Xi'an City One Day Trip (Henan and Xi'an Trip Day 7)

Day 7, Xi'an. We visited Shaanxi Museum (陕西博物馆), Big Goose Pagoda (大雁塔), the old city wall (西安古城墙), Muslim Street (回民一条街), and watched the opera in the city. Xi'an was the capital to Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang Dynasty. It was the starting point of the olden Silk Road. The city itself has a history of more than 3000 years. Of course, we couldn't runaway from trying delicacies around, and took a night stroll along the street with historical towers.

Visiting a historical rich city, museum is the place that we couldn't miss. Similar to Henan Museum, the exhibited items showed the greatness of the past. Our tour guide told us that some of the artifacts were indeed found in the recycle centers or from dumping sites. Ignorant about these invaluable old relics, many were bought by the museum with low price from the locals as well. Completed in 1991, the museum is considered the first modern museum in China, with more than 370 thousand items exhibited.

The admission of Shaanxi History Museum is free, however entrance ticket is still needed. We departed early, hoping to beat the crowd. To our surprise, we had hundreds in front of us, and had to wait for 20 minutes to obtain the group tickets. We spent the next 1 hour 15 minutes in the museum. For us, the museum was not as attractive as Henan Museum, but it is still worth a visit. However, please be early to beat the crowd and to avoid tiring long queue.

The entrance of Shaanxi History Museum.

The queue under the hot sun at 9 am (upper left). The building of the museum is large, and is divided into 4 different halls (upper right). The lobby of the museum with a replica giant stone lion of Shunling Mausoleum- the tomb of Wu Zetian's mother (lower right). The internal design of the museum is quite similar to Henan Museum.

Murals in the museum.

Some of the items exhibited in the museum.

Dayan Ta (大雁塔) or Big Goose Pagoda was our next target, 10 minutes away from the museum by bus. Built in 652 AD in Tang Dynasty, it housed the religious material brought by Xuanzhang from India. Who is Xuanzhang? He was the real character of Tang San Zhang (唐三藏) in the story of "The Journey to the West" (西游记). After he returned from India which lasted for 17 years of journey, Gaozong Emperor appointed Xuanzhang as the first abbot of Daci'en Temple (built in 648 AD), the temple where the pagoda located. 

We couldn't deny the historical value of the pagoda and the temple. But the architecture design of the pagoda is simple, and can be meaningless if we have no knowledge about the epic of "The Journey to the West".  There was really nothing much to see there. Instead of paying CNY50 to enter the temple, you might want to choose to stroll within the shopping mall and pedestrian street surrounding the temple and pagoda. Anyway, one can always take photo with the pagoda outside of the temple's compound.

Big Goose Pagoda from the shopping mall. The pagoda was built with 7 levels, representing the highest hierarchy in Buddhism architecture. As a token of respect, we didn't take many photos inside the temple buildings.

The pagoda from the main entrance of Daci'en Temple.

It was a hot afternoon. Lucky enough, the trees provide shades for the visitors around the temple.

Close up to the pagoda.

Our next station after lunch- Xi'an City Wall or Xi'an Fortification. The city wall was built in 1370 AD in rectangular shape, covering an area of 13 square kms. The average height of the wall is 12 meters and the thickness of the top part is 12 - 14 meters. The city wall has four main gates facing four different directions. It is the most well-preserved city wall in China. The normal fee to the top level of the wall was CNY54 per person.

We entered the city through the east gate - Changle (长乐门), or the Gate of Eternal Joy. The elaborate building on the gate was an archer tower.

Climbing up the city wall was not a problem after a sumptuous lunch.

This is the barbican (瓮城) of the city. The barbican made the city extremely hard to be taken through the main gate. We can see how tall is the city wall compares to the buses.

The top of the wall is wider than a normal two-way road.

We have few options to tour around on the top of the city wall- by foot, bicycle, or by electric car. We chose electric car. The ticket counter is just nearby the city gate. The fee for the electric car was CNY80 per person for a round trip. Bicycle could be rented with CNY45 per person for 2 hours. Traveling by foot was free.

