The most amazing month ever ... Xi'an

Our next stop was Xi’an. After coming from a small city in Wales, every city I have visited in China seems massive in comparison to Cardiff! Once again, we weren’t in Xi’an for long so we had many things to do in very little time.

Our main reason for visiting this city was to see the Terracotta army of course! I had an idea of what to expect after seeing some friends’ pictures shortly before I visited there myself. However, nothing prepared me to realise the vast scale of the army.

Only a small part of the army has been uncovered. There is a mini sculpture of the area to show the size of what they believe the army to be. It is gigantic!! I couldn’t believe it! What’s even crazier is that they will not be able to uncover much of it for a very long time because our technology today just isn’t good enough!!

There are four zones full of terracotta statues (yet the forth has yet to open).

    

Many of the statues of soldiers, horses and people they have recovered from the earth so far have been either broken or discoloured. The broken soldiers are still visible for tourists to see. There is also a ‘hospital’ for the statues that are lucky enough to be fixed. It is strange to see the statues wrapped in what appears to be cling film and with holes through their bodies. There are many headless soldiers too!

(Broken soldiers)

                                           (The hospital).

We know that the figures have been discoloured after being discovered because on some of the statues there are vague colours to be noticed.

(Look at the detail!!!)

 It is also really amazing to see the tiny detail on every single individual masterpiece in the army.

 (There's a hole in the middle of the horse to stop the terracotta from cracking)!

It’s hard to imagine that all this was created for one man, an Emperor at the time.

The Terracotta army did not disappoint!!!

Leaving the Terracotta army however felt as though we were in a theme park. We passed endless stalls selling junk souvenirs and if we hadn’t have been with our lovely guide, we probably would have eaten at one of the rip off restaurants there. However, she took us a short distance by car from there to a local place that she knew well.

I advise that if you go to anywhere in China, you should hire a personal guide. They’re not that expensive and it’s so much better than following a large tour group!! They are always from the area too and so they know the absolute best places to go! The food was great. Our guide asked us what we liked and chose the best suitable things for us! I am so used to ordering pork, beef or mutton these days in China instead of my favourite chicken. The chicken is always so difficult to eat as it is almost always presented chopped up but still joined to the bone. Also, they serve you literally every part of the chicken possible…even the feet!

My parents were also shocked that a group of men on a table near by were completely drunk off baijiu in the day time! One of them was even looking after his young son while drinking shot glass after shot glass of baijiu!

Our hotel was lovely, situated in a lovely part of the city. Every evening, six girls dressed in traditional Chinese clothes played traditional Chinese instruments. It sounded beautiful!!

                                                        (Our hotel).

 The hotel was next to water fountains and a square for people to walk around. Every night there is a fountain show. There are probably better fountain displays to be seen in the world but it was still very nice to watch. The music was good too and the colours made it very pretty. It was difficult to see sometimes though with the amount of people there (obviously since it’s China)! So we stood on a bench to see it more clearly. A patrol woman came around every so often demanding everyone to get down. However, once she was out of sight, everyone was immediately on the benches again!

Walking around in the square after dinner and the fountain show was the nearest I’ve felt to being back in Italy. What I love about Italy is that everyone goes for walks during the evenings and it’s a great way to spend the night, to people watch and socialise. As we walked around we saw many people dancing, walking and talking.

What I do love about China is that in every ‘spacious’ part of a city, there are public dances. Anyone can join in. It’s like a way to keep fit for city people I guess! The music is always nice (or interesting) Chinese music and the dance moves can be amusing to watch. You also see people early in the morning practising Tai Chi in groups or practising with swords in local parks. It’s really nice to watch!

My father and I were watching some people dance and I turned to ask my mum and sister what they thought about it and realised they were gone. I looked around and realised they had joined the dance party! It was funny to see them as the only Westerners there to take part!

We were lucky to have more sunny and hot weather during our stay. We also went to see the city walls of Xi’an, the only remaining city walls still standing in all of China. During our stay in Xi’an we had another lovely guide to help us around the city and to take us to the best places. She said that the walls were a pain during the busy rush hour because the entrances into the inner city are small and therefore only a certain amount of traffic can pass through at the same time. However, she said the walls are what make the city special. You can walk or even cycle around the entire wall. My family were keen to cycle around it after the amount of cycling we had done in Yangshuo. However, it was far too hot, it was the middle of the day and there was no shade! So next time I visit there I will ride around the wall!

(Apparently the Chinese believe if you stand under a bell it will give you bad luck...unfortunately I didn't know this until after the picture was taken...oops!!)

Our guide took us to the Muslim quarter. Before I went to China I always thought that the whole of China was non religious. But since being here I have learnt that there are many Christian, Muslim and Buddhist areas. The Muslim quarter was interesting! There was stall after stall of touristy things to buy and there was stall after stall of street food! Our guide advised us to look after our bags to avoid being robbed and to not eat anywhere unless she advised that it was a good place.

We ate some nice sweet tasting food (approved and recommended by our guide of course). Don’t ask me what it was though, I have no idea!!

(The drum tower. The bell tower was in another part of the city ear by).

It was nice and interesting to be in a Muslim district and not see the women in strict clothing. At the most, the women wore head scarves.

We went to a dumplings restaurant and we saw a very good live performance of traditional Chinese dances, songs and instruments. It was a really beautiful show!!! Our meal was a variety of ten different kinds of dumplings. My sister had a vegetarian selection for herself. To be honest, having ten different kinds of dumplings was too much and I felt like I didn't need to see another dumpling for a long while after but it was something new and different! Inside the dumplings were many things, from pork to crab to tomatoes to fish.

 (I had never heard of or seen so many of the traditional instruments that were used in the performances).

Finally, before we left, we visited the Pagoda right next to our hotel. We were given a different guide just to look around the Pagoda. He was very good at his job. He knew so much information about Buddhism. He taught us things like; you should always enter a Buddhist prayer room from the left and leave on the right and you must never step on the high plank as you walk into the room. (You will know what I mean when you visit your next Buddhist monastery). We didn’t actually have time to climb to the top of the Pagoda as we had a flight to catch in the afternoon but we looked around the Buddhist temple surrounding it.

                  (The original Buddha himself).                 (People pray to this guy for wealth. My Dad was                               one of them!)

             

Before we left he showed us how to write some things in Chinese characters. He wrote down our country, Wales, in Chinese characters and also wrote the characters for Coca Cola for some reason!

After this, he turned into probably the best sales person I have ever seen! It was strange since he was meant to be a monk! He did a remarkable job at selling us original paintings painted by the monks. We ended up walking away with two paintings when we originally planned on having none! Seriously, he was the best at selling!!! They are really lovely paintings though to be fair!!

Xi’an was yet another city that I was fond of!

Our last destination during our three weeks of travelling around China was my home while in China… it was time to go back to Zhengzhou…