Terra Cotta Warriors

Today we headed an hour northwest to see the terra cotta warriors. These warriors were created as funerary art for the mausoleum of the First Emperor Qin. Our first stop was the workshop that produces warriors today using the same process as in the ancient times. The warriors were created by fitting clay into molds and then piecing everything together. The warriors are created by creating arms, legs, body and the head. The pieces are dried for as long as a month and then fired at 900 degrees. Once they are finished the heads are added last. Because the head was not attached well many of the warriors today do not have their heads. In ancient times the warriors were brightly colored and held real weapons but today the paint decayed after being exposed to air leaving the warriors the natural terra cotta color and all the weapons were stolen by General Xiang Yu just five years after the emperor died. He raided the mausoleum and burned many of the wooden structures. You can still see the black soot marks from the fires. There were five different types of warriors and the emperor. The warriors included generals, captains, infantry, calvary and archers. They had distinct hairstyles, styles of clothing and each had unique facial expressions.

The warriors were discovered in 1974 by three farmers who were digging a well. Upon discovering broken terra cotta pieces they immediately informed the government. After testing showed the pieces were from the Qin dynasty, the government bought out the farmers and began excavating. Today one of the farmers has passed away but two remain and come to the museum to visit with guests. They are in their eighties and only stay for a few hours each day. Our tour guide took us to see the most famous one. He had his picture taken with Bill Clinton and has written a book about his experiences.

After the museum we headed to see Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It is one of the earliest pagoda originally built in 652 A.D. by the Emperor Gaozong of Tang. It was built at the request of Xuanzang a great Chinese Buddhist monk who was widely regarded as a gifted scholar, traveler and translator. He was asked by the emperor to be the master of the monastery that was built for the emperor and his family to worship. The pagoda was built to house Xuanzang's vast collection of Buddhas, books and writing that he had brought back from his 17 year travels to India.

After the pagoda we headed to the Muslim Quarter. This area has many cheap tourist items mixed with food stalls. Of course, nothing there is genuine so I wasn't interested in much. We ended up with a few fans and a cheap tie. I started laughing when she showed me the tag that said 100% silk when it was apparent at the touch it was definitely not silk. It was very easy to bargain there and since I didn't really need anything it was easy to say a price, walk away and wait for them to finally agree to it. I still probably paid too much but $8 for a "Burberry" tie isn't that bad. It was interesting to walk through and see all the strange food for sale. There were a lot of meats that looked as though they'd been sitting out all day and clearly hadn't seen refrigeration for hours. Our tour guide had warned us against pick pockets so my mom was vigilantly watching everyone that walked by and clutching her fanny pack under her shirt. The way she talked she was convinced someone would try to steal something but if there were any pick pockets I never saw them. The only ones that got close to us other than shoppers were the beggars.

Finally, we headed to our dumpling dinner. We'd had a late lunch so I wasn't very hungry and the heat does a number on my appetite but we'd prepaid so I stuffed it in. It was very delicious. We had about 15 types of dumplings, rice wine, soup and appetizers. I'd only had about two types of dumplings before this but my eyes have been opened to a whole new world of dumplings. I'll definitely try to find a restaurant in the Twin Cities that serves dumplings. I've found the further south I go the better the food is getting. I'm cautiously optimistic about Shanghai. After dinner our tour guide took us back to our hotel.

Our tour guide, Angie, has been very helpful and full of information not only about the history but also insight into life in China. We constantly questioned her about her life and although she was a little shy at first she opened up about being a travel guide and her life in Xi'an. For never having been to any English-speaking country before, she has excellent English. I'm sure our experience in Xi'an wouldn't have been half as pleasant if we hadn't had her. She was extremely friendly and eager to please us. Every time we got in or out of our car she would open the door for my mom and our driver would jump out and open my door. I'm hoping the tour guide in Shanghai is as good.