Xi'an, city of warriors

It is hard to imagine that someone would tell you which sites on internet you can visit and which ones you cannot. Well, what do you know? :). Blogger is blocked in most internet cafes in China, so we had to wait until we found one that worked and this was in Guangzhou. I'll try to do my best to summarize our experience of the last two weeks in the next posts.
--------------

After 11 hour ride in a sleeper train, we have arrived to the city of Xi'an. Before I tell you a bit more about it, let's summarize Beijing a bit.

Required dose of polution is on everyone's agenda on daily basis :) in this city. I can hardly imagine running a marathon here in the 2008 Olympics. I guess we shall see if the city officials will make some changes (they are planned, but my guess would be, it is a bit late). On the other hand, Beijing has mastered the symbiosis of the new with the old architecture with a magnificent perfection. At one point, one can find himself walking in the biggest slums (with brand new Audi/Mercedes driving out of the tiny streets) and at the next corner a brand new shopping center with full western sortiment overlooks the Forbidden City (with old rikshas zipping by).

Back to Xi'an though. The train ride was quite ok since we really slept the whole time and the train was new. The hostel was unfortunately a bit further from the train station, so we have decided to get a local three wheeler taxi (riksha). The driver, sad looking old man, was showing us two fingers as far as the fare goes, so we have assumed it was going to cost 2 RMB and were happy it was cheap and were giving business to a local non-car taxi community. After arrival to our hostel the driver pulled out his Siemens cell phone and typed in 18 RMB as our charge. We were surprised, but could not really argue with him, so started to put together the money. Suddenly, some gentleman walking by started to talk to the driver in a raised voice and after a little bit, we have realized, he just caught this guy trying to stiff us on the fare. After a short shouting match between the driver and the guy, we ended up paying 10 RMB and were taken by one younger man to our hostel. So, there are nice people out there after all, but still not a good start to the Xi'an experience.

At the hotel we have booked a tour to go see the Terra-cotta warriors with English guide(as that is really the only reason we have came here). This sounds cheesy, but it is really the only way to get somewhere fast and hassle free. Other possibilities would be to organize some bus tickets ourselves, but that could take a while to do and no English subtitles would be present :). In the evening we have decided to go visit the muslim quarters of Xi'an, supposedly well known for their food. We got some courage and entered one of the local restaurants where obviously nobody spoke English, so with the help of pointing and our guide book, we have managed to order some rice, lamb, beer (yay) and noodles. No comments on Chinese cuisine, it is just plain delicious :).

Terra-cotta warriors were the highlight of our day on Wednesday, but it is still not what it is made out to be. Before you enter, guides will tell you there are over 6000 warriors in one of the tombs, however they fail to expand on the fact that 5500 of them are still burried, so you can't see them :) (so sort of a rip off in a way). Our tour also took us into so called "factory for terracotta warriors" (this was not on our itinerary). After about 5 min introduction about how they make them out of terra-cotta, then burn them etc, we were horded (with 100s of other tourists on similar tours) into a huge warehouse of antique furniture and statues which were of course for sale. The Chinese enterprenourship does not know boundaries :).

After 2 days in Xi'an, I'd have to say, we were guite happy to leave for our next destination in Chengdu, Sichuan. Unless, one is an archeological enthusiast, I'd not recommend to make it all the way to Xi'an just for the soldiers (looks better on TV :)).