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. 

My Month Long Travels Map

  This is a map of where I am going: 

1. Xi'an 

2. Luoyang

3. Qingdao

4. Haerbin (passing through Beijing for connecting train)

5. Datong

6. Beijing

After Beijing I am heading to South Korea for a week.

My Month Long Travels Part 2

  Bit behind on my travel blog since the last place had no wifi so I will continue but will be several days behind reality, I am currently sitting in Qingdao writing this. . .
  The hostel that we picked is a really neat one, it was a hostel and bar/pub place right next to the wall of Xi'an. At first locating the place was a small challenge but we found found it. The first picture is of a hostel entrance but the non-used one beside the wall entrance. The wall of Xi'an is the giant wall thing in the right of the picture.

  This is the other entrance that we had to go around the block to find.

  This is of the inside of the hostel. It had an older antique feel to the place.

   The eating area where we could by an American breakfast, or a English/Irish/Scottish etc breakfast. The British breakfast includes mushrooms and beans which I do not understand but then hey I am not British so that could be why.

  This is a map of the wall, our hostel was located around the red dot near the bottom part of the wall in the picture. We went around almost the entire wall but became worn out so quite. We had rented bikes and biked around it but they say it takes two hours by bike and 3/4 of the way done we were ready to stop so then we headed to the Muslim Quarter for dinner. We went to the wall after we checked into our hostel and took showers after the crazy long train. 

  Here are pictures of the wall, and things by the wall.

  The bikes that we rented.

  This was built on the wall.

  This was a temple that we saw from the wall, it was cool because it had a golden roof (do not think it was real gold.

  The next set of picture is from the Muslim Quarters, I will say it is different to see Muslim individuals who look Chinese eating food with Chopsticks. This place was a buzz of activity and I felt like a kid in a candy store. So much color, food, and crafty things to buy!

   The food we at for dinner, it was not great but it was okay. Not sure what was in it but it was fine.

   This was much better. It was flat grilled bread with chopped up lamb put between it. Really good.

 What you see in the next picture really is fried crab on a stick . . . I just had to take a picture.

  That was day one I have to get going for today but will write more soon.

My Month Long Travels Part 1

  Sorry I have not been posting as much as I should. I have been rather busy with life and other things, one being planning my Spring Festival Trip. It will consist of going to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers, other small towns, Harbin for the Ice Festival, Beijing to see the Great Wall, The Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square (that has the giant picture of Mao on the wall), then South Korea to see Seoul, the DMZ zone between North and South Korea, Busan and finally back to Changzhou just in time to start the next semester classes. I will be traveling with friends for some of the trip and by myself for others making my way around a large area of China.
  I started out yesterday heading to Xi'an on the slow train, which are similar to trains that we have in the United States, meaning it takes a long time to get across the country. Since Spring festival is the largest holiday celebrated in China that is the time when many people head back to see their families, it is like Christmas to the extreme. Since so many people do travel during this time a phrase has been coin of 'Spring Festival Migration' or 'Spring Festival Migrants.' These are people who go somewhere else to work and migrate back home every year for spring festival. It is during this time that schools are out for winter holiday so many families and college students return to their hometown to celebrate the holiday.
  Also, (mom skip to the next paragraph) during this time crime rates increase, for people need money to get back home so they steal it from other travelers. People who have not made very much money during the last year do not want to go home empty handed and have their family look down upon them so they will steal to make themselves look better in their families eyes. Getting robbed does not happen to everyone and if you are careful you will be fine but it is something that I have been told about by many other Chinese individuals. I have many many promise to be careful. Cities that are mostly for manufacturing will become empty during that time since everyone who was born outside of that city will leave to go home. I was told that Beijing will become emptier, we will see how many people are there when I arrive.
  With all the people moving the use of train travel increases leading to people being stuck places if they do not buy ticket early enough. This is almost what happened to me going to Xi'an. My school let me leave early so I could travel this distance with two Chinese friends but it was last minute so we did not have enough time to buy the fast train ticket so the slow train it was. However, all the sitting tickets were sold out so we had to stand part of the way. We transferred trains at one station so we could sit down the rest of the trip. I have taken long trips before but standing for seven hours is in a whole different ball park. Try standing in the same location and position for seven hours with people squeezing by you every fifteen or fewer minutes while trying to keep your luggage together while trying not to overheat, but not wanting to drink too much water so you do not have to use the train toilets. It was an experience.
  Heading towards the train to embark on our adventure is what the picture below shows.

    The train.

   This is getting on the train, for us it was standing room (below).

   Below you see people standing, they are not moving to their seat because they have just bought standing tickets, which means you just stand around the train until it come to your spot then you exit the train. The next three pictures are of people standing on the train. I ended up standing in front of the hot water area so many people squeezed by me to fill up their special keeping warm water bottles with hot water or added hot water to their instant noodle bowls. One time two people decided to make their instant noodles right when people were getting on the train so they were hindering everyone getting on the train and instead of moving to let people pass they just stood their until they filled up their noodles and water bottles. I was a little annoyed and was told that those people were just really rude. I now share their rudeness with you.

  This little girl in the picture was walking around going up to people with cellphones and kinda grabbing them to see what the person was doing on them. It turns out that she was wanting to listen to music on their phones. She went up to this one young man and did this and we thought that he was related to her because she was being so bossy to him but he had never meet her before in his life. She went to another young man and others standing around her that had their phone out. Below she is with the first young man listening to his music. I had her listen to my music for a little bit but she could not understand and did not want to listen any more. She was only six but she was not afraid of strangers, maybe overly friendly. She did say that she could not do anything with me because I was a stranger but them she said I was her friend so not a stranger anymore and she could talk to me, although I could not understand her. My friend, Alice, did most of the translating for me and was very patience when doing so. 

  Getting off the train in Xi'an around 8 in the morning.

  Outside the station with the many, many people.

  After the train station we headed for the hostel which is where I am at the moment. I was able to access WIFI so I could write this post. I am going to try to keep up with my posting during my travels so you do not get one insanely long post at the end of February upon my return to Changzhou. 

  Thank you to those reading and keeping up on my journey, I love reading your comments.