We headed to the museum with low expectations, but found a wonderfully laid out museum that walks through the history of China and the Silk Road. We also found the museum gift shop and the Mao vase that we bargained down from $400 to $200…. a true “antique” (not to mention the brass frog and the Chinese Warrior statue). It was already time to activate the gift bag and we’d been in the country for less than a day.
Our guide’s quote: “In China, we see anything with four legs and we try to figure out how to cook it…”
We went to our “lunch” location—a true tourist trap. The a buffet that goes on forever—with the vegetables as only edible dishes
We did the obligatory visit to the jade factory and took the tour…John was “jaded”.
We headed on to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Our guide pointed out the tacky tourist spots along the way (including the 8 wonders of the world theme park).
The Qin Terra Cotta Army Museum was amazing. Local farmers digging a well discovered the site in 1974. Although there is no historical record for the thousands of life-size armored soldiers and horses, it is believed they were intended to serve as bodyguards for Quin Shihuangdi (reigned from 221-210 BC).
Photos courtesy of Flickr
The museum is in a huge hangar-like building constructed over Pit #1, the site of the original discovery. There are thought to be 6,000 soldiers in formation. So far only about 1000 warriors, the remains of 8 wooden chariots, two bronze chariots and 32 terracotta horses have been unearthed.
Photos courtesy of Flickr
Pit # 2 was found in May 1976 and contains 1000 soldiers with cavalry, chariots, archers and foot soldier units. Pit # 3 was unearthed in June 1976 and is smaller, with only 69 soldiers and a wooden chariot. There were still extensive excavations.
Amazingly, each of the soldiers has distinctive facial features and stands about 5’11” tall.
We saw Pits 1, 2, and 3 of the warriors, the museum and the cyclorama.
After a full day of touring, we headed to the Bell Tower Hotel and grabbed some cold beers…then walked to the Drum Tower.
Pit # 2 was found in May 1976 and contains 1000 soldiers with cavalry, chariots, archers and foot soldier units. Pit # 3 was unearthed in June 1976 and is smaller, with only 69 soldiers and a wooden chariot. There were still extensive excavations.
Amazingly, each of the soldiers has distinctive facial features and stands about 5’11” tall.
We saw Pits 1, 2, and 3 of the warriors, the museum and the cyclorama.
After a full day of touring, we headed to the Bell Tower Hotel and grabbed some cold beers…then walked to the Drum Tower.
We watched the families parading through Bell Tower Square. It was a combination of mini-skirted young girls and old men in Mao suits.
Tired and hungry, we grabbed a tuc-tuc to take us to our restaurant. The driver got lost so we got an extra few blocks of our entertaining ride.
Dinner was at the Laosunjia Restaurant. It was great food but we had a little difficulty getting our order placed and trying to get a cold beer. We finally figured things out and had “yangrou paomo”—a mutton stew that is wonderfully hot and spicy. We met a couple from SFO--- he spent years in the Peace Corps in India.
After dinner, it was time to head to the train. We lugged our bags for what seemed like miles and entered into the “soft sleeper” compartment. To our surprise—it had 4 beds and “Mr. Personality” sitting in one of the beds. We immediately got Chin to try to talk to the conductor about buying the entire car. The thought of 2 days and two nights with anyone else was unbearable. Nothing could happen until the train started, so we had Chin explain our situation and also write our request out in Chinese. After a fairly difficult attempt at conversation, we got directed to car # 8. I made my way through hard sleeper cars (hard sleep is really hard…it’s like a Chinese cattle car-filled with extras from a Chinese peasant revolution movie) and played charades with the conductor and the “accountant”. who was using an abacus to calculate the fares and with scissors intricately cut out the jagged edge of each ticket. Success! Once back in our soft sleeper, we had to deal with the system for collecting the tickets—they collect your receipt, fold it up and put it into a folder by car and bed number and give you back red and green “dominos” to show that you’ve purchased your beds.
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