Xi'An (西安) is the most ancient capital in China. Way back in 250BC, Emperor Qin (秦) united China and made this city its capital. He had a great plan. He will be the 1st and the beginning of generations of emperors who are his descendants. The 1st part was historically factual. The 2nd part did not quite work out. Qin dynasty lasted only 42 years and ended with his son. Two rivals, Liu and Xiang, toppled Qin dynasty and fought for the throne. Their uprising and battle was widely written and worked into numerous stories and dramas to this date. Mr. Liu eventually won and started Han (汉) dynasty. Han and future dynasties mostly had their capital in Xi'An. This tradition changed in the Yuan dynasty (1209~1370AD) that moved the capital to Beijing. Xi'An, in terms of history, is way richer than Beijinig. It all started with this 1st emperor.
Standing above the Terra Cotta Warriors excavation, I felt awed, proud, and disbelief. How many of these they made? What resources, logistics, planning, management, and determination were dispensed making them. It took roughly 35 years to build his tomb and we have excavated only a small fraction — the outer perimeter that was the soldiers' quarters.
My trip to Xi'An copied Mike's itinerary. It started with an overnight train-ride. My cabin of four was clean and comfortable. Each ticket costs slightly more than 400rmb. The train pulled in XiAn station around 8am. We checked into the hotel around 9am and were in Terra Cotta site around 10:30. After the lunch, we went to HuaQingChi (åŽæ¸…æ± ).
Tang (å”) dynasty people built elaborate bath houses here, with natural hot spring, for their emperors. Poet BAI JuYi (白居易) wrote a tragic romantic long poem set in this palace. It described the love story between Emperor LI LongJi (å”玄宗 æŽéš†åŸº) and his concubine YANG YuHuan (æ¨çŽ‰çŽ¯), known to be one of the 4 most beautiful women in Chinese history. She died during a coup attempt and he spent the rest of his life missing her. The verses went through my head as I tour her bath house and the balcony they spent winter days watch the snow flakes falling into the hot spring pond.
The day ended with a magnificent dumpling feast and a world-class dance and music show. The next day, we visited the Big Goose Tower and the Forest of Stelae (stone tablets).
Those stelae were the official versions of various books used for tests and the calligraphic practices. Some of them are maps or even tombstones. Stelae were collected from around the country to ease the effort of making rubbing, an exact duplicate of what was engraved.
Here I found an unique art for the region, the horse hitch. In this region, it became fashionable to have fancy stone horse hitches. The wealthy commissioned thousands until the fad faded away. The stelae museum collect more than a hundred and line them up. We walked among them and get surprised at how lively and adorable they are.
It was said that a goose sacrificed itself to testify the truth spoken by a Buddha. As such, many Buddhist towers were named such. This one was where XuanZang (玄奘) spent 19 years translating the Buddhism scriptures. He walked 4 years, from Xi'An to India and studied Buddhism there for 17 years. His trip inspired the fiction 西游记 (Journey to the West) that became one of the most popular fictions in China. I stayed up many nights reading that book when I was a teenager. In fact, I read it about 3 times in different parts of my life. It is a bit like visiting universal studio and remembering Jaws, only XuanZang really lived here.
It was a well packed two day trip, but also possible in one. If you have a spare weekend, Xi'An is not a bad escape from Beijing.