Point2Point

Unlike Tibet, Xi'an was like being back in the western world. Albeit in Asia. While Lhasa was fast becoming a modern and built up city , it still had a magnificent mountain backdrop. Xi'an's claim to city fame was an old red bricked wall standing over 30ft that surrounded its former city boundaries. It wasn't that it was all that impressive architecturally, plain and rounded. But it did give the city a distinctly ancient feel. That coupled with the fact Xi'an was one of the four ancient cities in china's past.

If you wanted to listen, it was a place that spoke in whispers to you of past civilisations. The five hundred thousand to one million year old Lantian Man was discovered here. The silk road originated here during the Han Dynasty that first linked the Roman empire to Asia. It is where the famous terracotta warriors were discovered and still stand. It is also a place where some say there is evidence of a past linked to Egypt.

Our first day was spent familiarizing ourselves with Xi'an city, China and Chinese people. Chris, Stefan and Quinnell were under pressure for time. They wanted to move soon, and it soon became apparent that I wouldn't be heading to Beijing with Chris. China and an ancient history did not mean as much to him as catching a flight to a dive site in Thailand. Mara and Natashka on the other hand were up for a longer time in Xi'an to explore the sites.

Number one on list, thanks to Chris, was McDonald's. Anyone that knows me will tell you I have aversion to McDonald's due to a 'Green' report I had read over ten years ago. But Xi'an was limited when it came to eat in the morning. While the others dined on Mc'something's I chewed heavily on a steamed pastry of containing the unrecognisable meant of some long dead animal. It gave me a chance to read over one of our hostel owners print outs on laptops.

It was something I had decided I needed for quite some time. Since selling my old one in Turkey due to the weight problem and lack of use I was suffering. Not due to any writing or photographic needs as was the original purpose of bringing it. But more to do with financial security, and life in general for a man on the road like me. There wasn't a time when I sat at public internet café and dreaded logging into my bank account. Key loggers, spy ware and all manner of security issues had me driven crazy with paranoia. Then there was Kathmandu and Lhasa. I had fought for a day with the guest house's pc to upload the first riot photograph's, and then in Lhasa I had nothing. Even uploading was not enough, in Lhasa I would have needed software to blur out the Tibetans faces before uploading. Even uploading itself was impossible without a laptop, my photographs are over 5 megabytes and I have two memory cards infected due to having no anti virus. It was worth the risk any more. I was in the land that seemed to produce ninety percent of the worlds cheap electronics, so where better to buy.

While I enjoyed their company the most, I was also aware that Natashka spoke Chinese quite well. Having her come along on a shopping spree would be a huge asset once it came to bartering. Bill had given us a list of places to visit that were thankfully all located together. Both a new and old computer market.

"It's like Wal-mart on steroids."

That was the last we saw of Chris as he disappeared off into the I-pod section of X-division mega PC mall. It was 9 floors of wall to wall computers. Three of which were dedicated to laptops. The air hummed with electronic gadgetry, a computer nerds wet dream. By contrast the old computer market across the road was as close as a nerd could get to being involved in shady Mafia style computer dealings. The old market had only two floors, but in comparisons anything electronic, working or not, was put on display for sale.

There were no neon signs here. No centralised air conditioning. Instead lone air conditioning units stood beside a few vendors stalls. Blowing cool air onto the owner while on the other side of the unit hot air billowed out onto his neighbour. No one grabbed at us. Perhaps because few spoke no more than a few words of English.

For some reason everyone had wanted to come along. The lure of Xi'an or perhaps just because we now shared some kind of bond. At night we spoke of how Lhasa would live with us forever, it didn't mean we would stay together forever. But the feelings and memories of those few days were a part of us now. In a way I think we were trying to make it last out a bit longer; the feeling of that unique once in a life time experience.

My bank account was not happy to hear laptop prices were not so cheap. Worse still was the fact that it was not possible to pay by credit card. Harder again was the fact I had spotted the ideal machine, it weighed in at under 1kg. A travellers delight.

