Beijing / Xi'an 2008: Day 8 - Terracotta Warriors (11/9)

Although the women's nationals were starting up, I realized that I had been in Xi'an for almost a week and had not seen the "8th Wonder of the World", the Terracotta Warriors.  So x2 and I opted out of another day of wushu watching and I did a bit of research online to see the best way to get out to where they were.

Sadly, Shahaub was heading back to Beijing on this day so we had to say goodbye to him.  After we headed to our favorite muslim dumpling restaurant for a bit of brunch it was back to the hotel to help him check out and get Zane set up in his own room with a big full-sized bed.

delicious steaming dumplings

The Beijing Team (sans Wu Di and Zhao Qing Jian who were sequestered with the National Team for their upcoming Taiwan performance) were already at the train station by early afternoon, even though their train didn't leave until around 6 or 7 p.m.  So Shahaub headed out to the train station and x2 and I went along to help Zane purchase his ticket for the 11th, also to Beijing.

The ticket buying experience in Xi'an was much less hectic than I had experienced in Beijing or Hangzhou so we were in and out pretty quick.  Shahaub met up with Xu Ming Hu and we said goodbye to our wushu brother from another tong bei mother and he headed off.  Funny enough, I'll be seeing him on the 13th anyway, just 4 days later, since he will be back in Berkeley and I will see him at Wushu West when I drop by the class.

Xi'an train station

x2 waits in line for tickets

goodbye shahaub! bye tiger!

Zane went off on his way as well, having secured his ticket, and x2 and I grabbed a bus out to see the Terracotta Warriors.

Now, if you go to Xi'an, I recommend this way of getting there.  It is way cheaper and just as fast (and quite convenient) than any other method.  You just go to the Xi'an train station near the eastern city gate and grab one of the tons of buses with "306" on them that all go pretty much straight to the entrance.  It takes about 40 minutes and only costs 7 RMB each way.  Lots of buses coming back as well. 

After we arrived we did make one mistake.  In our interest in seeing all of the various shops and souvenier hawkers to the left of the statue of the First Emperor, we accidentally went up the wrong way and after an hour or so of walking found ourselves at the exit, not the entrance.  We backtracked all the way and came back to the right gate.

head right after you see this, NOT left.

checking out some chimes

First we hit up the museum, which was sort of a disappointment to me because I was trying to figure out which building had the terracotta warriors.  I'm not much of a museum person, but x2 seemed to enjoy it.

the museum

Then we found ourselves in Site B or Site 2.  Again, not super interesting to me because it is a newer site and a lot of stuff hasn't been uncovered yet.

site 2 - not much to look at, but i'm not an archeologist

But finally we got to the famous Site A or Site 1.  And I finally got to see the site I had only previously witnessed in books, magazines and that one episode of The Amazing Race.  It really is quite impressive.  Definitely check it out if you have a chance.

warriors in formation

x2 and the warriors

thats a whole lot of play-doh

After that it was getting late, and we hurried through the shopping area back to the buses and caught the second to last bus back to the city.  Then a quick taxi ride to the hotel and, after a quick bite at the hotel restaurant and some TV watching, we crashed pretty hard.  Another long day in Xi'an China.

x2 orders food in the hotel restaurant

You can view photos from this day here