I decided to go to Xi`an (pronounced “Shee Han”) to see the famous Terra Cotta Soldiers so I knew it would be a quick stop, but something I wanted to do as I was so close.
After three full days in Beijing, I just wanted a day of rest. Kinda like my weekend if there is such a think when traveling for a year. So I bummed around my hostel for a while, read, had a morning of leisure reading at the cafe and was quite content.
My First Mission – Find a way to fix my jeans:
I noticed in Beijing that my only pair of jeans started to get a tiny hole in the upper thigh section. Now as it`s so cold in China, I`m wearing these jeans every day and don`t need to have them air conditioned.
I was worried about this whole getting bigger and ruining the jeans (as it happened to me in Germany 10 years ago during Oktoberfest). It wasn`t easy to find replacement jeans then, and I knew it would be 10 times harder in China.
So I learned there was a Walmart near by and I figured if I was to to find an iron on patch anywhere, that was the place. So after walking in circles, trying to ask for directions (not so much English in this city) I was still lost, as nothing on Chinese maps is every plotted where it should be. After a while (and almost giving up), I finally found the basement Walmart. I felt like I was home as there was every American brand of shampoo, makeup, food and so much to look at. Just the fresh food (deli like cooked food section) was interesting as there were so many different (gross looking things), that I would never eat, but were fun to look at. I think I wandered the store for a food hour or more and many locals were looking at me as the attraction. It was my adventure for the day.
At the end of showing too many employees the whole in my jeans, looking at the sewing section, I realized there was no patches and I was out of luck. But it was a fun day shopping at Walmart.
I met Hayley, 30 year old from England that is traveling China for a month on her own, at the computer that afternoon as she just arrived into town. I was talking about going on the terra cotta tour as was she and then later we discovered we were staying in the same room. We also met a few others when we decided to go to the bar in the basement as the hostel gave us all one free beer coupon for each night we booked. Now is that a great way to get us to the bar and of course we stayed longer and bought more. I think I was in bed at 2am, but it was a fun night drinking with Hayley and Nico.
Terra Cotta Soldiers:
The Process of Making Soldiers:
Taking a tour was the best way to see it all. We had a fun and energetic guide that worked at the hostel as well, her English name was Snow – and she was fun. We started off at the factory that now creates the soldiers and learned how much care and detail go into making miniature versions. A lady actually puts the clay into a mold by hand, after it dries, she takes it out and then has to draw all the details by hand as they don`t all come out in the mold. So much effort for a little soldier. They showed us the larger sized one as well and those took months to cook to be hard and finished.
The Site of the Soldiers:
-We started off walking in the most beautiful garden walk way up to the where the pits were discovered. The Emperor sure knew where to build his army. We learned it took over 40 years to build all this for this afterlife.
-Our first stop at the site was the cinema as there was a movie to provide better sense of what happened. It was here that I learned it was farmers that were digging for water in the field that discovered the soldiers back in 1976. The movie showed us more about the tomb was plundered during the Tang or Song dynasties (incredible acting to show us how they burned the soldiers and destroyed them), but there are still so many left and the movie added a nice touch to visualize what happened.
-The soldiers were only one of Qin Shi Huang`s attempt to reconstruct his empire for the afterlife. Within the main pit, there were over 1,000 soldiers (all facing east). The soldiers were all life size and the average solider was 5`11 (just an inch taller than me). It was amazing to see them all lined up and ready to protect. Within the complex, there were 3 pits. Besides the main one above, there was a large pit that the government has just started to dig out. It was great to see the mounds of dirt before the dig.
-The other pit has a lot of broken soldiers from then it was plundered. So we could see the horse soldiers and some still standing. All in all, amazing trip and something that words can`t describe, so I`ll stop. Worth the effort to get there.
Off to Shanghai to meet up with Gina, Ben and Steph.
Logistics:
Hostel – Shuyuan Hostel (www.hostelxian.com). Great place and so far the cheapest hostel I have stayed at. It was $2.60 a night for a 4 person dorm, plus a free beer each night. Can`t beat that!