After spending the rest of the day catching up on international news on China and the growing Tibet situation we located the bus that would take us to the Terracotta Army the next day.

"Whoa, their like real dude!"

And that was the last we saw of Chris as he tore off from our mandatory guide at the armies site. '8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses'. Well that's what the brochure said. We followed LP's instructions and started at the smallest pit where the warriors stood. Unlike the Taj or Everest I had once experienced a 3D movie about the army. It was better.

8,000 soldiers in my mind is quite a number. What was laid out in the largest of the pits, number 1, was not so impressive. If no one had mentioned 8,000 soldiers or world heritage site then it would have been impressive. Like a maze of drainage ditches the soldiers were lined up in formation or various lengths below us. We stood on the viewing platform and attempted some shaky dark photographs. The lighting was poor. Yet somehow the nearby shop selling photographs was lit up like it was New Years eve. A little know fact about the soldiers is that they are actually all reconstructed. A large portion of the pits were filled with broken and smashed up parts of terracotta soldiers. One got the feeling you did as a child when you broke a vase or a pot. The temptation for super glue and a super sized jigsaw puzzle was quite strange.

Chris wanted out after and hour. The rest of us continued to try in vain and find something impressive. It came as we were leaving pit number one. The site people were moving some soldiers for some reason. It allowed us a close up look at about six of them. The original paint work was still quite visible and to see it so close made the trip worth while.

Stefan was next to lose interest, and although the rest of us were hanging on to every shred of hope. We too soon departed. Not after our, up until then nice, guide decided to take us on a huge detour into the market shops for all things terracotta. If only she had just taken us to our bus stop. She could have gained more on a tip that way then being told to 'Get lost' by the Slovenians.

It was on the way back on the local bus that I saw a pyramid. Not a giant Giza, or mysterious Mayan temple. But a brand new looking perfect four sided pyramid that stood about 30 feet into the air. 'Museum of Art' was the sign outside. My heart rate rose a little. Such temptation for my real reason in coming all the way to Xi'an. The Slovenians saw my excitement and had to admit it looked interesting. Why was there a newly built Egyptian style Pyramid in Xi'an? The answer to me was that it was some clever business man that new what I did, something was about to happen to Xi'an that would do more to boost it's reputation as a tourist destination than the terracotta warriors could ever hope too.

It had taken a long sit down with Bill at the hostel to finally explain where and what I wanted to see when I said 'Pyramids'. It took me several months in Asia to figure out that unlike in Africa or Europe it's not just the pronunciation of a world that can send confusion into the eyes of your conversation counterpart. One had to guess the right word as well. Pyramid meant nothing to Bill. Nothing at all, yet educated pride meant that he had to agree to know what a Pyramid was. Yet in reality we just knew what one looked like. So it made little sense to him about what I was going on about. It was only when I asked him to print out a leaflet of information I had stored on my email 5 years previously did he click. Tombs. That was the magic word made us both smiles as he pointed out the location of these mysterious burial sites dotted around Xi'an. What's more, there was bus he knew that could take me there.

Mara and Natashka were the only ones that wanted to some with me. I don't know why. Maybe my train side stories with Mara about searching for the Knights Templar Well in Portugal and Morocco had her inspired. Either way the dark clouds that morning did little to inspire her thereafter. A little Chinese taxi man Bill had called showed up to take us to the bus. He came in,looked at us, spoke to the receptionist, and then left. I asked the girl what was wrong and she shrugged. I called bob on his mobile and chased after the taxi man as he got into the car. Handing the my phone to the man I waited for the conversation to finish before Bob explained to me the problem.

"He no speak English"

"Well that's fine Bill," I said trying to make sense of the logic. "He's just taking us to the bus, not explaining anything to us."

