Xi'an

Xi'an was the capital of ancient China and has over 3,000 years of history. It's one of those cities you're supposed to visit if you come to China. This is where China was unified for the first time under Emperor Qin Shihuang during the Qin dynasty and where the famous Terracotta Warriors found in his mausoleum are located. It's also the only major Chinese city with it's city walls intact. Thus, Kelly and I made the trek out to Xi'an on New Year's Day as part of her China trip.

We arrived in Xi'an and met up with my former Chinese professor from Harvard. He was born and raised in Xi'an and was visiting his family in Xi'an over Christmas/New Year's break. He took us out to lunch at Xi'an Hotel, where we sampled a bunch of local Shaanxi Province snacks (called "小吃", which literally translates to little eats). Then we visited the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Afterwards, Kelly and I walked down one of the streets in the Muslim Quarter where the Hui Minority are located, and ate at a restaurant there. Unfortunately Kelly did not feel well, so she could not eat anything except a bit of soup and porridge.

The next day, we went with a small tour group to visit the major sites - the Tang Dynasty Winter Palace and the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang and the Terracotta Warriors, which are all located about an hours drive outside the city. The Winter Palace was a replica of the former Winter Palace, located at the foot of a mountain and fed by natural hot springs that supplied water of 43 degrees Celsius. Only the Emperor, some of his officials and his favorite concubines could use the bath houses and pools built there. We also learned about the famous beauties/concubines of the Tang Dynasty. The most famous was a fat lady with a beautiful face called Yang Guifei who had a skin disease. The other 3 women all had flaws too - one had small earlobes, another narrow shoulders and another big feet, all considered unattractive features. None of them were perfect.

The mausoleum is just a huge mound of earth, disguised as a hill, with trees planted over it to hide the tomb. The tomb has still not been opened so there's not much to see here because there are dangerous levels of mercury gas inside the chambers. They believe that lots of jewels and artifacts are still buried in the ground. 1/3 of the population was employed in the building of the tombs and all the things that went into it since they believed in the afterlife. In addition, lots of princes and princesses, all the concubines that did not have kids and a lot of the artisans and slave builders were buried alive down there. The emperor was known for his extreme cruelty. Thus, this was also the shortest Chinese dynasty at 14 years long.

About a kilometer away in multiple pits are the terracotta armies and horses. There were foot soldiers, archers, generals, horses and chariots. When they were found, only one statue was intact. All the others were in pieces. The warriors we see on display have been carefully pieced back together. Every warrior has a different face. They were originally colorful but exposure to the air made them lose their colors within three days. Thus, many of the terracotta warriors still have not been excavated and probably won't be until they figure out how to maintain the colors. There are thousands of them, even though you can only see a few hundred. It was really impressive.

That night, we went to an old Xi'an restaurant to have a very traditional meal of "yangruopaomo". It's mutton and bread in a rich broth. You have to break the bread into small pieces by hand - the smaller the better. It actually takes a while to do and makes your hands really tired. Then the restaurants puts in broth and meat. It was really tasty, so well worth the effort.

On our last day, we visited the Shaanxi museum that walked us through the history of Shaanxi Province and Xi'an. It was the center of the Chinese empire for some of the most properous dynasties in China, including the Han and Tang dynasties during which the Silk Road was active. China did not used to be closed off to the world and trade with the Persian empire was active during this time. In fact, polo was a popular sport during the Tang dynasty! Many of the emperors were good polo players, a sport they adopted from the Persians. After the museum, we went to visit the city walls. Unfortunately we did not have time to ride a bunch around the city walls, which are 14 km in perimeter. Lastly, we stopped by the Great Mosque, but it actually just looked like a Chinese temple. We quickly grabbed lunch before heading back to Beijing. We had "ruojiamou," which some people refer to as Chinese hamburgers, and dumplings in a sour soup. Both are Shaanxi specialties.

Xi'an was extremely polluted - much worse than Beijing. Smokestacks right in the city and outside spewed smoke into the air, blocking all sunlight from the city, making the entire city look gray. It was also colder than Beijing. We stayed in a new hotel right on Dong Dajie (East Avenue) inside the city walls, which was located near the Drum and Bell Towers. However, the heat in the hotel, which could not be controlled in the room was not enough to ward off the frigid winter air. We were glad to be back in my warm apartment when we got back to Beijing. A day of respite before heading to Harbin up north, near the Russian border...