Adventures in China

Xi'an was my favorite Chinese city to visit. The city sees a large number of foreigners (because of the terracotta warriors), but is not nearly as international of a city as Beijing or Shanghai, so it retains more elements of traditional Chinese life. There are two varieties of local food; the Han food and the Muslim food, both of which are excellent. The Muslim residents keep very strict hygiene regimens, so it is safer to eat Muslim street food. The central part of the city has a number of interesting places, is contained by the old city walls, and has a very easy to navigate grid system.

I visited Xi'an 4 times; once with my family, once with Chinese friends, and twice with American friends. All of us visited the South Gate and the city wall. Parts are restored to walk on and look down into the city. The experience also gives you a wonderful perspective on how much can be accomplished in a few years of work. The wall is huge!

The South Gate is actually a complex series of gates, pictured here. Xi'an, like all the other places I visited in China, has serious pollution problems.

Within the city walls are the drum and bell towers, the Muslim district (good food and thousands of souvenirs), a post office, and a number of hotels and apartment buildings. At the very center is the most expensive shopping mall in Xi'an. We are sitting on top of it.

Also in the center of the city are excellent sit down restaurants. The Xi'an bread soup is worth the effort of tearing the bread into little tiny pieces.

Outside of the city walls, but still in Xi'an city is the Shaanxi History Museum. Some guide books rate it as the best museum in China. It is excellent and has some really beautiful pieces to look at and English captions.

For those living in China, visiting a big city means scrounging for foreign food. Besides going out for pizza and KFC, grocery stores carry staples like Snickers and margarine. Yum.

The largest attractions are outside of Xi'an city itself. The most internationally famous attraction is the Terracotta Warriors. This is an absolutely incredible thing. The size and craftsmanship are extraordinary. I cannot adequately describe it, but it is worth the trip out of town to see it. For those of you not on an organized tour, you can pay for a day tour to see these sites, or take a public bus directly to this museum.

One word of warning about buying street souvenirs, which are almost always of worse quality than those bought in the store. The model terracotta soldiers you can buy on the street are often only dried and not baked, so they are not very durable.

For those who enjoy archeology and Chinese history, the Banpo village is a really neat place to visit. It is thought to be a matriarchal village from 7000 years ago. There are few signs in English, so this site may be better with a guide.

The most important site in Xi'an by Chinese standards is the site of the Imperial Hot Springs called the Huaqing Pool, which was a winter palace during the Tang dynasty. Chinese generally romanticize the Tang dynasty, and so they enjoy visiting this spot, and there are tons of Chinese tourists. It is also the place where Chiang Kaishek was captured. The building in this picture is where he was sleeping when captured.