Busy Day in Xi'an

Today we got to do a full day tour that brought us to the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, as well as the Ancient Xi’an City Wall! It only cost 90 USD and was a private tour with our tour advisor Pauline.

The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses
The Terracotta Army is a collection of sculptures resembling the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. The sculptures were buried with the emperor and were meant to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and also provide him with people to rule over. The figures were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers and they have been uncovering more and more sculptures to this day. I’m so glad we decided to take a privatized tour as the amount of things to take in while looking at the army and the amount of tourists that were there was incredibly overwhelming! Pauline made the experience that much more memorable as she pointed small things out that we would have missed otherwise. All the figures vary in heights according to their role in the army, the tallest being the generals. However the sculptures are not all military based. There is over 8,000 soldiers but also; chariots, horses, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. The realistic appearance of these soldiers was unlike anything I had ever seen. All the figures are life sized, and all have individual facial features and expressions, once looking upon the faces of the soldiers you can really see that each sculpture was created to be unique. The majority of the weapons that they have uncovered with the soldiers have remained not only sharp but rust-free even after being buried for over 2,000 years. The museum consists of three vaults and an exhibition hall:
Vault 1
This vault is about 210 meters long and 62 meters wide and is home to close to 6000 terrocatta figures of soldiers and horses, all with either a long spear, dragger or halberd.
Vault 2
This vault is the highlight of the whole mausoleum, as it is one pit but consists of four separate units inside. The first unit consists of cross bearers all standing, kneeling or squatting and had to be my favorite viewing of the day. The way the soldiers are position make you feel as if you standing admist a battle.

The current exhibition hall is showing the bronzed chariot horses that were discovered in 1980 in encased wooden boxes that had been buried a further 8 meters down into the trenches. The bronze chariot models add to the treasures of the Terra Cotta Army and represent one of the earliest known works of delicate fine bronze.

After spending the majority of the day looking at the outstanding Terra Cotta Army Pauline took us to the Ancient Xi’an City Wall. The wall was created when Zhu Yuanzhang was given the advice that he should “build high walls, store abundant food supplies, and take time to be an Emperor” from a hermit. He took this advice and began enlarging the wall that had initially been built during the old Tang dynasty, and then the modern Xian City Wall was born. This wall is now the most complete city wall that exists in China, and is also one of the largest military defensive systems in the world. We walked along the wall and had the oppurtinuty for amazing photos from the four complicated gates named: Changle (etneral joy), Anding (harmony peace), Yongning (eternal peace), and Anyuan (forever harmony)

By the end of the day our feet were aching from all the walking, but the experience of seeing one of the great wonders of the world was worth it! Walking among the terracotta army will be an experience that will never be forgotten and we all agree will be quite difficult to top!