Xian Day 2 – Terra Cotta Warrior Excursion

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Today we take an excursion with our Viking Group to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.

We set an alarm for 5:15 AM, we needed to be dressed, eat breakfast, and return to the room to gather up all of our gear so we could meet the group in the lobby at 7:00 AM.

We have had a lot of early mornings on this portion of the trip with the exception of the two mornings in Lhasa, Tibet.  We did not start tours there until around 9:00 AM, and that was partly due to darkness.  According to Michael, our Viking guide, Lhasa should technically be in another time zone but matches the time zone in Beijing for business convenience.  We could not leave earlier there because there was not enough daylight until about 8:30 AM.

The Breakfast Buffet was good, we just had some yogurt, eggs, and some bread and pastries.  I was able to get two fried eggs that were in the process of being cooked when I got to the grill, and they just needed to be flipped for them to be “over easy”.  That seems to be a hard concept for Chinese cooks, they usually have a photo display you can point to to order your eggs, either scrambled, sunny side up, and over easy, as well as omelets.  They get the concept of sunny side up, but they way overcook the over easy, it is really over hard, and then they stack those in a heated pan for people to take them from.  I just asked the cook to flip them and then I said OK to get her to serve them to me, and they were just right.

After breakfast, we headed to the room to get our gear and take one last bathroom break, we were told it is about an hour’s drive from the hotel to the site we are visiting today.

Arrival At The Terra Cotta Warrior Exhibit Entry

We met on time in the lobby and our group boarded the bus for the ride to the Terra Cotta Warrior Exhibit.  It took about an hour to arrive, and we got off of the bus for the walk to the ticket gate area where we got into line with other tour groups that had arrived early.  The exhibit was not yet open but we did not have to wait in line long before they opened and we started moving.  There were already quite a few buses there with tour groups even though we arrived early.  

We had to show our passports for entry and then go through security before we could enter the complex.  There are four large exhibit halls here, and we were going through all of them on the tour.  Our local guide Peter was very versed in the excavation of this site.  He had worked here during his college days as part of his studies.  He also was instrumental in helping to put together a four-part series for PBS Television a few years ago, so he has spent a lot of time at this facility and knows a lot about the history and effort to excavate the warriors.

We rode on electric carts from the ticket office out to the area where the exhibition buildings were located.  Each cart held about 20 people and were similar to the carts we rode at the Panda Facility earlier in the trip.  In the not-too-distant past, we were told that the buses could drop people off right at the exhibit buildings, but no longer, there was not enough parking space out that close to the exhibits for the size of the crowds that visit here now.

We have included a map of the terra Cotta Warrior Exhibition site at the bottom of this post.  The entrance and ticket office to the exhibit was in the lower bottom left on the map.  That was where we rode the electric carts from.  This map also shows the locations of the Pits we visited.

There are four main exhibit halls here, and we started with the one containing all of the lined-up terra cotta warriors, which is the iconic picture people see when this attraction is discussed.  There was already a crowd inside, but the building was very large, and everyone could walk around the perimeter, which was elevated above where the warriors were standing.  The light for photos was not the best, but adequate.

Peter told us that the archeologists thought there were roughly 8,000 terra cotta warriors made originally for the entire site.  They already know there are several other different sites that may eventually be excavated, but it will take many years to complete.

Pit 1 Exhibition Building

We were told how they tried to match all of the pieces of the warriors together based on the firing temperature of the clay for each warrior, which was slightly different and caused a color difference in the fired clay.  There is a lot of effort put into identifying the pieces so they can reasonably be put back together. 

Beautiful Flowers From The National Holiday

The warriors are broken into many pieces because the wooden timbers covering them that were then covered with dirt rotted and collapsed over time and fell onto the warriors underneath, crushing them.  On average, about 70% of any particular warrior that has been restored is recovered and glued together, and the rest is filled in with newer clay.  All of the original warriors were painted, but the paint has deteriorated and they are just clay-colored now.

It was amazing to see how large this first building was.  It totally covers the work area to protect it from the elements, especially the rain. 

There were a few hundred warriors lined up in rows at the entrance when we first entered.  In addition to the warriors, there were several restored horses at various locations, usually in a group of four. 

