More Xi'an- slowely but surely!

Here are some pictures from Xi'an at the TerraCota Warriors. It was absolutely AMAZING! By far, my favorite thing that we saw, and no pictures or explanation could possibly do it justice, but here goes---

The TerraCota warriors were built in about 246 BC, to protect the first Emperor of China "Qin" in the after life. It is estimated that these pits contain 8000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and 650 horses, the majority of which are still unearthed.

So, Emperor Qin had all of these life size warriors etc. built to protect him in the afterlife, and each was modeled after a real warrior and painted in a lifelike way. Then they were buried around the site of his tomb, in a protective war formation. 40 Years ago this site was discovered, and work has commenced ever since. One of the most interesting things I learned is that when the soldiers were first unearthed, their paint was still largely in tact, but within 40 minutes of exposure to the outside air, all the paint disappeared! They have left large sections unearthed, and are trying to solve the problem of the disapearing paint so that some of the warriors can remain colorful. Also interesting to note, history says that emperor Qin was buried in his huge palacial tomb with MASSIVE ammounts of gold, jewelry, and with rivers of murcury flowing around him. This tomb remains unopened, because the site does show HUGE quantities of mercury underground, and if opened, it is estimated that it could poison the entire surrounding area! All of his 100 childless concubines were buried alive with him when he died, to keep him company in the afterlife... YIKES!

On the way-

With mom and dad at the entrance-

Come on- everyone needs a few cheesy tourist pictures!!

This is Pit 1- the largest of the 3- it contains mostly soldiers...the first line of defense.

Pit 2-Cavalry, infantry, and war chariots-


Pit 3- Command post with high ranking officials and more chariots

This is a picture of the warriors right after they were unearthed, before they lost all of their color.

After the warriors we were going to go to a traditional dumping lunch. All of us were a little worried (not liking dumplings too much) so on the way out there were several food vendors. One was selling steamed sweet potatoes. Now, in the U.S. I'm pretty sure I would NOT buy a sweet potato from a street vendor and think it was a real treat, but they smelled delicious, were not fried, and the price was right! We all got one and really, they were SO GOOD!!! I got mine first, and it was a not quite as hot as I would have liked (it had been sitting on top, and not in the steam pit in her cart) so I asked our guide to ask for a "hotter" one for me. She looked at me very strangely- and here is our conversation-

Me- Could you ask for one that is a little hotter?

Cynthia- Hotter?

M- Yes, hotter.

C- Hotter??

M- Yes, hotter please!

C- spoke in Chinese to the vendor, and both were obviously confused.

C- They don't have any hotter.

M- What about from the steam pit? Wouldn't those be hotter?

C- No, they wouldn't be hotter...

(there was extreme heat and steam coming from the pit, so obviously they would have been hotter!!!)

I just said okay, and ate the warm one I had.

Cynthia came over and said, "Can I ask you a question? Why did you want one that was hotter? In our country, we like them as SOFT as possible!"

AH-HAH!!! That was the problem...she thought I was saying "HARDER" and obviously, a steaming sweet potato from the pit would have been Softer, so anyway...when in China...

Yes, these are Sweet potatoes and NOT hot dogs!