Aline's travel blog: April 11, Wednesday

April 11, Wednesday

Our one full day in Xi An. Wake up call at 7:30 and time for a quick breakfast before heading out for excursion to see the Terracotta Army at the Emperor Qinshihuang Mausoleum Museum.

We get to see a bit of the countryside along the way. You can tell we are further south because spring is much further along here. The trees are full and the crops are coming in already.

A cloudy day in Xi An

One of the look out towers to the walled city

Modern highways

Harvests are already growing in this part of the country, as opposed to what we saw outside Beijing.

A small dam on a huge river

A coal burning plant along the way

Emperor Qinshihuang was the first emperor of China (259 to 210 BC), the first to unite the country. Construction of the site of his mausoleum took 37 years. There are a series of pits containing over 6000 life size terracotta warriors and horses (the wooden chariots disintegrated a long time ago).
“Some people estimate that there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. Other terracotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians.”

Pit # 1, front view looking towards the back

Pit # 1, looking across the front. This should give you a good idea of how HUGE everything is. This pit is 14,500 square meters !

The statues were built over 2000 years ago of local clay. Although the bodies of the warriors are similar, each warrior’s face was carved individually and no two are the same. The Mausoleum is located 1.5 kms from the pits. To give you an idea of the size, pit # 1, the largest, covers an area of 14,600 sq meters; pit # 2 is 6,000 sq meters and contains about 1,000 pieces of pottery men and horses; pit # 3 is only 500 sq meters.

Pit # 1, details

This was the condition of the warriors when they were first unearthed. Every single one had to be reassembled.

You can see that each head is different. Warriors represented every part of China and every minority.

The site was ransacked not long after it was built and the wooden structures burnt. Since the buildings were of wood, the ceilings colapsed on top of the terracotta army.

As they reassemble the statues, they are placed back into the pits.

Archeologists at work

Further to the back of the building, you can see more of the "unprocessed areas"

and the area where they are reassembled.

On some of the recently excavated pieces, you can still see some of the colour.

This grouping has yet to be completed. It is a miracle they have been able to reassemble so many from the jumbled pieces.

Approximately 40,000 bronze weapons were unearthed, all exquisitely made. Some of the swords were chrome-plated ! It was originally thought that this was technology was discovered by the Germans in 1937, but it existed 2,200 years before in China. Amazing. What else was lost ?

After exiting building one, we take a breather and admire the flowers before going into building two

It is darker here, and although these may look like miniatures on the photo, they are life size warriors

We find more information here about the colours that were found on the warriors.

Many of the horses have been reassembled

More information on pit # 3 and how it was originally built.

Xi-An is one of the ancient capitals of China and is known as the “cradle of Chinese civilization”. It was the “end” of the old silk road route (or the beginning) and likely the one of the locations visited by Marco Polo when he travelled with his father and uncle.

The recent pictures reveal the beautiful colour that was present on the armour.

Some of the buildings containing the pits.

I get my photo taken by a photographer, with the terracotta soldiers.

Some of the statues found in pit # 2 were extraordinary in workmanship.

Construction of the pits

The archeological sites have been well preserved and only partially excavated. We were told that there would be work for years to come on this site. The site was discovered in 1974 by a local farmer. When the archeologists first started to dig them up, the statues were coloured, but within a short time of being exposed to the air, the colours disappeared. They hope that by developing some type of preservative the statues that have yet to be uncovered will retain their colour.

This shot is great since it shows a partial excavation and the condition it was in before they started digging into it. You can actually see the outline of the roof beams.

Part of Pit # 2

We were show a film depicting how the terracotta army was built and how a huge portion was destroyed after the emperor’s death. The buildings covering the original army was made of wood and huge portions were burned, the roofs caving in on the army and destroying a huge portion. From seeing portions of the site that show the condition they were found in (piles of rubble) it is amazing that they have been able to reassemble so many of them. The arms the soldiers carried (those made of metal) have also been preserved.

The store where you can buy reproductions, both in clay and in jade.

The grounds of the site are impecably clean. No trash to be seen anywhere. INDIA: You need to take a lesson !

The last stop was the museum, where everything was very dimly lighted, so the photos did not come out so well. Flash was not allowed for obvious reasons.

Museum pieces, a mural

Museum pieces

The outside of the museum

This is the outside of pit #1.

An amazing day ! On our way out of the site, we were accosted by many people selling souvenirs at a drastically reduced price than when we first entered. “Buyer beware” if you plan on going; don’t buy anything on the way in, wait until you are leaving the site. I bought a jade bracelet (not of high quality) for only $7 instead of the $30 they originally requested.

This looked like a bear pelt. Not sure they are allowed to do this anymore, or sell them.

Some beautiful new pieces of art added to the site. It took us 10 minutes to walk out through the line of stores

and food stands.

We left the site and drove for about one hour to the other side of Xi An, to a small village where we would be treated to lunch in the private home of an artist, Mr. Zhang Qingyi (traditional Chinese paintings).

The fields around the village
Mr. Wu, our local guide, took us for a walk around this settlement, Nan Suo village, a combination of old and new buildings, mostly new. The village has over 700 inhabitants, who appear to work collaboratively, farming the surrounding area. There were construction materials in several yards and some houses were still being finished.

Some of the older buildings in the village

A look inside one of the traditional, older homes. This is the kitchen area

which also includes the oven, on top of which is the bed structure (kind of nice and toasty on a cold winter night !)

In one of the open buildings there was a swallows nest on the ceiling.
After lunch, the locals treated us to some traditional dances, including a dragon dance. Our group was invited to try their hand at it !

and some of our group got into the act with a dragon dance.

Ladies from the community showing us some traditional dances

While some of the villagers look on.

The artist, Mr. Qingyi
Mr Qingyi then gave us a painting demonstration and we were given the opportunity of purchasing his works. I purchased one of his small paintings.

The drive back to the city was interesting and we took in an older part of the city, actually it looked new, but built to look old.

This transporter had a total of 21 vehicles on it. Not sure this type of balancing act would be allowed in Canada.

Xi An, like many other cities in China (you will see later on in Chengdu and Shanghai) is undergoing a building boom. The joke is that you can see the national bird of China everywhere you look. (The "crane" as in building crane !)