Adventures in Asia: Xian, Medusa's favourite place

Medusa's Favourite Place

The South Gate to Xi'an's City Wall

We got on the train from Chengdu Station to leave for Xi’an. Chengdu station is a ginormous complex on the east side of the city (there are four stations in total, one on each cardinal point). It is best described as an airport terminal as there are so many platforms in which to take off from that it is very easy to be overwhelmed. Dad and I queued for the tickets in a hall crammed full of people. One man tried to push into the line (as queueing is very different in China from England, dad kept comparing it more to rugby) and then there was a woman in the queue who literally went for him screaming no in his face while he was explaining his hurry until he moved away. We finally got on the train and were on our way to the wonders of Xi’an.

                

Bell Tower in Xi'an

Upon arrival we made our way to our accommodation which was an Airbnb in the south of the walled city. Our accommodation was very nice and even had a chalkboard for Olivia and I to unleash our creativity upon.

                

Olivia and I made a creation

Our first day in Xi’an we walked around the old city and had a look at the South Gate and the Bell Tower before heading towards an antique market.  It ended up being a long walk and we decided that in the crippling 30 plus degree heat we could not be bothered so headed back.

             

The section first found

Our second day held the purpose we had come to Xi’an for, the Terracota Warriors. We had left early in order to arrive there, and scarily were ushered onto the bus before taking an hour’s journey through the dense traffic towards the Mausoleum of China’s first Emperor, Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

                

Emperor Qin Shi Huang was obsessed with his mortality and construction of his terracotta army started when he was just thirteen. The army itself is huge and comprises of several different kinds of warriors each uniquely built. The complex itself is vast in particular pit 1. It is an archaeological site so you do not walk amongst the warriors but instead look down upon them. This sounds pleasant and serene enough, however pit one is also crammed full off people (potentially more people than there are warriors) and turned into more of a scene for a black Friday special with people elbowing and barging their way to the front so they can take countless selfies with the warriors.

I personally felt that the warriors would have been better without all the people but there were definite moments when you could understand the awe and wonder of the soldiers. The fact that it looked as if an entire army of entirely different people had been petrified by Medusa (Who incidentally we also saw in Turkey!). That was until someone elbowed you in the stomach.

               

The rest of our time there was pretty good. On our way back from the warriors we got lunch at Mr Lee’s (a Chinese fast food joint). I had some excellent sour spicy beef noodles and Olivia and Mum had some tomato beef noodles. Then on our final day we had some Chinese buns that had been grilled on one side and then stuffed full of Chinese pulled pork as we rushed to get our train to Beijing West.

Where the Warriors are all pieced together

We'll be sharing with you about Dongcheng tomorrow, this is the historic quarter of Beijing

In the meantime

• Read more about our travels across Asia here.
• See what we're up to now! On a side note, we did meet a Chinese lady in Singapore's Gardens By the Bay who was from Xi'an, she was fascinated that we'd been there. But you can follow that on our instagram.
• Learn more about the Terracotta Army with this great video here.
• Want to see what we did in Europe try here
• Or check out my published article for Chasing the Donkey here, who knows maybe you'll feel inspired to travel the Beautiful Balkans?
• Have a look at where we are going next here