It's pushing 6 am here in Xian and some of us have already been up for an hour. Other than my keyboard there isn't a sound to be heard. Except for our neighbors door that just went bang! This is our second morning in Xian and while it is a city of 8.4 million people I haven't found a whole lot to do at 6 am other than dodge traffic on the street. In Shanghai Dad and I were amazed the Starbucks didn't open until 7:30 and then we got to Xian and found that Dunkin' Donuts doesn't open until 8. We have a reservation at DD at 8 this morning before we jump on the subway to the train station to catch our ride back to Beijing.
Yesterday was our one full day in Xian and we had our driver from the night before, Peter, scheduled to pick us up at 9 am. We hopped in the car and got a good taste of Chinese holiday traffic. Many people, including Julie and I, are off of work Thursday and Friday for Tomb Sweeping Day. On most holidays the government eliminates the tolls for using the highways and the cars emerge. Peter put forth a valiant effort and got us to the warriors using every type of road and some paths that could be confused with a walking trail.
The warriors exhibit was well worth the drive. The craftsmanship and complexity of the objects that were created over 2000 years ago is amazing to witness. If being 2000 years old wouldn't have been bad enough having to survive angry rebels was just too much for many of the warriors, animals and chariots. The angry rebels who overthrew the Qin dynasty about a year after Emperor Qin Shi Huang's sudden death while inspecting the mausoleum, that is now the warriors site, had a special love of knocking off the heads of the Terra-cota satutes. Unfortunately this led to some confusion with our group. Let me add a pertinent details: each statute is said to be based on an actual solider. Given that each statue is based on an actual soldier Julie thought was very unfortunate how so many of the solider had no heads. : )
A few fun notes on Emperor Qin Shi Huang. He became Emperor at the age of 13. One of the first things he did was to start building his mausoleum, seems a little weird to me but what I do I know I've never been emperor. He ruled for 37 years before his untimely death while inspecting the mausoleum. So if you were paying attention the warriors site (aka Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum) was under construction for 37 years. He "employed" over 700,000 workers in the construction (and they weren't finished after 37 years). The video at the site described him as heroic but ruthless and just a year after his death the peasants revolted, overthrew the dynasty and some felt it necessary to break into his mausoleum and pillage and set it on fire. Perhaps he was more ruthless than heroic but he is due some thanks for allowing us to experience a little of their culture.
After we finished our tour of the warriors site we head back into the traffic jam and towards our hotel which is located just north of the south gate of the Xian city wall. (From what I've read.) This is the largest/oldest city wall in the world. (Add some more caveats and I'm sure to be correct.) The wall is about 12 to 15 meters tall and 10 to 12 meters wide. It runs roughly 4 KM east to west and 2 KM north to south. Walking the whole wall will take you just over 13 KM. As we didn't get back to the hotel until 4:30 and it was sort of raining and the wall closed at 6, Mom and Julie decided they weren't that interested so Dad and I headed out in the drizzle. On the wall you can rent bicycles and I just might have to return so that I can bike the wall. It looked like a good way to spend a day.
On the walk back from the wall we got some real excitement, which was unfortunate for a poor gentleman on a bike. Crossing the street in Xian is interesting to say the least. We have avoided it quite successfully for most of our time here but getting to the wall requires a trip across a roundabout and a feeder street. The roundabout was a piece of cake and Dad and I were standing on the island mentally and emotionally preparing to cross the feeder street and subsequent bus lane when smack! A gold minivan bumped a cyclist right to the ground.
Seeing someone hurt is an interesting experience when you have no ability to speak with the person. Asking someone who doesn't speak English if they are okay or if you can help probably only adds to the injury induced confusion. Additionally, just because a car is stopped and someone is laying on the road doesn't mean the cars, trucks, buses, etc. are going to stop, so you must be careful not turn one bad incident into a catastrophe.
Luckily the minivan wasn't going that fast and was able to stop before going over the poor cyclist. The occupants jumped out before Dad and I realized we could cross the street. My "interesting" sense of humor was thinking it was over the top for the nice gentleman to get hit by a minivan just so the two foreigners could safely cross the street, but from my experience you should never underestimate the kindness and generosity of the Chinese. The van occupants helped the cyclist to the sidewalk and got his bike out of the street while the vehicles around them berated them with their horns for blocking the lane. As I looked back I could see the passenger offering some money to the cyclist and the cyclist appeared to have survived the ordeal more or less in good shape. After the fact it seems most surprising that this was the first time I've actually witnessed a biker get hit by a car.
It was still drizzling when we decided to head out to dinner so we found a local family restaurant just down the street. The food was delicious. The waitress, well were not sure what happened there. Communication is always a challenge for us and sometimes it's just comical. I'm not sure if we/I offended this lady but after she got our food order and we thought our drink order she didn't come near our table again. There had been some confusion while ordering drinks and yours truly made it worse by trying to ask about beer brands instead of just accepting what was brought, which is the best thing to do in this situation. After the food came out and no drinks showed up we flagged down another employee and eventually got our beverages, which was nice as a couple of the dishes were quite spicy.
We have a 10 am train to Beijing that will get us back in the capital around 4 pm. Until next time have a great day.
-Ryan
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