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Published: February 9th 2008
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Today we saw the Terra Cotta Soldiers which are considered to be the 8th Wonder of the World. The story behind the creation of these clay figures is that the emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who began planning his afterlife at the age of 13, had this tomb built for his body before his death. It took these men 38 years to build this tomb. The emperor was known for being ruthless and cruel. For instance, he burned the books on history and buried scholars alive in fear of an uprising against his way of rule. It’s hard to imagine these people could have lost their lives in a matter of minutes if something went wrong. During the project of the emperor’s tomb building, if a single soldier looked even remotely close to another, that sculptor was killed on the spot. Imagine that - being killed for a clay figure. What a world to have lived in.
Here’s something I bet you didn’t know. We call it China because of that dynasty. The “Q” in Qin is pronounced “Ch-“. The first emperor of this dynasty set the standard for so many Chinese traditions and followings that are still enacted to this very day. He unified China, conquered surrounding countries, unified the currency (circle with a square in the center to represent the Earth and the sky ), and yet he died at the age of 50 because of a heat stroke. Isn’t it ironic that such a strong, incredibly intense ruler dies suddenly of something as little as heat stroke?
We saw Pit 1 and Pit 2 of the Soldiers and there was still excavation going on of both pits. It was incredible walking through this piece of history as if it were nothing more than a hole in the ground. Hard to imagine that such an incredible and magnificent piece of history gets so little attention. There was practically no one there. It was very bizarre walking through the tomb because I had always read about them in middle school and seen pictures of them in textbooks. To actually see them in person was something I can barely put into words. Seeing pictures in a textbook pales in comparison to the overwhelming feeling of curiosity and understanding of such an extravagant wonder. Imagine what this man thought! To think he was just going to dig a well for his family. Did you know he only got $5 for finding them? $5!!! But to him, it was a fortune. He was a farmer so $5 fed his family for a few weeks. This made me think of my dad because I
kept picturing him walking through this tomb with me being all excited and
fascinated at all of it and pointing to things and saying things like "You've got to realize how incredible this is! Thousands of men worked on these things for years for ONE PERSON!!!" The only difference is that I was actually INTERESTED in it this time!
After the Terra Cotta Soldiers, we visited the Big Goose Pagoda. It was beautiful. We saw the Buddhas and lit some incense which smelled heavenly. It gave a little warmth to a bitter cold day. China is so very up and down as far as noise goes. Some areas can be incredibly loud and pounding with crowds of people. But then you go to places like this and you think to yourself, “there’s no way 1.3 billion people are crammed into this country with tranquil areas like this”. It’s wild how much the spiritual side of the Chinese is emphasized and respected.
I got my birth-year animal stamp while we were at the pagoda as well. I’m the Tiger. I also almost bought a $200 Mah Jongg set for my mother but then I realized it wasn’t really antique - just aged. The woman was nuts! She says “Oh, very very old. Antique”. Yea right. It wasn’t even in a Mah Jongg case! There were people playing Checkers on the front! So I walked away and she thought I was just trying to bargain so she says “Best price!” and I said “10 RMB” (which is less than $2 USD). To which she replies “you’re crazy.” And that was it! She left me alone!
Well, I'm off to bed because we leave for the village tomorrow morning after the city wall. I'm really excited about the kids in the village but I'm nervous to see how it will affect us as a group. Until next time...
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