The historical city of Xi An

Our overnight train from Beijing arrived with Swiss punctuality to Xi An, one of China's most busiest railway stations. There were millions and millions of people all around. After we managed to get rid of the crowd, taxi drivers, vendors and our big backpacks (no no no, they weren't stolen, only placed safely? in the luggage room), we were finally on our way to explore the Terracotta Army and the city afterward.

Xi An has a lot to offer besides its main attraction, the awesome Army of Terracotta Warriors... for example, the Ancient Wall which, at 13km length, it is the longest surviving city wall:

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

Outside the walls - where most of Xi An's 8 million inhabitants live - poverty and dirt, inside - traditional towers & pagodas mixed with ultramodern shopping malls and remains of very poor neighborhoods of the ancient city hidden behind luxory hotels. Traffic was just as chaotic as everywhere in China, but suddenly the people seemed to be calmer and friendlier (some of them were even giving us directions in English!)

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

Hungry enough after a long day, we wandered around the Muslim quarter (in fact, pushed ourselves through the masses of people, trying in the meantime to avoid being hit by motorcycles, bikes, rickshaws and animals), looking for Xi An's famous noodles.

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There was plenty of street food, we have to admit though, that it was quite an adventure dining here. You can never know WHAT is inside the pot, HOW it's been prepared and HOW you are supposed to eat it. The positive thing is, that food is extremely cheap, so you can try out everything and eat what you like... (we still returned hungry to the hotel and waited for our next day's breakfast).

All our pictures on Xi'An

The Terracotta Army of the 1st Emperor of China

In 1974, peasants digging a well uncovered perhaps the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century - thousands of life-sized terracotta soldiers and their horses in battle formation of Qin Shi Huang, the 1st Emperor of China (dating from 210 BC!!!).

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The first vault houses about 2000 soldiers, with approximately 6000 more soldiers yet to be uncovered.

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Apparently we are awaiting technology to improve enough where the colors painted on the warriors can be preserved. Once exposed to air the colors fade over time:

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It's a breathtaking view! Different body types, different faces, different military ranks.

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Unfortunately hundreds of soldiers had been smashed by previous dynasties, so it is no small task putting them all together, especially considering that each soldier is unique. It is like you would take hundreds of jigsaw puzzle boxes, mix all the pieces and then put all them together without having pictures of what the result should be: good luck. (oh, did I forgot to mention we are talking about 3d puzzles of course)

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However, not only soldiers were built, but also armor and for example a four horse war chariot with mounts of the Emperor:

From ASIA - CHINA - Xi An

All our pictures of the Terracotta Army