The Renée Review

April 19 -22, 2006

Greetings from Xi’an, China, population 5.4 million. We’ve still yet to find the sky which I’m dubbing the ISS or Invisible Sky Syndrome.  Regardless of the hour, 8:00am, 10:00am, 2:00pm, 5:00pm, the sky looks eerily the same.  There is no prospective, no view, no sun, no clouds, no birds, nothing but the invisible sky, like we’re on another planet.  Imagine being at the base of a mountain and not being able to see that mountain…yet, despite the ISS, this city feels brighter as the spirit of the people is decidedly more cheerful.  

Xi’an is an ancient city fortified with an incredible wall of stone that is both wide and tall.  This wall delineates the old city from the new.   The wall has four gates at each compass point.  The old city is fascinating while outside the historic walls lay drab, grey buildings and sprawl…unfortunately, right where our hotel, The Sheraton, was located.  Anyone going to Xi’an should find accommodations inside the old city.  The best location would be anything near the bell and drum tower.  I noticed one hotel with a somewhat butchered western name near these landmarks called West Capital International Hotel, and another called the Bell Tower Hotel.  We did not go into either. Hyatt has a hotel within the city walls, but it is not located near the strategic landmarks mentioned earlier.  We did go inside the Hyatt, and were not impressed.  Another option would be to stay just outside the south gate.  Here you’ll find an ANA Hotel and a giant modern Howard Johnson’s.  Sorry, I can’t report on those either, we really had no time for hotel inspections.

Our first venture took us into the old city for a sumptuous dumpling dinner at the city center; something the city is famous for.  We were treated to dumplings shaped in a variety of images of baskets, frogs, leaves, goldfish, etc.  Later we strolled the night market located beside the Muslim quarter.  This was a lively, colorful area filled with visual interest, charged activity and noise – really interesting!

Our next day was filled with an excursion to the world famous Terracotta Warriors located about an hours drive from the city. The Terracotta Warriors date to 221 BC and are the emperor Qin Shihuang’s after life army located in the citadel encompassing his tomb, believed to be the largest found anywhere in the world.  Qin Shihuang commissioned the building of this tomb and underground palace at 13 years of age.  The tomb took 36 years to build utilizing 700,000 laborers.  Qin Shihuang is famous for unifying four warring kingdoms into one China integrating one monetary system and writing style.  

The Terracotta Warrior bodies were all mass-produced, but the heads, hands legs and feet were individually crafted.  The artists gave each warrior a unique face, expression, hairstyle, position, etc.  It is believed that in order to create these differences, the artisans used real soldiers and their own likenesses for the models.  All were then assembled below ground inside the massive tomb and piled with earth.  The artists too were buried, lest the secret of the graves location be disclosed. What a tremendous discovery this marvel is! The find is enormous and much of the tomb has yet to be unearthed.  The Chinese understand the value of this cache and are waiting for money to finish uncovering their treasure safely.

Following our return to the city, we visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which the guidebooks proclaim the symbol of the city.  I have to disagree; the symbol seems to be the fortified walls and old Bell Tower.  Anyway, outside of the Pagoda, we purchased a small kite from a vendor for about .70 cents US.  She was then harassed by an officer and had her stash of four additional kites taken from her?  Marlo was very upset, feeling responsible for what had happened as she actually made the transaction.  Apparently, the vendor was only allowed to sell postcards. After witnessing this we wanted to give her money for the loss, but realized this would only give her more trouble from the guards.  We felt so awful for her and were very afraid she would be taken away.  I think she was too, but smiled all the while, as she seemed to talk him out of whatever he was going to do.  The explanations to Marlo were very difficult, and she could not understand what bad thing had happened to warrant such repercussions.  Frankly, we too were at a loss for words….

The last day’s excursion returned us into the historic old city.  At the east gate, we paid our entrance fee, climbed to the top and rented bicycles circumnavigating the top of the historic wall.  It’s relatively quiet up there as the price to climb up is very spendy by local standards, about $14.00USD per person.  We took our time and enjoyed this experience very much.  Three hours later, we returned the bikes and then visited the city center.  Roaming around the Bell and Drum Tower area was fascinating!  The lively Muslim quarter and market are a treat for the senses.  Some of our fun purchases were candied and dried fruits in addition to shopping the numerous teashops and deciding on some beautiful hand rolled jasmine tea.  Naturally, the area is abounding with souvenirs, the most common are replicas of the warriors we came to this city to visit.