Great Wall, Terra Cotta Soldiers Museum and Three Gorges Hiking Tour

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2003 Hiking Group Diary click here

"This trip may only last for fifteen days, but the experience of Chinese Culture/History and the memory of beautiful mountain scenery will last for a lifetime."

Xi'An

( photos of Xi'An )

Modern XI'AN is a manufacturing town of five million inhabitants and the capital of Shaanxi Province, holding a key position in the fertile plain between the high loess plateau of the north and the Qingling Mountains to the south. It's one of the more pleasant of Chinese cities, more prosperous than any other city in inland China except Chengdu, with streets full of Japanese cars, stores flooded with consumables, and stylish locals in the new discos. It's certainly far richer than the surrounding area, a fact suggested by the large numbers of rural migrants who hang around at informal labour markets near the city gates, and which becomes starkly obvious if you take a bus ride into the plains outside the city. The city is also a primer in Chinese history, as between 1000 BC and 1000 AD it served as the imperial capital for eleven dynasties. You'll find a wealth of important sites and relics hereabouts: Neolithic Banpo, the Terracotta Army of the Qin emperor, the Han and Tang imperial tombs, and in the city itself, the Goose Pagodas of the Tang, the Bell and Drum towers and Ming city walls , as well as two excellent museums holding a treasury of relics from the most glamorous parts of Chinese history. Despite the drawbacks of pollution (many of the locals walk around with white face masks on) and congestion, common to all rapidly industrializing Chinese cities, Xi'an is very popular with foreign residents , and many come here to study, as the colleges are regarded as some of the best places to learn Chinese.

The City

Xi'an successfully integrates its architectural heritage with the modern city, its imposing walls and ancient geometric street plan, centring on the Bell Tower, giving it a distinct identity missing in the sprawl of most Chinese cities. Downtown Xi'an, inside the walls, is just about compact enough to get around on foot, with enough sights to fill a busy day. And it is here that the city's new prosperity is most in evidence, in the variety and prices of goods in the shops on Dong Dajie , the main shopping street, where you'll also find the best hotels and restaurants, and in the number of cars that choke it during rush hours. Nan Dajie , to the south, is another shopping district at the end of which you will find the Provincial Museum , which holds a massive collection of steles, next to the city walls , more imposing remnants of imperial China. Contrast is provided by the Muslim quarter off Xi Dajie, which preserves a different side of old China in its labyrinth of alleys centring on the Great Mosque .

The suburban area south of town holds more ancient buildings than the centre, as the city in Han and Tang times was considerably more extensive than in the Ming dynasty, when the walls were built. The excellent Shaanxi History Museum and the small Daxingshan Si sit between the two Goose pagodas and their temples, which are some of the oldest and certainly the most distinctive buildings in the city.

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This area has been the site of some of the oldest cities in the world's oldest civilization. Its history begins in the Bronze Age, three thousand years ago, when the western Zhou dynasty, known for their skilled bronzework, built their capital at Fenghao , a few miles west. Nearby, one of their chariot burials has been excavated. When Fenghao was sacked by northwestern tribes, the Zhou moved downriver to Luoyang and, as their empire continued to disintegrate into warring chiefdoms, the nearby Qin kingdom expanded. In 221 BC the larger-than-life Qin Shi Huang united the Chinese in a single empire, the Qin, with its capital at Xianyang , just north of Xi'an. The underground Terracotta Army , intended to guard his tomb, are this tyrant's inadvertent gift to today's tourist prosperity.

His successors, the Han, also based here, ruled from 206 BC to 220 AD. Near contemporaries of Imperial Rome, they ruled an empire of comparable size and power. Here in Xi'an was the start of the Silk Road, along which, among many other things, Chinese silk was carried to dress Roman senators and their wives at the court of Augustus. There was also a brisk trade with south and west Asia; Han China was an outward-looking empire. The emperors built themselves a new, splendid and cosmopolitan capital a few miles northwest of Xi'an which they called Chang'an - Eternal Peace. Its size reflected the power of their empire, and records say that its walls were 17km round with twelve great gates. When their dynasty fell, Chang'an was destroyed. Their tombs remain, though, including Emperor Wudi's mound at Mao Ling .

It was not until 589 that the Sui dynasty reunited the warring kingdoms into a new empire, but their dynasty hardly lasted longer than the time it took to build a new capital near Xi'an called Da Xingcheng - Great Prosperity. The Tang, who replaced them in 618, took over their capital, overlaying it with their own buildings. This city was in its day the capital of a great empire and one of the biggest conurbations in the world, with more than a million people housed in a magnificent city whose plan was so rational that it was taken as the model for the building of many other Chinese cities and for the Japanese capital, Nara, in 710. The huge rectangle enclosed by walls nearly 10km long was divided by further walls into 108 districts, crisscrossed by a grid plan of streets. These walled-in quarters had no communication with each other except by a single gate which led to the main street; the gates were closed at sunset and reopened at dawn. Only top officials were allowed doors giving directly on to the street. The preoccupation with order and compartmentalizing society became even more apparent in the Imperial City, enclosed by more walls, and the palace, further enclosed, inside that.

