On Saturday, May 26, a group of us (Andrew, Alyssa, Felix, Lisa and I) joined another tour group to see the terra cotta army. Because we joined a another group, we got to see bits and pieces of their tour even though they were not technically included in ours. We toured with a man from India and another from Israel as well as a college-aged girl and her grandmother from the UK. After being picked up from the hotel, we left to pick up some of the other people going on the tour. I will tell you one of our favorite memories from this outing, however, which was incidentally not one of the parts of the tour. We got to see it completely for free, which was a plus.
While waiting for the tourists from Britain, our driver pulled us to the side of the road (always a dangerous thing to do) with bikes and mopeds whizzing around us. In Xi'an at least, there are parking agents who work the sides of the road (in the special bike, scooter and, occasionally, bus lane) to charge for street parking spots. Since the driver was not parking but waiting for the tourists, he was attempting to take up space along the side of the road, but avoid having to pay for the parking spot. Obviously, this upset the parking agent, who came up to the window and in very loud and upset tones told the driver he needed to pay for the spot. A heated exchange ensued at which point the driver agreed to move up....about three feet. The parking agent was not happy. He said something really quickly and moved to the back of the car, got out his phone, dialed some number and began talking to someone on the phone and taking down the license number. At this point, the driver got out of the car, looking extremely frustrated. He came up from behind and pushed the parking agent forcefully, who then got off the phone and they began arguing loudly on the street with all of us watching from the car. The tour guide began to arrive, coming down the street with the British tourists. The driver quickly moved away and got back in the car with the parking agent dumbfounded as to what was happening and we drove away and the tour guide started talking....as if nothing had ever happened.
We first went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Xi'an landmark and located in the historical part of the city. This was a pagoda commissioned by the Emperor Gaozong in 652, built by the famous Buddhist monk Xuanzang who was the first monk to travel to India, study Buddhism and bring Buddhism back to China. The pagoda was meant to be a sort of library for 1,335 volumes of Buddhist sutras translated from the Sanskrit which he obtained on his trip to India. The pagoda has been rebuilt since then. As far as the name, there is a really long story our tour guide told us about Buddhist monks who were vegetarians and Buddhist monks who were not vegetarians and how Buddha supposedly sent the non-vegetarian monks geese without them having to be killed. But I will just let you enjoy the pictures of the pagoda.
The pagoda was located right behind a beautiful fountain pavilion with hundreds of fountains on a terrace overlooking the city. It is supposed to be the largest fountain pavilion in all of Asia. Surrounding the pavilion were all new buildings built in imitation of the traditional Chinese architecture from the Tang Dynasty. And a KFC.
On our way to the pagoda we passed what our tour guide termed "the suburbs" for the wealthier citizens of Xi'an. It was a really nice pat of the city with all traditional architecture. Residents here pay about 10,000 yuan (close to $1,800) a square foot for small apartments, 20,000 yuan a square foot (almost $4,000) for larger apartments and about 10 million yuan (over $1.5 million) for the "villas." It was quite a contrast from the living conditions I am used to seeing for the children, which already are much nicer than many Chinese accommodations since we are in the city as opposed to the countryside.
We then stopped by at a silk factory. Xi'an has much history as the starting point of the famous Silk Road which allowed for customers in Europe to purchase eastern spices, silks and other textiles starting before the rise of the Roman Empire. We saw a woman working at a loom weaving a silk rug and we saw printed and dyed silk scarves. We also saw baskets with silk worm moths, eggs, worms or caterpillars and cocoons. In order to get the silk out of the cocoons, the worm is not allowed to break out of the cocoon, otherwise, the silk thread will be ruined. So the cocoons have to be steamed in order to kill the moths-to-be before they can hatch. The threads are then taken and woven into different thicknesses and dyed with different colors. We were able to see rugs worth thousands of dollars, some of which were very thin and fine and when turned different ways change color in the light.
