Xi'an - Day 2
It's an early wake up this morning as we're off to see the Terracotta Warriors today! We shovel down a quick buffet breakfast and order a Didi. It's a 1 hour drive costing $25.
We meet up with our guide and group and we're on our way. We've got an American father and son in our group, from South Carolina, who are keen to chat and confirm they're just as happy as us about the mid-term election results yesterday. We all quietly wonder how the Texan in our group is feeling about it. The son has recently travelled to Australia so that he could get his Chinese visa. Huh? We didn't even need a visa, we brag. They tell us that they (the Chinese embassy in America?) need the physical passport to provide the visa and you can either mail it or deliver it in person. Guess Australia's relations with China are going OK then.
There's 3 pits displaying the warriors that have been discovered. The history here is that the Chinese believe that our bodies are just skin bags made for holding our souls and so when you die, you bury your dead with things they'll need in the next "tour". For the first Chinese emperor that was buried here in 221BC, that meant around 8,000 soldiers, hundreds of horses with accompanying chariots and bronze weapons. And that's just what they've discovered.
The discovery was made by farmers digging in the area in the mid 70s. Imagine that! UNESCO eventually stepped in and told them to stop digging and start figuring out how to protect the Terracotta as it very quickly starts to discolour once exposed to the elements. The Terracotta was originally painted but that's now all gone. Each warrior is different from the next and it's thought they may have been modelled on real life soldiers. They've been generous with the height as well.
Whilst many of the emperors' burial sites have been discovered, this one is particularly special for the fact this guy unified 7 warring kingdoms into what we call China today. Also for its size. The Forbidden City in Beijing is only 2% of its area. Much of what is buried has been identified with sonar and other techniques. They've also identified a lot of mercury when the emperor is actually buried, which acts as another deterent to digging it up.
There's a mini museum where we start the tour and we get to see close ups of some of the warriors that have been excavated and reconstructed from the pits. It's incredible to see how much detail has gone into them. They've braided their hair and even put the pattern on the soles of their shoes!
We also learn that they had been painted in "Chinese purple", but scientists can't figure how they got the pigment to do that at the time. Likewise they are still stumped about how they created the coating for the bronze weapons to stop oxidisation.
We're finally ready to enter pit 1 and our guide wishes us luck on our fight to the front to view the warriors and take pictures. He'll see us on the other side. We make our way in and it's carnage. A lot of elbowing and shoving going on. Like a lot of major tourist attractions it needs a better in one way out the other system. We manage to get to front and see the imperial army in all its glory. It's so impressive now we've got a bit more of the history and details on the intricacy of how they made these things.
We make it out alive (this is shoulder season, remember) and it's on to pit 2 and 3. These aren't as big or as hectic and it's a bit easier to get a little lookie loo. Very impressive, worth a visit.
We get a Didi back to city and to the same place we had the sour soup dumplings yesterday. We order the same again plus a saucy pork dish and it's just as good as yesterday. Then it's back to the hotel for laundry and a lie down to plan the evening activities.
Feeling refreshed, we head up to the roof for a few cold ones and watch the sun set over the wall and city. There is a group of gents playing the 4-player card game "kill the landlord" which is very popular here.
Then we trundle on down and wander aimlessly through some streets we haven't been down before. We ended up in a craft beer bar where we share an award winning IPA. Awards warranted, its lovely. We decide to leave the walled city and see what's happening on the other side. Good things as we find a soccer shop moments after walking out the gates. Jeff buys the obligatory soccer shirt of the city we're in and he's chuffed. Time for food. We pick a random side street off the main street and think we've made a bad choice until we find a couple of food carts on the side of the road. We stop at one with stacks of fresh veg all chopped up and the customer picking out what he wants, Subway style. We watch the chef make a rice dish in his wok then order the same, plus one with noodles. We pull up a stall at the tiny roadside table, grab a beer from the convenience store next door and dig in. It's fresh and delicious at about $2 per serve.
As we are waiting for our food we hear a bang and see a customer at another stall has been hit by a postman's trike. He's down. He's lost his shoe. We aren't sure how bad it is. Looked nasty. After a while he manages to get up though and details are exchanged. It's not surprising. What feel like pedestrian streets are not. Bikes (and cars) are always whizzing past.
We were going to see the little pagoda tonight but we've lost steam so we waddle home to bed instead, via a number of live bands performing on the streets.
