Then it discovered the terra cotta warriors, and it had eight. There are a lot of reasons to visit Xi'an. It was an important stop on the Silk Road. It still has its ancient city walls. But the biggest by far is the warriors. The warriors are about an hour out of the city so the first task is getting there without getting scammed by a fake public bus (parked in the same area as the real public buses) or getting on the local bus that makes enough stops to add another hour to the journey. Despite traveling with another foreigner and not with a Chinese friend as I have become accustomed, we succeeded in getting there for a mere seven yuan. Once there, the museum is expensive but not much to do about that. There are several pits with the warriors, the largest of which houses the foot soldiers of the army. They are the first to die in a battle and yet these are the best preserved of the bunch, and isn't that a sweet irony. The warriors are an impressive sight, but the museum itself is completely lacking in ambiance. Entering pit 1 is not dissimilar from entering a basketball stadium. It's big, has a high domed ceiling, and is utterly utilitarian. The smaller pits are a bit cozier but also have less natural light. What's interesting when you get to the smaller pits is the state of disarray of the warriors. When we read about them in history books you don't see the pictures of the jumble of clay limbs that makes up much of the smaller pits. There are some displays of the restoration process and all I know is it's a jigsaw puzzle I wouldn't want to have to solve. Probably my favorite displays were the exhibits on the paint used on the warriors. I hadn't realized they were colored when first created and envisioning the entire army colored makes something totally unique even more so. All in all, well worth the visit.
Other sights seen in Xi'an:
- Big Goose Pagoda
- Drum Tower of Xi'an
- City Wall of Xi'an (rented a bike and rode along the top and didn't plunge to my death so a wonderful outing all around)
- Muslim quarter - cool area and so much food to buy. I love me some street food.