One of my dream trips has been to go to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. Drew and I had a nice break of time in between when he got back from Taipei and my friend Megan was arriving from Denver, so we took advantage and went out for a 4-day weekend. It is only a 3 hour direct flight from Hong Kong to Xi'an, so its very doable for a long weekend. I have always been poor with Chinese geography, and for some reason, I had it imprinted in my mind that Xi'an was on the western half of China. The name means Western Peace for goodness sake. However, if you look at a map of China, Xi'an isn't even located in the western half of the country! It's actually almost straight north from Hong Kong!
Anyways, Xi'an is an amazing place for several reasons. It is considered one of the ancient capitals of China, housing the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties. It is also the starting point of the Silk Road, or ending point depending on your perspective! It was called Chang'an in ancient times, and it is estimated that back in 726 AD, more than 1 million people lived within the city walls. That's a ton of people for ancient times. Now it currently has 6.5 million people. The city is known not only for its history but also for its food! The first afternoon in Xi'an, we walked from our shuttle drop off to the Hui Min Jie, or Muslim Street, the mecca for street food in Xi'an. We began the evening with our first try of Rou Jia Mo, which was essentially a homemade hamburger bun filled with pork or lamb minced with peppers. Delicious! We didn't know it at the time, but this rou jia mo was the best one we'd have all weekend! Flaky crust on the outside, juicy meat on the inside.
We saw this cool sculpture on our walk into town from the airport shuttle drop off. Very cool, but no idea what it is about. Probably an ancient Chinese proverb.
The next day we went right to the core of the trip, going to see the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors have been on my bucket list for a long time, so I was thrilled when we actually got to go see them. The museum is very picturesque. It's located about an hour outside of Xi'an, nestled amongst some foothills, and it was autumn, so the air was nice and chilly. The grounds were made like a garden, with all of the different pits (1, 2, and 3) in covered buildings. There was also a museum which we went into first. They had some of the fully reconstructed warriors there, so it was nice to see them really up close, as when they were in the pits you were always some distance away. The warriors were made for Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Qin Shi Huang unified the Waring States of China in 221 BCE, creating the first unified China. He also commissioned the connecting of smaller, lesser walls into the Great Wall! This guy did a lot in his life time! The Terracotta Warriors were replicas of his actual army and were supposed to protect him in the afterlife. Work began in 246 BCE, when Qin Shi Huang was 13 years old and required 700,000 workers using assembly like production methods. Work ended in 208 BCE, 38 years in total. Qin Shi Huang had already died in 210 BCE at the age of 50.
The coolest thing about the terracotta warriors is how individualistic they are. Each warrior has a unique facial expression, and they all wear varying clothing and were holding various weapons depending on their rank in the army. Even the hairstyles were dictated by rank, but there were individual differences warrior to warrior. Amazing. The height of the warrior also depended on rank.
Another cool thing, which I never realized, was that all of the warriors were originally painted in bright colors. The paint eventually leeched into the soil over time, but sometimes the pigment got stuck in the soil right next to the warrior, so they could pick out what pieces were colored what. Below is their idea of what the warriors looked like originally. The warrior crouching on the left would have been an archer holding a crossbow, while the standing warrior is likely a general or an advisor, considering he isn't even holding a weapon.
We started off with the smaller pits 2 and 3, leaving the big daddy pit 1 for the rand mcnally. Below is a picture of Pit 3 where they have reconstructed a large portion of the statues within.
However, this is a picture of work in progress. Apparently the warriors were housed in a building with a timber roof and thatched matting. Over time that wood rotted, and eventually the timbers fell on the statues themselves, breaking them into hundreds of pieces. However, as you can see below a lot of limbs would remain intact, but simply separated from the main torso.
This was pit 1. It was as large as an aircraft carrier hangar. I'd say, between all 3 pits combined, they have reconstructed only 20% of all of the warriors. Considering they found these guys in 1974 by local farmers digging a well, it's taking them a long time to make any progress! The things were built in 38 years, and the Chinese have already taken about 40 years to uncover what they have. But, I guess putting a puzzle of hundreds of pieces together is harder than running a pottery assembly line.
I loved just looking at the facial expressions of them. Some seemed very mad to be there, while others look fairly pleasant!
Most of the warriors were facing one direction, but on the borders of the army there were scouts facing the sides, protecting the army's flanks. Every detail was paid attention to.
Outside of the grounds was a lovely statue of running horses. Not sure how they relate to the warriors, but it was a cool statue. Like the bird?
This is the actual mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang. Apparently it hasn't been excavated yet. Drew and I didn't realize that, so we walked around the entire thing looking for an entrance that didn't exist. Should have read the description of this place more closely! I couldn't believe it hadn't been excavated yet, so I researched via Wikipedia to get some answers. They say that they don't want to wreck the artifacts inside, especially if there are more painted objects, and the paint tends to peel off as soon as it is exposed to air. So I guess no one gets to see anything instead of people getting to see something that might be damaged to a certain degree? Or maybe they are waiting for new technology to be invented to handle this paint peeling problem before diving in? I asked Lisa, my language partner, about why not, and she had an interesting answer. She said that a lot of emperors would booby trap their tombs to prevent thieves from ransacking it. I laughed at this. Haven't we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Mummy enough times to know what to look out for? Decapitation, poisionous gas, and flesh-eating bugs. Surely we have a hazmat suit that can save us from that. Or, lets just send in a robot! If we can explore Mars without harming humans, surely an ancient tomb of the first emperor of China is doable. I just can't imagine all of the amazing stuff that is in there that noone gets to appreciate.
Nearby the mausoleum was another pit with a full chariot and more warriors. The two middle warriors are chariot drivers, while the outer ones with their hands in their sleeves are advisors.
This is a fake, but a good pic of Drew outside the gift shop!
The bus we took to the Terracotta Warriors left from the main Xi'an Train Station, seen below.
Since it was going into winter time, apparently the only fruit in season is pomegranate and persimmion. Every fruit seller we saw had only those two items. Talk about a lack of selection! And how do you decide, seller #3 out of 15 has the best pomegranates, definitely.....
Of course we went back to the Hui Min Jie for more street food. We actually went back there every single night! :) Potatoes in Sichuan spices anyone? The Sichuan province known for their spicy cuisine is very close to the Shaanxi Province where Xi'an is located.
This was a dessert with glutinous rice covered in jam with sesame and peanuts on the outside. Not my favorite dessert, but still tasty.
The city has several famous landmarks since it is so ancient. One of those landmarks is the Drum Tower, located very near the center of town.
The Drum Tower was beautiful at night all lit up. See the strand of lights going up into the sky? They were actually lanterns tied together on a string. Sometimes they were kites too. Very pretty.
The other landmark, right near the Drum Tower and the Rui Min Jie is the Bell Tower, built in 1384. Apparently the drums in the Drum Tower were beat at the end of the day, and the bells in the Bell Tower were rung at daybreak.
We really enjoyed walking around Xi'an. With so many historical buildings to see, it was always interesting. I would say that the roads in Xi'an are very wide, unlike a lot of downtown roads in American cities, which tend to be narrow, squashed one-ways. These were large thoroughfares, and, as such, had HUGE pedestrian crossings to get across the intersections.
We passed by a fish market, and this little crab was making a dash for it! He almost got away, until a teenager walked passed and plopped him back into the bucket. I wonder how many times he had attempted escape?
Finally, this was a really cool building in the Rui Min Jie. Notice the shutters and the eaves!
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