My Month Long Travels Part 3

  More of Xi'an.
  The following day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, after the Great Wall of China it is one of the sites to see on a tour of China and they have also been one of my goals. I learned about them, and probably you did as well, in history class. The history books showed the picture of a stone Chinese man surrounded by many other stone Chinese men and a few horses, well that is what they are: a bunch of stone statues of men and horses. They were created by the first emperor of China, the one who united the country for the first time, so a very man important in Chinese history. During his reign he standardized many things, which makes living much easier, imagine having to exchange your money when you just go to the next town or having to switch between liters and gallons all the time, standardizing is a pretty sweet deal his rule also marks the begin of the Dynastic part of Chinese history that you read about.
  It was in 246 B.C.E that this emperor, Qin Shi Huang, took the throne. He was only 13 but he was already thinking about his death because shortly after ascending the throne he began work on his tomb, which was a good idea since it took 11 years. However, I do not know about you but at the age of thirteen I was not thinking about creating my tomb, I still am not thinking of creating my tomb. This emperor although young did not do things in small amounts, he went all out and created a giant tomb with thousands of clay men and horses guarding him (guess he was scared of the dark and did not want the monsters to get him . . . sorry joke in bad taste). These men were dressed in battle uniforms of the day and are so detailed that you know the rank and position of each man from generals to archers to normal foot soldiers. They have been placed in specific battle formation complete with weapons.
  These clay figures are not something to just by pass, there are literally thousands of them, many have still not been uncovered due to a health risks since mercury is present and the fact that the technology to properly preserve them still needs to be created. The soldiers actually are colourful but when exposed to air a chemical reactions occurs (insert fancy science word for it here meaning 'caused the colour to leave'). Since they would like to preserve the soldiers colour and all they have stopped opening new sections of the tomb. These soldier also are each unique, in that they all have different facial features. When creating that many figures there has to be some sort of assembly type organization so it does not take forever so molds were used to create different body parts, different provinces created different parts, put their stamp on it and sent it to the tomb. This was the same for the faces, only eight molds were used to create the hundreds of faces however, once out of the mold clay was added to the assembled faces to give each a distinct look like a thumb print, also making them a little cooler.

  So funny story, these men decided in 1974 that they needed a new well. Since they lived in Xi’an they decided that they would dig a well outside of Xi’an (imagine that). They started digging and they came upon a life-size clay figure of a man. Realizing this was not something you usually find when you are digging for a well they stopped and notified the Chinese authorities in the area. Of course the Chinese officials sent archaeologist out to see what it was all about, was probably the most exciting part of their day. What they found surprised them for only only was there life-size soldiers but also life-size horses and the rest is history or can be googled. Here is a Smithsonian website about them if you want to read more (for you overachievers out there): http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/terra-cotta-soldiers-on-the-march-30942673/.

  Okay enough talking here are some pictures.

 Above is what you first see going into the first Pit also know as Pit No. 1. When the pit was found the soldiers were not standing up like that, those have been meticulously put back together and placed where they were found so we can see what it would have looked like. The following four pictures are also of the same pit.

   This is Pit No. 2 you can see what the soldiers and horses looked like when they were first found.

   What the soldiers looked like, not sure if these are real or replicas.

   This is a picture of me with my two friends. On the left is Alice and the right is Tracen. Those are their English names which they picked to be called. Tracen's Chinese name, if you take the characters individual meaning and not as a name, can mean Golden King. So I tell him I should call him that instead of Tracen. In China names can be picked based on meaning unlike the in the United States which is usually based off the fact that we like the sound of the name. They said it was okay if I put this picture of them on my blog, so nice.
Random Note: In many pictures I have taken and seen of Chinese people they generally do not smile where you can see their teeth like I am in the picture below, not sure why.

  Funny little thing I am going to add because this is my blog: We had entered the site when and were walking behind a white guy (rare occurrence in China) when he turned around and asked us if this was the way to the site. We said yes and after more words he joined us as we walked towards the Soldiers/Horses Pits. As we were walking I learned that he was actually staying in the room right across from us at the hostel with his girl friend he came to visit in China right before she went home. I felt awful since I did not remember his face. (I am getting better at telling Chinese faces apart but my telling of western faces is getting worse, no worries I will still remember all my friends . . . if I forget your face I am not saying that you are not my friend . . .) This man was in a little bit of a mood since he just had a Chinese experience combined with his own ignorance which made his girlfriend mad at him. His problem was that he had arrived at the site, which only takes cash without enough cash, when he went to the ATM it would not take his card (cannot remember if it was visa or another). So he had to take a taxi to another town a bit aways. His girl friend did not have enough money to cover him and was kinda fed up with him, apparently he had other transgression against him from earlier that day or week, and just went in without him telling him to find her when he finally gets in. I ended up letting him use my phone so he could call his girlfriend and meet up with her. Do not know if he was forgiven because I did not run into them the rest of the time in Xi’an.

