What else is worth traveling across China to see? When transitioning from Beijing to Shanghai, a couple of us took a flight to a town called Xian, which is the city where the famous discovery of the underground terra-cotta warriors happened. You look on the map and you go, "Holy cow, am I going to go all the way out there?" Then it's like going to Chicago; it was easy. The ancient city wall [of Xian] is still intact. You can go up on bicycles and ride the whole perimeter of the top of the ancient city wall. There is something about it that is really cool, because you are riding the perimeter of the ancient city, yet the modern city is all around you. And, of course, the tombs of the terra-cotta warriors - they've been turned into a major museum. You step in, and it just blows your mind. You just cannot believe the scale of it and just the audacity of it. It's so incredible to imagine some guy drilling a well on his property and punching through to a cavern and lowering a lantern down and seeing this. It's staggering. They estimate that it could be on the order of 30,000 of these life-size figures and military units with horses and wagons built in terra-cotta, and they have restored nearly 10,000 of them. They stand there like this army, and it's so from a different time. I'm not personally one to traipse out just to see the thing that everyone wants to see. But this was definitely worth the trip.

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He Said …
Where Edward Norton discovered the ancient past and modern present in Shanghai

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Lodging

Four Seasons Hotel, very expensive, 011-86-21-6256-8888, www.fourseasons.com/shanghai

Grand Hyatt Shanghai, expensive, 011-86-21-5049-1234, www.shanghai.grand.hyatt.com

Heng Shan Moller Villa Hotel, moderate, 011-86-21-6247-8881, www.mollervilla.com

Dining

Café Azul, world cuisine and tapas bar, moderate, 011-86-21-6433-1172