Still in Xi'an

2nd day in Xi'an

In the afternoon of my second day in Xi'an, we set out for the Museum of Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terra-Cotta Warriors. It's definitely a site to behold! From the entrance you would easily see four huge buildings, but these buildings are in fact pits except for the fourth one which is actually an exhibition hall. The site occupies an area of 200,000 square meters with modern facilities, a restaurant, souvenir shops, and a lot of tall pines!

Ok, the actual practice of burying an emperor is to have his real servants buried with him when he dies, so what's with the pottery figures!...(You'll have to thank me for doing some research on this!) Records showed that the First Emperor originally wanted 4,000 teenaged boys and girls to be buried alive with him when he passed away and he told his prime minister to have this carried out. Fearing that this would lead to a serious civil revolt, the prime minister suggested life-sized terra-cotta warriors and horses be kilned instead. The emperor accepted his advice and ordered many artisans to start copying his over 8,000 palace guards! This would explain why each of the unearthed figures is different in appearance.

The terracotta soldiers' museum

Pit 1 is composed of over 7000 pottery figures mostly of generals and soldiers. It is an earth and wood structure in the shape of a tunnel. It is 5m deep, 230m long, 62m wide, and covers an area of 14,260m2. The figures are in an attacking battle formation of a 38 column formation with four horse-drawn chariots positioned in 11 tunnels. This is the pit that is sensationally advertised! We were fortunate to have been allowed to take pictures. I think I used up over 20 shots!

Pit 2 is L-shaped with a complicated system of arrangement composed of 89 chariots with 356 horses, 116 of them are for the cavalry men. There are over 900 various warriors unearthed in this pit. It is 5m deep, 98 m long, and 124m wide. A lot of work is still being done in the pit, so we were not able to see the entire area.

Pit 3 is concave in shape covering an area of less than 500m2. We were able to see some of the well-excavated figures on display enclosed in glass. One of them, which I actually admired, is a high ranking officer possibly a general because its gesture and size give him a majestic presence. It is 197cm in height and the figure's carefully groomed moustache and sideburns convey a sense of authority. There is also a bowless archer, an unarmored officer and an infantry man. I guess I'll have to skip the implications of their attire as the details will bore you to death and I still haven't uploaded any pictures for you to further appreciate what I'm writing about. he he he!

What I really like about this day is that I was able to purchase a book (where I mostly got the facts of what I am now writing) and have the person who discovered the site autograph it. His name is Yang Zhifa and he discovered it on March 29, 1974 while drilling a series of wells in search of water. The head of the village reported the findings and 3 months later a series of excavations took place. The first pit was officially opened 5 years later. When the prime minister of France, Jacques Chirac, came over for a visit, he commented the site as being the 8th wonder of the world. From that time on everybody started calling it the 8th wonder!

Here's a trivia not found in any book, how much was Yang Zhifa paid for discovering the site?.....................................a measly 30 yuan (about 200 pesos!) I guess he is being compensated more for signing books as each costs a whooping 150 yuan. The books come in different languages so no matter what country you're from, you'd likely be able to understand one of them.