We were in Xi'An, China! Today, we visited the Terracotta Warriors Museum. This was on our 'bucket list' coming to Xi'An, so we were definitely excited. After all, this is arguably the most important reason why tourists visit Xi'An in the first place!
Feeling adventurous, we decided to take the public bus. After researching on the Internet, we realised that it wasn't difficult. You just need to find your way to Xi'An Main railway station (not to be confused with Xi'An North High Speed Rail station). Unfortunately, there wasn't any metro stop near the main railway station, so we took a taxi from our hotel (Sheraton Xi'An North). The ride didn't take too long, about 15 minutes.
After alighting at the taxi stand, it was a short walk across a public square to a bus bay, where there were many tourist buses waiting. There were several companies, but they bring you to the same destination, i.e. Terracotta Army Museum, albeit some have slightly different stops. The bus fare was 7RMB or 8RMB per adult each way (7 or 8 depending on the company you take). You can pay the bus conductor in cash.
The ride took about an hour. Once you get off at the bus terminus, it was quite easy to find your way to the visitor entrance (just follow the signs). Buy your tickets and get yourself in!
The video below shows you from the time we arrived at Xi'An Main railway station. We got on a bus (it was blue in colour) and made our way to the Terracotta Army museum. En-route, we did stop at another tourist site, but that's for another blog post.
The Terracotta Museum itself was huge. Apparently, the crowds can get overwhelming (just look at the size of the entrance, and the barricades). Fortunately, it wasn't that crowded when we were there. We got our tickets easily (very short queue) and made our way in.
Pit 1 is the most famous pit. Take all your pictures there!
Some photographs to follow. After buying our tickets, this was the main entrance. Quite intimidating isn't it!
A photo of my ticket. We paid in cash.
From the main entrance, you still had to walk about 1KM to get to the main museum proper. There was some electric cart buggy you could ride (for a fee of course), but I think the ride wasn't worth it. The ground was very flat and it was an easy walk. The vast majority walked.
Inside the main Terracotta museum grounds, there are essentially 3 pits that you must visit. You can find all the detailed descriptions of these pits when you google, so I won't repeat them here.
As many of the reviewers have noted, Pit 1 is the most awesome and most famous. This is what it looks like. The scale is mind-boggling. Terracotta Army Pit 1 is an east-west rectangular pit, measuring 230 meters (252 yards) long, 62 meters (68 yards) wide and 4.5 to 6.5 meters (15 to 21 feet) deep. It is said to contain 6,000 warriors and horses.
Another view of Pit 1.
Yet another angle. You can see the soldiers all lined up. Obviously, when they uncovered this gigantic pit in 1976, it wasn't so neat. Hey, after being buried for 2,000 years, it ain't going to be so neat.
Take all your photos here, because Pit 2 and Pit 3 have far fewer warriors. Here is Pit 2 - also very large, but they are still excavating.
And pit 3 - which is supposedly a command pit. Pit 3 is the smallest, by far. Built in the shape of the Chinese character “凹”, the Terracotta Army Pit 3 measures 17.6 meters (19.2 yards) long from east to west, 21.4 meters (23.4 yards) wide from north to south and 4.8 meters (15.7 feet) deep. It can be divided into three parts: chariot and horse chamber, northern wing room, and southern wing room. It is thought that the northern wing room was used to pray for victory and the southern one for collecting military tactics. A total of 68 lifelike terracotta warriors were excavated from this pit, 42 from the southern wing room and 22 from the northern one. Sadly, many of them are missing their heads. The archaeologists also found a lot of well-preserved bronze weaponry, as well as gold, stone and bronze decorations, inside Pit 3. A distinctive chariot equipped with four horses was discovered inside the chamber of the pit. https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/terra_cotta_army/pit_3.htm
It doesn't really take that long to do the Terracotta Warriors museum. If you want to speed things up a bit, you could hire a driver, or get a taxi, instead of the public bus. Obviously that would cost you more.
