Terracotta Warriors

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Today we went to see the terracotta warriors - very impressive! Thousands of them, each one different. Pit 1 had the majority of them, all standing in formation facing east, except for the edge rows and the rear, who were facing outwards. Pit 2 was still mainly unexcavated, except for the backside of a horse sticking out of the mud wall. And Pit 3 had the highet ranking officers and the chariots. It's a shame that you can't get down into the pits to see them closer, but from up above you can really get a sense of how vast it really is! And there were a few on display that you could study a bit closer. We even got to see the farmer who accidentally discovered it, signing books - he looked a little bit bored with it all, to be honest.

Yesterday we explored Xi'an some more, and it redeemed itself a little, though the fog still hasn't lifted. We wandered the narrow twisting streets of the Muslim Quarter and went to visit the Great Mosque, which is one of the biggest mosques in China. It was a combination of Chinese and Islamic architecture apparently, though it really seemed to just be a Chinese temple with a few sprinklings of Arabic here and there, but unlike the other temples, we practically had the whole place to ourselves - very peaceful and just a little spooky!

Then we went to the Drum Tower, which housed the giant drum that they would beat at certain intervals throughout the night in ancient times. There was a little museum there and who would have thought that there were so many different drums in the world? Rhythm drums, god drums, shield drums, long-standing national Korean drums, elephant foot drums, etc. And from there we went to the Bell Tower, which was pretty much the same as the Drum Tower, except it was a giant bell and it was rung throughout the day instead of the night. And we saw a performance there, with music (bells, surprisingly enough) and dancing, and at the end they played Auld Lang Syne (possibly for our benefit, because they kept watching us!)

We still greatly prefer Beijing to Xi'an, but there are some interesting places to visit, and I'm really glad that we got to see the terracotta warriors! And like I got to play Empress, Mark got the opportunity to be a warrior!

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Comments

[qudsia]

wow!
Im free from exams...which means i can now look at all ur pics wiv alittle less jealousy! the teracotta warriors looked amazing! has the weather improved? its been snowing here! lol

[Arran Pennington]

Warriors Wow
Sorry to read that the smog seems pretty much permenant there. However the terracotta warriors dig site looks very impressive. Also the traditional performance looked like it was an experince to be appreciated and well remembered. Hope you see many more new and fascinating sites, and the fog clears.