While living in China we are trying our best to explore everything it has to offer, however as the world’s most populous country at 1.3 billion and the second largest by land mass this is not an easy task. Thus far we have visited Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou and Szuhou. Now we can cross off Xi’an from our list of places to see! For a country of it's massive size and varied geography, it's surprising how just over a year ago from outside of China I did not appreciate the extent of the country's attractions, many of them natural wonders to rival any in the world.
So off we went to see the 8th wonder of the world the Terracotta Soldiers and the city of Xi’an. Xi’an is one of the oldest cities in China with over 3,100 years of history. Xi’an was once the capital city of China and now has 8 million residents. Apart from the Terracotta Soldiers the city was also important because of “Silk Road”, during the Han Dynasty (206BC – 220AD) connecting east and west trade routes (Asia and Europe) while obtaining the name from the lucrative Chinese silk traded along it. The city is literally a living breathing museum.
On Friday we started our exploring with the Terracotta Warrior Museum. The Terracotta Soldiers are a collection of sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. This life size soldiers standing at 6ft tall were buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife. These sculptures were discover in 1974 (hard to believe they went undiscovered for so long) by a local farmer digging a well (Brady shook hands with the farmer as seen in the picture below). Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits nearby Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum. I could literally go on and on about the history of the soldiers, it is easy to understand why this is seen as the 8th wonder of the world and the greatest discovery in the 20th century. Attached are a few pictures from our visit. We purchased several soldiers to bring back to the U.S. with us to remember our visit (two of which stand about 3 ft and another at 5ft).
Next we visited Muslim Street. As the name implies it is the hub of the Muslim community in China covering several blocks inhabited by over 20,000 Muslims. Walking along the streets you find Muslim food and many souvenir markets where you can find just about anything. On Saturday we returned to the market to do some additional sightseeing and shopping, it was here that our family very bravely ate with our tour guide in a local street market restaurant. The dumplings were delicious and we just did not think about the cleanliness in which the food was prepared ;)
Lastly we ended our day at the Tang Dynasty Show. This was a great performance of ancient Chinese music and dance. Throughout the show we enjoyed playing of musical instruments, singing, dancing and also beautiful costumes. It gave us a great view of ancient China through history, arts, distinct traditions and customs.
To think that everything we did on Friday was enough, what we experienced on Saturday was icing on the cake! Our first stop of the day was visiting the City Wall. Originally built during the old Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) it's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world. The wall now stands 40 feet tall, 40-46 feet wide at the top and 50-60 feet thick at the bottom. It covers 8.5 miles in length with a deep moat surrounding it. It is impossible to miss the wall that surrounds the inner city, it is very grand and also beautifully decorated. The best part was that we rented to tandem mountain bikes and rode around the entire wall, stopping at various points to see the city views. It was surreal to think of all the history and take in the once in a lifetime experience. We all had a blast!
As mentioned we traveled back to the Muslim Market area to do some additional shopping and we also visited the Great Mosque. This is one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved Islamic mosques in China. This mosque was built in 742 during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). This was a result of Islam being introduced into Northwest China by Arab merchants and travelers from Persia and Afghanistan during the mid-7th century when some of them settled down in China and married women of Han Nationality. It was great to see the design of mixed architecture - traditional Muslim and Chinese styles.
Next we stopped to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, an ancient building and a holy place for Buddhists originally built in 652. Inside the pagoda there are stairs which twist up to the top which we climbed to overlook the panorama of Xian City. Legend has it the higher you climb the more success you have in life, of course we had to go to the top! We learned the origins of the name from our tour guide. One day the Buddhists could not find meat to buy. Upon seeing a group of big wild geese flying by, a monk said to himself: 'Today we have no meat. I hope the merciful Bodhisattva will give us some.' At that very moment, the leading wild goose broke its wings and fell to the ground. All the monks were startled and believed that Bodhisattva showed his spirit to order them to show more devotion. They established a pagoda where the wild goose fell and stopped eating meat. Hence its name.
Lastly to finish our day we walked from the Pagoda and stopped to see the City Fountain. However this is not your typical fountain, it cost $60 million to build. It’s the largest musical fountain square in Asia, music and light is set against a dramatic backdrop of the thousand year old Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
Our last day in Xi’an was no disappointment. We traveled to the Bell Tower which marks the geographical center of Xi’an. The tower was built in 1384 by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang as a way to dominate the surrounding countryside and provide early warning of attack by rival rulers.
Our next stop was to visit the grandmother of our tour guide. We had asked about cave living in China and he allowed us to see where he grew up and his grandmother still resides. We learned that 30 million Chinese people live in Caves. Since it is built into the mountain side it is naturally cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Many caves are not for sale or rent because they are handed down from one generation to another - though for just how many generations, people often can't say. This was the case with the grandmother, she could only estimate for her family of 150 years. The grandmother sleeps on a kang, a traditional bed with a fire underneath for warmth. There was a separate building (small) that was used for cooking. She seemed very comfortable and at ease with her lifestyle entertaining all the questions that we had. She loved Brady, asking many times if he would live with her. What a great experience, making us appreciate even with very little hapiness is easily measured.
Next we visited the Hanyangling Muesum of Han Dynasty. This was a joint tomb of Liu Qi, a notable emperor of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-24AD), and his empress, Empress Wang. It was built in the year 153 AD and covers an area of 4,942 acres. There are 86 outside pits laid with burial objects around the tomb. In the 1990s, archaeologists excavated ten outside pits and found burial objects include naked pottery figurines, chariots and horses, weapons, articles of everyday use and a large number of pottery animals. Compared with the Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, the pottery figures are one tenth of the actual objects. According to the archaeologists, the naked figures had clothes on and wooden arms which had decayed and fallen off over years. It was another piece of history that we are glad to have experienced.
We loved our trip to Xi’an and the history we learned in the process. Looking forward to our next trip in three weeks to Austrailia, New Zealand, and Fiji!
