walled city and stone soldiers and traffic
the problem with this blogging business is that it tends to catch up on you – just take your mind off it and days have passed and before you know it, you have one of your daughters breathing down your neck, carping impatiently about the dearth of information
Now what is more important or interesting? The bewildering traffic culture here, or a visit to the Terracotta Warriors? Or the walk to the playground yesterday to let the children let off steam\ ? (which proved to be a marathon walk with a fizzer of a playground)
I’m sure you like pictures so lets start off with a few from today’s visit to the buried warriors. Fascinating stuff:
some of the warriors looked almost human,,,,,
and there as a small army on the move….
We were going to take buses out to the Warriors (an hour’s journey) but after bussing to the railway station to pick up the main bus, we reached agreement with a guy to take us out there in a small coach. It turned out to be a good decision because the trip was quick, comfortable and very convenient. We collected an additional member to our party as well: a girl from London just starting a year-long OE who has just travelled the route we will be taking in a weeks time. So RnR had a good opportunity to quiz her on a few travel details.
They bill this Terracotta warriors site as the eighth wonder of the world, and when you contemplate the sheer scope of the project, and the artistry involved, the claim has much in its favour. Apparently 720,000 people (slaves?) worked on the project for 40 years. In the meantime, the same Emperor had a small group building the Great Wall of China. There would not have been too many unemployed during his reign!
I should mention that apart from doing the tourist thing, we have been eating – in most un-touristy spots! We have had filled buns from a window in the wall; super-omelets wraps from another such window, dumplings and steamed pow from an assortment of scruffy looking dives, and marvelous fried noodles cooked in a giant wok over a roaring 40 gal drum, and eaten in a back-ally along with the local construction gang.! We have found a good place for dinner which is squeezed between a respectable cafe and a super=dooper restaurant. Ours is most uninviting from the outside, and not much better in – but the food is excellent. Tonight it was a bit full in the front seats so we had to squeeze past the chef and helpers to a few more tables crammed into a tiny back room.
But this Chinese traffic is unlike anything I have seen before. Oh I am used to KL’s frantic multi-lane chaos, and Bangkok’s wild masses of cars, buses, Tuk-tuks , people and scooters, but China is something else again. Let me try and describe it: in this city of Xi’an there are apparently 6 million people. The size geographically appears to be less than Auckland. The roads are good quality and come in a variety of widths and configurations. Main roads appear to have 2 or 3 lanes for each direction, with a sort of fence down the middle. Other roads are quite narrow, but often have an additional wide lane on either side, separated from the road by the footpath. One assumes these lanes are for scooters and bikes. Sounds good so far? In addition, at major, traffic-light-controlled intersections there will be two immaculate policemen (or women) with whistles, to assist direct the traffic. Plus quite often, guys with flags at the edges of pedestrian crossings. All of which, one might suppose, would lead to a smooth well-ordered traffic flow. There is only one snag – nobody drives with the slightest regard for any of the above. Admitted, larger vehicles stop for red lights, but everything else just weaves around them. Lights change, whistles shrill, arms wave and the traffic moves on regardless. Now thrown into this mix are a couple of other factors. Officially vehicles drive on the right hand side of the road; but there are seldom centre road markings, and everything uses as much of the road as is convenient. until they meet something coming at them; scooters and bikes ride on any side and in the middle, in any direction at any time. Finally, many of the cars, scooters and yes bikes, are electric powered so they speed silently along the the streets like phantom destroyers. Woe to you to rely on sound for warning of something coming up behind you! Pedestrian crossings are used by pedestrians but ALL traffic just weaves its way through them. Why the streets are not littered with bodies I cannot fathom. Finally nobody keeps to a lane so the traffic is like a series of serpents entwined, writhing in deadly combat as each vehicle tries to find the quickest flowing piece of action. And to be in a car that is cutting across 5 lanes of traffic in the space of about 200 meters is quite an experience.
But enough of that. This place is a most ancient walled city – and these walls are really walls! They must be around 10-15 m high and wide enough at the top to ride 6 abreast. We have walked around a few KM of the base and intend to take a look up top in the near future
kiwijoe