Day 5 - Xi'an

Today was a great day in Xi'an! We woke around 5:30, did our morning yoga, ate breakfast, changed money, and got going! Funny story - we had dollars in cash that we wanted to change and the hotel can do that. However, one of our 100s had a small tear and another one had a tiny star drawn in the corner and so they wouldn't change them for us. China has some weird policies like that...

Anyway, today was terra-cotta soldier day! It takes about an hour to get to the terra-cotta soldier museum. Our first stop was to talk to a local factory that makes terra-cotta soldiers today. We walked through their factory and saw them shaping each of the soldiers using molds - this is the only thing they do differently now than they did when the terra-cotta soldiers were originally built. There were no molds for the original terra-cotta soldiers. After they shaped them, they smooth out the lines from the molds and let them clay dry for a few days and then put them in a kiln for another few days to get nice and hard. It was a fascinating process.

Eric and I each got to make a small terra-cotta soldier. The manager of the factory showed us how to shape the clay into the mold so that the inside stayed hollow, then Eric and I tried it. The clay was very easy to work with and didn't get our hands very dirty. We put clay on each side of the mold and then put it together. After about 5 minutes we pulled it apart and then smoothed out the mold lines, which was harder than you might think. The manager had to help both Eric and me, she was very skilled. When we finished, she put them in a bag for us to take with us! Unfortunately, my soldier's legs fell off, so that was kind of a bummer, but the memories are still pretty cool. We also bought a small terra-cotta warrior to put in our curio cabinet back home.

Our next stop was the Terra-cotta warrior museum. This was so fascinating. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, commissioned the terra-cotta army in approximately 240 BC. It took 720,000 people 38 years to create his army, which consists of approximately 9,000 pieces (soldiers, chariots, and horses). The army was part of his tomb and their purpose was to protect the emperor in the afterlife. Similar to Egypt, the Emperor didn't want his enemies to know where his tomb was going to be and so he killed most of the workers who created and hid the terra-cotta army. He also sent some of the workers to the front lines where they surrendered to their enemies and ultimately told them where the tomb was. The Terra-cotta soldiers only stood for 6 months before the enemy came and destroyed the terra-cotta soldiers, buried them, and set them on fire. The enemy also stole the soldier's bronze weapons. The army remained buried until 1974 when local farmers were digging a well and came upon the terra-cotta soldiers.

One of the farmers that made the discovery was actually at the museum selling books. We met him briefly and then headed into the museum. We started with the bronze chariot and horses. There were only 2 bronze chariots that weren't discovered until 1980. One of the chariots depicts the general and the other chariot is for the emperor. The Emperor's chariot is shaped like a turtle because turtles signify longevity. They are each made with over 3,000 different pieces of metal and were very expensive to make, so they are not full-size. The general's chariot is the original, but the Emperor's chariot is a replica because it's currently touring the world.

Our next stop was Pit 2. This pit housed the cavalry and infantry primarily. It was interesting to see some areas that had been unburied but were still in shambles. This pit also had glass cases that had a standing archer, a general, an official, a cavalry soldier and his horse, and a leaning archer. The leaning archer was the only soldier that was found in one piece, so he signifies good health. He is also one of the few pieces that still have original paint - a lot of the soldiers were painted when they were first found, but after about a week of being exposed the paint completely faded. The level of detail on the archer is pretty incredible, especially considering that he was built without a mold. Kenneth told us that the leaning archer was married because his hair knots were very elaborate, which means he had help from his wife. Also, there were nails in his boots, which is another sign of marriage because his wife would have made his boots. It was really interesting. Pit 2 also had the bones of one of the workers. The workers knew they were going to die and some would try to escape only to be killed by live soldiers. It's pretty sad.

They call this the Bruce Lee soldier because it looks like he is doing Kung Fu

This general has one finger pointing outward indicating he was the number 1 general in the army

The kneeling archer

Clay from the pits is collected and used to make replicas for officials and dignitaries who want to buy a soldier. When Bill Clinton visited China he came to the pits and wanted to buy two soldiers. They would not sell him restored originals, but they made two replicas for him. 

