We met our local guide in the lobby at 9am and followed her to the bus stop to catch the first of two busses to get to the site of the Army of Terracotta warriors East of Xi'an. It was very crowded but by the time we had reached our stop we had all managed to get seats. We transferred to a public bus that was a coach. It was a very comfortable ride that took us just short of an hour. Julie our guide gave us a good insight into the history surrounding the first united Chinese dynasty. Emperor Qin ascended the throne when he was 13 and took over the job of ruling when he was 22. He started planning for his Mausoleum when he was 13 and it lay undiscovered for over 2000 years. It was discovered in 1974 by 3 farmers digging for a well, only one of them, Mr Young, is still alive. Julie told us we were lucky to be there today as two days previous it was a holiday in China and it had taken her an hour to queue for tickets. We caught a 13 seater golf cart type vehicle to the security checkpoint and then walked to the first pit. The first pit is the larges containing 6000 warriors and horses, most of which face East. They are still excavating and have only just worked out how to retain the colour of the statues once uncovered. They now hope to have it fully excavated within 5 years.
To protect the warriors from loosing their colour they are wrapped in plastic until they are ready to be coated in the special material devised by some German archeologists. As can be seen in this part currently under excavation.
We then set off for pit 3 the smallest, containing 72 warriors and horses of high ranking officers. This is thought to be the command centre.
Pit 2 contains 1300 warriors and horses. This pit has kneeling archers, charioteers as well as infantry and is also still being excavated.
It is amazing that no 2 of these warriors faces are the same and it is thought that Qin originally wanted to have his real army buried with him but his advisors told him it would be better to have the terracotta warriors made in the likeness of the real army. Our guide took us the the museum shop where Mr Young was signing books you could by there. We also visited the museum and saw a movie of how the site was built, how Qin united China and how after his death the pits were ransacked by the peasant revolt.
We ended the tour by having lunch at a local farmers house. His farm had been reclaimed by the government to build the complex and they had been given new houses and compensation. It was a huge and delicious lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment