by Bo Schwerin

It's one of those situations that tests reality: I'm separated by one inch of glass from Buddha's finger. Finger bone, actually, a hollow ivory-hued tube displayed in a case rather spartan considering this is a relic of not just any Buddha, but the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, whose teachings in the sixth century B.C. led to the birth of Buddhism. Nevertheless, the bone has that clean aura of holiness; I imagine laying my own finger upon it and being transformed into glass, the whole of existence filtering through me like sunlight. "The bone you see here," my chirpy guide announces, "is a fake."Oh. According to my guide, of the three finger bones on display at the Famen Temple (famen si, 法门寺), two are clever replicas designed during the Tang Dynasty (678-902) to throw off thieves. Around the corner, the real finger of Buddha is housed in the most elaborate case and is barely visible in its golden reliquary behind heaps of flowers, fruits and incense. When visiting Xi'an ("Western Peace"), one often gets the sense that there's a bit of three-card monty going on. The genuinely staggering historical presence of the city can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of deadlocked traffic, dizzying pollution, and hordes of souvenir vendors who pursue visitors with wolverine-like doggedness. It's easy to wonder if there's any real aura left to Xi'an, or if its appeal is (figuratively speaking) ancient history, trampled to dust by the tourist herds and the parasites that feed off them.

But one almost needn't visit Xi'an to be in awe of the place. In a country where it seems every city of decent size and age has been the capital of some dynasty, kingdom or government, Xi'an still stands out as the general site of no less than 13 dynastic capitals and the owner of over 3000 years of history. The first capital of unified China, Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-206 B.C.) Xianyang, was established near the grounds of modern day Xi'an. Following were the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-25 A.D.) capital of Chang'an ("Eternal Peace") and the Sui Dynasty capital of Daxing ("Great Excitement"). By the time the Tang Dynasty founded their capital in Daxing (renaming it Chang'an), the city was the largest in the world and was a cultural and economic nexus rivaled only by Rome. As the eastern end of the famous Silk Road linking China to the West via extensive, lucrative trade routes, Chang'an flourished until it was destroyed during the fall of the Tang.

Present-day Xi'an was founded during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a shadow of its former self that has nonetheless grown into one of modern China's ten largest cities and is capital of Shaanxi Province. Xi'an is imbued with so much history it feels almost surreal; even amid the cacophonous traffic and the sad-faced apartment buildings, with a little effort one can imagine the camel trains slowly loping toward the western horizon, laden with the treasures of the Orient. The specters of China's ancient exemplaries still loom here: Qin Shi Huang, the unifier of China, whose great and terrible heart still feels palpably alive, speaking from the forested hill under which lies the emperor's personal necropolis. Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor, who to this day commands respect from her mountaintop tomb. In the dilapidated remains of the imperial baths, a Tang Dynasty playground for the emperors and the highly favored, one's imagination can still fetch a teasing glimpse of Yang Guifei, one of China's legendary beauties, testing the waters. With so much to take in over a fairly wide area, Xi'an is potentially overwhelming. But the main tourist paths are well marked and well traveled, and, despite their popularity, are still worth following yourself. Imperial Xi'an

Any visit to Xi'an typically begins, and rightly so, with a visit to the Terracotta Army (bingmayong, 兵马俑) Museum. Located about 40km to the east of Xi'an proper, the magnificent guardians of Qin Shi Huang's massive tomb complex easily live up to their claim as the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World. Within three well-housed pits, the soldiers, each crafted with unique facial features, form orderly ranks that, in the places where excavation is ongoing, seem to march out of the earth itself. Pit 1 features largely infantry, Pit 2 includes horses, chariots, and archers, and Pit 3 is the army headquarters. Like all armies, this one too has suffered losses: Shattered remains speak of a real-life confrontation between Qin Shi Huang's terracotta army and the looting bands of the warlord Xiang Yu in the days following the collapse of the Qin Dynasty. Also on display are two fantastically detailed chariots, on about a 50 percent scale, complete with horses and drivers.

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