Day 10
We stayed within the city walls of X’ian, where no buildings are allowed to be taller than the wall. This has created a beautiful contrast in architecture from one side of the wall to the other. Somehow, we managed to take 2 hours to cycle the city wall’s perimeter (13.7km), probably because of all the stopping for photos.
Day 11
X’ian was the first capital under the first Emperor of China in 221 BC (who began the Qin Dynasty). Thanks to Qin Shi Huang, who didn’t want to kill his entire army upon his death (as tradition would have it), we now have the recently excavated (1970’s) Terracotta army to marvel at. However, Emperor Qin did kill all of his wives to be buried with him- charming.
Each warrior is unique, and many of them have been excavated completely in-tact.
That evening, we went to a local school for orphaned or underprivileged boys who have been taken in by a Shaolin Monk and are trained in Buddhism, Kung Fu and the usual academic subjects. He makes his money by allowing tourists to come to the school or a day, see how they are trained, watch a show and sometimes have a Kung Fu lesson.
Having done Karate when I was younger, I was very keen to do the lesson. The students went through the sequence and we copied. Saifay (in the picture below) who was in front of me was VERY serious- apparently he swaps people if he doesn’t think they’re good enough or not taking it seriously, so I was very pleased that he stayed with me the whole time. As a side note, Kung Fu is SUCH a good workout for the legs as you’re ALWAYS in some kind of squat position.
Day 12
The following day, we hiked up 1187 steps (at midday- SWEATY!) to the Dharma Cave where, according to legend the Indian Buddhist traveller, Bodhidharma meditated for 9 years after being cast away by the Shaolin Temple. He was later accepted into the Temple and fused Taoism with Buddhism. It’s apparently the birthplace of all Martial Arts. The climb was exhausting and many Chinese tourists hiked up in their best dress, the nutters.
Along with the Terracotta Army, another biggy that I’ve been able to tick off my list is the Shaolin Temple (RANT ALERT).
Now, we went to the Shaolin Temple on a National Holiday which seems to mean every person in China flocks there. It was so unbelievably busy that you couldn’t deviate from the herd pushing you forward, you couldn’t pause to look at anything and you couldn’t look inside any of the temples without being elbowed in the ribs by old ladies with cameras. DON’T GO TO ANY TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN CHINA ON A NATIONAL HOLIDAY!
On that note….. Next stop- Beijing on our shortest overnight train so far- a speedy 8 hours.