Xian: Day Two and Day Three: Warriors, Towers, Theatre, and Puppet Shows

This day was the day I had been waiting for… the Terracotta Warriors. 

I arranged for a Didi (Chinese Uber) to pick me up at 7:00 am so I could be at the museum at 8:00 am. There was no way I was going to miss this like I had missed the Forbidden City. The drive took about 45 minutes and I got in line early and was able to get my ticket no problem. Once I got my ticket I had to get in another line for security and to scan my ticket to enter. When you enter the gate you have to walk along a trail for about 10 or 15 minutes which is lovely. There are large mountains around the area and a lot of Chinese holly trees. Not too surprising, there was another security line and scanned my ticket again to enter the area that the warriors were actually in. I was happy that I didn’t have to pay for another ticket.

When I first walked in I was surprised because I was fully expecting to see a large pit with the warriors staring up at me and instead saw several buildings spread throughout. Each of the buildings had a large number written on it (in Chinese symbols) so I waddled over to Building One. Inside Building One were artifacts from the pits and a history of the Bronze Age in China along with the history of the emperor in charge of the warriors. Plaques were written in Chinese and English. There were a few warriors on display in glass cases along with statues of pigs, goats, and cows which were to be food or servant animals in the afterlife.

I made my way to Building Two which was also Pit 2. It was mostly broken pieces of the warriors, horses, and chariots but the plaques showed how the areas were laid out and how intricately they were made. Something I learned is that the warriors stand on tiled floors.  

Pit 3 was next and that is the famous area with all the warriors. There were still archaeologists digging through the dirt and cleaning off pieces of the warriors. I was flabbergasted to learn that some areas have still not been completely uncovered.

At this point I had to give myself a potty break and found myself in the largest souvenir shop I have ever been in (it was seriously like a mall) and bought a key chain for myself on the way out. When I made it to Pit 1 the population of guests in the area went from me and a maybe 100 people to 500 people! Keep in mind I got there at 8 and by now it was around 10:30 and it was getting packed. Pit 1 had a few chariots but nothing as cool as Pit 3 so I got my Didi and headed back to town. When exiting the museum there are a ton of souvenir shops, restaurants, and booths that you have to weave through to get back to the street. On my way out I was approached by a woman asking if I wanted an English tour of the museum which confused me until I realized I had accidentally exited out of the entrance. I would have loved in English tour but I’m not totally convinced it wasn’t a scam.

Next was the Bell and Drum Tower which were literally right next to my hotel. Each of these only took 20 minutes to visit. The Drum Tower is more interesting because they have drum shows periodically throughout the day. The entire tower is surrounded by drums that signify a season of the year that they should be played. Also at the tower are drums meant to signal when to close the Xian Wall bridge, the morning call, the night call, and a warning call. There was another world breaking record in Xian with a drum made out of one whole cow skin.

The bell tower only has one bell and no other special events that I saw. The area inside the tower had furniture on display which was not as cool as the drums in the other tower.

That night I had reserved tickets for a dinner and theatre show. The email confirmation told me to come there 30 minutes early, which I did, and was literally the ONLY ONE IN THE ENTIRE THEATRE. I was so confused! After about 45 minutes a family from Belgium sat at my table. At 6:30, an hour after I had arrived at the theatre, did everyone else come to watch the show. However, the staff was very kind to me and even gave me a shawl to keep warm! The dinner was excellent and the show was so great! We weren’t allowed to take photos during the show but I did get a picture of the curtain call. 

It was a ballet about an empress of China and how she went from a normal girl to being one of the most powerful people in China. 10/10 would watch again and 10/10 to that Belgium family who I had a lovely conversation with and 10/10 to the staff who was like “This girl is too early but we are going to serve her like a queen.”

PS I did return the shawl.

Day Three

My last day in Xian was spent in the Muslim quarter which was also right next to my hotel. What is unique about this area, and Xian in general, is that many middle eastern people immigrated to this area and married into Chinese families. Xian has one of the higher populations of Muslims in China. The quarter is mostly shops but there was an old merchants house to visit. 

Meat is not regulated here...

 They had a shadow puppet show which was fun to watch. I bought my ticket to go into the house and visit the shadow puppet show and when I sat down a woman told me I was sitting in the chairs that cost 10 yuan more unless I bought a drink from her. I bought an orange juice and stayed in my nice chair. Before the show started I looked around me and saw a completely full room but my row, the 10 yuan extra row, was empty. Only when there were no more seats were people forced to buy those tickets to sit down. I was annoyed that this was yet another way to nickel and dime people in China. That being said, I did like the orange juice and the music in the show.

After the show and walking around the merchant’s house which consisted of an old school, an area for chicken and ducks, and rooms, I flew back to Shanghai and got back to Jiaxing.