We were in Xi'An, China! We stayed at the Sheraton Xi'An North hotel - a wonderful stay. Today, we would be visiting the Longmen Grottoes. Longmen what? The Chinese name is 龙门石窟 Lóngmén Shíkū, or literally Dragon Gate Caves, or Grottos. (So nothing to do with Longman Jeans)
In 2000 the site was inscribed upon the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity,” for its perfection of an art form, and for its encapsulation of the cultural sophistication of Tang China
Now, getting to this UNESCO World Heritage site would be interesting. It was located near the city of Luoyang. The distance between Xi'An and Luoyang was 380km (236 miles). This distance was farther than Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (which is about 350km).
How to get there? High Speed Rail of course! The journey time would take us about 1.5 hours. To achieve this, the train would have to achieve an average speed of 253km/h. Not bad at all! This would be our first time on board a China High Speed Rail train. Excited!
I made 2 videos to remember this experience. Here they are, followed by some pictures.
In this first video, we make our way from Sheraton Xi'An North, via Xi'An Metro, to the Xi'An High Speed Rail station. After getting our tickets, we got into this huge station (the largest in Northwest China). As we had a bit of time, and also because our train ride was 1.5 hours long, we decided to get some food to eat on the train. I got a KFC burger - easy to eat! The train ride was very smooth and punctual. In the video, I also show you the toilet in the train. It was clean.
In this second video, I immediately show you the highlight (the most famous cave) of Longmen Grottoes - this huge rock carving of a giant Buddha and many other figures. You can find a full description of what this place is about on this Wikipedia entry. We don't believe in Buddha, but we were here to admire the rock carvings! Overall, it was quite a sight Pity, however, this place has been badly destroyed and mutilated over the years. We were told during the Cultural Revolution, the damage was super extensive. So we saw many empty caves, headless statues etc. We didn't spend too long here, but managed to see the most famous cave which is at the start of my video below.
Pictures
As promised, some pictures. Xi'An North High Speed Rail Station was huge, the largest station in Northwest China.
2nd class cabin, it is in a 2-3 configuration. Comfortable, and trains were punctual. The seats weren't very wide, but the incline was very good! Can easily take a nap.
Toilets were clean. This one was a squat toilet. My video shows you more of the train toilet. (yes, I went to do a toilet inspection.)
We brought our own food and water to eat and drink on board. Doing so allowed us to head to the tourist site immediately once the train arrived at Luoyang Longmen. Didn't want to waste any time finding food.
From the High Speed Rail station, we took a taxi to the Visitor Center. At the Visitor Center, we bought our tickets to enter the site. There was an optional electric cart. Having read earlier reviews, we took the cart as well. It wasn't expensive, and the ride was rather long. Saved us plenty of walking. You can see snippets of this ride in the second video.
After we reached the main site, there was naturally plenty of walking and stair climbing to do. Didn't want to tire ourselves so early! These are the steps with the wooden/golden handrails that would bring us to the most famous cave. This is featured in my second video.
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Unfortunately, the Longmen Grottos haven't been well preserved. Plenty of damage. Oh well.
This angle shows you the steps to climb up, to see the various 'holes'. Frankly, more holes than statues now.
This shows you the interior of one the larger caves. I'm sure when it was first carved, it would been quite splendid as a piece of art. But, the wear and tear is really quite bad. Still, you can make out the statues.
Overall, it was an interesting visit, and only made possible by the very impressive and reliable China High Speed Rail system. So the lesson for me, for this field trip, was not so much this UNESCO world heritage site, but more of just how well connected Chinese cities are now with their High Speed Rail system!
We fly China Eastern Airlines Business class, back to Singapore from Xi'An, after a wonderful holiday in Xi'An!
Our fight plan was as follows:
MU 5010 - dep Xian 0850, arr Shanghai 1125
MU 565 - dep Shanghai 1435, arr Shanghai 2010
As our flight departed Xian somewhat early that morning, we decided to stay at the Regal Airport Hotel for one night, so that our departure could be smooth and easy. Our flight home would be much smoother than our exciting adventure some days earlier on getting to Xian!
Xian Xianyang Airport Terminal 3 had a dedicated check-in area for China Eastern, which was very near the security clearance. After checking in (our luggage would be checked through to Singapore), clearing security was quite quick (there were priority lines for Premium Pax) and we quickly found our way to the China Eastern Lounge. Just follow the signs, not difficult. The entrance to the lounge looked like this. I read online that China Eastern operated another lounge at the other end of the concourse. But this lounge was very near our gates, so made a lot more sense to wait here, at the V1 lounge.
