Having finished the undergraduate marking I’ve had time to sneak in a quick trip to Xi’an on the way to Beijing for work. While here I’ve caught up with a favourite former student, a good friend passing through on business and, of course, seen some of the history and culture of Xi’an. I also had something of a business mission, because I’m thinking of bringing next year’s MScIB Overseas Project students here.

Technorati Tags: China, photography

Xi’an is historically important because it was the capital for a number (11 or 13, I can’t remember) of dynasties. Its located at the intersection of a number of rivers (most of which now seem to be dry).

The city is surrounded by the most impressive city wall that I have ever seen. Its very tall and very broad and largely intact. The top of the wall constitutes a broad promenade, though presumably built with less leisurely activities in mind.

Its also a city that has more prominent traditional architecture than I have seen in the big modernising Chinese cities. Partly this is because of a series of towers and the wall which help define the inner city.

The are also plenty of old buildings and many of the new ones have reasonably tastefully hints of the traditional.

The historical highlight, though, are the terracotta warriors. That they constitute an important historical site and are somewhat out-of-bounds does moderate the effect somewhat, the museum and display is really impressive.

Three pits are on display with the soldiers in various states of repair. This is partly as a consequence of the restoration work and partly as a consequence of their partial destruction when they were buried in advance of an invasion.

There are a couple of interesting artistic facts about the soldiers. First, each terracotta soldier is modeled on a real soldier, so the facial features are unique. Second, the artistic style is different to that of European sculpture. The Chinese accentuate the facial features to give each solider his individual and regional identity. In the European classical tradition, sculptures are more about an ideal type and the emphasis is on the form of the body. So, while the classical Greek and Roman sculpture has very clearly defined muscle form, shows the bones in hands etc, this is not present in the terracotta soldiers, or even in their horses.

Finally, no report, however brief, on a trip in China is complete without a comment on the food. In Xi’an it really was to my taste. Because of both the weather and the long Islamic tradition in the region, beef and lamb are much more common. The food is spicy, but not has hot as in Chongqing. Lots of BBQed meat. Really very tasty. Also, much to my liking, there seems to be a decent tradition of eating sweats (I’m nibbling on some candied walnuts as I write this).