Terra Cotta Warriors In Pit 1

We do not know if these warriors were all from the location they are in now, or if they had been lined up in newer locations to make it appear like they had been when they were first placed there thousands of years ago. 

In between the rows of warriors, there were sections of clay walls about 10 feet wide.  These walls were the supports for the original timbers that covered the warriors.  This was all done as part of a burial tomb, so that was why it was all underground initially, about 15-20 feet deep. 

Terra Cotta Warriors

The various locations of the warriors in this area are approximately 1.5 km. in distance out in front of the burial mound for the emperor whom this was all made for.  This was representative of how the soldiers would be out in front of the Emperor during a battle.  This was all made for the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang in 209 BC.  

There are different types of clay warriors in these pits, some are standing soldiers, some are kneeling archers, some are standing archers, and then there are a few generals and other higher-ranking officers.  In all, based on soil borings in the entire area over the years, the total number of terra cotta figures made includes warriors, chariots and horses.

Estimates from 2007 were that the three pits containing the Terra Cotta Army hold more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which still remain buried in the pits near Qin Shi Huang’s burial mound.

Close Up Of Terra Cotta Warrior Faces

In this first building, Pit 1, there were only the standing soldiers, all in rows, and some horses. Pit 1 is the largest of the four exhibits here.  It measures about 210 by 60 meters and features 11 parallel corridors, containing more than 3,000 restored terra cotta figures, arranged in military formation. 

Partially Restored Warriors

These figures were intended to serve as the grand army for the underground imperial palace.   As we proceeded down the side of the Pit 1 building, we walked the entire length of the excavation.  Along the way, there were areas set aside for restoration work, and there were warriors standing in these areas that were only partially reassembled.  All excavation in this pit ceased in 2022.

We next headed into Pit 3, which is the smallest pit being excavated.  Pit 3 is the command post, with high-ranking officers and a war chariot.  There were several officer figures inside the exhibit inside large glass cases so you could get close up to see their detail.  Well, close-up was a relative term, there were many people gathered around these glass cases, so it was difficult to get close to them. 

Chariot Team In Pit 3

They were impressive, if not from afar.  The height of some of the taller warriors are around 6.5 feet tall, but on average about 5.5 feet., but not much else was really excavated in the pit itself, there was one war chariot and the drivers that had been uncovered.

Ongoing Excavation In Pit 3

From here, we went onto the building covering Pit 2.  This was almost as large at Pit 1,  Pit 2 has cavalry and infantry units as well as war chariots and is thought to represent a military guard.  It has not been excavated that much, and there were only a few restored warriors in the pit. 

There were two moveable glass buildings in the pit, and these were where people were still working to excavate the clay warriors.   

It was interesting to see the pit itself, there were still many pieces of clay warriors in the excavated areas, and you could see the brick pavers in the bottom of the pit where the soldiers had stood. 

For some reason, many of the timbers in this pit were petrified, and you could still see them laying horizontally across the clay walls in areas where they had been disturbed 

These petrified timbers were on top of the solid clay wall sections located in between the pits containing the soldiers, so they were still intact and now petrified.  The sections of timbers covering the pits had collapsed above the warriors, causing them to be destroyed.

Ongoing Excavation In Pit 3

From here we proceeded into the building which is the  Exhibitions Hall of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Relics.  This was more like a museum and contained a lot of the items found inside the pits areas that had been excavated. The building contained many glass cases with restored soldiers of all types inside of them to see up close.  Once again, this area was really crowded, and it was difficult at times to get up close to the cases, it took patience and a little bit of the Asian mentality of “zero personal space” to push forward to see them.

Chariot Team In The Exhibitions Hall

There were also all sorts of bronze sculptures of birds, and also many bronze weapons, but not as many were found as there were soldiers, so there was some thought that in the past, long ago, some of the metal had been stolen over time to use for other items long before there would have been recorded information about the location of the warriors.

The Exhibitions Hall of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Relics was the newest building here, it had been built for the Olympics that were held in China.

Here is a link to a  Wikipedia Website- Terra Cotta Warriors with more detailed information on their history.