Worker's bones can be seen in this shot

Our next stop was Pit 3 - this was a really small pit and was "headquarters" for the terra-cotta army. This pit has officials and bodyguards along with some cavalry. Many of the pieces are missing heads because the farmers who originally found the soldiers sold a lot of the heads and the government hasn't been able to find all of them. Pit 1 was the final stop and this has the largest collection of soldiers, approximately 6,000. This pit has a lot of active discovery and restoration work being done. Kenneth joked it was the terra-cotta warrior hospital, but to me, it looked like a jigsaw puzzle from hell. It takes at least 6 months to restore 1 terra-cotta soldier, but it can take up to 7 years because a lot of the soldiers are in over 2,000 pieces. He joked that it took 38 years to build the terra-cotta army originally, and it would take 380 years to restore it. I have to say though, the restoration work is beautifully done. You can't even see cracks in the soldiers. One interesting tidbit they found during excavation was a farmer's tomb right in the middle of Pit 1 - this means that some farmers found the soldiers before 1974 and even built their own tombs there, but didn't tell the government about it.

Half of this pit has been restored and a half has not, partially so that visitors can compare what the restored and unrestored sections look like and partially because the restoration is a work in process. 

The site of the original well used to find the soldiers

The terra-cotta army was so interesting. I'm so glad we were able to see it. Our next stop was lunch, where we had delicious beef, sweet and sour pork, delicious vegetables, a Xi'an Hamburger (delicious!), and steamed rice. It was a fantastic lunch. Our next stop was the Xi'an City Wall. This was built in approximately 1400 to protect Xi'an, which was the largest city in the Northwest at the time. There are 98 watchtowers on the wall and each gate has a large tower. All of the gates originally had 3 towers, but many were destroyed by the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s. There are a few things that I've come to really appreciate about China as we've been here:

Xi'an beef hamburger

1. The restoration work they do is incredible. It's very different than Egypt and Israel, which do a lot of excavation work, but not as much restoration. All of the sites in China are impeccable - the colors are so vibrant! 
2. China does a lot to keep its cities beautiful. I've never seen so many flowers in cities in my life! 
3. There are bathrooms everywhere and they are CLEAN! It's amazing. I had to go to the restroom when we got inside the Old City and I was bracing myself for a bathroom similar to the Old City of Jerusalem (disgusting), and it was so clean and nice and there was even a bathroom attendant who was cleaning the bathroom. I've also never had to walk very far to find a restroom. It's amazing.

We decided to ride bicycles on the wall, which was so much fun. The total perimeter of the wall is 14 kilometers. We biked nearly all of it, but there was a section by the South Gate that was walking only, so we turned in our bikes, walked a little way, and then picked up our bikes again. We had so much fun riding bikes on the wall. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the time together. At one point I told Eric we should race and I took off just as I heard him say "you win" because he didn't want to race. Turns out he's a dirty, rotten cheater and as soon as I slowed down so he could catch back up to me, he raced passed me and said "just kidding!" Naturally, I couldn't let him win so I took off and was ultimately victorious. 

We came back to our hotel for a few minutes before going back out again to see Xi'an at night. They do a lot of light-up Xi'an at night and it's really beautiful! Our first stop was Snack Street for Dinner. This is definitely a place for the locals - none of the signs were in English and I only saw one other western couple.  Kenneth helped out a ton. We tried a lot of interesting food. Our first snack was spicy tofu. It was pretty good, but we only ate about half of it before we couldn't handle the texture anymore. Our next snack was sweet stick rice with dates and honey. This was also yummy, but not our favorite. We tried caramelized crab apples next - these were surprisingly good! I guess these are really popular treats in Beijing. Our next snack was a pork hamburger - this was delicious! We tried BBQ pork, but there were bones and the pork was really fatty. We only ate about half of our skewers before tossing them. We then tried fantastic noodle bowls. I was always raised not to slurp noodles, but that is how they do it in China, so that was a weird sensation. Finally, we ended with Watermelon, one of my favorite treats.

Our next stop was Night Street. Xi'an lights up the city at night in a way that I've never seen before in any other city. Nearly everywhere you look, there are lights to make the city more beautiful. Night Street has all the buildings lit up, the best were the Cinema and the Center for Performing Arts. There were also interesting light displays on the street. We enjoyed walking down this street towards the Pagoda. When we reached the Pagoda our driver picked us up and we drove about 5 minutes to see the fountain show. We only saw the last 5 minutes, but we weren't too upset about it. The Fountain Show was far less impressive than both the Bellagio and World of Color. Our next stop was Qu Jiang Lake. This lake was in the middle of town and it was gorgeous! There was a dragon spitting water, and everything was lit up at night. Our final stop for the night was the South Gate, which is true Xi'an fashion was also alight. We had a great time experiencing Xi'an Night Life!