Xian is the capital of Shaanxi province in China and is one of the oldest cities in China with more than 3000 years history. This place was in my list and I wanted to visit the Terracotta warriors, in fact I was more eager to see the Terracotta warriors than the great wall. Xian is 1400 Km, 15 hrs by train from Nanjing. The cost of the train ticket was just 154 RMD and I was more than happy to book a two way ticket, starting on a Friday and getting back on Sunday morning. The adventure started even before the tickets got confirmed. The train that I was suppose to board goes till Lahsa in Tibet. As Lahsa is at a very high altitude a medical certificate is mandatory, but they were demanding a medical certificate from me even after me explaining to the travel agent that I would be getting down in Xian and Lahsa was 2000 Km’s from Xian. Till Friday morning nothing was working out and to be on a safer side I packed my bag and pushed off to the office. When I returned from the office the receptionist in the hotel told me that my ticked had arrived and the train was scheduled to depart at 7.30. It was already 6.30. I managed to reach the station by 7.20 and did not find time to have my dinner or pack anything on the way. While standing in the queue I could see KFC in front of me and my mouth was watering and an announcement was made and the people in the queue started talking among themselves.. My train was delayed by 20 mins. I ran to KFC, got two chicken burgers packed and entered the platform on time.
I was very impressed to see the train on my previous trip to Beijing, pushback seats, high speed engine without much notice, a beautiful lady to assist you if any help is needed, it made you feel you were in a low cost airlines. Hence there was no second thought in my mind to take a train to Xian, but when I had the very first glimpse of the train I got the true picture. Beijing is the capital and the government is more concerned in taking care of the reflection, but Xian is in a different province and who cares.. Though the train was a bit better than the trains we have in India, it was over crowded, we could see people resting in the toilets, beggars entering the screened-off area asking for money, vendors selling humming food inside the compartment and the passengers spilling the food all over the place.. all these was new to me in China, but it doesn’t bother me much as I have seen worse in India but one thing that made me stay awake was, though smoking inside the compartment is prohibited, nobody cares. Almost the 60% of the people in train were smoking, not even near the door but at their respective seats. The stench of food and the smoke cloud made sure I had a wakeful travel. The train reached Xian at 11 AM. I immediately got down and went in search of the bus station and I had done my research well, bus 915 would take me to Terracotta warriors for 8 RMD and was 1 hr drive. I boarded the bus without any hassle and took a short nap. The lady next to me woke me up and I was in front of the terracotta museum.
When I saw KFC it reminded me that it was 12 in the noon and I had not eaten anything since last Night. I showed the picture of hen in my mobile to Order chicken burger and one coke, the waiter took the order and said “You will receive your Burger in 1 min”!! wooow she could converse in English. One burger did not fill my stomach and I went to the same counter and asked what else was there in Chicken and I ate 2 pcs of Chicken Nuggets.
The entry ticket to get into the terracotta Museum is 160 RMD (1280 INR). Terracotta means a Clay sculpture. "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and to make sure that he had people to rule over. The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.
It took 2 hours to see all the sculptures and I was on my way to see Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum which was 5 Km’s from the museum. I spent good 2 hours walking around the never ending open lawns and occasional Pits still going through the excavation process. A bus was leaving back to Xian railway station and I reached Xian at 6 PM. I still had 3 more hours to board the train back to Nanjing. I made use of this time to visit the goose pagoda which was 30 mins walk from the station. To my bad luck the pagoda closes at 6 in the evening. I tried to tell the guard that I was from india and would just spend 10 mins to have a look around and tried to convince him to let me in. He just smiled and showed the CCTV camera. I left the place and came back to the station at 8.30. I would have walked close to 15 km and was feeling very tired. When I was in the queue to board the train in 5 mins, all of a sudden people started to talk something among themselves in disappointment. The train was delayed by 2 hours. I could not find a place to even sit in the station, quite understandable as it holds the world’s largest population. I went out to take a stroll around the station and ended up in front of a small Afghani hotel. I was served tea and the barrier asked where was I from. When I said India he played a song from an old Hindi movie Karan Arjun and was smiling at me to get an approval that I am impressed with his hospitality. Though I was bit irritated (nothing to do with the poor guy, but I was tired) I reciprocated his smile and ordered biriyani though I was not hungry. I wasted half and ordered one more tea, and one more and finally one last. I went back to the station and had one more hour.
Finally I boarded the train and similar to my onward journey the train was crowded with people smoking all over but it did not stop me from sleeping. I reached Nanjing at 10.30.
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