We were done with the exhibit buildings, and now we had to walk back to the bus parking area.  There are only electric cart shuttles to the exhibits, not back.  The entire area we walked through was a shopping area with all kinds of stores, food vendors, and lots of markets selling pomegranates, which are raised in orchards in this area.  I had seen some trees with fruits on them as we were riding out here in the bus, but I first thought they were very large apples from afar.

I had seen that the fruit was all wrapped inside clear baggies while it was still on the trees, and this was to protect them against insect damage so they would look better to sell in the markets.

Making Noodles In The Shopping Area

It took about 20 minutes to walk through this area, and at one point, Peter said some of the buildings we were seeing were part of the original village that had been here when they had accidentally discovered the warriors while digging a water well for the local farmers to use during a drought.  Now it was all a shopping area.

Making Souvenir Clay warriors

We finally made it out to the bus and boarded.  We were now heading to our lunch, which was also at a facility that specializes in all kinds of artwork and lacquered furniture, as well as, you guessed it, clay terra cotta soldiers.  It reminded us of the other place we had visited earlier in the trip that was part of a Jade Factory, and lunch was served upstairs in that building at a hotel.  I guess it is all part of the way Viking can provide food for lunch, tie it into some shopping, and maybe the lunch was free to them because of the shopping opportunity afterward. 

We have to say, this was an extraordinary shop. They had some of the prettiest items that were all made there.  First, was a clay shop where ladies were filling molds with wet clay to make all sizes of terra cotta warriors, most of them were pretty small, from a few inches tall to around 12 inches tall.  We watched them pack the clay into the molds, and then let them dry before removing them.  Several days later, after air drying, they were fired in a kiln to finish the process.  There is no painting on 99% of them so they replicate the soldiers at the exhibit.

Anyone Need A Life Sized Warrior?

The next area was full of life-sized clay soldiers that were for sale, and the pricing, which I did not see, included shipping, which was probably more than the cost of the soldier itself.  They also would custom-make warriors with heads made in the likeness of real people if you wanted one to look like yourself.

From there, we entered an area full of decorative pottery, mostly vases of all sizes and colors.  Next were two areas full of beautiful lacquered furniture, decorative tables and foldable walls.  It was really nice and they had decorative pieces of all different sizes.   There was a man painting decorations around the perimeter of a folding wall divider and our guide for the walk through the store said it was hard to find artisans for this type of work, most were older, and no one was learning how to do this artwork any longer.  There was also another man there working on some wooden furniture.  I do not know if everything we saw was made in this shop, it did not seem large enough, but it did look like most of these items we hand-made.

Beautiful Wood Pieces

Next was an area of hand-made silk embroidered cloth “prints”.  Most were in frames, but some were loose.  The prices varied based on the fineness of the embroidery, the smaller the thread used required more stitches and that resulted in a higher level of detail in the picture they represented.  Of course, the price was higher based on the higher quality.  Some were quite large and just amazing, but so was the $5,000 price, but hey, that included shipping!!

Lunch Buffet

We all headed upstairs to the buffet lunch, which was in a large seating area.  There were several buffet items, but on the side was a noodle station serving noodles made in this area, which are different from other areas in China, in a bowl of broth.  The noodles had the size and shape of spaghetti.  There was also an authentic  Chinese hamburger station.  The “hamburger”  was served on what looked like an English Muffin, it was similar in size but softer.  They put chopped pork on the sandwich, so I suppose it was more of a “ham” burger than we serve, which is usually beef.

They were serving local beer and wine with the lunch.  Overall, it was one of the better lunches we have had, and it was nice to have all of the choices, some of which were Americanized Chinese dishes like sweet and sour pork.

After lunch, Stephanie wanted to do some shopping, she wanted to try and find a smaller embroidered print of Pandas.  We had seen some of the larger ones in frames, but we needed one without a frame, and it did not need to cost anywhere near $5,000!   A man named Charley was assigned to show us the area where they had smaller prints, so we followed him there.  I thought small meant around 8 x 10, and we saw some of that size.  However, Charley was now showing Stephane larger prints, around 24 x 30 inches.  They were all loose so they could be rolled up and placed in a small cardboard box for protection.  He showed her different ones and you could tell the difference in quality when they were placed side by side.  In the end, we got a larger on that was reasonably priced, and Stephanie worked out a deal. 

