You and Whose Army?

The star attraction of Xi'an, the Terracotta Army are located in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Hungdi, and were carved out of terracotta to protect him in the afterlife. One man's afterlife army is now China's tourist cash cow, but if you're in Xi'an a visit is almost obligatory.



We went on an arranged tour from our hostel, and stopped off at a factory beforehand where they made replicas of terracotta soldiers as well as all kinds of other trinkets related to Chinese history. The best thing about this was being to get right up close to the soldiers themselves, something not possible, understandably, with the original terracotta army.



After following our sprightly guide Zhizhi through pit two and pit three, the tour culminated with pit one, the biggest and most impressive. As is probably the case with other sights, looking at my photographs I don't think they do the scene justice. It really is a mightily impressive sight, especially considering how long they've been buried there (since 210 BC).

The crowds are the one bum note of the exhibition, but they're generally unavoidable at an attraction that's as big a draw as this. If you're in China, go see it.


We foolishly agreed to include a Tang dynasty culture show as part of the package with the Terracotta tour. It was an enjoyable show, but very short, and not worth the time spent on the minibus getting to the venue and back. Then again, the Terracotta Army was always going to be a tough act to follow.

Night Kite Flight

Having had a great start to our China adventure in Chengdu, I knew Xi'an (pronounced she-anne), our next stop, would be a different experience. Whereas Chengdu is a modern and increasingly wealthy city with a modest role in Chinese history, Xian has more history than arguably anywhere else in the country. Serving as the capital of the country under several dynasties, this was a place I was looking forward to for entirely different reasons, having read a book on and taken a mild interest in Chinese history before I left Ireland.



Towering above the front of our hostel, the ancient city wall, built during the Ming dynasty in the 14th century, forms a rectangular barrier around the heart of Xi'an. Still in excellent condition, we were able to cycle it's 14km, getting a nice first view of many part of the city in 90 minutes.



Looking quite traditional yet modern during the day, at night the centre of Xi'an was transformed. Along it's main streets neon was abundant (as it was in parts of Chengdu), but the city monuments, like the Bell Tower, Drum Tower and the gates of the city wall, were superbly illuminated in a tasteful gold-tinged yellow, providing a nice contrast to the garishness of the neon.



The centre of activity seemed to be located by the Drum Tower, with kite flyers in abundance – all trying to sell you a kite whilst also skillfully flying them – making it look easy which, looking at the size of them, it definitely was not. Seeing ten kites mingle high in the air illuminated by the glow of the buildings below was one of the sights of China so far for me.