We then took a long bus ride outside the city to a small neolithic village discovered in the 1950's by the Chinese government while a power plant was being constructed. We walked around outside since this was not part of our tour seeing another market like the many that we see in the city. Vendors with carts drawn by bicycle were selling many different fruits and vegetables, steamed buns and dumplings, pulling noodles from dough and drying them and selling different kinds of meat, as well as live animals.
Finally, we took the last bus to the site of the pits where the terra cotta warriors were discovered. It was definitely one of the most tourist-oriented places I have seen. The pits were discovered by a farmer named Mr. Yang and some friends while they were digging for a well in their plot of farmland next to the mountains outside Xi'an. Little did they know that they were digging on top of the famous army of over 6,000 terra cotta warriors built to guard the mausoleum of the first emperor of China and the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who united all of China whom the Chinese call Qinshihuang. Little did the farmer know what the area has become. There is an entire little development of all traditional Chinese architecture with restaurants and shops constructed for and catering almost entirely to tourists. Food and drink cost more and there is even a charge for using the washrooms. We were ushered into one little store at the front of the complex with a big sign in the front that said something along the lines of, "Meet Mr. Yang, the Farmer Who Discovered the Terra Cotta Army." Inside there was an older man nodding off behind a counter. Two clever little saleswomen hopped up to us and handed us large paperback books about the terra cotta army in English. English was about twice as expensive as any of the other languages. She said that we could pay 200 yuan (almost $40) and get the book with Mr. Yang's signature, a set of post cards, a DVD and a picture with Mr. Yang himself. Mr. Yang, who has apparently also been able to shake hands and take a picture with Bill Clinton (who I am sure also dutifully paid his 200 yuan), did not look like he wanted to take any pictures. He looked like he wanted to sleep. I guess he has gotten used to it, since he struck gold....or....terra cotta....in the 1970's and hasn't had to work since then. At any rate, we turned down the generous offer and were assured that we were missing out because Mr. Yang was not in every day. We were not even allowed to take pictures of him without paying. Well, hey. At least I got to see him. Not that I would be able to tell him apart from any other farmer who was ushered in to take his place and draw in other tourists willing to pay the price.
We purchased our ticket and walked up the hill to the series of buildings built on top of the pits holding the terra cotta army, passing the UNESCO sign marking this site as a World Heritage site, as designated by the UN. We walked inside the first building with the famous first pit housing the vast majority of the warriors. We saw row upon row of the warriors, some having been pieced together and glued together with a special glue. Others still lay mired in the clay, requiring further excavation. In the back of the huge hall covered by long metal arches there were computers, fans, tables and chairs and ramps with archaeological equipment. The tour guide told us that two of the pits are still ongoing archaeological digs. The archaeologists come in at night to work on the warriors. Some of the pits are being saved for excavation until technology is improved to help with preservation. Apparently all the warriors are painted, but when they are excavated, because they are so old (dating from the third century BC) the paint falls off immediately when it is introduced to oxygen. The two other pits housed life-size chariots drawn by clay horses with standing and kneeling archers, as well as generals and other infantrymen. There are five different types of soldiers within the army: generals, cavalry soldiers, infantry soldiers and standing and keeling archers. These differentiations are evident from their armor and clothing designs. Within each rank, however, each soldier is uniquely fashioned with a different face and hairstyle. The last pit we visited contained two bronze chariots, each drawn by four houses, constructed to be about a third of life size. The first chariot, driven by a soldier with a bow and arrows, is meant to guard the chariot that followed. This chariot was constructed to carry the soul of Qinshihuang into the afterlife. These artifacts were not found with the terra cotta warriors but rather buried in a pit next to the mausoleum or tomb of Qinshihuang, disguised like one of the mountains, but sitting farther out in the plain and set several kilometers north of the pits where the terra cotta warriors were found. The mausoleum is guarded day and night by the Chinese military and has not been opened since it was sealed, because the oxygen that is in there now was there when the mausoleum was sealed. Apparently the mausoleum is air-tight and the officials fear that if it is opened, the influx of new oxygen will harm many of the artifacts which could be preserved. So, they are waiting until new technology can help them open the mausoleum and preserve many of the artifacts. Near the mausoleum several mass graves were also discovered. Apparently, the nearly 700,000 slaves who constructed the tomb were buried alive when the tomb was finished, both as a human sacrifice to honor the death of the beloved first emperor but also to prevent the secrets of how the mausoleum was constructed from being revealed.
