7.
Terra Cotta Soldiers
I woke up today and decided not to wear my
new shoes. Also, I stopped carrying my backpack everywhere I go.
Today's highlight was the terra cotta soldiers so all I needed
was my camera and I didn't want to get my shoes dirty. Breakfast
at this hotel is not good; I had some bao chih and that's it.
Although Xian is not as advanced as Beijing, everything seems
to be nicer. The taxis are clean and green and there are a lot
more nice cars, buildings, roads, etc. here.
 First
up for the day is the Wild Goose Pagoda. The pagoda was interesting
and it was only a couple yuan (another term for RMB) to go up
but I decided against it. I walked around the park and took it
fairly easy for the first day in Xian. Truthfully, I was ready
to go see the terra cotta soldiers.
 The
next stop was a place to see how the terra cotta soldiers were
made. I got a picture of myself sticking my head up through a
headless soldier's body. It was really funny for how simple it
was. The tour guide's English was hilarious. He kept saying "Students
here prease!" and his "cotta" sounded like "carter"
so he also said "This is how they make terra carter!"
He would also yell when everybody was within whispering distance.
Ever since taking the picture with the headless soldier I was
laughing out of control; the picture combined with the guide's
funny English threw me out of control. On a more serious note,
we learned that a special clay material was used to make the terra
cotta soldiers and that after firing the clay, two soldiers knocked
together would make a metallic sound rather than a softer sound.
This is one way to distinguish a real terra cotta soldier from
a fake one.
Also on a serious note, a member of our group fainted while at
the terra cotta factory and later on, Mr. and Mrs. Overkamp said
it was from dehydration and slight heat exhaustion. All the tour
guides have said drink more water than you feel is necessary and
I thought I was doing so; this event was a drastic reminder to
keep drinking water. The student skipped the next attraction and
recovered after drinking two bottles of water and taking some
replenishing salts from the Overkamps.
After the terra cotta factory we went to the Hua Ching Hot Springs.
Lisa's personality was shy and introverted and she didn't do such
a great job explaining many of the different tourist sites. I
did learn that in particular dynasties, fat women were considered
beautiful and skinny or normal women were not accepted by the
emperor. Inside the park area there was a performance of traditional
music and dance so I watched that for a few minutes and then it
was time to go.
Finally, we reached the actual terra cotta soldier site. Before
leaving the US, I borrowed some DVDs from my parents' friends
about different cities and attractions in China. The real terra
cotta soldier site looked exactly as it did on the DVD but the
shock factor is higher in person. It was incredible to see so
many soldiers lined up perfectly facing east (many of the enemies
at the time came from the east). Each soldier's facial expression
is different and the entire "army" even has ranks and
positions. There were 3 pits; one big and two smaller ones. The
biggest pit was the best because there was so much to see, the
other two didn't have as many soldiers but had more information
on the history and background of the soldiers.
 In
1974, Chinese farmers uncovered fragments from the burial grounds
of a Chinese emperor named Shi Huangdi while digging a well. Emperor
Shi Huangdi ruled the part of China called Qin (pronounced "chin";
it is where China gets its name) and made many advancements such
as setting up systems of writing, measurements, money, and roads,
and thinking of the idea to build the Great Wall. The soldier
idea came from the belief of most Chinese that the real world
should be taken to the heavenly world when people died. He wanted
many beautiful things in his tomb and he decided to have an army
protect it for him.
As many as 700,000 people worked for about 30 years to make around
8,000 soldiers, horses, and chariots. Originally, they were painted
in bright colors and even held weapons; after vandalism, time,
and natural destruction took their toll, the result is what I
saw during my visit.
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