Today we were picked up at 9am for our tour out to the famed Terracotta Warriors. We were in a group of 13, which was not too big. Our tour guide Anna (a near approximation of her Chinese name) was a country girl from another province, but who has stayed on in Xi'an after her studies. She was quite delightful.
The tour reminded us a little of the Turkish tours we went on — first they take you to a couple of other locations to try to get you to buy souvenirs. But that was okay, becaues the places were interesting in their own right.
The first was the Banpo Village, the excavation of a typical Neolithic matriarchal community of the Yangshao Culture dating back about 6,000 years. The site and its presentation reminded us of the excavations we saw in Turkey a couple of years ago. There was a souvenir shop here, where we window-shopped.
The second was the factory where they make all the reproduction Terracotta Warrior souvenirs. The little ones are produced in moulds, but the larger (quarter-size, half-size and full-size) are made with the old technique of laying a coil of clay round the 3-D outline of the sculpture, and then smoothing it and carving into it the finer details. This makes a hollow pottery object which, as the warriors are all shaped and fired in a headless form, allows the clay to bake evenly, less likely to crack in the firing, and produces a far lighter finished product. The heads are shaped separately, and added to the body like the stopper in a bottle.
The factory also produces works in bronze, and jade, and lacquer-ware furniture using traditional techniques. A fascinating place to visit. In the showrooms, everything had a price label on it, some going up beyond 600,000 Yuan ($125,000). Let's just say we resisted the sales pitch!
At the factory, we were given a very sumptuous buffet lunch, mainly Chinese, but the non-adventurous could find Western fare amongst it all. Needless to say, we went Chinese!
Then, on to the Warriors, only a few minutes away.
Massive. Impressive. Crowded. This is an active archaeological site.
The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. They were buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC to defend him in the afterlife. The 16,300-square-meter excavation contains more than 7,000 life-size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in full battle order. Only about 1,000 of the figures have been excavated, and because all but one (a figure of a kneeling archer) were shattered by the collapse of the roof long ago, they present to the archaeologists possibly the greatest 3-D jigsaw ever seen! Because the pigment on the warriors fades quickly on exposure to light, much of the excavation will be postponed for at least 100 years, in the hope that future scientific discoveries will allow the preservation of the figures in the state they were buried.
Also buried here were some bronze figures of chariots. The workmanship is amazing. They are Suzie's favourites.
About a kilometre away is a pyramidical hill, under which is the tomb of Qin Shi Huang himself. Because this is assumed to contain untold riches, the same policy of a 100-year delay has been imposed here, so it can be excavated with better scientific resources. Another reason for delay was that the emperor believed that small regular doses of mercury would extend his life. He poisoned himself at the age of 52! His tomb is so full of mercury - presumably to deter grave robbers - that this is another hazard for archaeologists. Incidentally, the nearly one million workers on the tombs were entombed alive to preserve the secret. Not a good time to be a tomb worker!
After a rather tiring time at the Warriors, we re-boarded our little bus and the people in the tour group were packed of to their respective hotels.
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