Marching Soldiers

Day 454
After breakfast I made a phone call. I had finally found a place with Skype and was able to chat with my parents. This was the first time in 3 weeks and it was wonderful to hear their voices. When we hung up I got a bus to the train station and then another bus to the Terracotta Warriors.

In 1974 a group of peasants were digging a well when they found an underground vault that eventually yeilded thousands of terracotta soldiers and horses in battle formation. You can meet one of the guys that is still alive and buy a book from him and take his picture, all for a price of course. Several years ago one of my friends was here and saw the man pick his nose. I didn't want to bother with him so I didn't even go in the building.

After getting my ticket and an audio guide I headed to the movie. Qin Shi Huang lived over 2 millenniums ago. He was the first person to unify China, ruling for 36 years. QSH created a centralized government, standardized measurements, currency and writing and well as building over 6400 km of roads and he conquered six major kingdoms. QSH did this all before turning 40. Despite these achievements he was a control freak who enslaved hundreds, ordered older written text burned and once buried 460 scholars alive. The Chinese remembered him mostly for the bad stuff prior to his tomb being discovered. Archeologists don't know if he was trying to protect his spirit from those that he had killed or if he was trying to take it all with him.

Also, all of the soldiers and horses were found broken and have been pieced back together. They are also still excavating the area and haven't yet gotten to QSH's tomb. Lastly every single warrior is unique from the others.

Pit 1 is the largest with 6000 warriors and horses. My ailing camera seemed to sense that it should be on its best behavior today. Most of the shots I got were ok. You can't get very close, but that's alright with me. I walked around the pit slowly taking photos from every angle. Some of the warriors had not been restored, it was really quite remarkable.

Pit 2 seems like its a large area but holds only 1300 warriors. There are 5 here that can be viewed up close. The detail is stunning. Pit 3 is the smallest with only 72 warriors and horses. Most of these are high ranking officials so it is thought that this is the command center. There was also a place where you could superimpose your head onto a warriors body. Creepy.

The last bit was a museum that started with massive puppets of a warrior hold a modern day girls hand. most of the museum was on the building of the warriors and excavation. There were a few pieces that had been found in the area on display as well. Perhaps the most disappointing bit was the end. The shops took up more space than the warriors!

After an hour ride back to Xi'an I walked back to my hostel. On the way I got a much needed haircut. It cost about $2.25 and the guy cutting my hair had one of his coworkers take pictures of the whole ordeal. When I got back ot the hostel I hung out a bit before grabbing my things and heading to the train station. I was really tired and looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Ouch!

Day 453
The room I was in lacked windows. I kept waking up thinking that it was still night time. When I did get up I chatted with the nice Canadian girl for ages. It was also raining and really not motivating me to get my act together.

In the end the Canadian girl and I decided to get massages. This was by far the weirdest one I have had yet, it was also the most painful. At one point I think he was poking sticks into my feet. It hurt so badly blisters would have felt liek a relief. Then came the part where I was laying on my stomach and he climbed up on my back and even stood on me! If I was alone I would have been really freaked out!

After the massage I headed to the train station to get my ticket for the next evening. It wasn't raining that hard when I had left but by the time I got there it was pouring and I was soaked. I did manage to get the ticket I wanted though. I even took the bus back to my hostel. Once there I had just enough time to shower and meet with Saundra from NYC and the Canadian girl whose name I embarassingly can't remember and who's email I can seem to locate in my book.

That night I stayed up a bit later and hung out with the Dutch guys again. A local man brough us several beers. We went to buy him a round but the bartender had cut him off. He was very very drunk. When he saw that we didn't have a beer for him he got really angry and started yelling. At least they finally threw him out after that. When my beer was gone I decided to call it a night.

Luckily Local

Day 452
I got to Xi'an just before lunch. I had arranged for my hostel to pick me up. Well, the hostel wouldn't be picking me up its a building after all, but rather one of the staff members. After getting out of the station I couldn't see anyone. I was a bit irritated at myself as I had neglected to write down any of the hostel information. Just as I was about to go and look for an internet cafe I was found. Ten minutes later I was at the hostel.

Xi'an is kind of an important stop for me. When I was a child my parents made sure that my sister and I attended Sunday school every week. When we lived in Pasadena Maryland we went to a church called Mt. Carmel. Every year a missionary that the church supported would come to visit. I don't remember a whole lot, just that she worked in China and always had prizes that we could win. One year Sandy or I (I can't remember who) won a mini Terracotta Warrior. I think that this is the first time that I had ever heard about China. I remember seeing pictures and thinking that it was some sort of fairy tale land. Perhaps this is the place that I have been waiting to go for the longest. It's a toss up with Pompeii which I remember my uncle Steven telling me about. I just can't remember the time line.

By the time I had grabbed lunch it was too late in the day to see the warriors. Instead I took a rather long walk to the History Museum. On the way i decided to be a bad traveler and get a manicure. While I was there I met very friendly Vivian who spoke good English. She asked if she could come to the museum with me. I was very happy to have someone there to chat with.

The museum was nice, my camera is on the fritz so I had to beg it to take pictures. I was really trying to wait until Beijing to get it repaired. There were even a few full sized warriors to check out.

After the museum Vivian took me to an area that is know as the Muslim district. This is really the shopping area. I didn't buy anything but I did get a better idea of what things should cost with Vivian's help.

Vivian was from a small town about 5 hours away and took me to a resturant serving food from there. I had a pork and noodles dish, the noodles weren't so great. When the bill came I thought of Dong Dong paying for dinner in Guilin and I grabbed the check. It was time for me to play it forward. We finished dinner with just enough time for Vivian to run to her bus to some suburb or another.

I headed back to the hostel and wrote for some time. I ended up meeting a really nice Canadian girl from Montreal and eventually spent some time chatting with some Dutch people before calling it a night.