Saturday, September 10, 2011

Wall or warriors?

Xi'an, once the end of the Silk road, one of the former capitals of China, city with intact city walls and home of the terracotta warriors. Somehow expected it to be a tiny filthy Chinese town....hm, it is a cosmopolitan city with 4.5 million inhabitants which will very soon open its first subway line...oops!

So, what to say about the Terracotta Warriors.... As a concept it is exceptional. Thousands of two thousand year old life size (again, somehow imagined them to fit my backpack) soldiers, arches, officers and horses each with a different facial expression and posture - the attention for detail is astonishing - built by seven hundred thousand men to ensure protection for the First Emperor in his afterlife.

Thought the warriors are a bit boring though.... btw most of them still need to be excavated or put back together, i.e. large part of the site consist of dull looking stone and a fair amount of broken bits of pot. The ones that are uncovered stand in a pit that you look down on in a hall that much resembles a hangar. It does not help to share your experience once again with Chinese tourists lead by their flag equipped guides. Anyway, glad to have been there, it is a must see after all.

For sure more lively is the City Wall where the locals hang out to practice their tai chi, dance and play cards. Too bad they made it look like a Disney world castle at night...

Highlight of Xi'an is its Muslim Quarter, heritage of the silk road era, a fun maze of narrow streets full of butcher shops, food stalls, men in white skullkaps and women with their heads covered in coloured scarves.

































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Xi'an, China

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