April 8, 2016 Xian Terra Cotta Army, Cave House, Dinner and a show

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I can't see how this trip center get better but it does every day. If you ever get a chance to visit China, GO and make sure you use China Spree. The accommodations are top notch, the food amazing, the guide exceptional and the cost, unbelievable. You owe it to yourself to chek it out before you make a decision on your next trip.

Today we spend our only full day in Xian before our next flight to our next destination. Xian was once the Capitol city of all China and was considered the most beautiful city in the world. The city is surrounded by a wall to keep out invaders which is still intact today. Xian's claim to fame is the famous Terra Cotta Warrior Army of Emperor Zhen.

The historical find of the century was discovered completely by luck. You see some farmers were digging a well to find some fresh water. They came across some pottery shards. Not thinking anything,they handed the shares to archeologists. Curious they began to dig some exploratory wells and found the army buried in the soil awaiting the Emperor's command to attack.

Emperor Zhen is credited with unifying China from a number of kingdoms to one great country. Zhen unified China, established a system of universal coinage, made laws, and built an army to protect him in the afterlife. At the tender age of 13, Emperor commissioned his workers to build him an army to protect his tomb. Thirty- eight years later they succeeded in building 8000 warriers, complete with horses, chariots, weapons and all the armor and tools needed to protect the Emperor. The Emperor died at the age of 51, much earlier then he planned.

His army of craftsmen designed, engineered and built 8000 unique individual life sized statues of every type of warriers needed to protect the Emperor. There were calvery, archers (standing and kneeling), infantry, chariots and many other soldiers necessary for battle. The all had bronze weapons, armor, and bows and arrows. each soldier had a unique face making archeologist conclude that each soldier was a model for a soldier in real life. Amazing, simply amaxzng.

They also found horses for calvery and for pulling a war chariot. They horses had suffered ears and tails to help make, even the horses, different. The tails of the chariot horses were short while the tails of the calvery horse were long and flowing. Amazing attention to detail.

The initial find was destroyed as the result of a booby trap built by the craftsmen 2000 years ago. It seems the Emperor wanted to protect his army from thieves, so he ordered a booby trap be installed such that, if the encampment was disturbed, the entire find would be destroyed. He was successful, for when the encampment was excavated, it showed evidence of fire. The fire destroyed anything that was combustable, arrows, wooden roof, ropes ETC. The roof collapsed in on the warriers crushing them to rubble. When the pit was opened by the archeologists found a gig saw puzzle of biblical proportions.

Over the last 40 years, they painstakingly worked day and night to develop new technologies to help the rebuild Emperor Zhen's warriors. They have honored they ancestors and are a credit to their culture for striving to restore this treasure.

Our guide took us through the five excavation pits providing us with historical details and information on the reconstruction efforts. She is both knowledgeable and very helpful as evidenced by the passport fiasco.

After viewing some of the pits it was time for lunch. We were to dine in th site itself so that we could continue our explorations after. Just prior to lunch we had to pass through the gift shop. Graciously Jo gave us some free time to shop, and shop we did.

Ricky bought some tee shirts for gifts, Mike got some shirts, a tea set for his lady friend, Dick bought several items. I however went wild! They had amaxing things to choose from. There was jade of every size, style and shape. Jewelry in abundance (someone I know is getting a beautiful new piece of jewelry approved by Ricky). They had Terra Cotta statues of the different soldiers in sets or individually. I had already bought a General at an earlier store so I was set. I did buy some tee shirts for the boys, Rick and Chris, a dragon hat for myself and some other odds and ends. I needed a suit case if I hoped to get this stuff home! I was now on a mission to find a cheap satchel that can hold my loot, but still be small enough to act as carry on. The challenge was afoot.

One of our party, a professional antique dealer, found the most unique set of old silver coins. She was able to bargain them down to a price of only $15 each, an amazing low price. She was excited, happy and very pleased with herself. It is these amazing moments that make the trip memorable and well worth the cost.

After the shopping Spree, we headed to lunch for a taste of the local Xian product, wheat noodles. You see Xian grows two crops. Winter wheat and corn. Most of the corn goes to animal feed to industrial use. The wheat, however is made into noodles.

They made two kinds of noodles, a pounded thick noodle and a pulled thinner noodle that resembled angel hair pasta. They made the noodles right in front of us so you could not get a fresher meal if you tried. The noodles were served with a gravy, mine was a brown bean gravy (absolutely delicious). I did not try the other noodle as I was full after my first bowl, but I hear tell from all the others that they were equally delicious.

Included in our feast was some wantons, vegatables, soup and a salad bar. I hit the Alan bar as I was trying to cut a few calories, just in case I was putting a little weight from the delightful and huge meals. When I finished my meal, I walked around looking for a sweet for desert, I am not cutting everything out,after all I AM on vacatiion. I came across some large jars filled with different colored liquids. Curious I approached closer to find that these are medicinal wines created with local herbs and such to help bring good health. Well who can't use a dose of good health, right?

As I got closer Lois, of passport fame, came us and together we got a little closer to the jars in hops of choosing our drink. In the first jar labeled TOKAY WINE at the bottom was some dead bats! In the jar next to it were some dead snakes. Taken aback we noticed that the other jars contained carcasses of various animals except for one jar which had pomegranate in the bottom. Each choice, the fruit drink rather than the dead animal containing drink.

We made our choice and I bought us each a drink for 20 CYN ($3) and out hostess took a dipping cup and withdrew about an ounce of a slightly pink tinged clear liquid. We took a tiny, tiny sip and bam, it hit you. This drink was about 200 proof pure grain alcohol. In the states we call it Everclear. This stuff was strong.

