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Published: October 5th 2006
Warriors!
A collection of Terracotta Warriors in Pit 1.We have been wowed once again. Yesterday we took a trip to see the famed Army of Terracotta Warriors. The night previous we met a nice girl from Wisconsin who is teaching English in Dalian (Northern China), she is here for the National Day holiday (just like the rest of China). The three of us decided on a meeting time to have breakfast at the hostel and retired for the night.
The next morning we ate delicious French toast (just like home!) and set off. Instead of taking the overpriced and not so good tour from the hotel we acted like the proud independent travelers we are and caught a local bus to the train station where we could catch another local bus to take us to the Warriors (approximately 60km east of Xi’an). Upon arriving at the train station we searched in vain for bus 306. We found a line of them and asked the conductor standing outside if it went to the Terracotta Warriors. Now, you would imagine that with the Warriors being this city’s claim to fame, they would understand “Terracotta Warriors” in English. All we received were blank stares. Luckily Heather (Miss Wisconsin) had a different
Charioteer
This collection of warriors used to be driving a war chariot. The chariot has long been rotted or demolished, but the horses and men remain. guidebook section than us and it listed the Chinese characters of all the major sites. And of course we weren’t in the right area, we were pointed down the street where a collection of other 306 buses were (I don’t think I’ll ever understand why there are numerous buses with the same number that run on different routes). Finding an empty one we thought we had lucked out, but the driver closed the doors and started to drive away. We waved our arms hoping he would stop and he pointed to yet another area of the parking lot. Arriving at this section we see a mass of people in a long snaking line. We’ve adopted the term “dragoning” instead of snaking, it seems more appropriate considering our location. Keep in mind Chinese people don’t understand the concept of lining up, so we were surprised to see so many forming a neat and tidy congregation. A few buses pulled up and people piled on, then the bus would depart, the next one would pull up and people would continue to pile on. After 6-7 buses left no more seemed to come, although our line kept miraculously moving forward (which puzzled us).
After an hour and 10 minutes we reached the front of the line and piled onto the bus along with everyone else. We were off!
The bus ride was a short hour and a bit ride. Dev fell asleep, as usual. It made a couple stops to let random people off before we reached our destination, down a dusty dirt road. We giggled as we drove past the Xi’an Counterfeit Terracotta Warrior Factory. The road was lined with women selling pomegranates and persimmons, various floury doughy pancakes and hot dogs. We followed the crowd into the Terracotta Warriors complex, where there were even more stalls selling miniature Terracotta statues and the like. We purchased our tickets and pushed through the gates. Our friends who we met in Pingyao had gone to see the Warriors on our first day here, so they gave us the advice of saving Pit 1 for last, since it was the biggest and most impressive. So off we set for Pit 3. Inside Pit 3 there was a small display of warriors and some horses, where a chariot used to be. We were in awe, here we are actually seeing the Terracotta Warriors! We snapped
Painted Faces
All of the statues were originally painted in colors resembling those of the actual Emperor's warriors. This picture shows the heads of some with paint still on them. many pics, wandered around the perimeter and read the signs on the walls. The Warriors are in a pit approximately 5m deep. For those of you who don’t know, they are part of a large tomb and date back to 200 B.C.!! They were only recently discovered, in 1974, when a farmer was digging a well for water and unearthed some pottery pieces. Over the years they have excavated what is perhaps the most major archeological discovery of the 20th century. Archeologists believe that the warriors already uncovered are only a fraction of a larger Terracotta Army still buried around the tomb (the actual tomb is 2-3km away and has not yet been excavated). Excavation of the entire site could take decades.
Pit 2 is still largely under excavation, and was rather dark but much larger than Pit 3. They think it might contain even more warriors than Pit 1, but that is yet to be seen. In this pit they found 4 perfectly preserved statues, these are encased in glass for everyone to crowd around and get a close look. The most fascinating part is that a lot of the weapons were made with techniques that were only
Broken Pieces
Here are some broken bodies of warriors not yet fully excavated, in Pit 3. recently “invented” in our modern world (1950’s and 60’s). This was chromium plating on the tips of the arrows and spears, which kept them sharp. When the weapons were found the tips of them were still just as sharp as when they were made! Surface treatment also kept the swords and spears from deteriorating. Also discovered was the use of poison on the tips of the arrows, which would kill the unfortunate receiver.
Next up we wandered (or rather shoved along with everyone else) through the Exhibition Hall. On display were two bronze chariots and horses, built to ½ size. The detail was impeccable, when you could catch a glimpse beyond all the heads in front of you. It’s important to keep a light mood when amidst all these other tourists. Chinese people have no qualms about sticking their elbows out and shoving right past you. We’ve learned to shove right back in order to get to the front and see anything. The chaos in the next exhibit was too much to take, and it looked like mostly photos with captions so we skipped that and headed out to see Pit 1.
