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Published: February 2nd 2007
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Warriors
The warriors were found in terrible shape, so archeologists have spent about 6 months puting together each warrior. The next morning, another traveler (Philipp) checked into the dorm room. He’s a German university exchange student studying Chinese in Beijing who is on a month long break, and it was a huge blessing for me to meet him because his Chinese is AWESOME! What to order for lunch? No problem! Lost? No problem! How much? No problem! How do we get to XYZ? No problem! His understanding of China’s history and its current status is so helpful in my understanding of the people, the culture and the places I visit. I jokingly called him my Chinese guide because he has made my time in China like a pleasant vacation. Also, since he’s familiar with the way things work in China, we’re able to navigate through town ourselves, without getting ripped off on tours or paying for taxis.
A common thing keeps happening to me here in China... everyone thinks I'm Chinese!! They start talking to me and I consequently give them the blank, lost stare. Then Philipp starts talking to them in Chinese, and the person is then thinking, "WTF is going on here? Why's the white guy talking to me and not the Chinese girl?" Hahahaa.. it's happened
nearly every time we've spoken to a Chinese. And guess what started happening to me? I felt BAD and embarrassed for not speaking Chinese!..since they think I am one. The most common thing I say to Philipp is, "What did he/she say?"
We went to see the famed Army of Terracotta Warriors, found just 30 years ago (1974) by a farmer digging up a well. Instead of paying ¥350/$45 for a packaged tour from the guest house, we paid ¥7/$0.90 for the local bus (#308, east of the train station), and paid ¥50/$6.40 for our own tour guide at the compounds. Cheap! Anyone who goes should do this than getting ripped off on a tour package, which I hear is not that impressive since they rush you around and take you to souvenir shops.
So I finally got to see the famous Terracotta Warriors, hyped by the middle school and high school textbooks. The whole experience was a bit tainted by the whole history behind how and for whom it was built—Qin Shi Huang. The powerful and tyrannical leader famous for uniting China into one (currency, written language, etc) and killing anyone and anything in his path, even
Bell Tower in the city center
Built during the Ming dynasty in the 14th century, it was destroyed by a fire. In 1739 it was rebuilt by during the Qing dynasty burying hundreds of people alive! Yikes! He knew he was a jerk, which is why he had the warriors created to protect him from the enemies in his afterlife (I believe). Obviously there were fans, but there were lots of enemies, apparent in the destructed condition the warriors were found.
There are three pits, but Pit 1 is the main one—the images you see in textbooks and the Discovery Channel. The rest aren’t even being excavated because opening them would oxidize the figures, thereby losing its preserved state. At Pit 1, there is a section that a German student ran into and posed as a terracotta warrior! The fact that he got through into the compounds with all that gear, and successfully fooling the officials baffles me! Anyhow, the warriors were incredible to see--each one had its own unique height and facial feature, as each were modeled after famed warriors from back in the days.
We also checked out Qin Shi Huang’s tomb, which some say is one of the greatest mausoleums but I think the reality behind it is a bit vile. Apparently, he buried all of his concubines and the architects & workers who build the
tomb (to bury the secrets!), so over 2,000 human remains were found. Imagine the fate of that concubine… first she thinks she’s so lucky to have married into royalty, only to get this in the end!
That night, we went to 1+1 Nightclub and partied hardy with the Chinese. Quite interesting! It felt like clubbing at Daejeon with Colleen (a little chon-su-luh-wuh)!
The next day, we had an addition to our group—a French guy named Nicholas. The three of us had Chinese breakfast (yuck for me) and went biking to explore the rest of Xian. I had a hard time navigating through the hoards of people, bikes, mo-peds, cars, busses, and everything else on wheels. I even collided with a guy on a bike with a bulk load of stuff. Anyhow, we biked 5 km to the Big Goose Pagoda, a temple built during the Tang dynasty around AD 648 in memory of Emperor Gaozong’s mother. The pagoda was originally built in AD 652, but has been restored many times, so I don’t even think it was the original. There was a water show at the square in front of the pagoda and it was unimpressively amusing. After
Hotpot!
Exhausted and hungry with Philip and Nicholas, after bicycling about 8 km! watching the water show at the Bellagio in Vegas, it's hard to top that. Anyhow, the lame thing about the pagoda was that we paid an entrance fee (¥30/$4) to get into the ompunds, and had to pay an additional (¥20/$1.50) to go in the pagoda itself! WTF? Can’t anyone get anything free in China?
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Brent (also not chinese)
non-member comment
Poop pants
Looking good warrior. I guess you are heading through Kunming and then towards Tibet? The transportation will be pricey but the scenery is unreal and the Buddhism serene when you get closer and into the Himalaya. You makin me hungry for Chinese food. Who is general Tso anyways? Stay safe, I love your stories....:-)