25 April 2018
Pottery barn
Visiting the Terracotta warriors of Xian by bus
In about 1970, the forgotten former ancient capital of China, Xian, decided that they had nothing much to offer. Smart thinking central party members hatched an ingenious plan. First schools started teaching history about previously unheard of Emperor QinShiHuang and his amazing feats of strength, easily more impressive than anything from the Shaolin guys. Meanwhile, outside of town, in a previously unused field, the secret underground work commenced.
By 1973 they were ready, but unfortunately, no one found the secret prize, this put the order for 900 tour buses placed by the relatives of city officials at risk.
To ensure no further delay in the Xian Renaissance, an old lady was paid to convince farmers that there was oil to be found in the field, they only needed to dig a hole a few feet deep with an ox and shovel to find it, she died soon after of acute disappointment.
To honor the legend of the dead old lady, a local farmer dragged his ox over to the nearby field and dug a hole, planning to charge people to see his oil well which he intended to fill with stolen tar. After digging for no more than an hour, he broke through into a cavern and discovered the amazing terracotta army.
And so, Xian was reborn!
On my walk to the bus to the terracotta warriors, I went outside the northern gate of the city wall. I hope to show some more of the city wall and the view from it later tonight.
China loves their toilets so much, there are now shops set up inside of them. Really this is the hand basin washing area of a huge toilet block.
Here is the city wall outside of the main slow train station. It was very nice of the ancient engineers to leave such a nice space under it for people traveling to the train station hundreds of years later.
In my continuing series of Chinese train stations, here is the Xian main station, which serves only old slow trains. Most of them heading out to the forbidden wastelands of Xinjiang.
This is where you get off the bus at the terracotta warriors museum parking lot. I read all kinds of stories about how the only realistic way to get here is a private expensive tour. Nonsense. The bus was very easy to find, cost $1.50 for the one hour ride, no wait, everyone gets a seat, and no one even bothered me to take the fake shopping tour bus. I think a lot of people come to Xian for the day and go straight from the airport to the terracotta warriors and back to the airport. Those people are missing out!
Here is the entrance. Similar story here. I read everywhere about 4 hour lines, tickets sold out, pushing, fighting, crying. There was none of that. The line to buy tickets had ZERO people, the line to get in through security was also zero people. It was a smoother experience than going to the movies in Australia, because no one demanded I hand over my drink.
This group of air hostesses was very happy to be here.
I spotted the Australians! Really, they were Australian, GO GO TEAM WADDLE! You might think I am being rude, but this lady was offered a wheelchair by the staff for the 200 metre walk to the excavation pit. She was highly offended, I was highly amused.
The grounds were very nice, and like all AAAAA Chinese tourist attraction zones, spotless. I was also surprised at the cafe, I was able to buy a delicious walnut muffin and big bottle of coke zero for about $3 AUD.
And here they are. Everyone has seen the photo before. The shed over the top is also impressive.
I believe the roof of the tomb was originally just above the heads of the warriors, it wasnt a huge open cavern like this.
It was really not crowded at all, I could get a spot on the fence immediately. Very surprising given all the stories I had read. Some people who came all the way from the other side of the world just to visit this hole in the ground said it was a terrible experience and they wished they had never come because when they finally got here they couldnt see anything.
Here is a horse. Apparently there were also wooden chariots but they all rotted.
I think there is still a lot of excavation and restoration going on. This is still the main pit, there are 3 pits to visit, but its really only the big pit number 1 that has a lot of warriors.
Some of them are covered in glad wrap. Many of them are put back together from pieces of broken pottery.
None of these are in their original positions.
A couple more photos of the main pit...
Last one! I hope you got to see enough of one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the world.
On my way to the cafe I went through this high end gift shop. Westerners were actually buying stuff. A guy bought a little jade statue for $1800 AUD.
This is Pit 3. I did the pits out of order. The smallest of the pits. Somehow it looks new.
I am pretty sure these were placed in here.
If you pay enough money you can have your photo taken with a mummified warrior.
Here is a particularly well restored warrior. Notice he still has his thumb! Recently in the USA a man took a selfie with one of them that was there visiting, then stole his thumb! What is he planning to do with a clay thumb?
Now we head into pit number 2, where theres not a lot to see at all. It is quite large.
They built a boat ramp down to it.
A bit more of the surrounding grounds and the amazing small mountains in the background. I did some research, no accessible path up, but there is a cable car to a restaurant where you can hike around at the top. Whats the point if you cant climb?
Time to exit via a series of shopping malls. Despite further warnings of chaos, no one tried to sell me anything.
The local fashions are very awesome. Coconut chic.
The last store before the car park / bus boarding location was selling dead cats. I bought 3!
After getting back to the city I walked back to my hotel a different way. There is no shortage of malls!