Busy Lounge
Inside the lounge, we found it quite busy indeed. I made a video of the lounge, and you can see the crowds at the dining area. There was a decent selection of food, and China Eastern served their signature beef noodles in this lounge too. Indeed, the Chinese love their noodles, no doubt about that.
Nice Blue Seats
Here are some photos of the lounge. Nice blue seats. They looked traditional, but they were pretty comfortable. You could actually snooze on them (we did for a while) by lounging forward. The seats gave good support to the next! There were charging points on the floor, in between the seats, making it convenient to charge our devices. Of course, I had to use my universal plug. You can watch my video at 5:54 to see the charging points.
Rather Sunny!
At times, it felt rather warm, because the morning sun was pouring in. Yes, this lounge gets the morning sun.
First Class Ticket?
Was a bit tickled when I saw my boarding passes (Red) which stated First Class. No, we didn't buy First class tickets, ours was Business class fare. However, it seems that within China, they seem to mix Business and First. Maybe the concept is like in the USA, where they call domestic business as First Class. Anyway, it didn't matter, as long as we got our seats!
Our flight was delayed by almost an hour, due to late arrival of aircraft from Moscow. Apparently MU5010 is a service from Shanghai to Moscow, via Xi'An. So the plane came in from Moscow. Didn't bother us too much since we had sufficient layover time at Shanghai as buffer, and waiting in the lounge was comfortable (we found a spot which didn't have the morning sun). We could wait until the boarding announcements were made before heading to the gate.
MU 5010 Xi'an to Shanghai
Again, we had to take a bus from our gate to the airplane. Truly, a bus airline! We got up the mini-bus for Premium Pax, and the ride was about 5 minutes to the aircraft. I made this video of our flight experience from Xi'An to Shanghai, on board the China Eastern Airbus A330-300 series aircraft.
This Airbus was also retrofitted with their latest cabin product, which looked very similar to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that we flew on from Singapore to Shanghai. Some pictures of the cabin (in a 1-2-1 configuration) below.
Notice the slightly staggered layout of the window seats - alternate between true window seat and nearer the aisle seat.
A 1-2-1 formation. Very spacious, private feel. Overall, a very solid hard product.
The IFE screens were fairly big. Good enough for me to watch a movie.
When we flew from Shanghai to Xi'An a few days back on a late flight (dep 2130hrs), the catering was extremely underwhelming - 2 tarts and 5 slices of fruit! So, I was curious, this time what would we get for a morning flight? A slice of bread and a drink perhaps? LOL!
Asian or Western style breakfast?
Fortunately, China Eastern did better than that. We had a choice of Asian or Western style breakfast. I chose Asian, not knowing what it entailed. But at least we were decent a decent breakfast (local Xi'An style), which I quite enjoyed. Bear in mind this is a 1hr 50min flight, so my expectations weren't sky high. Here is breakfast I enjoyed. Do watch my video if you want more details of the food, as I examine the food tray more closely.
The flight path from Xi'An to Shanghai wasn't straight. Wonder why. Maybe to avoid weather, or traffic congestion, or military airspace. Well, as long as our pilot got us to our destination safely, I can't complain.
Weather was bright and sunny as we approached Shanghai Pudong. Managed to get a very nice view of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport from the air. There was an aircraft landing on the runway too. Cool!
Arrival into Shanghai Pudong
Landing was smooth. Recall, when we arrived in Shanghai en-route to Xi'An, we had assumed that our onward flight was on track. This time round, I immediately turned on my flight app which could show me the arrivals/departures at the airport. Yes, our onward flight was on schedule. Of course, don't just trust the app, check the departure boards in the airport itself. It looked ok. Phew!
So we made our way past security and immigration, to the departure area for international flights at Shanghai Pudong, and took the escalator up to the China Eastern Lounge. This was supposedly China Eastern's flagship lounge. It was rather crowded when we got there, as it was lunch hour, but we could still find a nice table for the two of us on the first level.
Food - I had 2 servings of this Nasi Goreng style rice with fish, and I couldn't resist trying that bun.
The second floor of the lounge was a lot more quiet, with many seats and very few passengers. Head up here if you want a quite place to nap or chill. Of course, don't forget to set your alarm for your boarding time!
