Why do these events have to have such dopey mascots?

We also spent a day at Expo 2010.  The Expo was Shanghai’s answer to Beijing’s Olympics and they put on a huge show.  The Expo receives more than 400,000 visitors every day and only a fraction of a fraction of them are non-Chinese.  Despite the heat and short timeframe we saw four pavilions, the massive Chinese pavilion (disappointing), Australia (okayish), Thailand (very good) and the US (also quite good).  We gave the prize to Thailand which probably had the smallest budget of the lot.

In magnificent Shanghai we once again enjoyed this most cosmopolitan and dynamic place, the stunning skyline of Pudong, the great bars and restaurants of the Bund and the over-achieving capitalism of this thumping city.  We then took the two hour flight westward to spend the weekend in the industrial city of Xi’an.

Not so fast big guy.  This simple two hour domestic flight turned into a seven hour debacle of the worst kind.  We boarded the plane but before we could pull away they told us there would be a delay and a ‘long wait’.  In the first hour of the long wait we saw the drinks trolley consisting of warm soft drinks and then the dinner trolley – an unusual feature while we are still at the gate.  In the second hour we heard through a local travel companion of the only other non-Chinese on the plane that the problem may have to do with the military closing air space between Shanghai and Xi’an.  The delay was ‘indefinite’.

Eventually an announcement came that we would leave at 8.45pm, almost five hours after our scheduled departure.  A grim ordeal (I haven’t spent that much time in Economy Class for many years!) and a relief to finally land at Xi’an and eventually make our way to our sleepy hotel.

But the prize was worth it many times over.  Our driver took us 30 km out of town, through the industrial suburbs with their brown hazy air, past the nuclear power plants and around a couple of traffic accidents to the home of the Terracotta Warriors.  We spent most of the day at this magnificent place, soaking up the history, culture, arts and heritage of these ancient soldiers.

The story goes that in 1974 a local farmer was digging a well and found some fragments of pottery and other items.  One thing led to another and the authorities eventually uncovered thousands of soldiers, all life size with unique features plus horses and their chariots in row after row buried in three nearby pits.  The scale of this discovery is overwhelming but probably not complete as the there is more digging still to be done.

A few warriors in the repair shop

The warriors, their horses and chariots were all buried with Qin Shihuang, who was the first emperor to unite the whole of China in the second century BC.  In total there is estimated to be over 6,000 life size and life like warriors, mostly in battle formation, generals, lieutenants, soldiers and archers plus untold horses complete with chariots and weapons.  The individualised appearance of each soldier was amazing, different hair styles, clothing, armour, facial expressions, weapons, the lot.  It’s not just the enormous artistic skills and attention to detail that is on display but also the sheer volume, said to be made by over 20,000 artisans.  The army of workers was bigger than the army of soldiers!

Some warriors appear to have lost their heads in battle

The whole set up to show off the warriors in their buried home was first class and the adjoining museums gave us more information about the history and culture of this era.  I would have liked to get closer to the warriors to take better photos but as we saw at Expo, the Chinese specialise in crowd control and they do it very well.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Based on what we’d seen so far of this dreary city we figured there wouldn’t be much more to discover in Xi’an.  Wrong again.  We went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which was part of an even bigger temple, and climbed up its seven flights of stairs to get aerial views of the brown smoggy skyline of Xi’an.  But the Pagoda and the surrounding grounds were excellent and we are always a sucker for a good Pagoda.

But wait, there’s more.  Xi’an is also the only city in China which is completely walled, which is saying something in a place which is famous for its walls.  The 14 km wall around downtown Xi’an dates back to the 6^th century or some such, is 20 metres high and 12 metres wide.  We walked along its top for about 3 km between two main gates, enjoyed the views down to the gardens and moat and dodged the people on bicycles and golf carts that scooted up and down this impressive structure.  Yeah, it’s big.

My, what big drums you have

We also visited the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower in the centre of town and shamelessly stuffed our faces with beautiful dumplings at a dumpling restaurant before trekking to the airport where Julie flew back to Bangkok and I went on to Beijing for another few days of business, a run through the Olympic complex and the obligatory visit to Tiananmen Square and the external grounds of the Forbidden City.

A few final observations.  We loved the Terracotta Warriors, as you would expect, and were happy to have this unexpected chance to finally see them.  Despite the general brown skyline we were impressed by the silent little motorbikes in all three cities which all run on electricity – no petrol motorbikes allowed at all.  Most of the buses also ran on electricity.  The trick is not to get run over by any of them as they sneak up on you from behind.  In fact, crossing streets in China is like Russian Roulette.  It’s worse than Vietnam because in Vietnam the drivers expertly swerve at the last second to avoid you but in China they aim for you.

Its hot and if I find a 16th century doorway to rest in I’m going to

The Chinese run a good shop, there’s no doubt about it, especially if you like a lot of rules, smog and grim faces.  We hardly ever saw any of them smile or laugh, despite their designer clothes, fashionable hair styles and upwardly mobile economy.  Lighten up guys, you’ve got the hot spot so crack a grin and enjoy!