We headed back to our table and I tried to share some with the others. Rick took a tiny sip and made a harsh face. Heidi followed with the same result. I drink Lemoncello, so I know sipping is not the way to go, so "down the hatch" it went. The feeling of a heat traveling through out your body was amazing. When the pain wore off, I felt GREAT. I was energized and ready for the rest of the day, I would soon come to need that energy on a future stop.

Back to the archeology. Our next stop was to visit the two chariots found, not at this site, but a little loser to the tomb itself. They found two bronze chariots fully equipped to protect the Emperor's soul and to transport him where he chose. The first chariot was an open affair with a General at the strap complete with armor and armament. He was the protector.

The second chariot was a closed affair. It had a round turtle shell top (heaven) on a square wagon (earth) with a door through which the Emperor's soul could pass. These chariot and horses were half sized as the soul does not need much room. This section was really crowed, mostly with Chinese nationals. They are a pushy bunch so I got a quick view and headed out to get some much needed fresh air and a few minutes sitting down.

When we had gathered our troop, it was time for a bathroom run and back to the buss for our next stop, the cave house.

A few minutes drive down from the encampment we stopped at a local community where we were invited to view the 105 year old cave home. Our host was the 6th generation resident of their unique dwelling. The house was cut directly into the hillside and was about eight feet wide by seven feet tall. It consisted of a multipurpose room (bedroom, dining room,sitting room) and a second multi purpose room. Behind this room was a very small storage section, behind which I noticed a bricked up section of the cave wall. I inquired WHT was behind the wall and was advised that there was about 250 feet of additional tunnels and rooms back there but they are no longer used.

Outside the cave entrance the owners, over several genertions, built a very modest brick kitchen fueled by a combination of coal and clay in a tiny burner. They only needed a small amount of heat in extreme weather as the cave was a constant 56 degrees F. They had no running water and a bathroom consisted of a hole in the ground outside the complexx in a cinder block stall with no door. The current owner is building a very modest kitchen and bathroom, both with running water. It may take several years to complete. This was our first introduction of pauperism under communism and it wasn't pretty. But as John said "you do eat your have to do to survive." He was right, but I am not sure how many Americans would live like that.

Our next stop was an hour away, the 600 year old city wall. Time for a nap. I once again took a lesson from Chris, and made a bed in the back of teh bus and promptly fell asleep. We arrived at the city wall and embarked on an unexpected adventure.

The city wall is 30 feet high, 45 feet thick and completely surrounds the city. The circumference was 9 kilometers which we soon become intimately familiar with. We climbed the 70 steps to the top of the wall for a unique view of both the ancient and the modern cities of Xian. Our guide asked us if we wanted to walk or take a bke ride on the wall. She allowed 30 minutes. We begged her for an full hour to which she relented. Some of of us brave should opted for the bike others walked.

So now we begin the race around the wall. Now the bikes were old, out of repair had no gears and poor brakes. There were options for tandem or single. I chose the single, but some went the tandem route. My bike had a real hard seat which was set much too low for me. I tried in vain to move it upwards to no avail, so rather than get left behind I mounted up and started peddeling.

Now the surface of the wall is paved with rectangular bricks. They are smooth, assuring a slippery ride. They are uneven and missing in spots, assuring a bumpy ride. Then there are the pedestrians and other bikes, assuring a dangerous ride. Sound fun yet? I had to pull over at the next bike stand and swap out my clunker for one with a higher seat, John followed suite as his seat was worse then mine. One of the tandem bike blew out a sprocket and had to be swapped out as well.

We continued our ride, slipping and sliding, zigging and zigging and having wonderful time looking at the sites and having fun with new friends. We soon came to the home stretch and crossed the finish line winners all. My knees were killing me and some other lower body parts lost all feeling but it was well worth the experience. Hay, I rode a bike in the top of a 600 year old wall today, what did you do!

Back to the bus for some much needed air conditining. I bought an orange juice and the combination soon rejuvinated me. I was ready to go to our next stop, dinner.

Xian is noted for wheat, as I said earlier. Another local specialty was dumplings. They make dumplings in every shape and size and color. We were treated to a spectacular array of color and tastes that we just could not imagine. We had green, white, purple, orange and other colors of noodles. They were filled with pork, chicken, chili, shrimp, mushrooms and on and on. There were 18 different varieties and we tasted each and every one. I had a special preparation of the offerings with no mushrooms. I felt privileged that my guide tried not to poison me!

Our delicious dinner complete we had one more stop before bed, music and a show. In the same building as our dinner, for a small extra fee of 150 CYN (about $23) we attended a show of traditional dance and song depicting the majesty of the Tang Dynasties. The young professional troop played traditional music, danced in traditional exotic costumes and sang the traditional songs. There was even an acrobatic dance route in that simulated angel flying. Amazing. We all enjoyed the evening, even Mike who didn't want to go in the first place. I had to twist his arm, he was glad he went.

Our bus soon returned us to the hotel for much needed sleep. By the way I did find that bag I was searching for. My new satchel cost me $8 and is big enough so that I have more room for some additional purchases! Carry on and Good Night from Xian China.

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Photos

Terra Cotta Army
Build by the Emperor Chin, who united all of China and began the Chin Dynasty

Terra Cotta Army
8000 strong, built to protect the body of the Emperor

Terra Cotta Army
Each is an individual soldier with specific features, armed and protected by armor

Terra Cotta Army
Looking over the amazing find

Terra Cotta Army
Each Soldier was painted in the colors of his uniform

Terra Cotta Army
Some of the reconstructed soldiers

Terra Cotta Army
There were horses, chariots and other tools of war

Terra Cotta Army
Ongoing reconstruction work and preservation

Terra Cotta Army
Horses ready for the Chariot

Terra Cotta Army
Charioteers