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Published: October 17th 2013
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Wednesday, October 9
Shaanxi, Xi'an, China
Rachael and I, before her arrival, discussed at length what she would like to do for her actual birthday, given that she'd be spending it here in China. It seemed most obvious to have her standing on the Great Wall of China on her birthday but, as we had done this on the 5th, it seemed silly to think we'd be doing this again. We determined that she needed SOMETHING stand-outish from the overall trek, and so we came to the conclusion that the Xi'an Terracotta Warriors seemed like a great other-worldly experience to have to make her day count.
And we were right.
The Terracotta Warriors
l somehow wonderfully managed to not read up a whole lot on the Warriors before heading out to see them. By not knowing a whole lot about the site, I managed to maintain an element of awe about the entire experience.
For a brief rundown on the things, this area is the site of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China's tomb. The guy basically decided at the age of 13 that he wanted - not just his army,
but his entire KINGDOM to travel with him to the afterlife. Therefore, he put 700,000 men to work recreating his existence here on earth out of clay before he died. The entire recreation was then buried when he died at the age of 50 in 209 BC... that's right... BC. More than 2200 years ago. This fact of China still blows my mind. Its history is so incredibly old! And yet, here we were eyeing over weapons that were treated chemically in such a way back in 210 BC that left them so remarkably conserved that they still glisten under the lighting... with absolutely no rust or breakage to be found. How is this possible? And that's not even mentioning the pigment that can still be seen on some of the warriors' painted armor. Incredible stuff.
Anyway, the exhibit itself is still an active archaeological dig. That's another thing that makes the place so remarkable. They have all of these rough estimates posted for what and how many things they expect to find in the coming year. As such, should one of you traverse over to Xi'an in the coming years, you are viable to see a completely different
exhibit than what I saw. So, this experience was breathtaking in its own way -- in more of the awe-inspiring sense due to the size, age and nature of the place.
On our trek out to the Warriors, it became inherently clear that Xi'an is a place that is really owed a couple days' visit at the very least. There's a lot of history and incredible sights that I think I'd like to go back and explore.
Unfortunately, at this point, Rachael was quickly starting to run out of days... and we had just received word that Hangzhou was finally starting to dry up from its run in with a typhoon that hit on the 6th (just in time for Taryn to return from Tianjin... poor kid). As an aside on that, I've learned that that's just the nature of Hangzhou: it floods. If the sky so much as blinks a drop of rain at this place, we're up to our knees in water for 2 days. It's just a fact of life here. I'm investing in some boots.
Anyway, so it's a pity that we didn't have more time to explore Xi'an, but Rachael had not
Terracotta Warriors
These guys are in the process of being reconstructed by the exhibitionists. yet seen Hangzhou... and it was time for me to get home. So, immediately on the night of the 9th, it was time to head out yet again. And off to Hangzhou we went.
Our explorations of Hangzhou will be revealed in Part Four!
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grandma
non-member comment
see you
isn't that you in Pit #1, 10th row back, 2nd in from the left? :) love ya, grandma