Terracotta Warriors

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To rule in life is one thing, but to rule in death another

Okay so we all met up this morning and caught a bus to the train station and from there another bus to the Terracotta Warriors. Upon arrival we were bombarded by the usual sellers and tour guides offering us their best price for a set of mini warriors or the best English speaking tour guide ever.

A bit of history (I use that word loosely) about the warriors. The first emporer of China was Emperor Qin, of the Quin Dynasty, he began construction on the Great Wall and unified all of China (through years of bloody conflict) by conquering the other six countries. Around the same time that he commenced work on the Great Wall he commenced work on his tomb which covered an area of 56 square kilometres (maybe, i think). Surrounding his tomb he had hug pits built and thousands of terracotta warriors made up so that he could rule in his death as well as ruling in life; the warriors were arranged in strategic military positions to protect his tomb. He had about 700,000 people working on the construction of his tomb and it took a few years (not sure how many) to build, but during one of his visits to check on the construction he suddenly died and he was buried in his tomb. However a few years after his death the peasants revolted and sacked his tomb and destroyed and burnt many of the pits where the warriors where housed. Fast forward 2000 years and farmers digging a well discovered the warriors.

There are three pits, pit 1, pit 2 and pit 3. Unfortunately, pit 2 of the site was closed for renovations; this pit is supposed to be the best laid out and best examples of the Qin Dynasty military tactics. But, it was amazing! Pit 1 is the largest and probably the most photographed and because of that the most well-known and it really is fantastic. Just like the Great Wall, it just really boggles the mind that they actually built them all! There are so many and they haven't even uncovered them all yet, let alone opening up Emperor Qin's actual tomb, which is rumoured to have rivers of mercury and booby traps!

Once back in Xian we were all pretty hungry and we headed to a restaurant and pointed at things on the menu at random in a bit of a lucky dip and we became a bit of a sideshow for the owners, all sitting there watching us eat. Our food was pretty good in the end, spicy noodles with meat.

Now I am just chilling before we head out again to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda water fountain sound and light show, which is supposed to be pretty good and starts at 8pm.

Thanks for all the comments! Great to hear from you all, and thanks for the tips and advice!

Matt out

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Comments

[Michael]

Thats fantastic! I am envious of you just looking at the photos :) I can't believe how many that they built! All that to honour one man! Still very awesome photos chief, loving it!