Xian Day 2 – 10/26

Today we went on a guided tour to see the Terracotta Army, or so we thought. Our first stop on the tour was the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. This pagoda (Chinese tower) which is a Buddhist pagoda, was built in 704AD and at one point was part of a monastery. One of the pagoda's many functions was to hold sutras and figurines of the Buddha though nowadays it is just a tourist trap.

Next stop was a Jade Museum; if you remember this from our Beijing trip you will know that this is a mandatory tour guide stop. Since we did not buy anything from the Jade Museum we then went to the terracotta museum and workshop. This is were we received a tour of the facilities and were very briefly shown how terracotta items where made. This tour ended with us being shown their large warehouse of goods to be purchased. Yet this would be another mandated tourist stop.

Next we went to the Banpo Neolithic village. This is basically some preserved plots of land that the Banpo (ancient tribal people) lived on 6,000 years ago. This is very surreal to think of people living in the area you are walking on that long ago. Since most people’s imaginations are not so great anymore (curse you television) the museum has replicated what the buildings would have looked like in another section.

The tour continued with a lunch and a trip to the Silk Museum (are you starting to see a trend here). This is where they walked us through how silk is made and showed us a bunch of fine silk products we could buy.

The last stop on our tour was the Terracotta Army. The army, at least the part that is currently being excavated, is located in 3 pits. The first and largest pit is huge. It kind of looks like an airport hanger. It is pretty amazing looking at six foot talk clay soldiers, each with uniquely individual faces. We learned that the soldiers were actually painted at one point, and that the colors were very visible when they were first unearthed. Unfortunately, shortly after oxygen touched the colors they began to fade completely. Most of the warriors have been destroyed by earthquakes which have effected the area, but the Chinese have begun the long process of reconstructing the soldiers. The soldier’s themselves are lined up according to what rank and type they were (generals, officers, soldiers, archers, and horses with chariots behind them (the latter no longer existing because they were made with wood). Pit two contains a second grouping of soldiers (yet to be unearthed) designed to come to the aid of the first army if the need arose. The third pit is a command post where the high ranking officers meet. Honestly, thinking about the task of building this feat in 210 BC is mind boggling and awe inspiring. It is said that over 700,000 people were needed to construct this clay army used only to guard one emperor’s burial sight which was around 1 mile away.

For dinner we ate at a Tang Dynasty Show. We enjoyed yet another large dumpling meal followed by a Chinese Show filled with bright colors and lots of dancing.