Day 256 - A meeting with the Army

Today we went to visit one of the most famous sites in China: the Army of Terracotta Warriors (also known as the Eigth Wonder of the World by China!). It all began when Emperor Qin Shi Huang who ordered that his tomb be made that housed an army - it's undecided whether he wanted protection from spirits in the afterlife, or if he wanted an army big enough for him to continue his rule after his death. Emperor Qin came into power at age 13 and during his 36 years of rule he centralised the Chinese government, standardised measurement and money, built roads and canals, and began the building of the Great Wall.

The Warriors were discovered in 1974 by a group of farmers who were drilling a well. The area has now been extensively excavated and even now is still an ongoing excavation site. we only got to see 2 out of the 3 pits discovered so far because pit 2 was under renovation - but the 2 that we saw were impressive enough that we didn't feel like we had missed out on anything. The Warriors really are an amazing feat, totalling in the thousands, and no two warriors faces are alike.

When we got there we checked out the museum first, which gave an intersting overview of the history and facts surrounding the history and excavation process. We then headed over to watch a short film about the life of Emperor Qin, before checking out the pits themselves.At Pit 3 (the smallest of the 3), we looked down at formations of horses and warriors in the excavation pit, and felt excited to be here. At Pit 1 (the largest), all our feelings were multiplied thousands of times, as in Pit 3 there were under 100 warriors and horses, but in Pit 1 we were faced with thousands! We couldn't help but feel saddened at the crumpled piles of would have once been an army to reckon with, but appreciative of the enormous effort that the restoration workers are undertaking. Back in Xian, we walked halfway on top of the Old Wall back to our hostel, which was a nice meander past gates and overlooking the city below - well as much as you could see through the smog! The wall is 12m high and 18m thick, with a total perimeter of 14km and was originally built in 1370. Adlibing it amongst the warriors.