Day 8: Xi'An (Sat; 5 Apr)

 Tour 1; Day 4

Today's schedule :

• Terracotta Army
• Xi'An City Wall 

Up and down for breakfast at 6:30, too bad the restaurant wasn't really open until 7.  We weren't the only ones, if fact, if memory serves (actually questionable these days...) the tour guide told us it was open at 6:30 but no matter, we made do.  We were on the bus and en route by 8 for the 2-hour bus ride to the site of the Terracotta Army (TA). We arrived at the TA site about 10 but parking was crowded and the entrance line was getting long by the time we got there, I think we got inside the gate about 11.  There were a lot of people just inside the gate but we (I say we, maybe it was just me...) really had no idea as to what was to come.

What came. People. Zillions of people. I've never seen more people so crowded together before. I'll get to it...  

There are actually 4 buildings, or pits, in the exhibit.  Pit 1 contains the main force, Pit 2 has cavalry and infantry units and is thought to be a military guard.  Pit 3 is a command post with high-ranking officers and a war chariot. Pit 4 is empty - the TA was apparently a work in progress that stopped, perhaps when the emperor died.  The 3 pits containing the Army hold more 8,000 life-size soldiers (each one unique), 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses - most remain in situ in the pits.  There is supposed to be some non-military statues - officials, musicians, strongmen, and acrobats - but I didn't spot them. The 4 excavated pits are a small part of a much larger necropolis measuring 38 square miles.  The vast majority of the necropolis has yet to be excavated as there is concern that they may be booby-trapped with mercury as well as the desire to prevent damage to the contents due to exposure to air.  Apparently scientists (you know, those pesky people who base conclusions/statements on evidence...) have figured out that the statues were originally brightly painted but that the paint flakes off within 4 minutes after the encapsulating mud is removed.  The emperor's tomb itself, yet to be excavated, is thought to be hermetically sealed.

 It seems everyone (and their uncle) initially go to the same pit, Pit 1. I suppose by Pits 2 and 3 many folks (including yours truly) have had enough of the crowds and figure that they'll actually get a better look and less stressful experience by visiting Wikipedia.  That said, we did visit Pits 1-3, but passed on Pit 4, the empty pit.  Even with the hyper-crowding the TA is extraordinarily impressive to see. It is unimaginable (to me anyway) what the level of sustained effort was required to build these statues.  But according to Wikipedia it was about a 35 year effort by 700,000 conscripted workers.

OK, so we're in and whoa! is it crowded. The tour guide said that there is an 80,000 person limit per day and they have timed entry tickets that no one pays attention to, including the admission people.  I'd have to concur on both counts (# of people and that they were all there when we were there...)! Moreover, everyone wants to get to the edge nearest the pit for their picture/view and no one is shy about how they get there. I got a pretty good shot to the ribs and looked to see who did it - it was a 5'1" really old lady - props for that demonstration of strength! It wasn't long (i.e. about 10% down the length of the side) when I decided I'd had enough so I made my way to the right (along the wall, not the pit) and out.  It was a bit more civilized by the end of the hall so I got a couple of pix. Donna, on the other hand, got some great pix (most of the TA statue pix below are hers)!  She's clearly more patient and tolerates the crowds better.  We visited Pits 3 then 2 after Pit 1, they were somewhat less crowded. There were several trinket vendors on our way out, Donna bought some TA figurines that we'll display somewhere...

Lunch was at a restaurant that was just outside of the TA exhibit area. Lunch, according to my journal, was pretty good then it was back on the bus for a 2-hour ride to the Xi'An City Wall (XCW). On the way to the XCW the bus drove by the emperor's tomb, which was a fair bit away from the pit exhibits.

The XCW was easier to get to and visit than the Great Wall, but it wasn't as "great". It was still impressive though. The wall surrounds the urban district of  Xi'An, which lies at the end of the Silk Road. The wall is bordered by a moat with drawbridges and is one of the oldest, largest and best preserved Chinese city walls. It has been refurbished several times and is pristine.  The rectangular shape has a perimeter of 8.7 miles, encloses 14 sq miles, is 39 ft tall and 39 to 46 ft wide with a walkway all the way around along the top.  There are watch towers at each corner and ramparts every ~400 feet (that coincide with the range of the long bow the guards were armed with when it was originally built, starting in 1370). A gate tower is located at each entrance that now appear to serve as city wall museums.  We spent about 1.5 hours walking on and along the wall then went back to hotel for a practice nap before dinner call.

Dinner was something different - a "Dumpling Banquet". More than 10 different types of dumplings, some better than others but none were bad. There was a live performance show that came as part of the dinner outing. It was very entertaining but I noted in my journal that "the seats were most uncomfortable". After dinner and the show it was back to the hotel, hit the sack and do it all again tomorrow...

The restaurant at the Grand Noble Hotel.  The food was average but the name was excellent!

Only a small portion of the mausoleum/necropolis is open to tourists.

This is the layout of the exhibit we visited.  Our route was Pit 1, Pit 3, and Pit 2.  That was enough...

Making our way to the TA entrance. I initially made fun of having to "follow the flag". On this excursion it was the only way we could almost stay together (which, as the tour masters amongst you know, is necessary as the whole bus will have to wait for that guy who got separated from the group).

Qin Shi Huang - The first emperor of China and for whom the Terracotta Army was built to protect him in the afterlife.

Terracotta Army Pit 1. I'll show you what we had to wade through first... this, just inside the entrance door.  One-way traffic was enforced, thankfully.

Donna and I got separated in the first couple minutes...

Are you getting a sense for it yet... this is the right-hand side, same thing down the left hand side.

There were several of these guys around, thankfully. I think the crowd would have been worse behaved (if that is possible) if they weren't.

The army in Pit 1...

... another view...

... one of the chariots...

... close-up of 2 soldiers... each face is unique...

They have to rebuild each statue and, apparently, it's not like all the parts are readily identifiable...

Looking from the end to the beginning of Pit 1

Pit 3 was much smaller and allowed for a better view of the restoration work in progress

More of Pit 3...

Pit 2 had several statues for close-up display - Donna braved the crowd to get these shots...

Lunch restaurant...

... I don't recall much about what we ate, but the beer was good!

This, from pretty far away, does not convey how big or tall the tomb really is...

More housing units seen from the bus on our way to the Xi'An Wall

Driving by the Xi'An Wall... looking for a place to park I think.

On any road other than the freeways it's pretty much anything goes...

Gate tower at south gate (the one we walked about)...

Inside the gate climbing to the walkway and gate tower

You could actually drive a couple of tour busses on the walkway (it you could get them up there...)

The moat...

This is where we had the Dumpling Banquet and saw the show.

During dinner some of the actors came out, I thought this was the "show"... I was wrong.

The show actually began after dinner (and after we were re-seated in a more audience-like fashion).  Six women dressed like this presented the narrators

The narrators who, if memory serves, spoke in English and introduced the singing and dancing acts that followed.

Many instruments we (at least I) had never seen before.

This woman "flew" 20' long scarfs attached to her arms, it was quite dazzling...

This was some sort of trumpet-like instrument, the musician was very popular amongst those in the audience who apparently knew what he was playing. For the rest of us, it was very interesting...

As you can surmise from these pictures, it was quite a production...

... and very enjoyable!