The Terracotta Warriors

I’m writing in the evening so that I can watch TV tomorrow morning. We’re hoping that when we wake up we’ll be able to see the first results from the east coast.

We started our day with one of the most amazing archeological sites in the world, the terracotta warriors and horses of Xi’an. Over two thousand years ago, these sculptures were created by an enormous workforce conscripted by the first emperor of China for his mausoleum. It is hard to convey the scale of this site. There are thousands of life-size men and horses, only a very small number of which have been excavated and restored. Many still lie in the pits in pieces, waiting for archeologists to carefully uncover them.

The Chinese government built huge structures around the archeological pits so that the site is both a museum and a working archeological site. Just one pit would cover many football fields, and people standing on the other side look like little ants. Where restored, the statues are lined up, standing, staring ahead as if on the march. Each face looks different, and they are believed to be representations of actual people of the time.

We spent several hours visiting the three pits, a few half-size bronzes, and – of course – the gift shop. It truly is spectacular!

We then returned to Xi’an to have dumplings – the local specialty – for lunch. We had dumplings in every possible shape. Often they were formed to represent the filling, i.e. the walnut-filled dumpling was shaped like a walnut, and the duck-filled dumpling was formed into a duck shape. The waitresses came over each time to tell us in their best English the contents of each dumpling, but we pretty much only understood “vegetables”.

After lunch, we walked through the Muslim quarter and into the Mosque. This actually was a group of pavilions and gardens leading up to the Mosque, all very lovely and peaceful. There is still an active Muslim population in Xi’an who pray here the requisite five times per day.

Our last stop was the Wild Goose Pagoda. It was built about 1400 years ago, and is a Buddhist religious site. The pagoda was damaged by several earthquakes and only partially restored. There were demonstrations nearby of calligraphy, so Galina and I had our names written (you now can call us Glina and Tana, since that’s how they seem to pronounce our names).

We’re now back at the hotel getting ready to meet with some other friends for dinner who also are travelling after our group get together in Hong Kong.

-- Donna