9-25-19 - Xi’an - A massive army of Terra Cotta Warriors
/Day 101. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.
This morning we wake up at our French-inspired Chinese Hotel (Mercure) to croissants, fried rice, congee, spring rolls, and more. We meet our guide Albert at 8:00 and the first thing Albert asks us is, “where did you eat dinner?”
Oh crap, Grace never asked us that question. We become incredibly quiet while is looking at us for an answer. We stammer, “Umm..well, you see, we tried to find a dumpling restaurant but we lost and it was late and we were hungry and…we ate at McDonalds. Albert’s face becomes crest-fallen at hearing this. During the touring yesterday, he kept telling us about the good local cuisine. The Evil Empire is always causing problems. “Only authentic local cuisine today!” he says firmly and we have no choice but to vigorously nod our head up and down vowing to get ourselves out the doghouse.
We head out to see the famous Terra Cotta Warriors. Leanne agrees they are famous but Kyle has never heard of them. On the way out from Xi’an, we learn from Albert all about the Qin Dynasty and the 1974 finding of this site where the Terra Cotta Warriors are.
Emperor Qin was the first Emperor of China after unifying all the desperate kingdoms of China in ~220 BC. Apparently, the not-yet-Emperor Qin was not to fond of the afterlife as, at the age of 13, he started having an army of life-size clay warriors (the “Terra Cottas Warriors”) built to be placed outside his eventual mausoleum to help protect him in the after-life. Kyle notes that it’s a little morbid that a 13 year old was obsessed with his death and his mausoleum but apparently that’s what you did back then in the absence of PlayStation of X-box.
Over the next 37 years of his life, he amassed a collection of an estimated 8,000 warriors. The dude must have been really, really, really worried about the afterlife if he needed to bring 8,000 clay warriors along with him. The warriors were not discovered until 1974 when a farmer was digging a well about 1.5 kilometers from the Emperor’s mausoleum.
The Terra Cotta Warriors are actually displayed in three archeological pits in exactly the locations they were found 45 years ago. Buildings have been built on top of the original sites and the ongoing excavation work is still very much in process. So when you visit, you also get to watch them try to piece together one of the 7,000 figures they have found at this site. We read that the site is actually one of the most impressive archaeological finds ever made.
One of the most impressive figures are two Bronze chariots with four horses each built at half-scale. It is impressive because of the detail on the artwork for its time indicating that the Chinese knew a form of advanced welding as early as 200 BCE.
As for the Terra Cotta Warriors, the soldiers are all sized like humans and they are truly impressive. They were originally all painted but the paint has been oxidized so they are all tan clay color. The pits area truly a site to see - expansive, dug deep into the ground, and we are surrounded by hundreds of people who are there to view them as well. After getting our fill of warriors and pictures all morning, we head out for lunch.
As promised, Albert brings us to a restaurant with authentic Chinese cuisine and orders us food prepared in the local manner. We have determined the words “local” and “authentic” when paired with “cuisine,” likely mean that we may be the first non-Chinese tourists to have eaten at the restaurant. Albert will order the food for us. Despite our expanding new foods we are trying, Kyle still pronounces, “please no fish, no-one but Leanne eats fish!” Alas, it might take a nuclear winter where fish is the only source of food left before Kyle will eat fish, and maybe not even then. This is not helping us get out of the doghouse.
The dish after dish is brought out and the tastes and flavors were new to us and it was incredible to try everything from corn cakes to bean jellies to pork as tender as could be. Albert seems pleased that we are eating down the food and we are optimistic that despite Kyle’s fish comment, we’ve may have moved our head and paws out of the doghouse. There was nothing we would have ordered on our own but all of it was great. As we have learned from France to China (despite our occasionally falling victim to the Evil Empire), there is something very exciting about letting a local choose for you the foods you need to enjoy from their countries.
After lunch, we head back to Xi’an to visit a few must-see attractions. Inside the ancient city walls are two pagodas, both built in the 700 AD timeframe - Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Of course, Albert is able to share with us even the meaning of the Buddhist story where the names originate from the ancient India stories.
An important element of our trip are interactive cultural experiences so today we have a Chinese calligraphy lesson planned to learn a few Chinese characters. Everyone loved the lesson and drew the word “fu” or “happiness” in Chinese calligraphy. It was an overwhelming favorite with the crew.
After visiting with the Small Goose Pagoda, we come across a huge iron bell from the year 1182. While it used to be used as a morning chime, now, for less than a buck, there’s a monk there that will let you ring the bell three times. It was a classic tourist trap but one we were happy to fall into seeing how excited the kids were do it. We all rang the bell three times and it was unforgettable. As we’re walking away, John tells us that the Buddhist monk almost had a heart attack because we both rang the bell so hard. “Isn’t that the point? To make it ring loud? I was hitting that bell with everything I had,” Kyle says. “Umm..no dad…it’s the Yin and Yang balance, strive for the middle with a nice soft but firm ring,” John responds. “Oh vey! I wish someone had told me before. Now I have to worry about whether the Buddhist monk just put a curse on me,” Kyle worries.
Because we are pressed for time (why does this always happen to us? although Albert handles it very well), we enter the Xi’an Museum with a mission: how to see the best of the museum as quickly as possible. We don’t want to miss the Big Wild Goose Pagoda’s last entry time. So Albert gives us a time limit in each room to go see the best items from the Bronze Age in the museum and he points us in the right direction. We took a ton of video and photos of pottery, statues, and cookware. And Leanne notes that she thinks some of the kids might kind of like this lightning fast pace in museums better than her normal slow pace.
In and out of the museum in 15 minutes, we head over to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It is definitely larger but not too much bigger than the Small one. However, this one has an active Buddhist temple surrounding it with various halls dedicated to various Buddha statues. It is also in better physical shape. We have visited dozens of temples and shrines on this trip here in Asia, but this temple had the best signs yet in English to explain Buddhism to the non-Chinese-speaking lay person. For that, we were truly appreciative for this stop.
The teens of course noticed a Dairy Queen on the walk into the second Pagoda. We had a choice of climbing the 70-meter high Big Goose Pagoda or getting Dairy Queen. We normally go the gusto route but we were all a bit under the weather today so the ice cream stop won out over the steps up by a handy margin.
Off to dinner, we are booked at a restaurant overlooking the City Walls of Xi’an - our first stop here just 48 hours. After another scrumptious Chinese dinner with roasted chicken, salad, noodles, fried rice, and bok choy, we leave the restaurant to the city walls all lit up. Albert is again pleased and we may have made it all the way out of the doghouse now.
The ride home was quite fantastic seeing Xi’an so proudly lighting up its buildings on top of the wall with the curved colorful roofs outlined in white lights. As we leave the city walls, we see the dozens of high rises that dot the entire country reminding us that we are in the most populous country in the world. As we retire for the evening, we look over and feel so blessed to be able to have this special trip for our family. We are embracing every minute to maximize this special opportunity.
