Xian: A City of Contrast.

To me, Xian is the single most important city in China, as the old capital of a civilization rivaling only that of ancient Rome. It is where classical Chinese script originated, where the Han dynasty was founded, and where Buddhism and Confucianism first took root in China. It remained the imperial capital through eight dynasties, and became home to the crossroads of the thriving Silk Road. It was, and still is, a magnificent display of historical, cultural, and imperial significance...not to mention its consumer culture significance, with  designer stores, massive shopping compounds, and a McDonalds and KFC on every corner.

Perhaps today its importance as a major Chinese city is eclipsed by Beijing and Shanghai, but ask any Chinese person who lived 1,000 years ago, and they would have told you Xi An, (or Chang An, as it used to be called) was the place to be. Today, the most standout sight that people (okay, tourists) go to Xi An for is the site of the Terra Cotta Warrior army. And that is precisely where I found myself on my second morning in China, after a long 12 hour travel day the day before from Hong Kong.

But before we get into talking about 2,000 year old statues, (you can't wait, I know) let me share with you some of my first impressions of China, a country I've wanted see since before I can remember.

As I stepped off the plane and followed the very convenient signs to the airport to city bus, bought my ticket, and waltzed on the bus, (the exact repeat of how I had gotten to the airport from Hong Kong in the first place, waltzing and all,) I very distinctly remember thinking "This too easy. I want to be challenged, I'm supposed to be traveling in CHINA, being hot and smelly with about a million other people who don't speak English, crowded every which way, and not zipping around in air conditioned buses." Little did I know that somebody upstairs definitely heard my thoughts, and decided they would make me eat my words in a very short time.

I stepped off the bus, saw the landmark my hostel directions had noted, and set off walking. The broad, paved streets and wide sidewalks lined with shops accented the hustle and bustle of a big city – with 7 million inhabitants, I suppose it has a right to act like one. However, there were definitely signs that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. The actual signs, for one, written in Chinese, but thankfully some had English below them. Another thing was the mass quantity of motorscooters and bicycles, in their own little traffic lane. And last, as I made my next turn into what turned out to be the Muslim Quarter, not my hostel’s street, I realized that I was most definitely somewhere new. My thoughts changed to: “This is going to be fun.”

But remember when I said I thought things were too easy? My thoughts changed precisely, one more time, when I followed both the guide map I had with me and the written hostel directions, and wound up lost not once, not twice, but three times. New thoughts: “You’re an idiot. China is hard.” Luckily everyone at the other hostels I managed to find were kind and helped guide me in semi-the-right direction, at least far enough for me to ask another person. 

I finally made it after a good hour of traipsing around in the opposite direction of where I was supposed to go, but the good thing was that at least I orientated myself a little better around the city. After I dropped off my stuff, took a shower, and had some time to settle, I got my ticket to Beijing straightened out at the hostel desk, and decided I’d had enough adventure for one day, so stayed in the hostel to chat and get a feel for China from other travelers who had been in the country longer. 

The next day was really exciting for two very important reasons. First, I finally got to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, imprisoned under the earth for over 2,000 years until about 30 years ago. Second, I discovered Chinese breakfast street food. I’ll start with that. 

My excitement began bright and early as I got up and got myself ready early, ready to head to the bus terminal and catch a bus to see the warriors. As I tromped down the street towards the East Gate (one nice thing about Xian is that the inner city is surrouded by these walls, so if you ever get lost you just have to walk until you hit a wall,) I walked by a curious looking stand with people lined up behind it. Eggs, chopped veggies, processed meat, and other items I don’t think I can name were all set up neatly in little metal bowls next to a fry griddle, manned by an older man or woman who was cooking up something that looked really unhealthy…therefore delicious. And just a few meters down? A different yummy looking thing. I picked the one with the least people in line, paid my 3 yuan (about 40 cents) and happily munched on my breakfast, swinging the little plastic bag it comes in just like everyone else striding down the sidewalk, looking like they had places to be. Think something like a breakfast omelette with some sort of spicy sauce and Spam in it. Delight. (apologies for not having an appropriate picture for you – I didn’t want to interrupt the masters at work - but the woman sitting on the right of that picture kind of resembles a breakfast street vendor.) Too bad finding coffee wasn’t as easy as finding breakfast.

