We have made a new friend, Ms. Z., in Xi'An, China, introduced by a good friend from Canada. We got to know eah other on Wechat and she asked me to contact her if I ever visited there. I did; I gave Ms.Z.a call as soon as we arrived to the city. She was gracious and asked us what our plans were for the next few days. We told her the main thing we wanted to see this time was the Terra Cotta warriors and we would like to see it before the Chinese Golden Week when millions of Chinese would be on holidays and visiting this place.
Right away she offered to drive us there but I didn't want to bother her. She insisted and I agreed for her to pick us up at our hotel the next day at 10a.m. I was glad that J. could join us on this day trip too.
It was our first time meeting with each other in person but we clicked right away and we had a lot to share and talked about. The car ride was long because the holiday traffic had already started. With lots of vehicles on the roads, our normal one hour ride took almost two hours before we arrived at our destination.
The Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum Site Museum - commonly known as the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, near Xi'an is widely regarded as one of the most astonishing archaeological finds of the 20th century (often dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World")
We were advised to buy our tickets online in advance. We were glad we did. With a swipe of our cell phone showing our tickets, we were admitted to the museum with no hazzle while those who did not had to queue up for the tickets.
In order to save time and get the most from our time at the museum, we hired a tour guide for our visit. The tour guide was good as she took us to the best spots for pictures and helped us to navigate in this famous museum consisting of a number of buildings situated in a huge park.
The first building we visited was Pit 1, discovered accidentally by a group of farmers digging a well in March of 1979. It was opened to the public officially in October of 1979. It is the most famous pit containing over 6000 infantrymen and horses!
There were a lot of people and we had to wait patiently and also be quick to squeeze into the front row as soon as someone moved away from their spots. The Pit One museum - looking like an airplane hangar-sized cavern was massive with terracotta soldiers lining up in rows. We stood there at the front row awed by the mind - boggling scale and scope of this massive terracotta army created over 2,200 years ago ( beginning around 246 BC) for China's very first emperor Qin Shi Huang, the underground empire was built to protect the emperor in the afterlife.
It was incredible looking at these life size soldiers all decked out in their fighting armours, each with different facial expressions and distinct hairstyles indicating their ranks in the army.
As huge crowds were standing there vying for the front row spots to have a good look at the warriors, people started to move away slowly walking from the centre out and going to either the left and right direction. The further we moved away from the centre of the viewing platform, the thinner the crowds became.
Besides seeing the thousands of warriors lining up in their formations at the front of the museum, we also had a glimpse of the procedures which archaeologists followed in order to perform their repair work on these broken clay warriors at the back section of the museum.
We saw how these warriors were marked and sequenced to be repaired and how they were identified as to which stage of the repair each was at. Very interesting and meticulous procedures!
After we finished at Pit One, there were a few other buildings we could visit such as Pit 2 and Pit 3 which were opened to visitors in 1989 and 1994. Knowing that it was impossible to see everything on one visit, we went to see the exhibitions on weapons, army formations and battle tacties which were interesting. We noticed many of the soldiers' fists were half clenched, yet there were no weapons in their hands. Though the terracotta soldiers were originally equipped with tens of thosuands of real, functional bronze weapons including swords, spears, lances and crossbow triggers,historical records and archaeological evidences suggested that after the dynasty fell, the tombs were raided. Because metal was extremely valuable, the rebels likely stripped the weapons from the soldiers' hands to resue them.
My husband, a retired engineer, found the manufacturing and interchangable parts of the arrows most interesting and could not stop talking about how clever the designs were.
Though the Terracotta Soldiers were found mostly broken and archaeologists had to put them back painstakingly piece by piece, there was one that was found in perfect condition even with some of the original red colour on its back. The soldier which was kneeling down avoided being crushed by the collapsed roof.
Visiting the Terracotta Warriors was a fascinating experience and we were glad we had the opportunity to see them this time before the crazy monsterous size Golden Week crowds descending on this place!
After this visit, Ms. Z. took us to have some authenic Xi'An dishes at a local resturant. It was a fantastic dinner which we never had before! We are overwhelmed by the warm hosptiality of our new friend. She has welcome us in China with open arms, enthusiasm and such generosity. It is incredible how warm and welcoming the Chinese people are when we visit China!
RT, Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, near XI'AN, China,
092026
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