The buildings within the city wall cannot be built taller than the highest tower on the city wall.

The Xi'an Bell Tower built in 1384 AD in Ming Dynasty can be seen from the city wall. The bell tower marks the center of the fortification.

The moat can be seen from the archer tower on the Gate of Eternal Joy.

Bastions were built every 120 meters for more effective defense against attackers.

We strolled on the top of the city wall for around 2 hours. The sun shined proudly and the sky turned blue for us to take wonderful photos around the city wall. The weather however was not hot due to the strong wind.

After dinner, we went to Sunshine Lido Grand Theater for "The Grand Chapters of the Grand Tang Dynasty" show. The show was the combination of splendid costume and contemporary dances, featured by amazing dancers. However, the stage design and the sound system were a bit disappointing. 

Located at 29, South City-Ring Road, the theater is one of the oldest in Xi'an with a good track record of performance. However, with the ticket CNY180 for the normal seat, the show is considered expensive. It worth a visit of course, but only if we have extra budget for it. We can visit SUNLIDO official website for more information about the show.

Sunshine Lido Grand Theater at night and the show.

Tang Dynasty show.

Main dancers of the show.

Well, our advice, sitting at the last row might bed the best as we could stand up to watch the show without blocking other people. The arrangement of the theater was not very good as a tall person in front would block the view of the person at the back. All the photos that we showed were taken from the last row of the theater.

After the show, we went to Hui Min Street (回民一条街) or Muslim Street to buy some souvenirs and food until 11:45 pm. Next, we will share our experience in Hui Min Street, food, shopping, and our hotel in Xi'an. Follow us now.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]
[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]
[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple]

[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]
[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]

The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty (Henan and Xi'an Trip Day 6)

Day 6, we departed early from Lingbao and reached Xi'an 3 hours later. After lunch, we headed straight to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The mausoleum is very big and can be seen far away from the highway. Today, more than 600 burial pits have been discovered and excavated at the area. Our target was the most visited and most famous one- the Museum of First Qin Emperor's Mausoleum (秦始皇兵马俑博物馆), where the Terracotta of Warriors and Horses (兵马俑) were found.

The mausoleum was the burial place of Ying Zheng (259 - 210 BC), the first feudal emperor in China. According to history, he was the first king to conquer and united whole China. He believed in the life after death, thus started to build his own mausoleum at the age of 13- the year he inherited the kingdom of Qin from his father. The massive construction lasted 39 years, involving 720 thousands workers.

The excavation has found the pits with pottery imperial guards, royal stables, armors and weapons, civil officials, servants, entertainers, gardens, rare birds and beasts, chariots, and many more, showing the emperor's determination to bring whatever he had and enjoyed thorough his life to the underground. How big is the mausoleum? Estimated by China official- 56 square km. By looking at its scale, it might be the biggest and most magnificent mausoleum in the world. It was listed as an UNESCO Heritage Site in 1987.

We reached the ticket counter at 2 pm. The place was flooded by visitors. The entrance fee was CNY150 per person. Again, the electric car was there to sent us from the entrance to the museum, and like many other places, it was a one way service. We were required to travel 1 km back to the entrance on foot through a walking street afterward.

The museum consists of a few buildings- the exhibition hall and 3 pits, and a souvenir shop. All three pits cover an area of 20,000 square meters, with the most interesting terracotta army found in no. 1 pit. The no. 1 pit contains more than 6000 terracotta army arranged in a tactical formation. We spent around 2 hours in the museum. It was a lot of walking, plus we had to fight our way through the crowd to reach the viewing area. Well, the museum with terracotta of warriors and horses is really a must visit site in China.

The construction of mass rapid transit line was just beside the highway (upper left). It was a bit hazy at Lingbao but the sky turned bright when we reached Xi'an (upper right). There were tolls! (lower right). The crop fields can be seen spanning in Henan, but getting lesser when we reached Xi'an.

