Alex's Asian Adventure

I arrived in Xi'an at around 7 AM. I was met at the train station by a Chinese man bearing a sign saying "Alespeyel" which I assumed is me. He took me to the hostel, Xi'an Shuyuan

I must say, this place has a lot of soul and personality. The location is great: right next to the South Gate of Xian, which means it's literally a stone throw away from the Ming-era city walls. The building is very old and features two courtyards, a cafe, etc. The rooms are basic but adequate. My single room here is also 120 kwai cheaper than the single room I had at the Far East Hotel, Beijing. I'm content here.

As soon as I arrived, I was informed that if I wanted to see the Terracotta Army today, I could. 160 kwai. Breakfast included. English tour guide. Blah blah. I hummed and haad and went to the bank and unpacked a little and decided that life's too short and I can have a rest day tomorrow (which is definitely in the cards). 160 kwai later, and after some bus-related confusion, we were on our way on this tour.

First Stop: Terracotta Figure Manufacturing Centre, where they make knock-off warriors. The actual figurines are quite nice: very detailed, and make a great gift. I bought two decent-sized ones. Now I need to find China Post & ship this stuff to Canada.

Second Stop: museum of some sort, containing Qin dinasty relics and otherwise very little of note. However, it bears saying that the Terracotta Army was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor or China and the founder of the Qin dynasty. Also, note that "q" is pronounced "ch" as in "cheese".

Third Stop: Lunch at a Chinese eatery place that does not deserve my business. If I wanted to eat at a Toronto-style huge Chinese restaurant, I would. But c'est la vie.

Fourth Stop: Terracotta Army.

Now, this place is impressive for a few reasons:

• The scale of it is enormous. Really very huge.
• The fact that it was built in 2200 BC says a lot about the society at the time. These people clearly had an artisan class that could enjoy patronage from the rich and was free to focus on crafts and self-development rather than on growing food. Having such a class of "idle" artists & thinkers is associated with the development of science and culture, since people have time on their hands and can afford to develop such things.
• Every soldier has its own expression. Every soldier is unique. Plus, they are all in a battle formation!
• Most of the soldiers were reassembled from a thousand pieces each, or maybe more.

So yes. This place is cool. Unfortunately, the major hall, "Pit 1", is housed in what resembles a big airplane hanger and not a museum. It's huge and cavernous, and kinda ulgy. The other buildsings are much better built, although I still smell Soviet architecture in this place.

Also, the peasant who found the warriors in 1974 is still alive and kicking. In fact, he's on display at the venue, and will autograph a book if you buy one. Unfortunately, the only thing he knows how to write is his name: I guess primary education wasn't quite so widespread under Mao. This dude had to be specially trained by some experts from Beijing.

After the Terracotta Army, a group of six of us (myself and five girls) ended up going for a Chinese.... foot massage. Now, if you are tempted to crack jokes about being less than a man's man, please kindly bugger off. This was a good time, and a cheap time at that. No complaints at all.

Dinner: I receive a demonstration in haggling. Our dinner crew was Aida (Ozzie), Leticia (France) and Guani (Holland). We ate at some small street restaurant not far from the hotel. The food was good as usual. The bill comes. 86 kwai. HUH?!? WTF mate! Guani takes matters into her own hands, being a worldly person. She wants an itemized bill. What did this cost? What did that cost? That's too expensive!

Eventually she wrote the prices she expects to pay for each dish on the bill. It came to 40 kwai. 10 each. We get the bills, put them on the table, and leave without cracking a smile or laughing about this too much. In Canada, a stunt like that would get me shot. Here, it's par for the course.

Also, Xi'an appears to have a vibrant street night life. At 9 PM or so, there is live music, dancing, story telling and public revelry just outside the South Gate. The Chinese just jump in, dance as a group, sing, or listen to the local bard. It's quite an amazing sense of community, one that you would certainly not see in North America.