Friday March 13th…
Kevin, Caitlin and I were going on a Terracotta warrior tour planned by the hostel. The tour started at 9:30AM so we were up and ready to go by then. There were 8 other people on the tour. A couple from Australia who had been traveling the world since last May; A guy a few years older than us form Canada that had been traveling Asia for 3 years; Two girls from France studying close to Shanghai; And three guys (also a few years older) from Oregon/Washington. One works in South Korea and the other two met up with him to travel for a while. Overall it was a fun group. Everyone had great stories and was really willing to talk and get to know each other.
So we all got in the van and headed to the place where they create the miniature statues that people buy. It wasn’t anything really exciting just a tourist trap…but that is okay. They had some shops to look in and just poke around for a while.
After the factory stop we got back in the van and went to lunch. It was very good. It was nice the tour had set it up for us so we didn’t have to worry about anything, just about getting in and out of the van. It was one of those traditional meals with at least 10 dishes on the lazy suzanne and far to much food for anyone to finish. But we enjoyed what we could before having to get back in the van.
At this point it was finally time to go see the Terracotta warriors. I was so excited it was a beautiful day with blue skies. On the way to the site of the warriors we past The Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It honestly just looked like a little hill that was no covered in grass. We didn’t stop to go inside the tourist area but I am sure that would have been very interesting to see. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the emperor that spent all of the money and man power to build The Great Wall of China and also to build the elaborate army underground to protect his tomb, this army is know at the Terracotta Army.
We finally made it to the area that is home to the Terracotta Army. After getting our entry tickets we walked through a park area that was gorgeous with Mt. Huashan surrounding us. Things were starting to bloom, it was a perfect spring day. When we finally got inside there are 3 pits. These pits are where the warriors are found and there is one other building with the bronze horse and chariots that were excavated from Emperor Qin’s tomb. We went to see the bronze horses and chariots first. They were ½ size to scale of the real thing. When Emperor Qin was alive he always traveled with 81 sets of horses and chariots. He chose 81 because 9 is a lucky number in China and 9 x 9 = 81. The horses and chariots on display were in cases but still interesting to see. They definitely needed to be polished but looked great for being over 2000 years old. In addition to this display there were some weapons and some equipment that was used back in those days. At the front entrance there was a really huge warrior with a little girl…they were giant puppets and very creepy!!! Apparently they were used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, but since I didn’t see the opening ceremony I am just taking everyone’s word on that one. They were supposed to symbolize the coming together of Children/the future with the past…or something like that. I just know they were both creepy…just look at my pictures if you don’t believe me J
After looking at everything in that building, it was finally time to see the warriors. The thing I wanted to see the most since coming to China, so I was very excited. We went into the foyer of pit 1 to look at a map of the area. It was kind of like the map of Purdue’s campus that is in the union but of the Emperor Qin Mausoleum and the mountains. The most interesting thing about it was it showed how far this army was from his tomb so it leads you to believe that there are many more soldiers still buried under ground. At this point we also heard about the man that first discovered the warriors in 1970’s. He found a soldiers head while farming. He only received 10RMB for this discovery that is now making millions everyday!!!! We got to see him (I think his name was yang…but I don’t remember). He lives in the local area and spends most of his days just sitting there watching the tourists, no one is allowed to take pictures of him, so I was unable to document it, but everyone gets the idea.
Our tour guide decided not to show us pit 1 first, so we went into pit 2 instead. When we first got inside it smelled like dirt…and sadly that is all we saw, dirt. This pit had not really be excavated so there wasn’t much to see. They excavation was to the roofing that covers the soldiers…so about 5 meters underground. Some areas had some broken parts of soldiers but not a lot of anything other than what we had smelt…dirt. Along the side of the pit there were some warriors in cases. We were able to see one of only 7 generals that have been found. Up close they really are amazing to see. There is so much detail in their faces and their uniforms. You are abel to tell what rank they are based on what their hairstyle is. They really are full sized (well Chinese full size), very impressive to think how many more are under that dirt.
Next we ventured into pit 3. This pit ended up being more of a corridor and a few meeting rooms. This one was much smaller but much more complete, minus most of the soldiers still missing heads. Since they are about 5 meters below ground they don’t look nearly as big as they were when we saw them in the glass cases. There were horses and many soldiers standing in this pit. Something interesting about the building of the Warriors was that a floor was made for these soldiers. If you look at my pictures you can see the floor is made of clay bricks not just the dirt floor. Emperor Qin really spent so much time and money on this project it is unbelievable the detail that went into all of it.
Finally we made it to pit 1. If anyone is able to go see the Terracotta Warriors in their lifetime, save this one for last. This pit is the one you always see in the pictures with soldiers standing everywhere just rows upon rows of soldiers. Even though there were more standing soldiers than I had seen so far I was slightly disappointed. The pictures and everyone talking about it makes it seem like there are thousands of soldiers, and there aren’t. In the back they had the soldiers on display that were partially put together. So it was neat to see the giant puzzle that excavating this army has turned into.
Overall I am really glad I saw the Terracotta Warriors but I was slightly disappointed. Yes, they are very impressive and a must see but I think the idea of them is way more impressive. The idea of an 8000 clay person army (life size) that is 5 meters below ground for over 2000 years…that’s extraordinary. It would be cool to go back and visit in 30-40 years and see how many more they have discovered. We were told they just found pit 4, and pit 2 will be more excavated by then…It is amazing to think how many soldiers are still buried underground.
After a great day visiting some amazing history I was able to buy something that I have been looking at since I got here…a jade bracelet. The way the Chinese girls wear them is you buy it small so you have to hurt your hand while slipping it onto your wrist but that way it will not fall off and its hard to take off, even if you try. Our tour guide helped me find a good quality one. It is not perfect but for the price I paid it is great.
Then we got back in the van and headed towards the hostel. It was about an hour drive back, so not to far but just far enough to close my eyes for a short while and get some rest.
After arriving back at the hostel I was going to go on a bike ride on the top of the city wall. It would be have been beautiful to see the whole cit and sunset…but they closed 15 minutes before I got over there. I was really disappointed. Instead I went back to the hostel and took advantage of a free Cappuccino that the hostel provided for us when paying for the tour. Caitlin, Kevin and I sat their and enjoyed our drinks, then our tour guide sat down with us for a while and we just talked. She told us about the water/light show and the wild goose pagoda.
The three of us decided to wander around the city and head over to the pagoda to see the show at 8:30PM. The walk was much longer than anticipated but we made it there just in time to see the show. The show ended up being fountains spraying and moving to the music that was being played. It was gorgeous! It was such a clear night and the setting was beautiful with the pagoda in the background. The whole thing was only about 15minutes long. If you would like to see a quick video of what we saw Caitlin has posted one in her China 7 album of her pictures. The link is to the right of this post.
After the pagoda we just walked around and took some pictures then we decided we were hungry for dinner. We ended up in a great restaurant a few blocks from the Pagoda. Since it was late the place was pretty empty but they were happy to serve us. It was such a nice dinner, we ended up staying there for 1.5 hours, just drinking beer and sharing stories amongst ourselves. The food was great, however it was slightly spicy. The lesson learned from that, is don’t trust a Chinese person when they say something is not spicy.
We got back to the hostel and met up with the rest of our group in the basement bar. Caitlin and I ended up spending the night talking to some of the people that were on the tour with us. It was so much fun just sharing stories and getting to know complete strangers. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time for bed.
Xi’an was a great city. Very old, you could just see the history all around you. It would be great to go back and stay in Xi’an for an extended period of time, and really get to know the area.
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