"Yes he do this now." Replied Bill, "I explain. You go with him now. HE just worry about the bus. But I say you be fine. You go now. He hurry for bus."

I called the girls and we all climbed into the cab just as it started to rain, and once it was too late to realize that in the rush we had left our rain coats behind. The journey was only about 30 minutes, just enough to take us to the outskirts of the city. We left the taxi and were bundled into a mini bus full of Chinese. It gave me the distinct feeling we were joining a tour of some kind, and not a regular bus.

"Well this should be interesting..." Chirped Mara as she settled into the small cramped seats. She nodded at the driver and a lady with a microphone. "We're on a Chinese tour! Weee."

Grimacing I watched the suited lady on the front seat as she made the microphone squeal in an obligatory high pitched tone. Everything she said was in Chinese and we had no idea where the hell we were headed off to.

"Well at least the bus doesn't leak!" Having the Slovenians come along was nice, but even after a lengthy discussion about how the day could really bore them, I still felt a little guilty having dragged them out like this. They were both laughing about it and said they had nothing else to do, but I think they were expecting something very different to what I wanted to see.

The Lost Chinese Pyramids were indeed Pyramids. First spotted my a USA military reconnaissance plane after WWII, they were denied by the Chinese government. Local archaeological reports leaked onto the internet stated that the ancient Tombs were being systematically destroyed by grant aided farmers who were sought after to build crops over them. Keeping in mind that they were in the moist and crop laden Shaanxi province, it was easy for the buildings to be destroyed in this manner. There were only a few sources on the internet that gave any concrete evidence of this as the area had been in a forbidden zone for many years. What I did understand from both a little documentation and my own intuition of the Chinese economic boost was that all that could be about to change. What bigger draw could there be to a province than a tourist proclamation of world wonder like Pyramids being discovered in China? With the 2008 Olympic Games China was in full on PR and attract tourists mind set. Walk into any Chinese book store these days and you will discover where all the self taught books on 'how to be a tour guide' have ended up. The Pyramids were a gold mine waiting to happen. The problem I imagine was how to do it after all these years of denial. The Pyramids were official Tombs of ancient leaders, and referred to as that. Though both architecturally and physically they resembled the Egyptian equivalents. Throw in internal bureaucracy such as the department for Archaeology, department for tourism, rural development not to mention all the local government scenarios and you could see why all this was stuck in a state of limbo.

Then there was the conspiracy theorists. Or rather the alternative version of what he pyramids were. If you dig deep enough into Tibetan and Western Chinese history you will come up a light splattering of an alternative purpose to the pyramids. From Alien landing zones to complex astronomical star alignments with the Egyptian pyramids. The underground theories even emerge into the fact that in a remote western part of Tibet there was a documented tribe of people that did not grow above 4ft and had elongated heads linking them to being possible Alien Hybrids. All this had, what is commonly referred to as a hook for me. An adventure in a strange land to photograph what only an handful of people have head about.

The reality was that we were stuck out in the rain on a bus with a screeching speaker system. The Slovenians kept smiling but as we visited the temple of some past emperor and and another of some king the smiles turned to upturned pleasantries. Each temple we entered meant we soaked from the torrential downpour that seemed to be lasting for the day. The flimsy neon colored poncho's we had bought from a street vendor were worse than bin liners. Ill fitting and very easy to rip.

Our stop at the massive Qianling Tomb at least brought our spirits up a notch. The place was huge, with a massive thirty foot smooth stone road that linked two hills together. Spread along the road were giant stone sculptures of warriors on horse back, kings, emperors and noble people. A headless platoon of stone warriors stood nearby a plinth that symbolized the 7 elements of Sun, Moon, Metal, Wood, Water, Earth and Fire the Empress Wu Zetian said her husband Emperor Gao Zong embodied in his achievements.

