Xian and the Terracotta Warriors

 Xian

Xian is famous for its terracotta army, and being the ancient Chinese capital for over a thousand years until circa 909AD, and the traditional end of the Silk Road. We were going to see the terracota army but first I had a tour of the city. My camera had decided to go on holiday and didn't take potos...the noises were there, but there was nothing to see. It took a while to reset all the functions inbetween sights.

Hence there are no photos of the city walls, which surround an incredibily big area for a city more than a thousand years old, the bell tower, the drum tower, both iconic buildings in the centre, the Muslim quarter, the shops, the temples and all the other sights.

Only after a lot of pushing buttons I did get it to work...for a while. 

I took a few pictures but it was the same as before and everyone knows or has heard of thr terracota warriors and why or how they were created more than a thousand years ago.

It was built by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China who united many of the prreviously warring kingdoms of China. It was to be his mausoleum and construction started when he ascended the throne in 246BC. 

It took more then eleven years to build and was incomplete at the time of his death and was never completed. There are three exposed pits, an empty fourth pit.

The main buried army to defend the emperor in the after life.

There are more than 600 other (much smaller) pits that have been discovered but have been left unexcavated. We do not yet have the technology to preserve all the items and the original colours. Some parts are heavily contaminated with mercury and cannot yet be effectively conserved. There is also a lot of superstition that it is unlucky to dig into a mausoleum. 

Superstitions still run high but it didn't stop earlier tomb raiders. Out of more than seventy known tombs, only two have been found intact.

After the terracota army we drove back to the city. We were going to see the playing fountains, set to music and a colourful light display next to the Wild Goose Pagoda. Initially, I was not intersteed in going as I had seen the pagoda before. But I was not aware then of any musical fountain as this was a new feature. 

It didn't last long but it was interesting to see the interaction of the sound of music and the visual displays of the lights and the spurts of water. We were soon back on the coach and heading back to our hotel.

As we turned the corner near to our hotel, we passed the provincial government offices. Unknown to us or our guide, they too had a musical fountain set to music. It was a free show and the novelty was noy yet lost on us. We alked over and watched the end of the display. Every show is different but his unexpected and free show was a bonus. We went to bed satisfied that we had seen a lot of both abcient and modern culture with a few surprises.