Me hanging with some fake terracotta warriors
The Number 1 reason people flock to Xi'an is to visit the famous Terracotta Warriors (sometimes called the Terracotta Army). It is one of the greatest archaeological excavations of modern time.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago (210 BC)....the first emperor of China pissed off a lot of people. In order to protect himself during the afterlife he created an army made out of terracotta that would be buried with him. It took over 700,000 workers in a span of 37 years to finish building his army.
In 1974 a group of farmers discovered the warriors while digging a well near Qin Emperor's Tomb. One of the farmers was Yang Xinman, and I met him. In order to please the tourists, the surviving farmers all take turns sitting in the souvenir shop taking photos and signing autographs.
In all, there are three pits. Inside these pits live 8,000 life-sized warriors, 130 chariots, and nearly 700 horses.
- Pit One is the largest and most impressive of the bunch. It houses long rows of thousands of warriors.
- Pit Two has more cavalry and infantry units, and still very much a work in progress.
- Pit Three is the command post with the high ranking officers, and the smallest of all the pits.
After taking a loop around Pit One you have the option to pay to have your photo taken in front of the pit. The photographer attempted to bamboozle us out of an exuberant amount of money. So naturally, we threw a fit. The guy wouldn't budge with his price, so we walked away and created our own group photo.
We grabbed a young Chinese man walking by who spoke no English. We then shoved our camera in his hands, and asked him to climb on a bench and take several pics of us. I felt sorry for him for a second, but remembered the Chinese and their fascination of randomly taking photos of us. We were probably the highlight of his day life. After taking our photos he scurried away with a big grin on his face. I don't think he will ever see such a large group of ridiculously good-looking people again. Just sayin.'
After that things got a little silly. I don't know if the bitterly cold air was numbing our brain cells from functioning properly, or we had a severe acute case of ADHD.
All jokes and silly photo poses aside, it was a pleasure to see such a huge part of Ancient Chinese history. Despite the IMAX movie (if I could even call it that) being a huge letdown, the museum was a great way to see the warriors up close and to learn more about the history behind the warriors.
It's no surprise why The Terracotta Warriors are often referred to as the Eight World Wonder.
Date Accomplished: March 11th 2012
5 comments:
You are so awesome!!!! I have wanted to see them since studying the terra cotta army in my college art class but I had NO clue that they were only recently discovered!!! I can't believe all the amazing things you've done and seen- so cool- you live the life I want mt daughter to live.
I know right? You would think something as old as this (heck, BEFORE CHRIST!), would have been discovered ages ago.
I hope Zeeva can travel the world too, and then take you with her!
Yeah, i wouldn't worry about accosting a Chinese person for a pic, they are good at doing that themselves!! Glad you didn't have to fork out that high cost though, thats a bit over the top.
The terracotta warriors sound fantastic. I love the Emperor's way of thinking and the philosophy they have. I remember watching a programme about the emperor some years ago.
I heard today that they have found some more terracotta warrior statues, there is an article about it in the paper.xx
Wow really...any idea if it's near the other terracotta warriors?
I've heard of these statues. Things of that magnitude boggle my mind. That's awesome that you got to see not only them but one of the farmers that helped dig them up! Random inquiry- did they dig up the king too, or is he still buried? A question for Google, I think!
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