quarter. Although we had a great meal there one night, that area of Xi’an was disappointing at best. It felt too touristy. Too put on and artificial. Crowds of people walked the main street past neon signs and shop owners shouting out advertisements of their wares. There were countless street food stalls selling all sorts of unusual foods but the whole things lacked authenticity. It was more a tourist attraction than it was a culturally different section of the city. It felt more like a spectacle than a chance for cultural exchange. At this point, we were starting to become weary and suspect of anything labelled a tourist attraction in China. (See Dali Old Town, the giant pandas in Chengdu, or the Singing Sand Dunes of Dunhuang, for instance.)

Some of the skyscrapers of modern Xi'an.

Despite our disenchantment with tourist attractions, we still had one more mega attraction to visit while in Xi’an that we weren’t about to miss, the Terracotta Warriors. An hour-long bus ride from town dropped as off just outside the main entrance to the site. We tried to get there early, but we clearly didn’t get there early enough. We had to walk through a parking lot that was already filled with hundreds of tour buses. The entrance to the site was a mad house of activity. Thousands of people and hundreds of tour group flags waving in the air. We were rolling our eyes at one another thinking, is this even worth it?

The crowd at the Terracotta Warriors was a bit insane. You can see all the tour group flags up in the air.

There were three pits where the Terracotta Warriors were unearthed, creatively labelled Pit 1, Pit 2, and Pit 3. Travis had read that the best way to view them was in their reverse direction and I’m glad we decided to do that. By starting with Pit 3 we were starting with the smallest and ended at Pit 1 which was the largest and by far the most impressive. The warriors were constructed for China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, and buried near his tomb in the late 200s BCE. They were forgotten about until a serendipitous discovery by a farmer in 1974.

Pit 1 was by far the largest and most impressive. Also take note of the crowds along the walkways to the right and left. It was hard to walk by or find a spot to take in the sight.

Similar to when we were seeing the giant pandas in Chengdu, getting a good spot along the railing to see the warriors required patience and persistence to slowly move to the front of the crowd. I tried to block out all the commotion around me and focused intently on viewing the warriors as if it were just me and them in the huge cavernous rooms.

The warriors were nothing less than captivating. Looking over them, they are all different. They each have unique poses, stances, heights, waistlines, and faces. It bordered on creepy. I was half expecting them to wake up in an instant and start marching forward. And it’s not just soldiers. There are horses and chariots. There are also broken pieces of warriors and horses scattered about, waiting for all their parts to be found and glued back together again. It looks as if they’ve already been in battle and have suffered casualties. They were enchanting and so hard to take our eyes off.

We were both thoroughly impressed with the Terracotta Warriors. It almost felt like there was a life to them that was frozen in time in a single moment. If feels like if you look away, you’re going to miss watching them the instant they spring back to life. We understand why so many people want to see them, and this was perhaps one of the few attractions that was worth the crowds. Of course, we were happy to find some breathing room once we left the site, but we will remember staring into the eyes to the army for a long time to come.