Testament to an ego

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One of the must-see things one must undertake when in China is to visit the Terracotta Army, or Terracotta Warriors, if you prefer. The warriors were manufactured by hand in their thousands to equip emporer Qin's mausoleum. So far about 1000 of the warriors have been excavated and reconstructed; there are still thousands more to uncover. Even more exciting is the actual tomb, which has piqued the interest of archaeologists world wide. All you can see at the moment is a large hill with a staircase running up it's centreline, but its hidden secrets may yield all sorts of answers to age old questions.

And yes, I said reconstructed before. You see, workers and archaeological teams have had to reconstruct each warrior because they had been smashed into a million peices. Some bloke in 210 BC who didn't like Emperor Qin broke into the mausoleum and set the place on fire, causing all the roofing to collapse on top of all the hapless little clay figures.

Fast forward to 1974. A peasant farmer digging a hole for a well dug up some fragments of one of the warriors. He didn't know what it was, but assumed it was something from the old days. He didn't tell anyone, but sat on it for a few weeks and happened to mention it to a mate who knew an archaeologist who paid his little well hole a visit. After a bit more digging, the magnitude of the discovery reached the highest levels in the land and the villagers were 'removed' from their long-time home and relocated elsewhere. China then built a massive tourist and excavation complex around the site. The old bloke who made the discovery is still alive and sits at the discovery centre and autographs books on the warriors for you. But he doesn't like white people taking pictures of him.

So now the warriors have been reconstructed (only about 20% of the horde has been excavated though) and sit in the pits where they would have once been. Of course you can take home your very own warrior (die-cast alloy, not clay) that one of the market hawkers that infest the gates of the grounds can GLADLY sell you. They would make good bookends if you bought two of them.

Another good thing about Xi'an is that it is far cleaner and modern that other Chinese cities, and that it has one of the few ancient city walls still in existence in China. The walls and their gatehouses were restored in 1983 and box-in the "old" Xi'an. One can imagine the warriors guarding the gates 2000 years ago.

Time to say bai-bai to Xi'an though, and helleew to Shang Hai. I have 15 hours on the hard sleeper bunk on the train to look forward to. Nice one.

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Photos

The grounds of the most touristy site in China
Picture the same place, but 30 years ago

Xi'an city wall
An excellent example of...a wall. The Chinese used to like walls, it seems.

South gatehouse at night
You can see the drawbridge in the centre.