We took the bus back to Xi'an after finishing our tour of the warriors and were taken straight to an opera house where we watched a song and dance performance of famous music which has been popular since the height of the Tang Dynasty, lasting from about 600-900. After this performance we walked around downtown, coming up to the lighted city wall which separates the historic inner city from the newer developments outside. The city wall is lit at night with lights outlining each of the guard towers situated at different points along the wall. We then walked about an hour and a half back through the city to our hotel.
The next day, on Sunday, we got up and found lunch at a side street restaurant with authentic Chinese food. We ate some egg plant and snap beans, pork and cold tofu. After that, we decided to head downtown to the inner city to see the bell and drum towers, the famous Muslim Square shopping district and the city walls. We walked past the famous bell and drum towers originally built to keep time for the city from long ago, and reconstructed periodically. We arrived at the famous Muslim Square a center for shopping and for food where you can pretty much buy anything you want, as long as you are good for bartering. Apparently, even though the prices seem good to begin with, you are supposed to counteract to their price with an offer to pay only about 10% and, if you are feeling flexible, you can work your way up from there. If you are persistent, and I have seen it done, and if you are ignoring the rolled eyes and exasperated sighs, you can actually come out with quite a good deal. Apparently, even then they are making a lot of money.
Some of the crew left to head back to the hotel but Andrew, Sherry, Felix, Lisa and I all walked up to the West Gate of the city wall, got tickets to go up and walked around a little while before renting bicycles. This was one of the most amazing experiences I have had so far. I could see all the city's sky scrapers and over the roofs of almost all of the inner city as well as the loud, honking traffic below on the major thoroughfares through the city. Traditional Chinese music was playing on the wall and there were opportunities for many pictures. We rode our bikes pretty much around the entire wall and saw almost all of the inner city and then headed back on the bus to the hotel for dinner ready to start another week.
Wild Big Goose Pagoda built in 652 by the first monk to introduce Buddhism to all of China, Xuanzang
Wild Big Goose Pagoda with fountain pavilion (the largest in Asia, our guide told us)
At the silk factory, some silk worms, cocoons and moths. Xi'an was the starting point for the Silk Road linking the East and West for the purposes of the trade of silks, spices, teas and other goods.
Bicycle-drawn cart loaded down with watermelons outside of a local market
Sunflower seeds
Dumplings made at a street stand, very much like the ones we ate later that night.
Both the mausoleum and the terra cotta army constructed for Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor of China) are located in a really beautiful valley surrounded by mountains
First Pit where the Terra Cotta Warriors were found. It is still an ongoing archaeological dig.
More Terra Cotta Warriors
And more
This is how the soldiers look when they are first unearthed until they are pieced together and glued with a "special glue" by archaeologists
Our dumpling feast at the opera house before the Tang Dynasty song and dance performance
Tang Dynasty song and dance performance. All the songs that were performed were popular during the Tang Dynasty (618-907)
Xi'an ancient city wall lit up at night
Signs cheering on China's 2012 Olympic Team in preparation for the London Games are all over Xi'an
A street in famous Muslim Square, popular shopping district and center of the city's relatively large Muslim population
Xi'an Bell Tower in the center of the old city
A gate in the ancient Xi'an City Wall (built in 1370, with several more recent renovations)
Xi'an City Wall
Me, riding a bike all around the inner city on top of the city wall
The wall with the Xi'an skyline
A busy street in inner Xi'an
This is amazing!!!! I hope Elizabeth Sumrall reads this... she really, really wants to see the Terra Cotta warriors. So do I!
ReplyDeleteAre you bringing some silk home for your mama?
I miss you, but you sound like you are having a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Love,
Mama