The Famen Temple with all it's true magical Chinese architecture and candle lit halls also worked to help us get through the wet journey. This was made even more tragic when Natashka translated that the the ill spoken lady with the speaker system said there were no pyramids or tombs on the trip, just mausoleums. And that it was a business slash historical private tour of some kind. What Bob had done to get us this tour I had no idea. We headed off into the misty wet down pore towards yet another tomb of little interest to us. I began to plan ahead and think how I would have to stay behind in Xi'an alone to try once again and locate the Pyramids. Maybe I had to go about 'hiring' a special guide with a car. The rain splattered hard against the windows as we drove down a straight well tarmacked but quiet road. The landscape was a lush green, yet the views were shortened my the heavy low lying cloud. In the horizon all I could see were a few trees looming out like dark shadows from the mist and rain. A hill emerged as drew closer as kept on going. It was a lone shadowed hill that stood out alone in an open field. A tall pointed mound with a straight lines. My face burst into an uncontrollable smile.

As the hill drew closer my excitement had me standing up against the bus window and beckoning the Slovenians over. It was as blatantly a pyramid as there ever was one. Not the tallest but at least 100 feet in height, though it was hard to tell from the bus and my sense of height was bad anyway. It didn't matter. It stood now so close to the road I wanted to tell the bus driver to stop. In fact I wanted to escape the bus and not come back for fear of missing this elusive site. Mara saw this and had Natashka speak with the microphone girl.

"She say we stop soon."

My mind was rushing with options.

"And," continued Natashka with a little smile which she knew she'd kept with me, nodded at the pyramid. "Is where the woman says we stop near."

The rain continued to pelt down as the guide led us and the other 10 Chinese through a stone archway. We were at Maoling Mausoleum, it was a place I had read a little about as being one of the 'Pyramid Tombs'. It never stuck me as also having many other pyramids around it. But from the ground I could see nothing but a typical Chinese inner temple courtyard. Red wooden door like frames appeared along the garden path that led to an inner house that housed a museum. After a 2 minute frantic walk around I saw no trace of a Pyramid like structure on display and so headed out again. To my right there was a garden with wonderful trees where giant red blossoms bloomed, it attracted Natashka. As we grew nearer an exterior staircase reviled itself leading up to the top of a large steep foliage covered object.

"Ah ha," mused Mara, "That must be your big pyramid that looks like a grass mound!"

I looked at her with an exasperated expression, "I'll see you guys at the top."

There was no way it could have been the same Pyramid we saw coming in. It was isolated, this one had a garden surrounding it. The stone steps were very small, as if built for a baby feet. They were incredibly slippery, made worse by the continuing downpour. There was no banister to hold on to either, but to the sides there was some foliage and pulling at it I made my way quickly to the top.

Larger steps heralded the end of the climb through a red wooden square archway. There was a small ten by ten foot platform at the top which I stood as my eyes met with a vista of green fields ahead of me. Then to my right I saw it. Standing as if it had been a dropped straight from the sky was a huge Pyramid. Covered in brown dried up shrubbery and lined sporadically with pine trees it had become a part of the landscape. To its left and further back I spotted another in the distance, and again another behind that one. I inhaled the damp cold air and then blew it out in a long sigh. Whatever people say, tombs, mausoleum or grassy mounds. There was no mistaking them for being anything else other than Pyramids.

Taking my camera out from its water proof bag I shielded it from the rain. The wind was strong out in the open and it made it difficult to protect the camera from water. I managed some long overdue photographs and with Mara's help a tourist shot of myself with them in the distance.

"Where are the Chinese?" I asked Natashka, hoping to hear something positive.

Natashka took a second to reply. " There're emm. They're still doing the museum part. I told the guide we were going ahead up here."

It was what I wanted to hear.

"Well," interjected Mara, "They're pyramids alright. Happy now?"

Wincing I looked at them, and then at the step of steps leading down on the other side. "I'm going to have a closer look guys. I have too. It's too good to pass up." Then looking back at them and apologised, offering that they might come along too. I didn't wait, one look from Mara told me that they needed to chat about it first.

