Xi'an means
Western Peace, and was the
capitol of the
earliest dynasties of
Chinese civilization (then known as
Chang'an. Because it is far west/
inland from the major cities of
China, it is generally visited by
tourists only for the
Terra Cotta Army--which is certainly well worth a
visit, especially the second and third
areas which are still being excavated. However, there is more to see, many
palaces and such, the goofy statue of
Yang Guifei, and so on. The ancient
city walls are also quite impressive, and would be
more so if they hadn't been mostly destroyed during
Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Driving through the
countryside on the way to the
city is amazing: nearly every
farmer's
field is interrupted here and there by
archaelogical digs. Xi'an proper is still being "developed," and it's full of half-built, rusting factories and empty
Soviet-style
apartment buildings without glass in the
windows. It's also very, very
dusty, at least in the
summer.
From Xi'an you can take a
day trip to
Leshan, or hop the
train to about
anywhere.
NB: Sometimes people query whether "Xi'an" is an outdated
romanization, since the use of the ' in Chinese names went out when
Pinyin came in. Actually, this is a useful convention and is accepted as standard. Xi'an is two syllables, and if it were romanized without a space like most two syllable words are now, it would look like a different sound, the single
syllable "xian."