Last night was the best sleep I've had since my trip began, and the first time my alarm clock went off before I woke up and not the other way around. After a not-so-great cup of coffee (China is definitely a tea-oriented society) I walked the mile or so from my hostel to the Xi’an train station, which is also where most of the city buses originate/terminate. Because the Terracotta Warriors are the biggest tourist draw in area, it didn’t take long before I was approached by a man with a car offering private taxi service to/from all day for 280 Yuan (about $44)…not bad, but I declined and told him I planned on taking the bus. He replied, "Bus is not same." I said, “I know” and kept walking. The move saved me a little money, since the bus took me for 14 Yuan (about $2).
The complex surrounding the museum is almost as enormous as the tomb itself, which is the biggest in the known world. It’s pretty new and modern, full of restaurants, shops, and vendors shouting “Hello! Hello You! Postcart! Magernut!” When I got to the ticket office, I was approached by no less than three female guides, who one after another told me that if I refused their 100 Yuan services, I would be “wasting my time” because nothing inside the museum is in English. This turned out to be a lie, as all of the signs had English descriptions beneath the Chinese. However, even before I knew this, I chose the 40 Yuan audio guide simply because the girls that were trying to strong-arm me into hiring them were difficult to understand in the first place. Also, none of the girls could’ve have known how much time I’ve personally spent reading about the pre and post-mortem events related to the emperor Qin Shi Huang.
Qin Shi Huang was the first ruler to unite the disparate kingdoms that became China. He did this using ruthless force, and certainly could not be a considered benevolent king. He reigned for 37 years, and during most of this time, employed the use of more than 700,000 subjects and convicts to create thousands of clay soldiers and horses for his massive mausoleum. It’s thought that Qin Shi Huang was egomaniacal enough to believe that his rule would continue into the afterlife, and he would therefore need an army as large as the one he commanded above ground underground. But, shortly after he died in 210 B.C. (a mere 140 years after the Greek king Mausolus, from whom we get the word “mausoleum”) a peasant revolt brought a new dynasty to power. His tomb was vandalized, and then forgotten, for more than two thousand years. I think it is this fact alone that made the visit so profound for me. I mean, the sheer size of the archeological site is magnificent, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how this place sat unknown until the 1970’s, and kept wondering how many other places like it are just sitting below us, waiting to be found.
I left the Terracotta Warriors not in the least bit disappointed. When I returned to Xi’an, I stopped in a little Hui restaurant where I had a plate full of dumplings and a 40oz. beer for a mere $2.50. On the way back to the hostel after my meal, a school had just let out, and youngsters were pouring into the street, stopping at kiosks for candy. Unlike the adults here, many of the children were smiling at me, waving and shouting “hello!” then whispering to their friends…almost as if I were a cast member of Entourage.
But, it was seeing all of the candy right after I’d eaten that gave me a sweet tooth. So, I walked into a shop and saw something I’d just heard about on NPR before I left…Chinese Oreos. 2012 is the 100th birthday of the ubiquitous crème cookie, and on the radio they said that Nabisco recently had to re-vamp the formula in China because it wasn’t selling. Apparently, the average Chinese consumer complained that it was too sweet. So, I had to see for myself…and yes, it’s not nearly as sweet as the Oreo I know, but not in a bad way. Actually, I might even like the Chinese version better.
