Text / photo by CRI reporter Chu Daye

This June, after many delays and doubts, I finally embarked on a trip to Xi'an.

Leaning back in the seat, I relished on the thought of being able to tour Xi'an in a matter of hours. I looked down at my list of possible destinations and found that all of them could easily be described as "relics." A relic is something that survived time; a touchstone of history, and a piece of memory of a long, dark past. Such a trip is ideal for a history buff like me.

Xi'an's airport, Xianyang International Airport, is built near Xianyang, the ancient capital of the Qin dynasty (221-207 B.C.), the first unified empire in China' history. Actually, Shaanxi is also called the land of Qin, because the land belonged to the Qin state since the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.).

Some experts say the shape of the map of Shaanxi resembles a kneeling terracotta archer. His head and trunk is the yellow, ragged Loess plateau; his thighs the vast, flat and fertile plain of Guanzhong, the land inside the Hangu Pass. His feet are Hanzhong, a region located in the warm sub-tropical zone full of mountains and rivers. Hanzhong by the way is the last stronghold of China's endangered animal species, home to the giant panda, the golden monkey, the golden takin and the crested ibis.

A shuttle bus picked up us from the airport and in the night we settled on a small hotel near the Xi'an Railway Station. Lying on the bed, holding a Shaanxi tourist map all excited about finally getting to see these “well-known” relics with my own eyes, I began to hum cheerfully... 

Day 1

Our first day's itinerary included a tour to the imperial tombs about 100 kilometers to the west of Xi'an and the world-famous Famen Temple with its underground shelter, but what is really important is that the shelter enshrines a finger of Buddha Sakyamuni, a relic in the strict sense of the word.

You can't throw a stick and not hit an imperial tomb in Shaanxi, making the decision of which one to visit difficult. We finally settle on the tombs of the Han(206 B.C.-A.D. 220) and Tang (A.D.618-907) dynasties. Both are located in Fufeng County, about 100 kilometers west of Xi'an.

The most interesting tomb is the joint tomb of Tang Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian.

Empress Wu Zetian is the only female emperor in the 2100 years of imperial China. She found her own dynasty, the Zhou, and ruled under the name Emperor Shensheng from A.D.690 to 705. Her rise and reign has been criticized harshly by China's Confucian historians but has been viewed under a different light after the 1950s.

The joint tomb of of Empress Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong is built on the top of a hill. A wide and long passageway leads to the tomb entrance. The passage is guarded on each side by stone engravings of courtesans, generals, and animals. They are numerous and exquisite.

The thing that got me most is Empress Wu Zetian's "Stele without Epitaph." The stele has been standing in front of their joint tomb since the tomb was finished. But, unlike other steles erected before an emperor's tomb, there wasn't a single word on it when the stele was completed! The inscriptions we see today were all written later.  As to who erected this stele without epigraphy and why he or she did so, this is still a conundrum for archeologists today.

Related Stories:
Travel Express Vol.76: Xi'an
Photo Gallery: Xi'an
Travel Story: China's Eternal City

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