But enough about that, let’s get to the statues. A walk, a bus ride, and a long line of tourist hawkers that you have to walk through to get to the entrance later, and I was about to  enter the site that, only 35 years earlier, was countryside and a potential well. In March 1974, a group of farmers was digging a well when they happened upon, according to Wikipedia, “the largest pottery figurine group ever found in China.” 

Built and structured to protect the Emperor Qin, the ruthless yet brilliant Emperor responsible for the modern name China, (Qin is pronounced “Chin”) the warriors were buried sometime around 240 BC, but since then have been destroyed by plunderers and pillagers, leaving them broken and damaged. Restorers have worked to painstakingly reconstruct the life sized statues, of all various military dress such as General and Archer, “from the fragments of the crushed figures.” This guy was one of my favorites, the Warrior figure, on display in his own case. 

After many a History Channel documentary, to finally see the warriors in person brought me chills. They were magnificent, lined up in rows in a huge pit that is yet to be fully excavated. There were actually three pits, but I saved the largest and most impressive one for last. Though I had to deal with being pushed and shoved by frantic Chinese tourists scrambling to get pictures with their camera, videocameras, iPhones, iPads, you name it, I was still taller than all of them…so I won. I also put my headphones in to drown out the tour guides yapping and the mass of people running around. Double win. 

When I came back from the Warrior site, I decided to brave the crowds and take a wander through the Muslim Quarter again, since this time I was neither lost nor weighed down by all my stuff. It was a fun wander, with tons of food stall, souvenir shops, and a mess of people. The architecture was a mixture of Islamic, Chinese, and what I presumed to be Central Asian. Here is my new friend who caught me taking a picture of the pretty Arabic script behind her, and then proceeded to take my camera and take a picture of me holding one of her sweets that she shoved in my hand for a prop. 

As touristy as the Muslim Quarter was (note the bright neon signs) I appreciated it for still existing, for it represented the medieval, multicultural capital as a result of the Silk Road. Muslims came to Chang An over 1,000 years ago to trade and establish an important part of world history, so to still see their integration and influence in this little pocket of Chinese society was pretty cool. The words of one of the displays at the Xian Museum summed up a description of Chang An nicely: "with the opening of the Silk Road, the city has become the first international metropolitan in Chinese history, and has been known as an oriental capital of civilization." The street food wasn’t bad either. 

On my last morning in Xian, I braved the rain (after getting caught without an umbrella, during which I composed some of this blog on my iPod in an underground metro tunnel) and walked a short distance to see the Little Goose Pagoda. To my delight, it was now a (free) museum complex, which included a beautiful garden, the pagoda, the temple it is attached to, and the Xian History Museum. Ohhh. 

I started with the gardens and temple complex, which I had mostly to myself at 9 in the morning, except for a handful of elderly people doing their tai chi thing. As I walked through the pretty, peaceful grounds, I came across some Buddhist statues from about 700 AD, according to the plaque. It was right then that it hit me: This was Xian, former capital, where Chinese civilization as I knew it had been founded. Here was history, right in front of me, a testament to the strength and power of the ancient Chinese for creating a long lasting society, which has been modified and adapted to the changing times. That was why I was here, that was why I came to China, to see how the past has fused with the present. But for me at that moment, only the past existed.

So, from Muslims to Buddhists, from 2,000 year old guy statues to old guys selling breakfast on the streets, my introduction to China was pretty interesting. It definitely laid the framework down for what was to come, and it helped concrete a solid picture of where China began and how far it has come since then.

Beijing is up next! I hope your September is off to a lovely start!