Thankfully the smell in our shower disappeared overnight so we had nice hot showers followed by a latte and met our minibus at 9am. We were joined by two other guys from our hostel, one from South Africa working in China and one from India working in Singapore. We also joined a young couple from Canada and a retired couple from Perth but originally from Birmingham. There was slight confusion about who was on what minibus and we were glad when some douschmelumpa got off that had his chair so far reclined we could not fit behind it. It was such a joke, we just assumed it was broken! We had a prolonged stop at a cash point too and finally got going nearly an hour later.
We had the compulsory stop at a souvenir shop where they were making the terra cotta warrior souvenirs from clay casts but this time we gave in and purchased one each, which we have nicknamed Big Tel and Little Tel. Jon’s will fill his back pack and weigh it down quite considerably, mine is rather more compact. It was an hour or so drive to the museum itself which housed the warriors. We got off then took an electric cart over to the entrance. We had an English speaking guide that took us firstly over to a cinema room where you stood in the centre and the film was projected 360 degrees around your head.
We learned that the warriors were discovered under a meadow by a farmer who was trying to dig a well on his land in 1974. This farmer was there signing books too. He lost his farm but now you have to pay him £2 for a photo and buy his book for £15 so he’s not doing to bad. The warriors were estimated to have been built 2,200 years ago by the Qin dynasty. They were built to protect the first emperor of china in his afterlife. Apparently the site is 52sqkm and only a tiny section of it has been fully excavated to date. When they were first uncovered they were found in a badly damaged condition but they were painted in bright colours. Shortly after the paint disappeared due to the oxidisation. Therefore, they have stopped uncovering them until they have the technology to retain the colours.
The soldiers were built by 84 different artists and are all individual and sculptured on real people. They were then covered with a log roof with earth on top of the logs. The entrances to the underground army were blocked in with logs and concrete walls. It was surprising to see how few have been restored and the vast areas of pits that are yet to be unearthed. An enemy of the emperor unfortunately discovered the underground army years before and destroyed every figure, burnt it down and stole all the weapons that were made of bronze. Thus meaning every single warrior we could see had been painstakingly reassembled bit by bit, the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle.
There were 6,000 soldiers in the largest pit, and we also walked around a second pit which housed 87 generals and a third pit that housed 2,000 archers and horseman. We went to the exhibition centre too which showed some of the other things buried underground like a bronze horse and chariot. We had half hour spare at the end of the guided tour and we just went straight back to pit 1 and just gazed at the warriors, now deemed to be an 8th wonder of the world and a world cultural heritage site, quite incredible.
We then went to lunch but our ticket was a bit cheaper and it was not included so we sat in the square and bought cheap drinks and snacks to munch on. We had a go on the park exercises and resisted the urge to eat a huge pomegranate. We then went to the Banpo museum which was a village discovered in the centre of Xian that was built 5,000 years ago. We saw how they built their houses half under ground with the above ground part resembling a Ger. We learnt that they buried their young babies in terracotta pots underground with a hole in the pot to let the soul escape. As museums go, this one was quite interesting and interactive.
We briefly saw a hill that apparently has a tomb of an emperor buried 40m deep inside it. It has never been opened but they know its there from using various x-ray technology, very clever if its true. On the way back to the hostel we dropped the others off in their nice hotel, then slipped down a side street to cut through to our hostel. Unfortunately, the street was no wider than our minibus and the car coming towards us was not impressed that we would not reverse. It was the best Mexican standoff I have ever been involved in. We were there a good 15 minutes while they all got out and shouted at each other, a few pushes and shoves but no full scale fight. All the shop owners and pedestrians gawped with interest. Crazy.
Back a the hostel we played with the tiniest dog I have ever seen. It is 4 months old but no bigger than my foot. It sat on my shoe eating my shoelaces quite contently. Eventually I had to boot it off in fear that I would have no laces left, besides I reserve that treat for Cody! We had pizza for dinner and sat with a few beers while we watched the Canadian bird in her vest, hot pants and cowboy boots ask the waiter if she was inappropriately dressed and being rather loud at the dumpling party. Jon teased the cat and we kept sinking lower and lower in our seats to escape the cloud of smoke slowly building around us. That’s one thing I don’t miss from home.
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