Day 25 (4 August) the Terracotta Army

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Good thing we got directly to sleep early on Sunday night, because at 4:45 am today we were woken up by the phone. We were being collected at 5.20 am to go to the airport to fly to Xian. Our driver was waiting for us in the hotel lobby. Unfortunately he wasn't sure which way to go and we thought that the day was not going to go as planned when he drove up the off ramp of the motorway and did a U turn. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic at that time of day. He dropped us off at the airport with no tickets or instructions as to where to go or what to look for. Bearing in mind that this was T2 - domestic flights - most of the signs and announcements were completely in Chinese. Eventually we discovered what airline had the initials MU of our flight number, then found our way to the China Eastern desk where we checked in and issued with boarding passes. We made our way to Gate 60 as told only to find that the gate had changed to 59. Not the end of the world as they really were next to one another. However, our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours, so much for arising at an uncivil hour. We had a busy schedule in Xian and still hoped that we could fit it all in.

We had a very uneventful flight. We were offered hot rice porridge but our stale egg sandwich from Dini's was fine along with some fruit. We arrived at Xian airport to be met by our charming guide Peony. She was named after the national flower of China. Peony has two older brothers which is against the Chinese policy of one child families. Her parents had to pay a lot of money to the government for the privilege. It would seem that if the first child is a girl the family may try for a second as a girl will leave home when she gets married. It is the duty of a boy to look after his parents. Peony's mother told her that she wanted a girl so they tried for a third child and got lucky.

Peony was accompanied by our driver Mr Wong. (Fortunately he proved quite capable, in contrast to Mr Wong Way who barely got us to Beijing airport.) Mr Wong drove a van with a very high doorway and didn't carry a portable step to climb onto first. Getting in and out was a bit of a challenge for me (Lesley). We set off for what we thought was the Terracotta museum. We had told the tour company that we did not want to go to any shops as we didn't have either the time or the inclination. The 'museum' turned out to be a factory which reproduced miniature terracotta warriors and lacquered Chinese tables and who knows what. We walked out pdq explaining to Peony that we don't do tourist shops. If she lost commissions it's a shame, and we showed her our tour plan from her company which she photographed as evidence to submit with her paperwork.

Next stop the International Hotel for lunch. This hotel caters lunches for all the tour groups. Peony hustled us through an indoor shopping centre of tourist shlock. She did warn us and walked us straight through it on our way in and out of the hotel. That demonstrated good understanding on the part of our guide, by listening to us after being misinformed by her tour company.

Finally we got on our way to the Terracotta Warriors site. First a bit about Xian. Xian is again huge by our standards but a small city compared to Beijing as its population is a mere 8 million. It has three main industries: tourism, natural resources (oil, gas, metals, minerals) and education. There are 108 universities in the city. Xian means peaceful west. The name was changed from Chang An meaning longevity and peaceful.

The history of the city predates Beijing. The first rulers were from the Zhou dynasty 1121 - 249 BCE, followed by the Qin dynasty 248-207 BCE, followed by the Han dynasty 206 BCE to 220 CE. The people of Xian are predominantly Han.

The first emperor Qin Shi Huang hated women because when he was young his mother gave him to various warlords as a hostage. He was used as the guarantee against war breaking out between the various kingdoms. He never married but is said to have had 3000 concubines.

He had the Terracotta Army made. He was such a wicked person, a sadist, a torturer, a murderer, quite a kind sort really. He believed that when he died his enemies would seek out his body and cut it up into pieces and scatter his remains to the wind. The army was intended to guard him in the afterlife. Sculptors were called upon to make the warriors. The emperor scrutinised each warrior. If he didn't like a nose he would cut off the sculptor's nose; if he didn't like an eye he would gouge out an eye. Don said that it was a good job the warriors were clothed! What the sculptors didn't know was that as soon as the army was completed they were all killed. That was the emperor's method to ensure secrecy. The emperor chose the location for his tomb and protective army because the Feng (mountains) Shui (water) shows that this was a good place.

The irony is that the emperor wasn't buried in his intended tomb near the warriors, as it is thought that he died whilst in a different kingdom. during a war Nobody knows whether he died naturally or was killed. One theory is that he was killed by a eunuch. His body was found buried in a mercury pit some distance away and due to the danger to archaeologists it has only relatively recently been excavated.

The warriors are exquisite. Each is unique, not copied by a mold. When they were found they still had some colour in them. But being exposed to the air and sun they soon lost their colourings and so some were quickly reburied. The colours that they found included green, red, blue, white, black, brown and pink. There are three pits. Pit number 1 is the largest and has soldiers and slaves and some horses. Each warrior is approximately 1.7 to 2 meters tall, somewhat taller than real Chinese men of that time. The top half of each warrior, head to stomach, is hollow and the bottom half, waist to feet, is solid so that they can stand upright.

Pit 2 is not open purposely. The joke amongst the museum curators is that by not opening the pit they will keep the public in suspense and they will keep coming back to see the army. In fact they decided to avoid exposing Pit 2 to the elements until a safe scientific method becomes available for the archeologists. Pit 3 has uncovered only 68 warriors and four horses which were pulling a chariot. However the chariot must have been made of wood and has disintegrated. The generals were found in Pit 3, which was organised in the manner of a headquarters. The whole army took over 37 years to build.

Two bronze chariots with bronze horses were unearthed between the major pits of soldiers and the emperors prepared tomb. These are half size with incredible detail. They are on display in the museum at the site. Lighting is kept low for preservation reasons, so it was difficult to photograph the chariots within their sealed glass display cases, especially with so many visitors crowding around.

Words failed us at the magnitude of the place, the artistry, the beauty and the reality of each and every warrior. There are 8,000 warriors. The army was discovered in 1974 by three farmers who were digging a well. One of the farmers has died. One of the farmers makes a fortune book signing at the site.

After 25 days of non stop rushing around my legs finally gave out. So we had Peony change our flight and we pootled back to the airport. We rebooked for an earlier flight and went to have a coffee. For the first time we were actually ripped off and it cost us £13 for two coffees. We found a seat and ate our squishy sushi and stale tuna sandwiches from Dini's and some fruit and brought in our fast of Tisha B'Av. Then we went to the gate only to find that our flight would be an hour late. We wondered what time our original 10 pm flight would have arrived at Beijing airport, as we arrived after 11. We were met by the same driver who had driven us to the airport, and were lucky 'Mr Wong Way' didn't get lost reaching our hotel.

We fell into bed past midnight. We were exhausted but so pleased that we had had this opportunity to see the Terracotta Warriors.

Note: SCROLL DOWN to see more pictures below the text showing many additional details of this amazing army in Xi'an.

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Photos

horseman - front view