Our most recent getaway took us to the very center of China, to ancient capital and the seat of the first Emperor of China, Xi’an.

Our main goal, other than to take a break from Shanghai’s hustle and bustle, was to see the famed ranks of Terracotta Army, thousands of life-like terracotta statues buried together with First Emperor Qin, to guard him in the afterlife. These 2,200 years old warriors were discovered underground by accident in 1974, by local farmers who were digging for a well. Little did they know, when they found few ancient potteries and artifacts, that they stumbled upon a pit housing an entire army. We were definitely not going to miss seeing this unique part of history with our own eyes, but let’s start from the beginning of our journey!

We landed at 10PM at Xi’an airport and first thing you notice when taking 45-minute taxi ride to the downtown (where our hotel was located) is: haze and ghost buildings. To clarify, as we witnessed, Xi’an is definitely an up and coming city that is expanding quite rapidly, and new buildings and construction sites are cropping up on the outskirts and further away. Byproduct of that was our first impression, dusty haze in the air and lot of apartment buildings still being built. When you are passing by at night, it is a bit surreal to see many high-rises and buildings in the haze, but only half of them lit with lights; the other half engulfed in darkness. Once we reached the town proper and downtown, the picture was quite different. Typically lively Chinese scenery with people, lights and noise. Our impressions were even more improved by our hotel, Sheraton Xi’an, which we booked and paid entirely with points from our Starwood Amex card, when they upgraded our room, decorated our bed with rose petals and treated us to a bottle of red wine! Not a bad start to a trip at all!

The whole next day we dedicated to exploring the Terracotta sites, which are outside the city.

The hotel’s location is great, with subway right next door, so we had options for transportation. After consulting different reviews and researching our options, we decided on taking the bus from Central station which costs 10 RMB (1.5 USD) and takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach the site. Once there, after buying the 150 RMB tickets, we walked towards the 3 pits housing the 3 excavation sites (which is still ongoing!). On the way, everyone and their mother will be offering to be your guide, taking them or not is purely personal choice. We did our own research so we went by ourselves. Once at the actual museum site (upper left picture), there are 3 pits to explore: Pit No.1, the largest and most impressive one (upper right picture), Pit No.2, where you can get really up close to the statues (picture on top of the post) and Pit No.3, the smallest one but which contained the high-ranking officers. As per our research, we went to explore the 2 smaller ones first, as to build up the experience. In all 3 pits, unearthing is still ongoing, so you can see new pieces being excavated or some current pieces in stages of restoration.

All in all, very impressive sights, especially once you get to the enormous Pit No.1.

It took us about 3 hours to explore the area, upon which we turned to visit the second site, which is the First Emperor Qin’s Mausoleum. Since, there is free shuttle service between two sites, it wasn’t a problem to get there. Once you get there, you realize it’s unlike the Terracotta site. It is a really huge tree-lined area, in which you can just wander and walk around without even visiting any of the smaller excavation sites, of which there are several. We spent quite a bit of time there walking and relaxing in nature by ourselves, before visiting one of the smaller pits. One interesting thing is that the actual tomb of the Emperor, located in this area, has not apparently been opened yet! According to some reports, it’s because of lack of funding and according to others it’s due to concerns over preservation of the artifacts (original paint from the Terracotta soldiers peeled off in a matter of minutes after being exposed to air). In any case, sounded very suspicious to us, our theory is that they opened it and didn’t like what they saw, so it’s kept off-limits. Conspiracy theory stuff!

After day of exploring the ruins, we came back into the city at night and decided to visit the famous Muslim street.

The plan was to get our dinner there from its many street food stalls. The Muslim street was the starting point of the Silk road to the West, and that can be witnessed in many Middle-Eastern influences mixed in with the Chinese. To be perfectly honest, we found the whole area a bit crowded and the food not to our liking, but still full of interesting sites and smells.

After enjoying a bit of hotel swimming pool and Jacuzzi, we were refreshed for next day. First stop was Xi’an City wall, which encompassed and protected the original city. It’s 14 km long and wide enough so you can rent and ride a bike (below left picture). Which was our intention. Unfortunately, it was a bit chilly and windy so we decided to instead stick to walking. Walking the wall gives you quite the view of the different areas of the city as well as different Buddhist Pagodas built in the vicinity of the wall (below right picture). One cool find was a small free museum within the wall, showcasing parts of the original wall as well as exhibition on ancient locks. Surprisingly interesting!

We got off at halfway point of the wall and proceeded towards the Shaanxi History museum.

Shaanxi is the province in which Xi’an is located and the museum has quite bit of collection representing the history in the area. They also give out 2,000 free tickets twice per day, but since the line was huge when we got there, we just bought a ticket for 30 RMB (4.5 USD). Towards the night, we explored the area around the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and watched the Asia’s biggest water fountain music show, located in front of Pagoda (below left picture). One last find we stumbled upon was a private Jade & Gold museum, located in the building of Xi’an Westin hotel and normally reserved for guests only. But since we made a reservation for a buffet there, we managed to get our hold on the tickets! It was a great find with really exquisite jade and gold artwork from Taiwan and impressive scenery (below right picture). (The buffet was great as well!).

The next day was our last day in Xi’an, that afternoon we were flying out.

So, morning time we spent exploring the local area, around the hotel…well, less exploring and more eating local food. We wished we could have stayed more and visited Mt. Huashan, one of China’s five Great Mountains. If you’re traveling in the area, definite recommendation, just beware, it’s not for the faint of heart! On reflection, even without it, this whole trip was a truly relaxing experience in this unique city teeming with history. Must see!

If you are interested in our thoughts on living in Shanghai, check it out in our post: Living in Shanghai