Another angle of the second floor. Yes, the boarding announcements were made, but they weren't that loud. You could miss them if you are not careful.
Boarding Time
It was time for us to board the aircraft (we waited till the boarding announcement), and we headed off to our gate. Our aircraft was boarding from Gate 212, which was a bus boarding gate. When we reached the gate, they had already started general boarding. It didn't look like there was a line for priority passengers!
Well, we just followed the other business class passengers who went to the front of the line, showed the staff our tickets, and they let us through. We headed to the mini-van for premium passengers and enjoyed our final ride on this same type of mini-bus. We have had so many bus rides on this trip that I've lost count!
The aircraft that would be flying us to Singapore was a rather new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Every passenger, premium or not, had to use the same staircase up to the airplane. I took this photo to show my parents. The steps were steep. Given their age, I had advised them not to take China Eastern. Not sure if my mother can make her way up and down such steps.
Another look at the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Pretty neat! We weren't in any rush to board, so we let the other passengers board first. The weather was great, and I took many photos of the plane. See the front gear - serial number of this plane was B-209N. She was delivered to Shanghai Pudong on 31st March 2019. Very new!
Flight Review - Shanghai to Singapore on the China Eastern Dreamliner in Business Class
Here is the flight review video on this Shanghai to Singapore leg.
The cabin was beautiful. Very classy. For this flight, I was seated in 8L, which was a window seat. (as in right next to the window)
The welcome drink was champagne, orange juice, or water. I chose the champagne. This time round, the menus were placed at our seats. I took a glance through, and from the applicable menu for our flight. China Eastern has the habit of printing a single menu that can last them for many, many months. If you watch 3:30 of my video you will see that the menu is colour coded - Red for Odd month 1st to 15th, Orange for Odd month 16th to 31st, Blue for Even month 1st to 15th and Green for even month 16th to 31st.
I guess this system saves them printing costs.
For my dinner, I chose the 3 cup chicken with rice. The cabin crew asked whether I would like dinner to be served immediately upon takeoff, or later. As our takeoff time was about 2:30pm (i.e. too early for dinner), I asked to be served later. The crew said the service would be at 5:30pm, as landing was slightly past 7pm. I said ok.
After the flight took off, cabin lights were dimmed, and most passengers were watching movies or took an afternoon map. The crew came around with drinks service, and I got some white wine to go with the mixed nuts that they gave out. It was good.
The seat could be converted into a flat bed easily (push button) and I took a short nap. For some reason, I woke up automatically, just before dinner time. Perhaps I was getting hungry! Dinner was served. It wasn't like gourmet food, but the taste suited me just fine.
My tray table was ready for dinner service. They gave me the red wine first.
My 3-cup chicken with rice meal. The taste wasn't bad at all!
Well, that pretty much wraps up my Trip Report, Xi'An to Shanghai to Singapore on China Eastern Business class. This was our first time on China Eastern, and putting aside the slight trauma we had with delays and cancelled flights on Singapore to Xi'An leg, it was a great experience for the price we had paid!
Would we fly with China Eastern again? Yes! But we would also know that their flights may be delayed/cancelled etc, so we would be mentally prepared for it all.
We stayed for 5 nights at the Sheraton Xi'An North Hotel, part of the Marriott Bonvoy Group, in a Club Room. We had an awesome stay!
The hotel is centrally located, right next to a subway station on Line 2. Just 3 stops south and you will get to Bell Tower/Drum Tower.
Taxi ride from the Airport cost around 120RM to 140RM, and took about 30 minutes.
Opposite the hotel, there were 2 large shopping centers, with plenty of eateries and supermarket.
Here is a walkthrough of our Club Room, on the 21st Floor.
We had an amazing experience in the Club Lounge. We had breakfast there everyday, and also Happy Hour (5pm to 8pm) every day! They served up a full dinner during Happy Hour, and it was awesome!
Breakfast in the Club Lounge
Happy Hour (Dinner) in the Club Lounge
While this isn't the newest hotel in Xi'An, it is still a luxury hotel, and the price point was very good. We booked our room through the Marriott Bonvoy app and paid a very reasonable price for our 5 night stay in a Club Room.
