i’ve come to the last stop on my mainland china tour. it’s not technically the “last stop,” since i fly home from hong kong, but we all know hong kong isn’t china so there.
xi’an has one major claim to fame from which its major tourist attractions flow: it was the capital city of china for 13 different dynasties and home to 3100 or so years of chinese culture. ummm…America is 230 years old?
so there’s one central attraction: the terracotta army. one of china’s most famous emperors, Qin Shi Huangdi. he is known for uniting china during the warring 5 kingdoms period. anyway, he had a copy of his entire army made in clay and buried. why were they buried? to guard his tomb when he’s dead. that actually gives a great insight into chinese leaders. this guy was more concerned with protecting his tomb than his people.
anyway, he had a few thousand of these things made and placed underground. of course, peasants and invaders found them through the years and destroyed them and all records of their existence. no one had any idea they were in the ground until a farmer digging a well stumbled into one of the sites in the 70’s. now millions of tourists see the 3 pits every year.
it’s pretty amazing but the actual site doesn’t really pack an immediate impact. you can’t get too close to the warriors and it’s difficult to really appreciate their significance in chinese context. but still cool. and that’s about all i’ve got to say about that.
on the other hand, xi’an had the absolute worst climate of any place i’ve been to on earth. the pollution is so bad, on the drive to the airport you could not see across the median to the other lanes of traffic. i had a headache the whole time i was in the city and maybe 1 out of 10 people wear a mask walking around. it’s abysmal.
speaking of the airport, i missed my flight to hong kong in the morning. there was a traffic accident and i was about 20 minutes late. so i went to the ticket counter to get a new flight. well, the chinese haven’t learned “lines” so i found about 30 writhing bodies fighting for a spot at the front of the booth. i was disgusted. i was already in a bad mood and seeing this childlish squabbling really put me off. i went and sat down out of sight to let it pass and tried regain my center. i ended up on a flight later than night but to say it was an ordeal would be putting it lightly.
can you tell these posts are hurried nonsense? now that i’m back i’m just trying to hurry up and post some thoughts so i get back to the present…
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