Xi'an

Xi'an

Xi'an (pronounced, approximately "She-on") is in central China. This is the city that Qin Huangdi, the emperor who first unified China, chose as his capital. Qin is pronounced approximately "Chin", and the Qin dynasty is the source of our name of China.

Qin Huangdi not only unified China (conquering the six other competing states); he also ordered the construction of the Great Wall, and, in addition, built the enormous mausoleum for himself, with the famous terra cotta warriors. I forget how many workers they estimate were busy on the construction .. it was many hundreds of thousands, they think. The people were so oppressed by this forced labor that they revolted, and burnt down the mausoeleums not long after Qin's death. Its location was only rediscovered in the 1970's (a farmer digging a well found some of the terracotta pieces, and the mayor called in archeologists who recognized the significance of the find) and the Chinese have built several truly wonderful exhibition halls around the excavation sites.


I want to add, the Chinese are doing the excavations very slowly, and with special care. After some bad early experiences, they want to be sure that they don't destroy anything (like the traces of colors on the statues.) Our guide says that they know the location of Qin Haungdi's tomb, but they do not want to open it until they are certain they have the technology to preserve what they find there.


I won't give you any pictures of the terracotta warriors --- this is something that you really should see for yourself if you possibly can -- it is truly awesome.

Instead, let's go to the...

Pep rally

I saw a scene like in the photo twice while wandering through one of the commercial streets in Xi'an. The restaurant staff lined up outside the restaurant in two lines facing one another, and one leader stood at the end facing both lines, and he shouted out some slogan, and they repeated it, loudly, accompanied by clapping of hands. I imagine they were saying things like "Ho's Noodle Shop is great" "Ho's Noodle Shop is great" "We have the best team" "We have the best team" (clap-clap) "We believe in Ho's" "We believe in Ho's" (clap-clap-clap) "Go team" "Go team .. hurray", and then they marched back into the restaurant. I showed the picture to our tour director, who recognized the situation, and said that they do this, first, to give the workers a break, and second, to generate publicity for the restaurant.

 

Traffic conflict

Cars were pretty orderly in traffic, I would say. But bicycles didn't follow any rules that I could discern, and neither did the motor scooters or motorized rickshaws.

As an aside, almost all the motor scooters and motor bikes are electric, as an anti-pollution measure. So you don't get the terrible exhaust fumes from the two-stroke engines that sully the air in Thailand and Malaysia. And they are quiet too. Generally an advantage, except that you don't hear them when they come from behind you on the sidewalk. (Or in the market, as I mentioned earlier.)

Many of the major streets have separated bike lanes. The motor scooters are able to use these too (or, better said, they do use them.) And, they go in both directions there. It's kind of a free-for-all. Although I didn't see any crashes, so I guess there must be some subtle order to things that I couldn't figure out.

I did manage to take this photo of a temporary conflict, though. A bus was headed down the street, and a motorized rickshaw (e.g. a cheap taxi) was headed the other way, squeezing between the bus and the curb, when a scooter bicycle came down the same narrow space the right way, followed by a bicycle, each checking the progress of the other. But the drivers bore the impasse patiently, and after a minute the bus was able to move on and the drivers could get around each other.