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Published: March 3rd 2011
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I should have written about this before I flew out for Spring Festival, but I was pretty busy grading at the time. Things are going pretty well back at school and you can expect some blog posts within the next few weeks about my Spring Festival travels.
I went to Xi’an in the beginning of December with my parents before they flew back to the U.S. The first day we spent in Xi’an was started at the terracotta warriors’ excavation site.
How to even begin…
The terracotta army is absolutely astounding.
Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of the “first” dynasty of China (some would argue it’s the Sui). He created a common currency, written language and government of ancient China. Modern Mongolia to Hong Kong was unified under his rule with Xi’an as the capitol. When he gained control at the age of 13, he immediately commanded approximately 700,000 people to create an army of bronze warriors. They’re society was sophisticated enough to figure out the chemical makeup of bronze and forge it. Qin Shi Huang constantly traveled to and from cities, making sure things were in order and running efficiently.
Emperor Qin Shi
Terracotta close up
Chariot driver and his horses Huang died at the age of 42. It took those 700,000 servants 38 more years after his death to finish the terracotta army. The army was finished around 200 B.C. There are over 8,000 warriors and not a single one has the same face, posture, and position as the other. They are no longer excavating the army but still putting the warriors back together. There are three excavation pits and the second pit has not been excavated to preserve the color of the warriors. The first pit looks like an old jet hanger with several thousand army members and the third pit is full of chariots, but a hell of a lot smaller than the first pit, with 6 or 7 chariots and 20 soldiers.
Qin Shi Huang’s tomb lies a kilometer west of the terracotta site, which is a man made mountain. They haven’t been able to excavate his tomb yet because there are rivers of mercury that flow in and around his tomb. Not only would this be harmful to the health of the excavators, but it would also liquefy his and his artisans remains and destroy the plentiful riches of jade, silver, gold, and bronze. They
were able to excavate to bronze chariots near his tomb, which are said to have allowed him to travel easily in the afterlife. The chariots are missing saddles and equipment because they were made of wood though.
If you were anywhere near Xi’an and you didn’t visit the terracotta warriors, it’d be like going to Egypt and not visiting the tombs of the Pharos.
Towards the end of the afternoon we headed to the Muslim quarter of Xi’an until sunset and wandered back to the hotel. The Muslim quarter is several square street blocks of pedestrian streets, where Chinese minority Muslims sell street food, toys, souvenir kitsch, silk scarves, knockoff brands, and mini woodwind instruments. There are restaurants in between the shops and street venders. It is really busy and jam packed full of people.
We picked at some street food from various venders and headed back the hotel for the night. However, the walk back was pretty annoying, as there are 8 million people but no metro. A cab driver told us there are 800 new cars on the road in Xi’an each day, but the archeologists are overseeing the metro’s construction. They want to make
The best Ji Dan Bing i've ever had
This lady was a magician at making egg pancakes. sure that no major archeological finds are destroyed in the construction.
Next day, we went to the south gate of the wall. The center of Xi’an is surrounded by an ancient wall and a moat. You can walk or bike around on top of the wall. On the way there, had a pretty funny conversation with a cab driver about dialects of China. He imitated a Sichuan accent by blurring all his words together and speaking a mile a minute.
After walking around on top of the wall, we went to an antique street nearby. It was a cobblestone well preserved old street that went on for a few blocks. NOT waiguoren touristy by any means. After a successful morning of bargaining for some ocarinas and art supplies, went out to get some lunch.
Back in the Muslim quarter there’s a restaurant that serves jiasan guantang baozi, or soup filled dumplings. They were incredibly succulent, juicy and flavorful. After lunch, headed to the Great Mosque, which you need to go down some pretty small, secluded hard to find alleyways to get to. The Great Mosque looks like a temple/mosque hybrid with Arabic and Chinese symbols. It was
quite the spectacle of cross culture where Han Chinese were walking around in shalls and burqas and answered their phone saying ‘Salam’. The Koran was written on the walls in Chinese and Arabic.
Then we headed off to the big wild goose pagoda. WGP square is home to the world’s largest water show. Pretty strange, but with this country I guess that’s to be expected. We watched hundreds of orchestrated water fountains that shot varying amounts in each direction, syncing up with Chinese classical, Chinese pop, William Tell, and then even Beethoven. It was a tumultuously choreographed phenomenon, much like an enormous version of an EPCOT center exhibit on crack. Walked around by the Wild Goose Pagoda for a bit and came back to the hotel.
They recommended that we try Paomo.
Without knowing what it was, we dove at the chance of eating some local food from Xi’an before we left the next day. We got there and had no clue what we were doing and ordered some dishes. We then watched people at the other tables for a good solid 15 minutes. They were tearing pieces of bread into less than centimeter length pieces and
Muslim Quarter Snacks
sticky rice flour balls caked in sugar and nuts on a stick. super tasty! dropping them into a bowl. We followed suit and after a painstaking amount of time this Chinese man was placed at our same table. He was really polite and helpful. Basically told us there was no sense worrying and was really polite and talkative. The waitress came by, picked up our plates filled with torn up bread and returned with lamb, small rice noodles and broth (of which a significant portion was absorbed by the bread). It was very filling and we returned to the hotel with likelihood that we wouldn’t need to eat breakfast in the morning.
Next morning, we got up to go to Emperor Jing Di’s tomb before the airport. Emperor Jing Di was the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, which was the second dynasty of China, after the Qin. The emperor buried his wife and countless miniature Han soldiers, various animals, pottery, cooking utensils… you name it. All the Han figurines were about the size of a newborn baby and had a specific job, be it a messenger by horseback, cook, artisan, or warrior. All of these clay figurines are about 1900 years old and were discovered about 14 years ago.
The tomb
of Jing Di has a hallway built entirely from glass that circles over the recently uncovered pits. Up until about two years ago you could actually walk in between the pits on the dirt. The clay figurines are missing arms because they were supposedly made of wood. You can even tell that some of the figurines are eunuchs and others are female cavalry.
If you go to Xi’an, both Jing Di’s tomb and the terracotta army are absolute must sees.
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mom
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reliving the trip
It was so much fun to read this, it helped me relive the trip. Looking forward to your next posting. Can't wait to hear more about your spring break advenyures!