Trusting your phone’s GPS signal could send you on an unwanted sightseeing detour as happened to me when I arrived in Xi’an. It is not a very big city and finding your way around is simple. Eventually I checked-in at Han Tang Inn Hostel, which is next to the Drum Tower. I walked to the Drum and then Bell Tower to reach the Muslim street. It is a busy street where I got some tasty food and made may way through the packed market street. I wanted to buy a Mahjong set as I learned how to play it in Shanghai. 650RMB said the man, which equals to 100$. Of course this seemed far too much, although it was a nice large wooden set with leather binding. I did not feel like haggling and decided to visit the Drum and Bell Tower instead. Almost every city has them so at some point I wanted to visit them. These Towers were used to announce the different day periods. The Drums were used at night and to signal when to open and close the city wall gates. During the day the bells where used to signal the period of the day.
I was lucky to see the performances where they played the drums and bells.
I shared the six bed dorm with three guys from South Korea, one from Australia and a German guy. The Koreans could speak some English and we agreed to have dinner together. We talked about Korea and the different cultures. They seemed to be a good team as one could speak English, one Japanese and the other Chinese. And yes PSY is their super star.
On the second day we started early to visit the Terracotta Army. I teamed up with the Koreans and we took bus 306 from the train station to the Terracotta Warriors. The street leading up to the museum was of course lined with shopping and food stalls. The entrance fee of 150¥ was rather high. It was worth the money as it was impressive to see the many Terracotta statues. In some places they were continuing to excavate and unearth parts of the Warriors.
The statues have probably been mass-manufactured as they consist of about three parts. All the heads, torsos and leggs where cast separately and then put together. Also for the heads there seems to be around four different molds.
The picture below shows the busy market street where I bought the Mahjong set for 150¥ in the end.
As always great pictures!