Xian and the Terracotta Army

When we arrived at the airport in Xian, it was incredibly difficult to get to the city as there was no metro and the bus stops were poorly signposted. Eventually, we found an 'express bus' to the city. The nice lady at the counter then led us past the long line of people apparently queuing for some buses and we were allowed to sit in a fancy minivan with a chauffeur in a suit. At first, we were annoyed that we seemed to have been ripped off, but when the journey took over an hour and the traffic in the city was once again a complete disaster, we found that the choice was not so bad after all and were glad to be sitting in a modern car.

Compared to the other Chinese cities we have visited so far, the city here is incredibly ugly, noisy, and hectic. You have to be a bit suicidal to just walk onto the busy road and wait for the cars to stop...but there is no other option. However, the hostel this time is once again very beautiful and modern.

In order to visit the Terracotta Army, we wanted to try it on our own this time and not book an expensive tour. It was actually very easy once we knew which bus line to take and simply get off at the terminal for only 90 cents. As proud as we were to have arrived at the destination without any problems, we were even more saddened when we wandered around for half an hour trying to find the entrance... The area around the large halls is spacious and fenced off, and you have to take a little walk with thousands of Chinese people. There was also a lot of jostling and shoving in the halls, as everyone wanted to see the small terracotta soldiers. It was impressive to see the approximately 7,000 life-sized soldiers lined up. Even the faces were very detailed. On closer inspection, it was quite disturbing. However, a large part of the army was partially destroyed and digging is still ongoing or parts are being put together. After seeing everything, we made our way back, which took a crazy 2 hours through the Chinese rush hour traffic.

Since there wasn't much to explore in the city, we decided to have a "chill day" the next day and do some laundry. It turned out to be more difficult than expected... it took us until 3 p.m. for all of our things to be washed and dried, as half of the hostel wanted to do laundry, the stuff in the dryer just wouldn't dry, and eventually even the staff's dryer broke and they had priority for the guest dryer.

The highlight of the day was when we were invited to participate in a crash course in making dumplings in the evening. Together with a few Chinese moms and other backpackers, we shaped small round dough patties and filled them with a vegetable-meat filling to make small pockets, which were then cooked (similar to ravioli). It was really cool and of course, we were allowed to eat our works of art at the end. A nice conclusion to our stay in Xian. The next day, we continued to our final stop in China, Kunming.