Tales from the Qin Dynasty

Xian. Perhaps second only to the Great Wall in fame, Xian is a city literally teeming with
history. Of course, the jewel in the crown is the famous undergraound army of terrocatta
warriors. Originally only a small part of the legenday Emperor Qin's (259-209BC) monumental tomb, the clay army is now but a tantalising snapshot of the vast empire that rose and fell over two thousand years ago. It was under Qin's sword that China as we know it was first united under one banner - the mighty Qin dynasty. Apparently Qin shared is modern counterparts' soft spot for enormous construction projects - along with his own tomb (which apparently consumed one-fifth of the entire workforce and nearly bankrupted the fledging nation) he also oversaw the construction of the Great Wall. (BTW, to forestall the obvious criticism, no I'm not quoting Lonely Planet... This comes from the tacky "official" tourist book that I folded and bought :)

Our journey back in time began, quite literally, as we stepped aboard an old-style sleeper train
for the 14 hour marathon to Xian. As it turns out, the bunks (4 to a room, 2 below, 2 above) we
quite comfy, and the journey breezed by. Day one was the moment of truth, the much anticipated visit to Qin's grand army. I'll get mstraight to the point - I was disappointed. For starteds, the army just isn't as big as one imagines. Sure, it dills a huge aircraft hanger sized building, but the problem is only about the first 100m or so is excavated. Unfortunately, after they dug up the whole thing they found the smoggy Xian air was causing the warriors to deteriorate far to quickly, so putting archelogical interests ahead of the gripes of foreign tourists, they filled back in the majority of the pit while the research better ways of preserving the treasures. Nonetheless, the soldiers that are visible are still pretty cool - each one has a unique face and stands frozen at attention, just as they have for the last two millenia, keeping a silent vigil over the secrets of their ancient master (cue Raiders theme). Feeling a bit ripped, we retired to the comfort of our "so cheap" (the price tag of 70 kiwi bucks went a little ways towards brightening the mood :) 5 star hotel.

Any lingering feelings of disappointment, however, were well and truely quashed on day two in
Xian. That was the day we conquored the second great peak of our journey. The Huashan mountain is a majestic peak rising 2160m above the fragmented ruins and semi-submerged rice paddies that stretch over the ancient Xian plains. The first 5.5km of the ascent is a comfortable cable car ride (well, as comfortable as being suspended in a glass capsule half a kilometer above jagged rocks can be - quite frankly, it's terrifying). However, the next 2km to the summit was the stuff of legends. Unlike Huangshan, there wasn't a hint of fog, and the view was quite simply like standing on the roof of the world, with peak after peak stretching out below off to the hazy
horizon. The climb to get there was worth a mention - once again safety seems to be a word lost in translation - most of the climb was up ladder-like stairs hewn by hand out of the cliff face,
with only a rusty chain separating the living from the dead. Particularly epic was the ascent up
the Blue Dragon Ridge, and aptly named spine of solid stone jutting from the face of the mountain with a winding ladder of stairs along the backbone. Breathtaking.

And, as you can tell by the infrequency of updates, and generic prose, and appaling spelling, that brings us pretty much to the end of this adventure. From here, it's back to Wuhan by train, then another 18 hours by train to Shanghai, and then, assuming we survive the China Eastern Airlines experience, home sweet home.

Thanks for reading folks, thanks for commenting, and watch out for the Collector's Edition VCD coming to a computer near you very soon. About the same time as your tacky piece of China memorabilia is delievered ;)

Over and out from the Far East.