Serious Travel Aricle 25: Xi'an Part 4. The Terracotta Warriors

On our last day in Xi'an, we went to the train station to take the coach to the largest and best known atoll of interest in Xi'an. Far from the main archipelago and outside the protective lagoon of the city wall are the terracotta warriors.

We were befriended on the bus by a group of public school leavers (probably Eton). They were on their travels after finishing school, two of them, Olivia, a pale redhead and Augustus, a blonde haired son of a diplomat whom I thought of as the heir to Boris Johnson (in a good way) were on gap years. The other,Tiberius , was soon to start his physics course at Oxford, as “the Oxford Physics department don't allow you to take a gap year”. While we were waiting in line, they asked us whether we would like to share a guide to save money. Coco announced “Don't worry, you don't need a guide, I was a student here for four years, I can be our guide!” 

A stern looking terracotta warrior.

I knew very well that Coco knew nothing at all about the terracotta warriors and just wanted to save a few quid, but our poor new toffee nosed friends didn't and happily accepted the offer. We spent our time touring the magnificent remains of the terracotta army, all covered by an enormous hanger and dimly lit to preserve the wonders (or to make it more atmospheric, but I prefer the first explanation). Coco bent over backwards to try and eavesdrop on the tour guides speaking in Chinese around us and translate it into English for our friends, pretending she really did know about the warriors, she struggled a lot with extra questions and dates, although she became quite creative, making up enough phoney facts to keep them convinced. If found them to be charming company, and almost as interesting at the warriors themselves. After they left, I decided I liked the British upper classes. Except when they go on rifle safaris and fox hunt. 

Tourists pose with the terracotta warriors

The warriors themselves were mind blowing in their immensity. Each a life-sized replica of a person that would have lived over two thousand years ago when Qin Shi Huang ordered the terracotta warriors to be constructed. Each warrior has been crafted with such intricate detail it's difficult to believe that they aren't petrified human remains, frozen in time by an evil witch. When you try to imagine them pained in realistic colours as they would have been originally and some still are, they become one of the greatest achievements of the ancient world. The most miraculous thing about the warriors is that they were discovered just after the end of the Cultural Revolution and thus spared the merciless vandalism of the red guards.

It was drizzling as we left, so we had lunch in the subway to escape the rain. We both wanted to eat biang biang mian, a bowl of noodles with a name so complicated, being sold around the terracotta warriors complex that Chinese tourists stopped to take photos of the overly complex character. Unfortunately subway was the only restaurant not to rack up the prices and the only one we could afford. 

Biang Biang Mian. Biang is the most complex character in simplified Chinese script. After much searching, my wife and I were unable to find a definition. Only that, this word isn't in the dictionary, but is a local Shaanxi word to describe it's special big hearted noodles.

We ate biang biang mian when we returned to Xi'an.

After visiting all the atolls of interest Xi'an had to offer, there seemed no reason left to stay, you can't stay in Xi'an for more than four of five days, not as an island hopper anyway. We headed beck to Zhengzhou, our vast ocean of uninterest.

For Part 1: Click Here

For Part 2: Click Here

For Part 3: Click Here