Day 8 – The long trek… Terra-ific Xi’an
Today was a day I was both dreading and totally looking forward to. I really wasn’t totally on board with taking this
ABD until they added the terra cotta warriors to the itinerary. Once they added that, (plus having read pxlbarrel & Cousin Orville’s trip reports) I was convinced I would do this trip someday. It's long been a dream of mine to see the terra cotta warriors!!
But it’s a LONG day. (*TOTALLY* worth it, but LONG). Our luggage had to be out by 11:30pm the night before, and we had to be up and out *very* early in the morning. I forget exactly what time it was, but it was *really* early. The hotel packed us boxed breakfasts to have on the plane to Xi’an. Things for me were a bit awkward, because I had my carry-on, my personal item, the boxed breakfast, and the ABD duffel bag with my memory foam pillow in it, since I hadn’t been able to pack the pillow in my checked bag as I normally did, since I needed it to sleep on. It was a lot of stuff to schlep.
Once again, I had some issues going through security. They pulled all sorts of ridiculous things out of my personal item again. My glasses case. My makeup bag. I can’t even remember what all, because they made no sense whatsoever. And each time they pulled something new out of my bag, they then took it back, and ran it through the machine, over and over again. It seemed like I was there forever.
The last item kind of did me in. I’d brought along some medical tape and a small pair of scissors to get someone to help me put some sort of bandaging on my arm before getting on the plane. It’s awkward & very difficult to bandage your own right arm! I’ve had no problems carrying these scissors before. They’re very short (
well under the allowed 3 inches) and blunt ended. In Hong Kong, and Beijing, they’d just taken them out and measured them, then let them through. Well, these guys decided they didn’t like them at all, and took them. I didn’t know how I was going to bandage my arm now. I finally got cleared to go through after about the sixth or seventh round, and when I got out of security, and walked past Ralph, I just started to cry. He was, of course, concerned, but I said “I’m just tired. I’m really, really tired.” Then I told him about my scissors being confiscated. In the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t that big a deal, but at 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning, it just seemed ridiculous. I caught up with the rest of the group, then went to find a bathroom. I *really* needed to pee. I finally found the bathroom, and the *one* western toilet was out of order. I didn’t know how far it was to any more bathrooms, so I ended up having to use the squat toilet. I was tired, I had long pants on, my legs just ached and I just really lost it. I figured things had to go up after this. I want to reiterate here, I was *
really* tired. In retrospect, nothing that happened was that bad, but at the moment it happened, I just didn’t have a single ounce of resiliency left. It all improved vastly as we got to Xi’an, I got lots of tea (blessed caffeine!) and the day’s activities actually began. And as rough as the start of this day was, I would not have missed it for anything!! (And KarenStevan gave me a tiny pair of travel scissors she had, so I was able to get my arm bandaged. So it was all good in the end! And Ralph and Joe also offered me a tiny pair of travel scissors, too!)
When we arrived in Xi’an, we were transported to the area where the terra cotta warriors are. But first, we stopped in a Tea House. We were sat around a few tables, and had a tea demonstration at each table. We sampled several different types of teas, and watched as the demonstrators used traditional methods to brew the tea. I really enjoyed this. The teas were all delicious.
They also entertained us with figurines that changed color when the boiling water was poured over them. I’m not sure if the original purpose was to show the water was still hot enough or what, but they were cool, and several of us purchased color-changing figurines in their zodiac character. There was also the infamous “pee-pee boy”, who yes, peed when you poured water in him.
Here in Xi’an, we had our very fun, exuberant local guide, David. He was quite the character, and very knowledgeable. He's the smiling guy in the red shirt.
While we were going through the tea demonstrations, one confusing thing occurred. Our lunches were passed out to us. It wasn’t really clear if we were meant to eat them then (still pretty early) or carry them with us through the terra cotta soldiers, to eat at some later specified time, or what. We were told we’d have a meal later, after we’d seen the soldiers. The lunch consisted of a pre-packaged sandwich we’d chosen earlier, a fruit cup, and muffins. A lot of folks ate the fruit cup, and maybe the muffin while we sat there. We were given grocery-type plastic bags to put them in. (Honestly, I ate the fruit cup and the sandwich, but the muffin ended up getting thrown away). It wasn’t a problem or anything, just odd.
We finally got ourselves together, and headed out to the part that was the highlight of the day – the terra cotta warriors. David led us over to the entrance area where we would catch trams up to the dig site. I got to hold the Paddle of Power to show folks where to congregate while David procured our tickets.
David just had the best smile!
We then hopped on the trams, and off we went!
Finally, it was time for what we’d all been waiting for – the terra cotta warriors! We walked into the building that contained the main excavation pit, and I was totally amazed at how huge it was. I just don’t think photos prepare you for the sheer scope and size of what you see. And this is only a small portion of the number of soldiers that were buried at the site. Way more are yet to be unearthed!
They quickly maneuvered us so that they were able to get family shots in front of the massive pit – it was quite a feat!
David gave us an excellent history of the era and the emperor and the finding and excavation and repair of the soldiers as we walked the perimeter of the pit, and it was all just amazing and awe-inspiring. The sheer number and age of these soldiers is mind-boggling.
The building covering the main excavation pit (Pit 1) looked HUMONGOUS from the entrance. And as you walked along the side from front to back, you realized it was even more huge than it seemed from the end. Rows upon rows upon rows of these amazing sculptures, then rows upon rows of areas yet to be excavated, then rows upon rows of figures in various states of repair. And this was only one pit. There were others, too! I’ve read that there are estimated to be 6000 warriors just in Pit 1, of which only 2000 have been excavated so far! One reason for that is that they realized that the figures had still had paint on them when they were unearthed, but it very quickly faded away. So they have halted excavation until they figure out how to preserve the paint. You *can* still see traces of colors on some of the figures.
This video doesn’t even vaguely convey the vastness of this place!
Continued in next post.