AMCHPR China Tour 2018 - April 16th: Xian
The Xian city walls, the Terracotta Warriors, and heading back for Xinmi
Last episode had us (my friend Sky Han and his parents, and MioMio, our driver, and me) finally arriving in Xian, finishing a late night meal and then heading back to our hotel, leaving only the very late snack carts and the cleanup crews active...
Next morning came quick.
We were all pretty eager to see Xian and timestamps have us up and out of the hotel by 7:30AM, wandering around on a clear, crisp and early cool morning to find a good place for breakfast...first on a nearby main street...
...where we found some promising breakfast carts...
...but that was only egg flatbreads, and we were on a personal quest: doufuhua or 豆腐花 or "bean curd flower", but colloquially called "tofu nao" or "tofu brains" (you'll know why when you see it), a savoury, spicy breakfast soup that's a perfect wake-up for a cool morning, so we decided to hit the nearby alleys...
...and even though it's not what we're looking for either, it's a sure sign there *is* food to be found in these parts :-)...
...so we keep hunting...
Not here (flatbreads & eggs), but this area still looks promising...
...and moments later: we found our quarry: tofu nao and youtiao 油条 (the bread sticks)
Our bowls of food and bread sticks cost us about 10RMB each, or about $2.00 each :-)
Well fortified, we returned to the main street, walked the underground crosswalk (complete with a map of the walls and amazing posters), and were on the grounds of the Xian Walls...
Well fortified, we returned to the main street, walked the underground crosswalk (complete with a map of the walls and amazing posters), and were on the grounds of the Xian Walls...
I didn't realize till later that Sky had used my phone to grab this photo while I was helping some local folks take a tourist shot. I had noticed they were a party of three , but only getting "two at a time" shots because someone had to hold the camera, so I offered to shoot all three together. I do that occasionally when I'm in China because it's a great --and helpful--way to meet people.
Anyways...on to the Wall. I'd wanted to walk this 14th Century construction ever since I first heard about it.
To provide a sense of scale, here's a short video of the entryway from inside the arch. The walls are earth-filled, which means that, among other benefits, they can very effectively displace the effect of artillery fire.
Sky shot this video and took the photo of MioMio and me at the Walls...
After a couple of hours wandering the walls, we headed back to the hotel (passing the tour buses--and a reminder of how China's streets remain so very clean, most of the time) and headed to the Xian Stop #2, the Terracotta Warriors...
...but people gotta eat, so first, we passed a nice market area and decided to stop there to look for a restaurant. With that much food around the place, it was a safe bet someone would be serving it hot and fresh...
It was about noon now and it wasn't morning cool any more. It was a clear and bright 24ºC with a breeze, and stayed that way for the rest of the day.
...and sure enough, there was an inexpensive but very tasty place to eat right next to the produce area. This meal was about 16RMB, so about $3.00 :-)
Here's a short video of the market area. The restaurant we ate at is at 1:30 where you'll see a man with a blue jacket leaving the place...
...and then it was, very well fed, back to the car, and off to see the Warriors!
The world famous Mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang (259 BC- 210 BC) , Lintong District, Xian, of which the Museum of Terracotta Warriors and Horses is a part.
This video shows the ticket office, part of the walk to the Mausoleum area, and into the entrance plaza area of the whole mausoleum complex.
The Warriors are directly behind me,and may I present:
The Museum of Terracotta Warriors and Horses...
One of the better known aspects of the Terracotta Warriors is the fact that they have not yet found any identical faces--they're all different. But there are, I found out, 8 basic head shapes, and a range of known expressions...
Details here: Face Shapes of the Terracotta Warriors
This is a the repair and restoration section of the site...
The excavations at this site are still very much a work in progress. This an active dig.
The scale of the Terracotta Warriors display is huge. From Wikipedia: "755 feet (230 meters) long from east to west, 203 feet (62 meters) wide from north to south, covering an area of 153,493 square feet (14,260 square meters)," so about two football fields long, and about a half again wider than a football field.
These next shots are the walk through the tourist refreshments and souvenirs concourse on the way out of the Mausoleum area.
The "moving picture" version...
It had been almost disorienting coming back out into the very bright light of this gorgeous Xian day, but we had the Wall and the Terracotta Warriors off our respective bucket lists, now, and it was time to head back to Sky's home city of Xinmi.x
I was looking forward because I like Xinmi; it's a quieter city in Chinese terms, about half a million people, and it has a long history.
So, next installment is: re-visiting the rest of Sky's family, the "hotel mix-up" adventure, time spent in Xinmi's 1500 hundred year old historic "old town" area, visits to two temples, a return to Qingpingshan Park, and spectacular eats at the "under the tent" downtown...well, it's kind of a food court...
Then, after Xinmi, scenic Shanghai for:
- Dinner with collector, watch historian and friend Joel Chan of Micmicmor Vintage Watch (the west's first VCM website)
- A visit to Maison Celadon's world-class Silk Artisans in nearby Suzhou
- A visit with AHCI member Guo Ming at
- The Shanghai Industrial Technology School watchmaking program, and
- VCM hunting with Shanghai-based actor and collector Eric Heise.
