I landed in Xi’an the other day for my second ever solo international travel. If you do not know much about Xi,an, China, well, neither did I.
Xi,an is really famous for one big attraction: the Terracotta Army. That was the only thing I knew going into the trip: that I wanted to visit the statues and explore the pits.
I booked my hostel via hostelworld and it is a really nice place right near the city center of the town. Traveling alone, and with no sim card, I actually have not been that lost just relying on a map and google maps offline mode. Using a real map? Wild, right!
I booked the Terracotta Warriors tour via my hostel and left the morning after I arrived. It was about a 1.5 hour drive away from the city to the site. Did I mention it was pouring rain all day? That certainly added to the fun of it. Also, I almost missed the bus. I am never late to things but for some reason I woke up at like 6 am and fell back asleep. Woke up to the hostel owner banging on my door. Thankful for that.
Touring the army was really cool. Amazing to understand the history of the site. I recommend you at least go through the Wikipedia pages for the territory and really understand the historical significance of these 8000+ clay statues. It truly is unbelievable that they have managed to restore such amazing and mysterious cultural treasures.
Anyways, I could go on and on about the warriors – but I think they are super cool.
I think another really cool part about this trip thus far has been exploring the city of Xi’an with absolutely zero expectations. It has been cool to see. I have eaten great food. And I have actually learned a ton.
First cool part about this city, and just reading about this city, is that there are over 7/8 million people who live here. 8 million people?! In this random city that no one from home has likely heard about it. This statistic alone is an important reminder of just how big the world and specifically China really is.
Exploring the city, though, it is really not that big. The city revolves around the ancient walls – that you can actually bike across – and beautiful temples, bell towers, etc.
Once again, I find that the people are very nice and welcoming. Honestly, I do not think I have seen many “non-locals” walking around and that is certainly a weird feeling.
I wrote, back in the beginning of my travel journey in NY, that I felt small in this big world. I wrote that back then having never been to Asia – China – etc. Now, I feel it anymore. But it is also a different sense of small.
I feel small in that I now better understand the vastness of society. I better realize just how many ins and outs of the world there are and that there are infinite problems to be working on. The world keeps spinning regardless of my existence.