I didn't have the time to wait for a chat in the rain. There was a time limit ticking here. The tour still had to finish the museum, and then make there way up the slippery steps. And then pose for photos. Then make there way down again before heading to the bus. I had time. I had to have time. The steps were as small as the other side but not nearly as slippery. They were still wet though and more than once I slid down several at time. At the bottom there were several stone paths leading off to several little red archways. With only one shot at taking the right path I chose the one that was slightly wider than the rest. It went under the first arch and veered off in a winding manner to the left though some flowering bushes. Then it straightened out to arrive at Chinese style hut. Huge red doors with heavy black iron locking it shut to all.

The path stretched out on either side of the hut like entranceway but ended in a row of pine trees. For a reason I can only put down to instinct I did not stop. Walking quickly to the pine trees on the right I pushed into them. My hands felt the cold wet stone first. Feeling along and then down I realised it was a fence. It didn't take mush effort to pus further into the branches and climb over the stone fence to the other side. Though in the process my neon orange poncho went through the final process of falling apart.

The rain whipped my face as I looked up at the formidable structure before me. The open grass land meant the wind picked up the rain and helped it get into my every pore. It was about 200ft to the Pyramids base and running without caution I felt like the nerdy amateur archaeologist in the world. People had to have seen me run across the grassy area. Looking back towards the stone stepped mound I suddenly realised that that too was a pyramid. Though a much older looking one that had let trees grow all around its pyramidal structure. At the top there were the red archways. The rain blurred my vision as I searched for an audience. Nobody. The rain was keeping people at bay. If I was breaking the law, the security guards were in hiding and not too pushed. There was no sign of the girls either.

The pyramid was completely covered in brown soil. The sporadic green pine trees seemed well spaced out it was almost screaming to say it had once blatantly covered up by the authorities. I reached out and touched the light brown earth covered slope almost as if confirming if it was real. Damp soil and slippery dead brown grass greeted my fingers. I pushed deeper, more soil, hard and gritty. The words 'grassy mound' wouldn't leave my head. Although this was far from grassy. It was covered in light brown soil, and the pine trees looked as if they had been planted by man and not nature. Following the base I started to walk around the structure. Its similarity to Egyptian pyramids was striking. They too were burial sites, yet they were 'pyramids'. It is one of humanity's epic journeys. Thousands of years ago people came out of the wild and formed civilisation along with ritual. Yet these structures rarely made it into the news. I was of course looking for an opening, but none came. Turning the first corner I looked back just in time to see some black dots appear on top of the first mound. The tour was already at the top.

On the other side the view was impressive. It was isolated. Free from any form of modern structures. In the distance and across several miles of grass stood the other pyramid. Graceful and permanent. Again I looked my pyramid up and down. Nothing but brown soil and spread out pine trees. Nothing to indicate solid stone or brick. Up ahead there was a cluster of light brown rocks scattered around the ground. Walking closer I could clearly see that there had been an excavation there at some point. But no entrance. Then as clear as it could be in the heavy grey rain I saw a metal grill in the ground. It had several rocks around it that obscured it from plain sight. Moving closer I leant over to peer down at it.

IT was pitch black behind the rusty iron grill plate. It was locked as well, though the rusty lock did not look like it was worthy of a key any more. Fumbling in my pocket I found my head torch and risking it to the rain I turned the light on. My face lit up into another hardened smile. There behind the grill in the depths of darkness my torch illuminated a smooth stone tunnel complete with steps leading down. My heart filled with dreams of ancient wonders and future adventure when the shrill of my phones message tone brought me back with a bang.

"Sweety, they r about 2 head back down. Wht 2 do?"

It was Mara. My head rocked back and faced the sky. Rain pelted my eyes shut and I drank the sweet water as it fell into my mouth. A distant inner voice recalled a saying. 'Sometimes it's better to never reach a goal than to have it.'