Xi'an – Tomb of Emperor Jingdi

Failed to wake up as early as desired for going to see the Terracotta Warriors or for the day trip to Mt. Hua Shan, and instead decided to visit the Tomb of Emperor Jingdi. Lonely Planet called this “the most underrated highlight of Xi'an” and we would have to agree. It also said it should be your second priority after seeing the Army of Terracotta Warriors, and we disagree with that, thinking it should probably be a higher priority. Also contrary to Lonely Planet, we discovered that public transit does (now) go there: the helpful staff at our hostel told us that we could take the #4 tourist bus, told us where to catch it, and wrote something down for us on a piece of paper to show to Chinese people.

When we asked for directions, a nice Chinese man who spoke pretty good English took it upon himself to see us onto the right bus. It turned out that the #4 tourist bus was just a special #4 city bus, special in a way that we didn't really understand, but he spoke to a few #4 bus drivers before giving us the go ahead to get on one of them. We were just sure he was fishing for a tip (tipping isn't part of the culture in Asia, in fact it is traditionally considered offensive, but many people in India, Southeast Asia, and presumably in China too, have discovered that it is part of our culture and a way to make a buck off tourists by being helpful—or more often just annoying—and then demanding a tip), but no, apparently he was just going the extra mile. Granted we try to do the same when the opportunity presents itself, and don't expect to be paid for it, so I don't know why we were so surprised.

The #4 bus took us a long way north, then parked behind a bunch of other #4 buses. We were told to cross the street and wait for another #4 bus (actually, for one particular one that was getting serviced when we arrived). This didn't seem right to us, but we asked the other people at the bus stop on the other side, and they helped us get on the special #4 bus to the Tomb rather than the regular #4 bus back into the city.

The Tomb was pretty awesome. The exhibition hall was full of little terracotta figures of soldiers, regular people, animals, and even women soldiers. Not life-sized like the Terracotta Army, but still really impressive. The arms were made of wood.

From Xi'an

From Xi'an

Then we moved on to the “Underground Museum” which is built over and around the excavation site, with glass barriers between the museum and the temperature/humidity-controlled dig area. The glass was exceptionally clean, and the lights were well placed to keep glare to a minimum. In some areas there was a glass floor and we were walking directly over the dig. And we had it almost completely to ourselves. It was incredible. Apparently excavation is still underway and some days you will see people actually at work down there, but we were there on a holiday.

From Xi'an

From Xi'an

From Xi'an

From Xi'an

From Xi'an

This is the mound marking the tomb. In all the excitement and awesomeness, we almost missed it!

From Xi'an

In addition to making for one of the best archaeological museums we've been to, it also seems like they are doing a superb job of preserving the relics in this way. This is definitely going down as one of the highlights of the trip.