Terracotta Warriors? Check! (Marcus)

Well our time in Xi'an almost draws to a close and I am typing from a keyboard that requires you to punch the keys(litterally) in order to get them to actually bloody type. We leave tonight for Chengdu and I think it's approximately two days overdue.

In a nutshell, our overall impressions of Xi'an improved over the several days we spent here but I definitely would not reccomend this city to anytone unless you were absolutely madly keen to see the Terracotta Warriors. Beyond them, the city doesn't really offer much at all.

The city walls were somewhat underwhelming and unfortunately one of the reasons we were keen to come here. We had previously seen people cycling along them in a Pilot Guide(lonely planet'esque tv series) and it looked great however, when the city is so damned busy and smoggy it basically removes any...I don't know what you'd call it, romance perhaps? Certainly removes any mystery or what not - it's just a higher vantage point to watch smog.

Our opinions of the city were not helped along by the fact that the first day in it was hot and smoggy as hell - the next two days rained solidly. Yesterday was actually very warm and sunny and a lot clearer - this allowed us to explore further - increasing our opinion, but again, not reccomended.

The place just has absolutely no character of its own; it's just faceless mess of a city. The restaurants were all below-average or fare we could get elsewhere. The people we have met have in no way been any different to anywhere else other than the taxi drivers(and worse) people getting taxi's from the train station being outright bloody rude. Add the guy who blatantly line hopped as we queued for tickets into this - until we tapped him on the shoulder and said, nuh uh.

Another feature of the city that we had on the agenda was getting into the backstreets and exploring the Muslim quarter of which yesterays fine weather allowed us. This was very enjoyable but not worth the trip here alone. The streets were mosty interesting and filled with very interesting scenes(not to mention heaps of kitties!) but it was also dirty as hell and well, not far removed from anything we have seen elsewhere.

The highlight of yesterday was visiting the Great Mosque(largest in China) which was also nestled amongst the Muslim Quarter. This place was great - just like many places we had seen previously but decidedly lacking in tourists. It is amazing how much more you can appreciate a place - get a feel for its peacefulness and serenity when it's not full of noisy tourists. I thoroughly enjoyed walking through its 1200 year old grounds, taking photos and just basically relaxing.

A bunch of fairly interesting markets adjoined the Mosque - i say fairly as they looked good - undercover long passage-ways - middle east style - but on the other hand just full of the same crap you can buy everywhere else. As usual, every second storekeeper called out, "Hello, Hello, T-shirt T-shirt." Pass. I did get stopped by three girls who asked if they could take their photo with me. I felt a bit gimpy but said, Yeah why not. The shopkeeper beside me asked if i was a movie star - in hindsight I should have revealed that why yes, as a matter of fact I am!

To finish off the night we went and found the 'more relaxed' bar street as mentioned by lonely planet. Now it definitely was more what we were looking for - bars with outdoor seating, perfect for a few quiet beers in the warm evening however like the rest of the city, it had absolutely no character here and we moved on after a pair of beers, still impressionless.

On Tuesday we went out to see the Terracotta warriors - we had to, it was the main point of coming here. We were both feeling fairly down at that state and decidedly anti-Xi'an, but we went anyway and it was an interesting experience. We opted for the most adventurous route - locating a local bus that went out there for a measley 7rmb rather than paying 280rmb to go on a tour(and get stuck in some crap tourist factory before/after).

We set out in the pouring rain, the first taxi claiming not to know where the Train Station was(yay HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!) but the second taking us - With minimal trouble we located the bus and we were on our way!

We again followed Lonely Planet's advice - (sidenote - we dont take this book as gospel - but it does have some fairly good tips for finding the better stuff) - we opted to view an introductory movie at the cinema there and then view the three display pits in reverse order, Pit 3, Pit 2 then the finale, Pit 1. What this meant that after a primer(movie), you'd view the smallest pit 3(ranking officers etc), second largest then largest in that order - natural progression. While we did pull it off this way, it was an absolute prick to work out which pit was which. In true Chinese style, beyond the map at the entry gate and some random signposts, of course they wouldnt think to actually label the display halls themselves. We have been amazed at some of the primary tourist locations just how poor or lacking the basic signage is. We can basically guarantee that at any tourist location we arrive at, we will basically circle it's outside walls looking for the entry as there is usually zero signage - the same rang true here.

The warriors themselves? Very interesting - the intro movie itself was surprisingly simple yet surprisingly interesting. As we wandered around the rest of the grounds we couldn't decide what we found more interesting, the warriors themselves or the way they had been escavated. It was an ongoing process and it completely boggles my mind how someone can dig them out and seperate the broken bits of terracotta from the ordinary earth and then combine them into remakes of their original form. The pits had a combination of completed warriors, and clear examples of where they were getting them from, all in all, very interesting. Like most other attractions in China, you had seen what to expect on TV so like the forbidden city, the wow factor was just not there - but still very interesting nonetheless.

As usual, upon exiting the grounds the only way out was via a long passage of souvenir shops where the hawkers called over and over, "Hello! Hello! Warriors! Warriors!" while holding up small display boxes with barely recognizable warriors in them - ie we're not talking quality here. Pass, pass, no thanks, nup, no, NO! We're pro's at ignoring hawkers now, all thanks to having been here for 5 months previous.

I think my highlight of the day came from the usual most unexpected place. I went up to a food store and saw some red coloured gum which would be nice for a bit of flavour as we hadn't eaten yet. I asked the woman, how much? 5 kwai(dollars) she said. The five months experience has also made me aware when these people are jacking the prices up purely for the unsuspecting tourists. Now I didn't particularly need the gum, so i thought, nah(expecting it to be 1-2rmb tops). No thanks, I said and started to walk on, 3 rmb!!! she said, grabbing the gum and thrusting it at me - hah! In what was a first, we had now bartered for chewing gum. Even more amusing(to us!) at the very same time, a 'white' tourist had showed partial interest in one of these boxed warrior sets from an adjoining vendor. The tourist had declined(original price 10rmb) so naturally the barter process kicked in - the next offer? 3 rmb! So these quality terracotta warriors - complete with a display box can be had for a whopping 3mb...or the price of some pre-bartered gum.

On our way home we were uncertain as to how we would actually get back. The bus didn't actually finish its journey at the warriors, but simply dropped us out front. In fact we didn't even know we were there until the driver called back, "Hello! Hello!" and pointed out the door. So for the return trip, we HOPED the bus would regularly pass back by the front, so that's where we headed. As a worst case scenario we could pay a taxi an exhorberant 200rmb+ and be taken back - at least that was an option. So we get out front and are immediately approached by people wanting to taxi us back - no thanks, nup, no, nah! The best of these was a woman - who looked a bit ragged actually, offering to take us back to town for.....1rmb - that's right, 1 dollar. Um yeah sure, sign us up for a mugging please!

A short while later the bus arrived and we returned to the city. The bus seemed to stop 10 times as much on the return trip, dropping and picking people up, but beyond that it was without issue. The only thing worth mentioning along the way was a certain gentleman we saw in passing. He was standing unobtrusively in the middle of a park, an open umbrella before his..front. As we passed we both happened to be watching him and both noticed that beneath that umbrella he was having an erm...sneaky mid-afternoon 'salad toss'.

I'll finish on that note, see you from Chengdu!