Today I went to see the Terracotta Warriors. There were
various ways to go and see them, but obviously, all expensive. There was
various methods of getting there booking a tour, which would involve with many
stops to the “factories”, get a taxi where I would be ripped off for being a
foreigner, or as my cousin suggested and gave the tips, take the local bus!
I went for the local bus as a ticket was only 7RMB, so
I headed down to the station this morning and jumped on the bus. As you can
see, VERY, local! But I got my ticket and headed off.
The issue with taking local transport is, its not catered
four tourists, I read the info and it said there would be a few stops before,
but when everyone gets off, you will be at the museum. So I relaxed and just
watched the world go by, then the bus stopped at a completely new mall area
with old buildings behind. I thought I must be close, then I noticed everyone
got off the bus, so I must be here, I checked with the conductor, me saying
Terracotta and him nodding! Well it was wrong, I was at one of the other
ancient palaces, that didn’t cater to foreigners, only locals.
However I still went in, had a wander around and the
place was beautiful, I cant tell you much info as it was all in Chinese, the
only info I can say was, that there was 5 spas, for the emperor to swim in.
The Terracotta Army
After my “diversion” I again found a local bus and made
my way to the Terracotta Army. The army was created in 246BC and was finished,
at its point in 209BC, when Emperor Qian died, the first Chinese emperor.
The reason the army was built, was that in Chinese
culture, it is believed that when you die, you don’t actually die but you start
your new, eternal life. This meant that the people would take with them
everything they wanted to take to the afterlife with them, so his army was
rebuilt as statues, each statue is the actual representation of each individual
person, no statue is the same. They were then laid out in the precise military
formation of rank and duties.
When emperor Qian died, this meant to take this army
with him, all the slaves, soldiers, officers and generals who were “given
eternal life” as a statue, this also meant, when he died, they all had to die
too. This also included his 2000 concubines, less the ones that has this
children (dirty chap!) but they were not turned into statues.
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| Digs are still taking place! |
When he was buried, the area was covered over and left,
it was not found again until 29th March 1974, by a local farmer
(this is him below, he was there today). He was digging a well and found some
terracotta pieces, which were very colourful, after more digging he found more
and more, then called in the archaeologists who discovered the site.
The issue was, when they were found, each statue was
very colourful, but as they had not come across air for 2200 years, once
exposes they would peel in seconds and be completely destroyed in 15 minutes!!
To preserve many of the areas, they have left them underground until they have
the technology to preserve these, then the rest will be unearthed.
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| One of the few statues where you can still see colour on the soldiers face! |
The site was amazing and I would recommend anyone to go
there but in the winter months, as there were pictures of the summer, and I
wouldn’t dare go then.
And of course, yes I did buy a small Warrior for
myself!
After this, I went back to the hotel, for some unwind
time at the pool, but I didn’t realise how tired I was, I lay down, and that was me gone, the reason why we have the morning update on here.
Today will be a taking it easy day, exploring the
city and the famous Muslim quarter, with the best restaurant there too,
according to my cousin.
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