China 2013 Day 6

---

We wake up in our 2nd major city of the trip: Xian (or more properly Xi'an, pronounced Zhee-jann, two syllables), ancient capital of the Qin, Han and Tang dynasties, among others. Breakfast at the hotel, a nice cross-cultural buffet that includes home fries, which quickly attract a crowd. We are on the road by 9:30, on the way to see the terra cotta warriors, one of the most anticipated attractions of the trip.

We drive through Xian, which is another thoroughly modern city, with many impressive sleek office buildings and condos, and a great deal of construction going on. JW tells us that a subway is being built, the first stretch of which opened just weeks ago. Once out of the city, we enter a rural area dominated by fruit farms. Most of the route is along a narrow paved highway with a large drainage/irrigation canal on the right and endless farms and orchards on the left.

After about an hour and a half, we reach our destination, a small town called Lintong that has been transformed into a tourist mecca with the discovery of the terra cotta figures. The story is well known, but bears repeating.

By 221 BC, the warrior king Qin Shi Huang had conquered and united the six independent Chinese states, declaring himself the first emperor. This marked the formation of the first true country of China. By dint of ruthless power, he standardized money, writing, weights and measures, built a comprehensive system of roads, and created a central bureaucracy. His rule encompassed both the founding and the downfall of the Qin dynasty, as peasant uprisings after his death in reaction to his cruelty eventually led to the founding of the Han dynasty. Qin was convinced that his rule would last beyond his death, so he ordered the construction of an enormous tomb and an army of warrior statues that he could command in the afterlife. After his death, knowledge of this underground mausoleum gradually faded. It was only rediscovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well. Excavation efforts are ongoing.

Our first stop is a facility that has been recreating terra cotta figures using the same techniques as 2000 years ago. We get an overview of the process and then of course are invited to buy something. The store turns out to have an extensive collection of enamel and mahogany furniture, rugs, statuary and jewelry as well. The furniture in particular is fantastic and some of our party make purchases that will be shipped to Canada.

We then move to the main event. There are three separate pits so far discovered. We visit pit 1 first. As we enter the huge airline-hanger-sized building constructed to protect the excavation, we experience another "wow" moment. The sight is breathtaking. Rows and rows of warrior figures, each one distinct; foot soldiers and archers and calvary men and horses; officers, lieutenants and generals. There are over eight thousand so far uncovered. The ones we are seeing have all been painstakingly reconstructed from broken pieces. The figures were originally buried standing in rows with roofs protecting them. But the timbers that held up the roofs have long since disintegrated and so almost all the figures were smashed to varying degrees. Only a precious few were unearthed more or less intact, and they are showcased in special vitrines.

We spend an hour or so circumnavigating the vast pit before regrouping to attend what JW calls an IMAX movie, but is really a 360° movie like the one I remember from Expo 67. It traces the life story of the emperor and the discovery of the buried warriors and is generally well done but showing its age. Next is lunch, kind of more of the same, and then we visit pits 3 and 2. These smaller pits have mostly archers, but also some non-military figures like bureaucrats and other functionaries, musicians, stable men and horses. It's fascinating to see the figures in various stages of reconstruction: just emerging from the ground, lying in pieces, being put back together, and then whole again.

The last stop is the museum, focused of course on the history of the terra cotta figures. Notable in the museum are a pair of horse-drawn carriages with their horses, all cast in bronze. These were discovered in pit 3. The farmer who originally rediscovered the warriors is signing copies of his book. The top floor, interestingly, is devoted to the Roman Empire in the period contemporary to emperor Qin: two advanced civilizations and empires that knew nothing of the other.

Time to return to Xian. However, on the trip back we run into the mother of all traffic jams. Probably as a result of an accident, the highway is closed. We inch our way down smaller roads, our heads nodding. We were supposed to have some recovery time at the hotel, but in the end we have to proceed directly to the dinner theatre. There we are treated to one of the culinary highlights of the trip: the dumpling dinner. Our taste buds are regaled by dozens of different steamed dumplings, the stuffings including pork, shrimp, sweet potato, mushroom, bean and on and on. What a feast!

Following the dinner we enjoy a spectacular show loosely based on the theme of Tang Culture. The costumes, sets, lighting and dancing are all top-notch, although the computerized back screen malfunctions part of the way through.

Another absolutely exhausting but amazing day.

---