We reached the The Museum of the First Qin Emperor's Mausoleum around 2 pm. There were not many visitors at the shopping area (upper left) but the ticket counter was crowded (upper right). We moved to the entrance of the museum (lower right), which was around 1 km away from the museum buildings. The electric car provides one way trip to the museum buildings, with no extra charge.

We started with the exhibition hall with unearthed artifacts (upper right). The hall was extremely crowded and we could barely find a place to stand, especially in the rooms where the artifacts were exhibited. We could barely hear the explanation from our tour guide as well. Two of the most precious items are the bronze chariots, which were excavated in 1978 (upper and lower right) . The experts spend 8 years to restore the chariots to their present states. Both chariots were carved with stunning details, with even the muscle, joint, and even nails were crafted lifelike. We were lucky to be able to take photos (without flashlight) of the two chariots, as most of the time, we could see only heads of other visitors.

Then, we went to visit no. 1 pit situated on the left side of the museum complex. No. 2 pit is located on the right, while no. 3 pit is behind no. 1 pit.

Closer look at no. 1 pit.

This is what we came for, the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang! We were waiting, squeezing, and waiting, and squeezing again for more than 10 minutes to see this stunning scene due to the massive crowd there.

A closer look at the army.

The observation platform was extremely crowded. This photo was taken on our way down the right alley.

Restored terracotta- foot soldiers and cavalries. All the soldiers have different expression. They have even different hairstyle.

Restoration in progress- the experts need to reconstruct the damaged terracotta piece by piece like playing jigsaw puzzle.

No. 2 pit was partially excavated. All the terracotta were still burried underground. There were less visitors there.

No 3 pit was much smaller with less terracotta. It had been fully excavated.

This was how the no. 3 pit looks like. Most of the terracotta army placed there were the officers, showing that the pit might be a command office. We could see a worker (in pink) was collecting rubbish which was thrown by visitors into the pit.

We took a rest at the souvenir shop (upper left) and bought a book "An Exploration of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor" with CNY150 (upper right). The person in charge claimed that the book was sold only in the museum. Anyway, it is a book with detailed information about the whole mausoleum with systematic records about the excavation of the burial pits. The best part was, we got the signature of Yang Zhifa (杨志发), the discoverer of the terracotta on our book. For us, it is a book worth reading. We walked for 1 km through a shopping pedestrian street to our bus (lower row).

Next, we stopped by Huaching Gong (华清宫，亦称华清池), the winter palace of the emperors. The palace is also known as Huaching Hot Spring or Huaching Pool. The pool is located at the northern foot of Mount Li, around 30 minutes west from the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum. Originally served as the bathing area for emperors, Xuanzong Emperor of Tang Dynasty extensively built the area into a palace in 723 AD. According to the old inscription, the palace buildings spanned from the top to the foot of the mountain. It served as the living palace for the Xuanzong Emperor and Yang Guifei (唐玄宗与杨贵妃).

However, the palace was not properly maintained after Tang Dynasty. Today, most of the palace buildings there were built in 1980s, based on the record of history. Only the pools and the bathing area are the real relics from the past.

Huaching Pool was also the place where the Xi'an incident took place in 1936, where Chiang Kaishek was forced by Zhang Xueliang to be united with Chinese Communist Party to fight against invading Japanese army. Beside Hua Ching Pool, there are several other bathing pools built by other emperors around the hot spring area.

We couldn't deny that the pool and the palace buildings were really beautiful and nicely maintained. For us, it is a place worth a visit because of our knowledge about the love story of Xuanzong Emperor and Yang Guifei, and how the emperor lost his kingdom because of the beauty. However, it might not be a good place for those who has no idea about these historical characters. With the entrance fee of CNY110 per person, it is expensive compared to the Museum of the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum.

Huaching Pool entrance.

Beautiful scenery of antique Tang Dynasty buildings with Lily Pond (芙蓉池) is what we can see right after the entrance.

