Xian - our last city visited

Our final city visited was Xian which means west capitol. It was the capitol of China for a while before being moved to Beijing. The city was a center of of trade from the east and west, therefore there is a lot of influences from the Middle East. On the first day, we decided to visit the Muslim Quarters in the center of the city. This is one of the oldest areas of the city and still has the narrow streets. Lots of vendors brought out their various kabobs to grill over coal troughs as well as other foods (all foreign to us). We didn't try any of it, but did get some souvenirs and visited the Great Mosque. Below is an exerpt from http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/great_mosque.htm:
"According to historical records engraved on a stone tablet inside, this mosque was built in 742 during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). This was a result of Islam being introduced into Northwest China by Arab merchants and travelers from Persia and Afghanistan during the mid-7th century when some of them settled down in China and married women of Han Nationality"







The next morning we visited one of the biggest tourist attractions in the area: the Terracotta soldiers of Emperor Qin. Below is a bit of history from wikipedia:
"The Terracotta Army was buried with the first Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huangdi) in 210-209 BC (his reign over Qin was from 247 BC to 221 BC and over unified China from 221 BC to his death). Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Shi Huangdi in the afterlife. Consequently, they are also sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies"."
It was quite impressive and what's more impressive is the fact that there is more that has not been excavated due to concerns of how they would handle exposure to the elements.




This is the South Gate of the City. Xian, like Beijing, is a walled city with a number of gates. These gates are very impressive (not what we expect of a typical gate) and fortunately, most of the city's gates still stand today.


We splurged and stuffed ourselves at a famous dumpling restaurant that evening....lots of food! Afterwards, Hue packed some dumplings to go only to hand it to an old lady with 6 fingers and begging for food. Never saw someone with 6 fingers on one hand before.


Our final day in Xian we went to another excavation site / museum of the emperor during the Han dynasty (this would be BC timeframe). His burial site was discovered more recently and is very well preserved. We were more impressed with this museum than Qin's Terracotta's soldiers because of how well they preserved it. The lights, humidity, and incoming dirt levels were all controlled. In addition the burial site is all enclosed in glass so that what we brought in (the tourists) would not damage them. This emperor was known to be a very good one and chose to have clay mini models built instead of using lots of expensive materials and making full scale figures for his afterlife. During his reign, he also had a hierarchal cabinet to manage the various affairs.