This was by far the busiest
Pit 1
The inspiring view of Pit 1, from the entry point. and most crowded part of the whole grounds. The strategy is to stand as closely behind someone on the railing as you can, and wait patiently while they snap 200 pictures. As soon as they make the first move to leave, you push even harder to get your shoulder in where they just vacated, and slide into their empty spot. Now it’s your turn to snap 200 photos while the throngs behind surge against you. After we got past the initial “viewing platform” the crowds were not so bad, although finding space to take a picture of yourself was difficult. We just stood, completely in awe of this incredible discovery. I was surprised at how large the pit actually is, measuring 210m east to west and 60m north to south. In the front is an impressive amount of warriors, still intact (without weapons) and in battle formation. They have the area where the original well was dug marked, it is right at the front of the army. Had they dug the well even 2 meters further west this discovery might not have even been made until later!! The original site which housed the warriors had a roof made of cement
The Start of it All
This is the marker that shows where the well was dug, when the first discovery was made in 1974. and wood, the wood has since rotted away and all that is left are the cement walls. There are indents in the cement, which had a caption that explained in our modern times the site was also used as a graveyard, and the indents are where caskets used to be. Incredible to think how close they were to discovering all of this under the ground. At the far end of the pit there was a team of 4 or 5 men working to piece together broken warriors. Some of the warriors have been broken into a hundred or more pieces, can you imagine having to fit that back together? It would surely be 10 times harder than the toughest jigsaw puzzle money could buy, and without the handy picture on the box for reference!! Pit 1 is still not fully excavated either, and work continues around the sites, finding more and more each year. Discoveries of other pits containing terracotta figures have been as late as 2004!! (I read this in the beautiful glossy picture book Heather bartered for as we were leaving). It will be a treat to return in 20 or 30 years and see what else has
Side View
The side view of the front warriors in Pit 1. been added to this breathtaking display.
In each pit there is a room where you can pay (120 yuan!! The entrance to the entire exhibition was only 90 yuan!!) to have your picture taken with replica warriors against a background that looks as if you are standing in the pit. We passed on the opportunity, although they even provide Terracotta costumes if you wish!
Tired and exhausted we said goodbye to the amazing warriors and headed out. It was a fantastic day, we spent nearly 6 hours oohing and ahhing at the figures. Of course we can’t leave anywhere without 5 people grabbing your arms and trying to sell you things, so many souvenirs were bought. We are getting pretty good at the bartering thing, and actually quite enjoy it. It’s a fun exchange to laugh and try to haggle for your best price. No matter how badly you want that wooden Buddha head you have to put it down and pretend like it’s not a big deal if you walk away empty handed, and as you walk the prices keep falling. Provided you stick by your guns, after a long while of bartering they will eventually
Behind Glass
This is one of the 4 perfect statues they excavated and is now on display behind glass. This particular pose is called "The Archer" as he would have had a crossbow in his hands. come down to the price you’re willing to pay. The general rule of bartering is usually to start 1/2 - 1/3 of the price they start with, but here even that is too much to pay. We start out with 1/10 of the price they offer, sometimes even less!! There is no shame in countering a 180 yuan first offer with 5 yuan!! This was what the Buddha head started at, and we walked away with it happily in a bag for 28 yuan!! Of course they clutch their heart and scrunch up their faces pretending like you are running them dry, but in the end it’s all smiles from everyone and pats on the back and bye-byes.
There was another smaller “dragoning” line for the bus back to town, but it moved much quicker and soon we were on our way back to Xi’an. A long hard day of sightseeing with nothing other than breakfast in us, we were daydreaming about the meal we would have when we returned.
Nothing can be easy in this country though, and of course our bus decided to let everyone off at a different location than where we picked it up.
Puzzle Masters
Here is the group of archeologists/researchers examining and piecing together excavated pieces. After much confused wandering we found a hotel and asked the front desk to point out where we were on our map. Turns out we weren’t much farther from the train station and we eventually found the right bus to take us back to the hostel. We quickly dropped our bags of souvenirs in the room and the three of us headed out for a meal.