  Getting to the site was kinda fun since we did not know where we were going and could not fine the bus so we ended up being talked into a tour pus that was not overly expensive. I could not speak Chinese so my two friends were figuring it out. It was actually kinda annoying since I could not understand them and I wanted to help us find where we needed to be but could not and they had to keep translating for me. So I kinda felt like I was a little kid being taken around. However, that was not what they were doing, I felt sorry that they had to translate so much for me and that I could not speak Mandarin and make their lives easier. I do not know another language but I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to have to figure out where you need to be, then translate it to someone else, then get their response, talk about the decision, then translate it to the person you are asking for help or whatever, then have to translate any changes back to the person who does not speak the language all while that person is asking what is going on. Crazy stuff. It kinda reminded me of when I would travel with my parents and they would discuss what we were going to do between the two of them then tell us kids what were were going to do since my two Chinese friends would discuss in Mandarin what was going on then tell me in English, except they asked me what my opinion which my parents never did, my parents usually wanted me to keep my two sense out of the discussion. 

  Before we actually went to the site of the soliders, but after we took the tourist bus out near the site, we stopped at Hua Qing Palace that just happened to be built upon a hot springs (no accident I am sure). It was the place of a famous emperor, Xuanzong, and also famous since a ancient beauty of Chinese lived there (the hot springs also made it famous). This is a great story. So this emperor was kinda a big deal and he had the power to marry people off to whom he choose, well he decided to marry his son, Li Mao also know as the Prince of Shou, to a fourteen year old girl named Yang Yuhuan. She became the Princess of Shou. It just so happened that after this marriage that Emperor Xuanzong’s favourite concubine Consort Wu died. Naturally, of course, he started to notice other women, unnaturally he noticed Yang Yuhuan, the wife of his son. He decided that he should have her and schemed up a plan to take her from his son. He decided that she would become a Taoist nun in the palace, a nun meant she would leave her husband and all men therefore making her no longer his son’s wife. As a nun she took on the name Taizhen since people would be less likely to make a fuse about him marrying a women Taizhen then they would a women named Yang Yuhuan. After she was a nun for some time the Emperor was like, ‘hey, I like this nun named Taizhen how about I make her my consort’ (except the Chinese version), and he did. He apparently did not want his son complaining too much because while he married his son’s ex-wife he gave his son a new wife. Wonder how okay his son was with that . . . 

  After taking Taking her as his consort he bestowed the title Guifei, a newly created rank, on her  while also giving her family much honor. He loved and favored her so much that he had 700 laborers sew fabrics for her, when other people visited they would bring her gifts so as to win her favor since she was so loved by the emperor. One time when she made him mad he had her sent from the palace to live with her cousin, however he could not even go the rest of the day with out her and welcomed her back to the palace that night. This happened again later but once again he welcomed her back. However, a rebellion drastically changed their love life. Many things happened but the most important things was that Yang Yuhuan’s relative rebelled against the emperor causing great hatred against her family (also some thought that the emperor was neglecting his duties to his country because of Yang Yuhuan and did not like her), during this rebellion the emperor guards kinda rebelled surrounding the emperor and not leaving until their request that he kill Yang Yuhuan was granted. He refused but this is not a Disney movie and eventually the Emperor agreed to kill his favourite consort ordering for her to be strangled in a nearby buddhist shrine. The End: love did not win out in that story. 

 Here is a picture of a statue of Yang Yuhuan. I guess I can understand why the emperor loved her so much, she is pretty.

   Here are some more pictures of the Palace and the baths. The first one is a love tree where people have hung notes.

   The water from the hot spring that the palace was on.

  To finish the day we went back to the Mulsum Quarters to have this one kinda soup gumbo type thing. You ordered what you wanted then they gave you a bowl and two round dense pieces of bread. You took this bread and bowl to a table and ripped it into small pieces. After it was all ripped you then took the bowl back and they added the rest, making it a soup. I had lamb which is what it is originally suppose to be, you could have beef if you wanted. I thought it was really good, however if you take to long to eat it the bread becomes really soggy, like your cereal when you pour too much and by the time you get to the last piece at the bottom of the bowl they are rather gross. 

 Also bought this really cool looking bread, it was really hard and a little dry but good none the less.