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Published: October 29th 2012
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The Terracotta Warriors are one of China's top tourists attractions. When I found out I was going to Xi'An and asked what I should see there, I was told that this site was nearby but, although it was one of the main tourist attractions in the country, once you've seen one warrior, you've seen them all, and the pictures are as good as going. I decided to go for myself anyways, and am glad that I did. In a sense, what I was told was correct. What makes being on site special, though, is the massiveness of the site. Seeing thousands of these statues, and knowing that they were not factory produced, but handmade several thousand years ago, was really incredible.
The Terracotta Warriors date back to Qin Shi Huang, China's first emporer. He had them made so he would have an army in his afterlife, and they were buried with him in 210-209 BC. As impressive as the site was, it was truly sad. So many people slaved to make these things at the whims of an insecure, power-hungry man, yet he died and was buried like the rest of humanity.
There are three
pits of soldiers and horses to tour. Pit 1 is the biggest and also contains the site of the well that was instrumental in the 1974 discovery of the Warriors by unsuspecting farmers just looking for water. It's estimated that there are over 8000 warriors, plus horses, chariots, and various other personnel. Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum itself is a few kilometres from the tourist site and is relatively undisturbed as of yet. Unearthing the warriors is an ongoing task, so it's hard to say what has yet to be discovered. Qin chose this site for his burial because of the jade in the surrounding mountains. Jade is supposed to provide immortality.
Getting to the Warriors site involved, first of all, getting to the Xi'An train station, which is by the old-city Xi'An. Once at the train station, I stood in line for 45 minutes to get on a bus. The bus ride itself was about an hour-and-a-half. Once at the warriors site, which was rather spread out, I had to figure out where to go to buy a ticket. Meanwhile, I was accosted by tour guides wanting to give me a privately guided tour. Since I was
alone and the site seemed pretty big, and since I had little cash on me and my prospective tour guide said that the ATM wasn't working but she could process my credit card at the end of the tour for the price of both my ticket and her tour, I allowed myself to be suckered into taking a guided tour. It was interesting, though, as she provided little tidbits of information that I wouldn't otherwise have had.
Oh... and the jade at the jade factory is fake, for the most part. I bought a necklace and earrings, wondering a bit at their authenticity. I didn't pay any more than I would have paid for a nice costume-jewelry set back in the West, so all was okay, but, upon returning home, my roommate immediately recognized it as a fraud! Poor me! I didn't have a very successful day in terms of being taken in, but all-in-all, it was an unforgettable day.
I flew back to Urumqi at the end of the day and had an uneventful couple-hour flight.
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