We figured just wandering the streets would find us something, after we wandered for 15 minutes and found nothing we consulted the Lonely Planet. All the suggestions were for the east side, and we had been walking west, so we headed back east. Finally our growling tummies got the better of us and we abandoned the recommended restaurant we were searching for and turned into the nearest yummy looking place. It was a grilled chicken restaurant called Best Foods, and it was actually quite nice. For 49 yuan me and Devlin ordered an entire rotisserie chicken, 2 chicken sandwiches, 2 chicken kebabs, an order of fries and 2 drinks!! It seemed like a LOT of food for the two of us, but we were starving and it was only 49 yuan so how
Back Together
These are warriors in the various stages of assembly. could we go wrong. As a complimentary gift with our meal we received a beautiful (haha) yellow “LOVE” alarm clock. How nifty. Thankfully we had the whole chicken, because the kebabs and sandwiches were far too spicy for my tame tastebuds. The method of eating a whole chicken seemed to be just pick it up and dig in, so that I did and kindly offered my sandwich to Dev.
Our bellies full and the time being nearly 10pm we decided to leave our ambitious plan of walking on the city wall for another day and sleepily stumbled back to the hostel. Heather leaves to go back to Dalian tomorrow, hopefully we’ll see her tomorrow morning for breakfast.
We’ve also met a nice couple who live in Xi’an. They came into our hostel restaurant the night before yesterday and sat down at our table and struck up a conversation. They are college level English teachers, who come here to hang out with the travelers and practice English. They were both very kind, we had some excellent conversation with them and they extended a warm welcome by inviting us to their house for dinner! The best way Chinese show hospitality
A Typical Sight
Usually just as the crowd clears a bit and you have a free shot of the exhibit, someone shoves in front of you and interupts your shot. This man did exactly that, so I figured why not take a picture of his giant head. is to take you into their home and cook you a meal, so we were honored and quite flattered (though with my over-active imagination I can’t help but hope it’s not an elaborate scheme to rob us! They both seem quite genuine though.) They asked Devlin to listen to some tapes they needed help decoding (the man speaking on the tapes had a British accent which made it difficult for them to understand) and gave us their phone number so we could arrange an evening later in the week. I think we’ll go there tomorrow.
On Saturday we leave Xi’an to head to Chengdu, the home of the Giant Panda Breeding Research base. I’ve read that they recently had 5 cubs born, 2 of which are sets of twins, and panda moms will usually kill the other cub if they have more than one so the two twins are in incubators which you can view close up.
Today was an easy day spent wandering around in search of a tea set, and internet time booking flights to Shanghai from Chengdu (quite the process). When we headed back out this evening to find a restaurant the air seemed hazy
A Rare Moment
Rare indeend, when you can find enough space on the rail to pose for a picture without anyone else in it. and there was a smell hanging around of burning something. After a brief 10 minutes outside our eyes were even stinging it was so bad!! I’m not sure what it is, but it definitely smells like forest fire and the smoke is quite heavy. We sat down in a large 3 story restaurant and requested an English menu (which the door lady assured us they had) but it was only a picture menu and the prices seemed very high. We left in search of something cheaper and eventually settled on “Hong Kong Restaurant”. The service was spectacular, we had 2 waitresses hovering over us to take our order and when they brought the dishes they pointed out what each one was on the menu (as if we couldn’t tell which one was rice and which was pork!). It was a gorgeous restaurant so you can imagine my surprise at finding my first squat toilets without any doors! There was no one else in there but me though, so I didn’t collect an audience (thankfully!).
I can’t stress enough how wonderful China is. We were surprised as it’s different than we imagined, and quite easy to travel around. People are
Dragoning Line
Once we finally boarded the bus (double decker) we couldn't resist sticking our camera out and taking a picture of the incredible line. Yes, that throng of people is actually forming a line!! willing to help you at every corner if you look lost or need assistance, usually as a means of practicing their English with an authentic Westerner. School children will come up to you and follow you asking you questions, it’s quite charming!
We miss you all! I know we will be thinking fondly of you all eating your turkey dinners this weekend, I don’t think turkey is something we’ll find here (although we spotted Crackling Puberty Duck on the menu tonight…) Enjoy a slice of pecan pie and some gravy and mashed potatoes for us!
Cheers!
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Heather
non-member comment
hi from Dalian
Hee. I'm a nice Wisconsin girl! Too bad we didn't meet up again in Xi'an, but oh well. Wed. I mostly just wandered and then went out with some Danish girls and a guy from Switzerland. International fun! So did you see some pandas in Chengdu? And I'm glad you liked hotpot-in one place in Shandong I ate in, everyone go their own little burner and pot, so you could customize how spicy the broth was. I guess you're back in Japan now-sounds fun. I'll come back here approximately whenever I think of it which will probably be not very often! Enjoy your travels! Heather (from Wisconsin) : ) ps-I didn't know your dog was a corgi! That's what my family has! pps-Junior high kids are terrible. Hate, hate, hate.. : )