Day Five - Terra-Cotta Army

Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, spent 36 years preparing for his funeral. Employing 700,000 slaves, he constructed thousands of “terracotta soldiers,” an army of life-sized pottery men, horses and chariots intended to serve and protect him through the afterlife. For company, he had 3,000 concubines (wives) buried alive with his body and to make sure none of his enemies could discover his tomb, he had all 700,000 slaves buried along with him. Standing at the edge of pit one where 6,000 terracotta soldiers have been unearthed, the enormity of the event leaves you wondering what would drive a man to conceive such an undertaking.

The day began with a spectacular view of a waking Xi'an form our eighth floor hotel room. One entire wall was made up of picture windows with a view of the street below. The following images are from our room and along the route to our first stop, a jade factory outlet.

Xi'an citizens primary means of transportation is the city bus, there were literally hundreds running constantly back to back.

Like Beijing, row upon row of apartment complexes were home to the residents of Xi'an.

 

For power, needs, this nuclear reactor was nestled quietly among the apartment buildings.

I was told China did not permit motorcycles, and while I saw very few, this is evidence of their existence!

We even saw a few tire dealers along our way.

Our first stop was a jade factory outlet. Jade is the pride of China, even more precious than silk or pearls. Prices ranged from thousands of dollars to a few yuan, but of course, everything is negotiable!

From the jade outlet we made our way to the “new city,” a beautiful green-space under the watchful protection of a pagoda (Buddhist temple). We had some free time to stroll and shop for souvenirs among the local street vendors. Here's me under the pagoda.

Despite rising divorce rates, the family unit remains at the core of China's social structure, as this sculpture portrays.

The Giant Goose Pagoda.

A little shopping for souvenirs.

I couldn't resist a picture of this cute little guy!

Our next stop, the outskirts of Xi'an where will find the famous Terracotta warriors. Just outside the archaeological site, we ate the best meal so far, featuring a variety of vegetables and noodles. After a short wait in line highlighted by an altercation with a Japanese group, we were inside the museum standing on the brink of history. This make-believe army was created and entombed in 210 BC. We are overlooking 6,000 soldiers of what is believed to be part of a force totaling more than 32,000. Each figure is completely unique from the rest, all sporting their own facial expression and posture. What we see today are colorless from time but when created, they were all individually hand painted in exact detail. These are only a few of the pictures I took and they don't do justice to the immenseness of the dig, you need to see it for yourself. These first pictures are from pit one.

Pit two was much smaller than pit one and was thought to hold the command center for the army. The first picture is what the site looks like when first opened, the soldiers shattered and in thousands of pieces. The second picture is after 8 years of intricate reconstruction. The third picture is of a set of horses and driver (the chariot, made from wood, has long since faded back to the earth).

The next picture is from pit 3. The government of China elected to wait another 50 years before starting this dig, to see if technology can advance to a point where the coloring can be protected. The long indentation in the earth is from the ceiling over the army caving in over the years.

This last picture is of a bronze horse found in the Emperor's tomb that was pulling a model of the funeral carriage that brought him to his final resting place.

From the Terracotta Museum we made our way back to Xi'an for our dinner and show. The meal was another big hit, this time we had a type of ravioli, what the Chinese call dumplings. The dumplings were served in individual platters of eight (we were eight at the table), each platter featuring a different filling, from pork to chicken to shrimp to mushroom. During dinner we were entertained by a young zither player that was very good. After dinner, we stayed at the table and were amazed by a spectacular period dance and music show from the Tang Dynasty.

Here, Lucie has found another friend!

As we close out our day and our visit to Xi'an we prepare our luggage for the next leg of our journey, Suzhou – the Venice of China!