Liam managed to get up early and get breakfast but I yet again just couldn't wake up. Eventually Liam woke me up by shining a light in my eyes. Charming eh ; )
It was about 11. On the hostel's information we got a bus to the train station where bus number 309 left for the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors, also known as the Terracotta Army, are unique through the world. When the original Seven Wonders of the World were decided on, the Terracotta Warriors hadn't been found, but when they were discovered in the 1974 by a group of peasants digging a well, they were designated the Eighth Wonder of the World. All this time they were buried underground and peasant farmers used to bury their dead directly on top of them, without any idea of what they were digging above. The army was put there to guard the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Once they were finished and put in place to represent defence of the area, they were completely concealed. The warriors, over 2,200 years old, each stand 1.8 metres tall (taller than me) and each one has a different facial expression, hair and clothes. There are approximately 8000 warriors and horses (the horses have different facial expressions too!) They say there is a strong possibility that each one was made in the likeness of the sculptor or of real-life soldiers. The warriors were made of local clay and once they were fired, they were painted, though most of the colour has faded away now. The site boasts the earliest brick wall made in China, and the emergence of chrome-plating technology, which wasn't invented in the western world until 1937 by the Germans. And all this time the Chinese had already had the forgotten technological skill! And the reason it was forgotten? On the emperors orders, anyone who was involved in the construction and artisanry of the Warriors was buried alive in his tomb. Lovely. Archaeologists are still to this day uncovering more and more.
On the way to see the Terracotta Warriors we passed by an Egyptian Sphinx and pyramid, which were rather incongruous considering where we were. We think they were the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, which lies 1.5km away from the site of the Terracotta Warriors. We never had a chance to visit for ourselves though. At the Warriors museum we were hassled a few times by people wanting to be our tour guides and insisting that the size of the exhibits necessitated a guide. In retrospect I'd say they were wrong, as the signs were very straightforward and explanatory.
It was surreal to finally see the warriors, this Eighth Wonder of the World. They were certainly worth the wait. There's something astounding about looking down into a pit of a 2200 year old clay army. The work that must have gone into it! The respect for the emperor! I know that they have sent some of the warriors from the army over the world (I vaguely remember my mom saying she'd seen some in Malta or somewhere, and Catherine's mom has just seen some in London) but I can guarantee that you won't get that same breathtaking sensation that you feel when you see them in their rightful place, still steadfastly guarding their emperor. It was similar to the feeling I got when I caught my first sight of the Great Wall of China. You just can't beat seeing it in the flesh!
Pit 2 had been relocated to the exhibition hall as it was being excavated. We wanted souvenirs but the prices were phenomenal and we knew we could get the same things in town anyway, for much cheaper.
We returned on the bus and next got a bus to what we hoped would be near Xi'an's south gate. The old city wall at Xi'an has been preserved and is the most impressive one in China. Xi'an was the world's first city with 1 million inhabitants, and the wall is pretty huge as it had a big city to go round! As it happened, the bus did go near and we had to walk through an ancient cultural street to get to the gate. Most of it was closed, presumably because it was New Year's Eve. We climbed the south gate and looked around at the 'scenery' but it wasn't really up to much and so we got a bus back to the Bell Tower, which we wanted to climb, as well as the Drum Tower. However both had closed just minutes earlier, much earlier than the usual time because of Chinese New Year.
Defeated, we returned to the hostel. I ate a western meal of lasagne, hot chocolate and cheesecake, and then went to get showered. By the time we were back downstairs, the bar and common room had started filling up as evening approached. A Cantonese Dutch girl had moved into our dorm and we sat with her and sipped cocktails. She taught us new levels of haggling: The Colgate Smile, where you just smile and smile with as much teeth as possible, The Stubbornly Stupid Westerner, where you pretend like you can't understand the prices they are offering you and just repeat the price you want until you annoy them so much they give in, and The Hello Kitty, where you play as cutesy as possible and hope that they just can't get over the cute foreigner. It has a 90% success rate. Eric had in fact said that one of his haggling techniques was to say "but look how cute I am" either in Chinese or Uyghur and pull a puppy dog face. He also claims excellent success rates.
The hostel was very sociable and reminded me of fubar as well, as all the younger expats in the Xi'an community came in too, just for the craic. A few hours later we were talking and playing games with a large group of about 20 of us, including some real characters! We moved onto Salsa, a local club recommended by some of the expats. As we walked there we could already see fireworks being set off and everyone we passed was in a jovial mood. Inside the club there was a very busy, festive atmosphere. I danced a lot with the Dutch girl, whose name may have been Marian (every time she told me I couldn't understand her accent. It started with M. This is all I know for sure.) At the turn of midnight there was a countdown just like normal New Year. The night was brilliant fun. We finished up by walking home. I was proud that I knew the way home (it was literally just a straight line) but Marian didn't - someone with a worse sense of direction than me! Not as bad as Heidi, who had to get a taxi home, but didn't know how to say Bell Tower (or anything, for that matter) in Chinese, so had to wait for a bar worker to help her. We stopped off for McDonalds, which was not nice at all and not anything like a British McDonalds either. But it still hit the spot at 3 in the morning.
Me in Pit One with an army behind my back!
Liam et moi et some Terracotta Warriors or summat...
Some of the them don't have their heads, sure, but they're still standing after all these years!
Really mindblowing to see. I recommend.
Xi'an's city wall was kitted out for New Year.
The South Gate. Look how tastefully it is decorated; so understated. It is the Chinese way.
These were the views of the city available from the South Gate of the wall (this is facing west). Note the river, still totally frozen through.
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