TerraCotta Warriors

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On Thursday night we flew from Beijing to Xi'an a city of 10 million. We arrived at our Holiday Inn hotel at 11 PM. We were very tired ! The next morning we were up and on the bus at 9 AM . First stop was the Jade Factory. We are not really interested in jade but it was interesting to see the carvers create the beautiful figurines. We were ushered into a huge showroom with all kinds of jewellery made from jade. We abstained. Next stop was the Terra Cotta Warrior factory where replicas of the warriors are made for tourists who want to have one in their backyard. LOL! Also for sale was everything a tourist might want to buy such as silk scarves, kimonos, and lacquered furniture. Our lunch was a buffet upstairs and it was quite good. ?

The afternoon was spent viewing the Terra Cotta Warrior an archeological find now designated as a Unesco Heritage Site. It was discovered in 1974 by a farmer who was digging a well and came across pieces of broken pottery that resembled body parts of soldiers, horses, wagons and weapons. It is estimated that in the three pits containing the Terra cotta army held more than 8000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses the majority of which remain buried.

The purpose of the buriel was to protect the Emperor Quin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, in his afterlife. We saw archeologists unearthing pieces which the catalogue and put together to make as complete warrior, horse or chariot..

At 5:30 we headed into the city again to drop some of the people at a dinner theatre and we were taken back to the hotel. Can you imagine travelling through a city of 10 million at rush hour on a Friday night. Complete chaos in our opinion. Thousands of cars, buses, scooters, bicycles weaving from lane to lane, tooting horns and occasionally yelling angrily at one another. It took two hours to get to the theatre!

After dropping off the theatre patrons we got back to the hotel about 8 and proceeded to find our supper. We wanted take out and succeeded after an hours wait.

Tomorrow is a travel day. We leave hotel at 9:30 and head to the airport where we have lunch- too much food- and fly Southern China Airline to Wuhan. Great flight! Arrived in Wuhan at 3 PM to a brand new airport which was only opened three months ago. Unbelievable architectures! Again we face lots of traffic but very interesting to see the city.

I hope we can continue to relate our journey on the cruise ship. It is 7:45 Am on Sunday and we leave at 8, four hour drive to the ship. Got to go,

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Photos

Terra Cotta Warriors
This group are not in the formation but are fairly repaired and will be put into the rows.

Terra Cotta Warriors
The hair and dress determine the rank of the soldiers.

Terra Cotta Warriors
This is Pit 3. It held the horses, chariots and

Full view of Pit 1
Pit 1 is the size of two football fields.

Terra Cotta Warriors
Found in Pit 1 was two chariots, one with I two horses and one with four horses. They are made of brass and very detailed.

Scooter
We saw hundreds of scooters draped with this quilted apparatus that keeps their hands and front warm.

Terra Cotta Warrior
These warriors are for sale. You could buy one for your backyard and even have one with your own face.