Terracotta Warriors

The main reason I wanted to go to Xian, was to check out the Terracotta Warriors. These statues were built before 210 BC and buried with the Emperor of Quin. We saw a short movie of how he was the first Emperor to “unify” China. Obviously, not everyone was happy about that, and about 5 years after Emperor’s death, the tomb was raided, set afire, and looted. In 1974, some farmers digging a well discovered the Terracotta Army again. The statues were all in pieces, save one, and it was a great find.
The statues are quite amazing, not only the sheer number of them, but their uniqueness. Each statue is life-size and has unique facial features, uniforms, and hairstyles. No two statues are alike. They were originally painted with bright colors, but they have faded since being unearthed. One soldier still has a bit of yellow in his scarf, but that is all I could see. They also held real weapons, but those were all stolen in the raid.
I was quite amazed to see how well they were reconstructed. Tourists can only look at them from afar, but you can still appreciate the great detail and effort that went into making these figures. There are over 7,000 figures including soldiers of various ranks, horses, and chariots.
The mausoleum holding the First Quin Emperor and the Terracotta Army were buried and sealed in 210 BC, and were never meant to be found. I felt almost a little guilty walking around this place that was meant to stay buried. But at the same time, I was so pleased to be able to see in person what great things people can accomplish, and so long ago. The information at the museum talked many times of unification, but I imagine it was more like conquering rather than agreed upon joining of forces. I was thinking about the forced labor used to build this colossal tribute to this Emperor. I still want to see other monuments like the pyramids and the Taj Majal. The statues are amazing, and I feel fortunate to have been able to see them for myself.
The tour we went on also made two other stops. First we went to the Banpo Village. It is the first evidence of civilization that has been found in China. We saw the remnants of two kinds of huts, kilns, and graves. The place was small, but interesting.
The second stop was a fake mausoleum for the Emperor of Quin. If I had done the proper research beforehand, then I would have discovered that his tomb has not been opened. Our first clue that this place was bogus was the fake flowers wrapped around the tree branches. Inside looked like the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland, but without the cool flying ship. They even had fake concubines, men and women, lying in the stucco underground passageways. Oh well, live and learn.