Pool of Nine Dragon (九龙湖). Li Mountain can be seen far behind the palace buildings.

Some of the beautiful buildings inside the palace. The royal pools of Tang Dynasty (唐御汤) are located behind the Pool of Nine Dragon (lower left). A big statue of half-naked Yang Guifei was built in the middle of the royal pools area.

Bathing pool specially built for Yang Guifei by Xuanzong Emperor.

The pools built for Xuanzong Emperor (upper left), Taizong Emperor (upper right), and  the servants (lower right) are opened to visitors as well. We have the chance to wash our hand and face with the water from the hotspring at a special area beside the Yang Guifei statue.

Then, we continued our visit to the former residence of Chiang Kaishek. This photo of Ling Shing's parents were taken at the gate of the residence.

The place is really beautiful. The building with red pillars on the right was the guard house.

Wu Jian Ting (五间厅) behind us was the former office and resting area of Chiang Kaishek.

All the furniture was placed at their original places.

We left Huaching Pool at around 6:10 pm and headed to our hotel at Xi'an. We were caught by heavy traffic in the city area, and the trip to Xi An Ramada Hotel took us around 1 hour 15 minutes. Despite tiredness, we still took our opportunity to roam around the Muslim's night market (回民一条街) which is just a few hundred meters away from our hotel. We will share more about the night market and our hotel in our upcoming posts.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]
[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]
[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]
[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]

Longmen Grottoes and Museum of Charriot in Luoyang (Henan and Xi'an Trip Day 5)

Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟) has a long history. 493 AD, Emperor Xiao Wen of North Wei (北魏孝文帝) started building the first grotto at Longmen Mountain (龙门山). Then, many emperors followed until the carving of grottoes stopped 400 years later in Northern Song Dynasty (some sources stated from North Wei to Tang Dynasty). More than 100 thousands of statues, 3800 inscription steles, and 80 pagodas were carved 1 km along the river of Yi (伊河), 12 kms from Luoyang City. Completely devoted to Buddhism, the grottoes show the stone work skills in China more than one millennium ago.

Endured the local vandalism and looting, destruction by wars, and damage by nature elements, Longmen Grottoes received the status of UNESCO Heritage Site in 2000. It was the third UNESCO Heritage Site that we visited in Henan Province. The entrance fee for the site was CNY100, with extra CNY10 for one way trip with electric car. Later, we took a boat ride with CNY25 per person back to the car park.

We stayed at Longmen Grottoes for around 2 hours 30 minutes. The shopping area outside of Longmen Grottoes offered various souvenirs and local delicacies. We bought two Chinese stone stamp with our names with really good bargained price there (about 1/2 of what we could get in our country).

The electric car stopped at the ticketing counter. Then, we had to walk for a few hundred meters to the entrance of Longmen Grottoes. We enjoyed the nice view of Yi River on our way to the entrance (upper row). The tourist center (lower left) is located near to the majestic entrance.

The weather was cold and comfy with few visitors. It was a lucky morning for us.

The caves were carved deep into the limestone cliff along Longmen Mountain. Stairs were built for the visitors to access the higher caves.

Our tour guide was telling the history of the sculptures in the caves.

The Buddha statue with "V" pose were believed to be built in Tang Dynasty by Tang Gaozong (唐高宗李治). The statue is one of the most popular photo spot in Longmen Grottoes (upper left). The cave housing the statue was exquisitely decorated (upper right). The uncompleted work by the last emperor of Song Dynasty (lower left)- Moya Sanfo Kan (摩崖三佛龛) revealed the process how a ordinary stone being carved into a statue. The stone wall of Longmen Mountain is dotted by many sculptures with different sizes.

Wanfo Cave (万佛洞） or the cave with ten thousand Buddha is another attraction at Longmen Grottoes. The wall of the cave is filled with 15 thousands sculptures.

