After another overnight train we arrived bright and early in Xian – the homes of The Terracotta Warriors and Joan a friend from Harbin. We are now experienced train travellers so even though we got stuck in an hour long traffic jam in Beijing we quickly boarded our train and settled down for the night. Again we chose the backpacker’s as Joan knew it pretty well and it came with recommendation from the lonely planet. Sure enough as promised the place was quaint in a hutong style warren of rooms and courtyards complete with cute cat and dog. We quickly explored Xian city and found the supermarket we required and congratulated ourselves on finding some cheap places to eat as we were getting a bit sick of being ripped off in touristy Beijing. Met up with Joan and she quickly introduced us to the Muslim quarter and a chaotic street full of people selling food in various stages of preparation, souvenirs, household stuff etc. The layout of Xian is pretty straight forward with its huge wall wrapped around the city centre and the major streets north, south, east and west pointing to the gates that funnel the traffic. The four major roads meet in the middle at the bell and drum towers which are hard to miss, so we decided it was time to start using bus transportation and it was a surprisingly successful venture. Though we did have to learn to get more aggressive as time went on, to the point where a horrified Nick had to watch me trip in the street as I made a mad dash for a hesitant bus. So with my near accurate map in hand we patiently then impatiently watched three number 6 buses go by before we started putting more effort in to hailing one and our efforts were rewarded by a bus stopping, it’s mind boggling to see the concentration of buses piling in and out of the bus stop so quickly. So we paid our 1 yuan (15c) and were efficiently transported to the biggest museum in China. After a confusing lunch (I don’t think we were given the opportunity to eat a dish we paid for) we met up with Joan and the three of us finally went in. I couldn’t believe how long these ceramics figures and bowls have managed to stay intact. So after we had declared ourselves expert historians we wandered around the Big Goose Pagoda, don’t ask me what the goose has to do with anything but it was a big pagoda with lots of touristy nic nacs being sold. We did get to the back of this place and enjoy watching some locals flying colourful kites but that was the only non touristy thing we did. Dinner was back at the Muslim quarter and we took the plunge into one of the smaller busier eateries, the food was fresh, people were shouting at each other it all felt very authentic but we did received more bowls than what we ordered and of course a higher bill than what was expected – not that its much in Australian dollars but it’s beginning to irritate me. That night the cute cat at the backpackers turned on its not so cute meowing or however you describe a cross between a death howl and a baby’s cry. The lively bar is two floors below us which is fine but the toilets are in the courtyard below our room meant the loud drunken conversations with over partied 20 something’s are starting to encroach on our dreams. So Friday was a groggy late start to the day and we sort of stumbled into hiring a taxi to take us to the Han Jing Mausoleum and it was a brilliant move, this is why I like backpackers because they have all this stuff just waiting for you to decide to go. Anyway I was completely in awe of the ‘pit’ it was about 21 huge tunnels or pits just filled with everyday life items and the video of the story was a 3D masterpiece absolutely loved it. Finally Saturday came, Joan’s day off, she wanted to come to the Terracotta Warriors with us so we shook off our dreams of American backpackers chatting up a dying cat and finally got our act together to catch the hour long bus to take us there, paid our 110 Yuan ($16.50) had to practically launch our own archaeological dig to find it, the place is huge and very well sign posted in Chinese but after being underwhelmed in an exhibition hall we finally wandered into the correct building. The warriors were amazing, large, lots of them but the place was a bit sad, sort of zoo sad like we had taken them away from where they should be. They appeared to be individuals as promised and quite a few were decapitated. The pit was massive with warriors in various stages of repair plus there was a team working in one of the sections using a brush to sweep the dirt away then removing the dirt one bag at a time, a very slow process I would imagine. This morning we have been up early to catch a train to Yichang where we will connect with ship to cruise the Yangtze River upstream towards Chongqing. This train journey is 15 hours long covering 1000 km’s with 14 stops, we have a soft sleeper and at the moment we have the four beds to ourselves, we just enjoyed lunch in the restaurant carriage and didn’t get ripped off. Though earlier the guy at the station that ‘offered’ to carry my bags up the stairs then insisted on 30 yuan payment. On this getting ripped off note I must admit it has become annoying, I think we had it so good in Harbin, we couldn’t even tip if we tried as they would not accept extra money but in these touristy areas people are skimming from us constantly – though the backpackers is fine and the booking commission is upfront and gladly paid. Hopefully we can find some less frequently places to hike so we can get away from the scam artists. Tonight’s hotel we are hoping for less character and more quiet.
