6000 Warriors and 100 Touts

On the way back to the hotel last night we saw some people piling up trash on the side of the street. I thought that they must drop it here and then it gets picked up and taken elsewhere. A bit further down the street we saw another pile of trash except this time there were a few guys standing around lighting the pile on fire, plastic bags and all. I guess it gets burned through the night and by morning it is gone, with just a bit more pollution and a bit less ozone.

This morning we had instant noodles for breakfast, breakfast of champions, and 80% of China. We went to the Xi'an tourist office to get some information about our train tickets. On the way there we passed a group of taxi drivers waiting for passengers. There had been quite abit of snow overnight and the snow had collected on top of the cars. A couple of them near us were collecting snow and having a bit of a snowball fight. We watched for a few minutes and then they noticed us. They encouraged us to get involved by throwing them at us and giving us some snow balls and pointing at others to throw them at. As we werer walking away Kel got hit on the shoulder spraying snow everywhere. The snow was so light and fresh that it wasn't hard and just exploded on impact. It was good fun and I think the drivers enjoyed having the Laowai (foreigners) join in. We reached the safety of the tourist office where Arnie was extremely helpful in writing down in chinese 2 tickets to Chengdu, Soft Sleepers, in the same compartment for the 24th. Leaving the tourist office I was handed another snowball to throw at someone. Not being an experienced snowballer my throw was slightly off. It hit a taxi's windscreen and exploded all over another guy that was not involved. oops. He just alughed and smiled at us as we walked away. whew!

The tickets office was packed and we joinded one of the 'queues' (mobs of people in disorganized lines). Previously when we have tried to buy tickets we either can't get them, mei you (there aren't any) or get directed to another line only to line up at the back of another 'queue'. With our note in hand we made it to the front of the line, elbows out trying to defend our position. The lady took the note, our money and gave us the tickets. SO much easier. Thank You Arnie. Having said that we went back to Arnie to get him to confirm the tickets were what we wanted. They were.

We quickly juped on the next 306 bus to see the Bingmayong (Terracotta Warriors). The trip was only about 30 minutes through the suburbs of Xi'an and out into a slightly more rural area (ie. population less than 10 million). We got off the bus and it was snowing, walking to the entrance we stopped many times to look at the perfect snowflakes falling on our cheap ass black jackets. We could make out each flake's individual detail. There is a park surrounding the site which was covered in snow and was absolutley beautiful.

The Terracotta Warriors were discovered in 1974 when peasants were digging a well uncovered a few pieces of pottery. It turned out to be a massive underground vault filled with thousands of lifesized army of warriors and horses in battle formation. It was built during the Qin dynasty; their purpose is still unclear.
The first building we entered was the Museum, not knowing this as there wasn't any pinyin (spelling of chinese characters using roman lettering) anywhere. There was some good pieces in here but not much information was given so it wasn't that great. Moving on we entered pit 2 that was discovered in 1976. Most of the warriors were still in ruins as they were discovered. The excavation is still ongoing. It was great to see how they were discovered. Some were in thousands of pieces others had large recognisable parts. Amongst the rubble we could see a faces, hands, feet and horses asses. There is also 3 different ranking warriors on display here in glass cases. We could get really close and see all the detail of the craftsmanship. There are a few replicas of weapons here also, arrows, crossbows, tomahawk type axes and swords. The thousands of bronze weapons found have been moved to another location not for public viewing. A lot of the weapons were still sharp due to a chrome plating techique making them resistant to rust and corrosion. This technique was "discovered" by the US and Europe in the 20th century, 2000 years later.

We then moved to pit 3, found in 1986. This pit has suffered the most damage. It is believed to be the command post of the warrior army, because there are more generals horses and chariots here.

Pit 1 was discovered in 1974 by the peasents digging the well. It is the largest of the 3 and is amazing. It is covered by a room the size (and appearance) of a hangar for a 747. It is 210m by 60m, and there is believed to be 6000 warior statues here. At the entrance most of the warriors have been restored and are standing back in formation. Each warrior has a different face and some believe them to be modelled on the craftsmens coworker or themselves. There are 11 rows full of soldiers, all standing on perfectly paved floors. Walls made of rammed earth separate each row, supported by wood beams and once covered with a roof made of woven mats to conceal the entire army. We were surprised to learn that they were all once painted in bright colours with lifelike characteristics. Looking at them now you can make out slight tinges and patches of colour on a few of them. The middle section is still being unearthed and at the rear of the building there are rows of warriors in mid-renovation. A lot of them with holes and cracks visible. It is surreal to be looking at somethjing that was built over 2000 years ago. We often tried to picture the craftsmen shaping or carving individual pieces like a finger nail or button. Unfortunatly our pictures wont do them justice, the detail is amazing.
Before we left the pit we had a quick chat to John, and aussie from Perth. He had been travelling around India, Nepal and China for about 4 months and was about to head home. It was nice to swap stories and get some advice about India, from a guy with similar interests and views as us. We also saw Matt(from Leeds UK) quickly, we roomed with him in Beijing. He was on a tour so had keep mioving.

At the exit of the warrior complex we met our greatest challenge yet. A sea of touts. There was a group of 5 people in front of us leaving so we tried to duck in behind them and then dart off to the right, thus avoiding the touts. This failed. We were accosted by women and men selling replicas of the warriors and chariots, postcards of course and cheap bookmarks. One guy even offered me a foot high warrior for 1 Yuan, thats about 17 cents AU. We made it through them saying Bu Yao (I dont want) only to make it to the safety of the stalls where we could browse and be pestered by stall owners individualy. They were all selling the same crap. Because it was the middle of winter and snowing we were the only people there. They seemed pretty desperate to make a sale so we could have bought anything for dirt. not wanting to weigh down our packs any more we refused and made our way back to the bus. The last few stalls were food tents and we bought what was like a vegetarian chinese taco thing. It was made fresh and warmed us up a bit for the bus ride back. It is hard not to feel bad for these people after they have packed up their stuff in the cold first thing in the morning walked in the snow and ice to set up a tent in the freezing cold to try and sell food to a handfull of tourists.

We arrived back in town and Kel was freezing, so we took a taxi to a shopping mall where we could walk around inside and warm up a bit. We had a coffee and sat in the centre of the mall, watching people. Nigel tried one of the sausage/hot dog things on a stick we had been seeing practically everywhere. It tasted like a sausage/hot dog thing on a stick. We headed back to the hotel and bought a crabapple kebab we had also been seeing everywhere. There are about 5 mini crabapples on a skewer. They're dipped into toffee stuff and then into ice water so it will harden. The girl then rolled ours in coconut. It was quite tasty, very sweet on the outside, the apples a bit tart on the inside. We had a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant and are now headed to bed. It was a very average meal, but it didn't make us sick either.