What is the size of the smallest sculpture in Longmen Grottoes? These 1 inch tall sculptures in Wanfo Cave are really small, but still not the smallest.

Lianhua Dong (莲花洞) or Lotus Cave is another interesting cave there. The Buddha statue was carved in standing position with a hand holding a walking staff. There is a big lotus flower carved on the top of the cave as well. Another interesting thing to see in this cave- the smallest statues with 2 cm long caved on the both sides of the Buddha statue.

 The red arrow marks the location of the smallest statues in Lotus Cave.

The old name of Longmen Grottoes- Yique or the Gate of River Yi was carved at the entrance of Lotus Cave.

The biggest Buddha statues are located at the far southern end of Longmen Grottoes. To see them, we need to conquer the stairs.

This is the biggest statue in Longmen Grottoes- 17.2 m tall with the head 4 m long and ears 1.9 m long. Some local sources stated that the Buddha statue was built with the expression imitating Empress Wu Zetian (武则天), as a token of appreciation for her donation. With her donation, the statue was completed around 675 AD.

Panoramic view of the Fengxian Si (奉先寺) or Fengxian Temple- the temple where the colossal statues locates. Click on this photo to see the bigger view.

Guyang Cave (古阳洞) is the oldest cave in Longmen Grottoes. Built during the year of Emperor Xiaowen, the cave contains 19 well calligraphed inscriptions and exquisite stone works.

This is the last cave we visited- Yaofang Cave (药方洞) or the Cave of Prescription. The cave recorded 140 traditional Chinese prescriptions which can be used to cure more than 70 illness.

We took a boat ride from the end the grottoes back to the entrance. The boat trip gave us a nicer view of Longmen Mountain.

This is how the caves were built on the cliff of Longmen Mountain.

The former residence of Baijuyi (白居易) is located at the other side of Yi River, opposite of Longmen Grottoes. The tomb of this well-known poet is just next to his former residence.

Luoyang City was the capital for 13 dynasties with more than 100 emperors. The city has the history of 4000 years, starting from Xia Dynasty. Instead of the vibrant development with modern high rises, historical icons like Longmen Grottoes and Guanlin Temple scatters around the city. Back to Luoyang, we took our lunch at Kunyang Restaurant (lower right). We took our dinner the night before at the same restaurant (the one without ice cube). After lunch, we moved on to visit another thousand years old relics- the excavated pit at the Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits (天子六骑博物馆).

Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits (天子六骑博物馆), or we would like to directly translate it into Emperor's Six Horses Chariot Museum was built on the real sacrificial pit of Zhou Dynasty's Emperor. According to the ancient books, emperor's chariot was driven by six horses, while feudal kings five, ministers four, scholars and bureaucrats three, officials two, and commoners one. This record was proven by the discovery of the pit in 2002, during the construction to expand the Luohe Plaza. The museum now is located at the center of the Dongzhou Wangcheng Square (王城广场) or the Eastern Zhou Emperor City Square.

The museum entrance fee was CNY30 per person, while tour guide was available with CNY50 per trip, with opening hours from 9 am - 5 pm. The museum was quite small, with three different sections. The largest section was the burial pit itself. We spent 45 minutes in the museum.

The entrance of the museum is marked by a Chariot with 6 horses. The whole museum is located a level below the ground.

The surrounding area of the museum.

The burial pit of the museum, with the second chariot from the right was buried with six horses. There were other chariots with two horses and four horses. There were hunting dogs tied to each chariot as well.

Both Longmen Grottoes and Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits are must visit places in Luoyang as they carries important information from the past. The historical values of these sites are beyond measurement. For more information about these two sites, you can visit Tour-Beijing site about Longmen Grottoes and Museum of Luoyang Museum.

We left Luoyang at around 3:30 pm and took a three hour drive westward to Lingbao, a town in between Luoyang and Xi'an. We rested at Zingy Good Hotel and prepared ourselves for the trip to Terracotta of The Warriors and Horses in Xi'an.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]

[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]

[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]

[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]