Day 12 & 13: In Xi’an and Bing Mayong

The next day, I slept in and then wandered to the famous city walls where I did the full tourist program including a 1,5h bicycle ride. After that I went to the History Museum and then sorted out my flight ticket. In the evening I met with another friend of mine and later on, felix joined us. It was a great evening and felix agreed to show me a nice little road through the mountains to the Terracotta Warriors the next morning. I went home earlier than felix and after some confused text and email messages we met the next morning at a roundabout at the southeastern end of the city. Felix brought his colleague from Shanghai Sideways (which was actually from Chengdu if I remember correctly) as pillion and we started off via the expressway before felix took us into the mountains.

Right at the beginning we stopped at a little yaodong, the traditional loess earth cave dwellings for which rural Shaanxi is famous. The farmers lady showed us happily around her caves and felix’ colleague was happy to help with interpretation. This was so great because otherwise I would never had this opportunity to talk to some normal farmers from that area.

Felix and colleague(s) by fahni, on Picuna


stables by fahni, on Picuna


entrance to the yaodong by fahni, on Picuna


entrance to the yaodong by fahni, on Picuna


inside the yaodong by fahni, on Picuna


chopping board by fahni, on Picuna






After some water and chatting, we continued on small rural roads through the mountains and suddenly, my chain fell off. The rear sprocket had been kind of loose for some time but no repairman had bothered. Now, one nut was missing completely, the chain was sagging after not being tightened for maybe 1200 km and so off it went.
Felix was back quickly and I made a fool out of myself for trying to get off the sprocket completely to put on the chain again instead of putting on a bit and then thread it in via spinning the wheel. Just as if I had never put on a chain on a normal bike… Stupid!

Anyway, it was an easy fix with two of the four bolts on the sprocket still super tight and knowing that I only had to go a couple of km before arriving at the Imperial Tomb and then there would be lots of repairman. So I followed felix further. We checked out a small dirt track that led into nothing and finally arrived at a little folk religion temple on top of the mountain. It had a prayer hall for Buddhist deities and one for Daoist ones. But when we asked the monk if the temple was Buddhist or Daoist he replied that this viewpoint was not correct as it was actually devoted to Nüwa and Fuxi, a kind of founding couple of the Chinese Civilization. And these two are much older thus being above Buddhism and Daoism. Very, very interesting.

Nüwa and Fuxi by fahni, on Picuna


chinese zodiacs in the buddhist part by fahni, on Picuna


the daoist part by fahni, on Picuna



Felix didn’t have time to join me for the terracotta warriors (and I am sure he has seen them pretty often) so I said good bye to the two of them. It was really nice riding with felix and I recommend getting in touch with him when you get to Xi’an. He really knows his backyard.

The Bing Ma Yong were not as overcrowded as I expected them to be. I took my time and tried to get a feeling for this incredible display of wealth and power. I did not take any pictures because most people know the pictures and my little snapshots would do this miracle no justice. But for me as a Sinologist, of course the visit to the Bing Ma Yong was a must do that I finally was able to strike off my list.

On my return I stopped to get a new nut on that sprocket bolt and have the bike cleaned before I picked up my luggage at the hotel and moved in with a friend of mine for the last night. I had some Xi’an delicacies before we resorted to beer and chatting later in the evening.

The next morning it took me a long time to get everything settled and all my stuff organized for the shipping. Basically it was helmet, tools and gear on the bike and the rest via airplane. Then I fell victim to the Xi’an traffic again and arrived at the train station latish. But check-in was no problem. I was only surprised to learn that the bike would not be weighted but the displacement of my bike would be calculated as weight. Well, my bike with full top box weights about 138 kg so not much damage done when calculating it at 150kg But what it must cost to ship a big displacement bike!

I arrived at the airport right on time and after a short delay flew back to Beijing.