Warrior Stephanie

I was just concerned about getting it home, I was not sure it would fit in any of our luggage, it was sort of long.  We saw one that was more rectangular and would roll up smaller in the short dimension, but it was already in a frame, and actually cost more. We were told it was because of the quality and the price they had to pay for it, but I think they did not want to take it out of the frame and then reduce the price based on the removed frame, so somehow, even though it was smaller, it was still going to cost more out of the frame than the one we had already picked out.  We were obviously not getting anywhere negotiating on the smaller size, so the larger one found a new home.

We headed back to the shop where they had many smaller items for sale, and then we went into the special shop for the clay warriors they made there.   There were all different sizes, but we did not need anything else too large to get home.  We really wanted just a single warrior and a horse, but there were no sets made that way, so we looked at a set of three, a soldier, a kneeling archer, and a horse.  Some were just plain clay color, a deep brownish red, and some had a slight red highlight added to them, and we liked those better.  Of course, adding the red highlight made them cost more.  We asked Charley for the “repeat customer” discount, and he made us a good deal on the clay warriors since we had already purchased the print.  They were well packaged in a special box to conform to their shape, but it was another item to pack in the carry-on to get home.  

We were done shopping and we headed outside to wait for our bus.  A lot of people bought things here, but it was a nice store, and the prices seemed reasonable for the quality.  There were some stand behind warrior statues outside of the store, so of course, we had to get pictures of us as Warriors while we waited for our bus.

Warrior Chuck

We had about an hour’s ride back to the hotel and arrived about 3:30 PM, it had been a long day, and we were a little tired.  There was not going to be a dinner included with our tour tonight because many people were attending a dinner show excursion, so those of us who were not going to that had to find dinner on our own.  Luckily, there was a mall next door to the hotel, similar to the setup in Beijing at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel there.  We also knew from Michael that there was an Ole Grocery Store in the mall, so we decided to go there and find something light to eat, and get a couple of cold beers to take back to the room.  

We looked at a menu for a restaurant called the Blue Frog and it served a lot of Western food and had quite a few burgers on the menu.  It looked good, but we were still full from our large buffet lunch and also knew we had a very early departure time tomorrow to fly to Beijing, and maybe a large greasy hamburger was more than we needed knowing we had an early travel day tomorrow.

Giant Bear Outside The Mall

We decided to just get something from the grocery store for a light dinner and saw they had freshly made pretzels.  We headed into the grocery and looked at the beer they had in the refrigerated sections, and just like the Ole in Beijing they had no Chinese beer at all, so I opted for the Korean beer and Stephanie got Ichiban beer.  At the beer cooler, we ran into one of the people we had met on the Shanghai tour, Jeff.  We see him and his wife all the time even though they are not in our Viking group with Michael, they have a different guide. He was also looking at beer, but he did not have a way to pay for it, or one that he was willing to figure out, like the Alipay.  He offered us $5 US cash to pay for a $2 beer, but we just told him we would buy a beer for him along with ours, and we all headed to the checkout counter.  He was amazed about the Alipay, and I think he told us he had it, but it seemed difficult to use to him,  Of course, he was a Captain with Delta for 37 years and flew some of the largest airliners, but he said that was easy, airliners were made for dumb people.

We headed back to the room to enjoy our beer and eat our wonderful dinner.  We supplemented the pretzels with some peanut butter crackers we had brought from home for snacks, we needed to eat them, they were not going back home with us.  We enjoyed the view from our window as the building lights came on in the city center area.  

We did a little rearranging of our suitcases, we had been here two nights and had two days of dirty clothes to get into the bottom of the suitcase with the others.  We also arranged our clothes for the day after tomorrow, our last day in China, so they would be near the top and picked out our clothes for tomorrow’s travel day.  

We are supposed to put our checked bags out tonight by 10:30 PM for pick-up and have to meet in the lobby tomorrow morning at 6:15 AM for our bus ride to the airport to fly to Beijing.

We set an alarm for 5:30 AM, and headed to bed at about 10:30 PM after we set our large suitcases outside.  We were tired from the long day.

Below Is A Map Of The Terra Cotta Warrior Exhibition Site

 

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