Chinese History Lesson: Xi'an

I decided to make these next few blog posts a little different, by telling you what I have learned from this last vacation. I went to Xi'an and Beijing, and learned some cool things about Chinese history and culture. I am not an expert and still feel like I have a lot to learn but I really enjoyed this trip and hope to learn more about China. I hope you enjoy these next posts, whether it is hearing about our fun adventures, what I learned, or even just the photos.

Xi'an

So Friday we headed out after school for Xi'an. Our school bus took us directly to to the train station after school, where we boarded the fast train to Guangzhou. Then we had to get on the metro from the train station to the airport. 

Xi'an in chinese means "Western Peace". It has also been called numerous names including "Xijing" which means Western Capitol. This city is one of the oldest in China and used to be the capitol a long time ago. Before 200 BC China was in a period called the "Warring States" period. There were 7 kingdoms in China and a man named Qin united all the kingdoms and named himself the first Emperor of China. 

This Emperor ordered a huge mausoleum tomb to be built for his death- and over 8000 Terracotta soldiers to guard him! 

The tomb where the Emperor is buried is actually not even at the Terracotta Army site, it is a ways away. Turns out there is a HUGE palace underground with his tomb and lots of treasures and neat stuff. It is not yet open to the public yet as the excavation is still in the works....unfortunately.

This is the guy who discovered the Terracotta Warriors in the 1970's (I think it was). He was just a farmer and was digging and came across pieces of it. Unluckily for him he doesn't really get any money from it because it technically wasn't his land and his rights or whatever...but at least he gets to know he discovered them and that's still pretty cool right? Poor guy sits in the museum all day signing books about the Terracotta Army (that he didn't write) and he looked kind of sad just sitting there. 

----

 Right after we got our tickets (thanks student discount! I lost tract of how much money I have saved from those) a lady came up to us wanting to know if we wanted an English guide. And at a super cheap price we couldn't say know (I mean she spoke great English and it was GREAT having someone tell us what we were actually looking at or it wouldn't have been that cool). This is her- her name is Linda.

Here is our group right before going into Pit #1 (except for Kayla isn't in the picture because she didn't want to step in the puddle on the ground :p )

Alright! Now onto the Warriors....

Pit #1 - the main pit with the majority of warriors

As you can see in the back of this photo, the soldiers are partially burried and fallen all over each other/ broken into peices. This is how they were originally found.

Me in front of the Warriors- because of the lighting it was hard to get a picture where both me and the background was in focus

As you can see some of the soldiers on the left are facing a different direction; this is because the soldiers needed to protect from all sides

A side view. If you look closely the warriors in the front do not have armor. These guys are supposed to be the bravest (because they don't need armor).

See this rock? NOPE. It is actually a piece of PETRIFIED BAMBOO WOOD.

No two terracotta warriors are exactly alike. They all have different facial features, shapes, sizes, details, even the way the soldiers are positioned (arms/legs/etc) are slightly different. As you see the guy on the right is wayyy skinny. In this way the soliders can represent anyone. Also some have hats, some have no hats. This determines their ranking/status.

Another picture (from Pit #3) of how the soldiers were originally found.

They even had some in display cases so you could get pretty up close....

Also, the Terracotta Warriors were originally painted with lots of color some of which you can see here

LOOK at that detail on the hand! Do you see those hand wrinkles?...

If Kelita was a Terracotta Warrior....

Another cool thing is that excavation is still being done on these guys. They currently have archaeologists who work in here a few days a week, so if you get lucky you might actually see them working when you visit! (And no, we didn't get to see any work getting done when we were there).

They call this the "Hospital". This is where Warriors are being fixed up. They use special glue to put the pieces together and wrap in plastic wrap until dried (takes a few days)

Part of the pit is still buried. As soon as the soldiers are exposed to the air, the oxygen causes the color of the paint to fade. Therefore scientists are waiting until a better technique to preserve the color is available. (right now they use a lacquer made from a sap that is very expensive to get because it requires lots of trees)  

Not many people know that there are multiple pits of Warriors (well I didn't). This one is Pit #3, where the soldiers are positioned facing each other talking. This is where soldiers gathered to go over their strategy in war. 

There was also weapons buried with the soldiers (you may notice many of them hold out their arm as if they were carrying a sword). However some enemies stole most of the weapons from the tomb, only a few remained which you can see in the museum. 

After the terracotta warriors, our group split up. I ended up going with Maegan and Allie to the Xi'an City walls. They are very old (built during the Ming Dynasty 1300-1400s). Some parts of the wall you can tell are way old- so many pot holes and really bumpy. Some areas were smooth and you can tell were reconstructed, and they even had some parts currently being renovated. It was the perfect time to bike too, late afternoon just before sunset and you can get a tour of the city. The entire wall ends up being about 8.5 miles. The city of Xi'an is actually way bigger than what the wall encloses. It was a really fun experience!

Because these photos were just too funny to pass up

I mean I understand she doesn't want to lose her kid in the crowd but...I just feel bad for the kid. But It's hilarious.

Look closely at this picture. What do you see?....

A car on the side of a building. Yeah I don't really know why either. 

Because  1) I love the fall weather and golden sunlight so I couldn't pass up some of these photos. and 2) I sometimes I like to get a little artsy fartsy....and my friends all make fun of me for it but really they are jealous of my amazing photos :)

 

Stay tuned for my posts about Beijing: The Forbidden City and Great Wall!