The Tang period was a golden age for the arts, and ceramics, calligraphy, painting and poetry all reached new heights. You can get some idea of the quality from the Tang horses and camels in Xi'an's Shaanxi History Museum, the Classics of Filial Piety in the Forest of Steles, the wall paintings in the Tang tombs and the relics buried as offerings to the Buddha's fingerbone in the Famen Si. The Roman glassware found here testifies to the flourishing trade along the Silk Road at the time, as do the many foreign coins in the museum. The open society was reflected in its religious tolerance - not only was this a great period for Buddhism, with monks at the Jianfu Si busy translating the sutras the adventurous monk Xuan Zong had brought back from India, but the city's Great Mosque dates from the Tang, and one of the steles in the Provincial Museum bears witness to the founding of a chapel by Nestorian Christians.

After the fall of the Tang, Xi'an went into a long decline . It was never again the imperial capital, though the Ming emperor Hong Wu rebuilt the city as a gift for his son; today's great walls and gates date from this time. Occasionally, though, the city did continue to provide a footnote to history. When the Empress Dowager Cixi had to flee Beijing after the Boxer Rebellion, she set up her court here for two years. In 1911, during the uprising against the Manchu Qing dynasty, the Manchu quarter in Xi'an was destroyed and the Manchus massacred. And in 1936, Chiang Kaishek was arrested at Huaqing Hot Springs nearby in what became known as the Xi'an Incident.

Down Town Xian

In the heart of town the Bell Tower (daily 9am-5.30pm; ¥15) stands at the centre of the crossroads where the four main streets meet. The original building, built in 1384, stood two blocks west of here, at the centre of the Tang-dynasty city; the present triple-eaved wooden structure standing on a brick platform was built in 1582 and restored in 1739. You can enter only via the subway on Bei Dajie, in which you buy your ticket and where you must leave your bags (¥2). Inside is an exhibition of chimes and a bronze bell (not the original). A balcony all the way around the outside provides a view of the city's traffic. Dong Dajie , east of here, is the main downtown street, along which you can pick up a pizza, post a letter, get film developed or buy the latest jeans or trainers from clothes outlets and department stores such as the Century Ginwa (see "Shopping"). Restaurants worth checking out along here are Laosunjia and the Xi'an Restaurant. There are also plenty of fast-food and noodle places if you just want to snack: pop into the market entered under an arch opposite the Royal Hotel, full of captive delicacies such as snakes and toads.

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The City Wall

Largely intact and imposing enough to act as a physical barrier between the city centre and the suburbs, Xi'an's walls , built in 1370 and recently restored, are the most distinctive feature of the modern city. There are few roads which cross them, and traffic often has to circle around the outside for some distance before it can gain entry. Forming a rectangle whose sides total 12km in length, they were originally built of rammed earth on the foundation of the walls of the Tang-dynasty imperial city. The walls, which took their modern form in 1568, when they were faced with brick, are 12m high, with a width of 18m at the base and capped with crenellations, a watchtower at each corner and a fortress-like gate in the centre of each side. Originally the city would have been further defended with a moat and drawbridges, but today the area around the walls is a thin strip of parkland, created after a major restoration in 1983. You can climb the walls (daily 8am-6pm; ¥10) from the inside at steps 200m east of the South Gate and at the West Gate. Unrestored sections, mostly in the north and west, mean you can't walk all the way around; you can get farthest if you ascend at the West Gate and walk south, descending when you come to the road, then climbing back up at the south entrance. Locals sometimes use the wall as a nifty shortcut if traffic is bad, and there's nothing to stop you riding a bike along the top, though it will cost you an extra ¥2.

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About Tour Operator Tony

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To Learn About China

Year 2005 Tour schedule

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This website is divided into five sections.

Overview gives a general description of the aims and scope of this tour.

Itinerary provides a detailed look at the daily activities.

References allows others who have taken this tour to talk about their experiences.

Details talks about what's included in the tour, as well as the costs.

Registration will bring you to the China Hiking Adventures Inc. Online Registration System Page for secure registration.

Is China Economy a Bubble ?

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For you to have a second opinion Link to: Travel With A Challenge click here

Pour encourager le développement des relations entre le Québec et la Chine

Audience: Day Hiking, as opposed to back packing, means that each day after breakfast, a bus takes us to the beginning of a hike, transfers our luggage, and pick us up at the end of the hike. A hot shower always awaits us at the next hotel. Although the hiking is not difficult, daily hikes of 10 to 15 km (1 km = 0.621 mile) require good endurance. You should be an enthusiastic, experienced day hiker to enjoy this trip.

Photos from hikers in the past
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Buddhism in China

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