Xi'an - Terracotta Warriors! - May 18, 2009

After 9 glorious hours of uninterrupted sleep in a decent bed, we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. Wound up talking with Jennie about news on TV and the nature of propaganda – should the Chinese government be criticized for reporting mainly good news? We all preferred hearing good news to hearing alarmist news. Finished getting ready, then got on the tour bus a bit after 9 AM. It was an hour drive to the location of the museum, which gave a chance to see some of the countryside, including the Yellow River. One interesting thing is that cities in North America were built on rivers (generally) but that's not the case in China.

What can I say about the terra cotta warriors? The site sprawls beneath large buildings, with the original excavation (pit 1) being by far the largest. It's hard to imagine how much work went into creating the army, given the level of detail and the number of warriors. There was a separate terra cotta command center buried adjacent to the large pit and another separate set of calvary to one side. The museum creators placed a few of the warriors in glass cases so that people could see them up close, and the detail was amazing. The hair was done so that you could see the styling, there were treads on the soles of the sandals, and reins for the horses. Truly incredible, which I guess is why it took over 30 years to create the army.

Probably the saddest thing for me was the loss of color as the paint faded upon excavation. Pictures showed bright colors, but almost all of the color had faded to grey on the exposed statues. The Chinese government has largely halted excavation until they can figure out how to retain the color. They have also decided against opening the emperor's mausoleum until their technology improves.

Beyond the terra cotta statues, it turned out that there are a number of bronze piece, including some that show a sophistication that I did not expect. There was a bronze chariot with umbrella to shade the driver, but the umbrella latched down with a mechanical system that was demonstrated by on of the guides using what I think was a mock-up, and I was very impressed. The metallurgical techniques used to create the chariots showed that the Chinese of 2000 years ago had technology that approaches our own today in some areas, particularly casting and forging of bronze. Some of the weapons were actually plated with chrome dioxide to preserve the edge and avoid rust – these weapons are still sharp today.

Nothing too special about lunch or the ride back, other than I was smart enough to get the guide to order non-spicy noodles for me – nobody else seemed to finish theirs.

Had a rest at the hotel during which we connected to the internet to update the blog, pick up email, catch up on hockey scores, etc. Having the little computer is great, though this keyboard is a bit smaller than I'm used to so I find myself using the spell checker a lot. We've been getting a few comments from people and they are all appreciated.

For diner, we went for a dumpling feast – at first, tat seemed like a misnomer but it is actually a pretty accurate translation. The meal started with cold appetizers, then proceeded through multiple courses of dumplings – pasta wrappers stuffed with meat, vegetables, etc. Some of the dumplings were made to look like what they were stuffed with, eg., little chickens, ducks, and one that looked like a walnut. The meal was excellent and very filling, with a layer of social niceties that we don't get very often. Note that some of the dumplings were on the spicy side, but nothing that caused anyone distress.

After the feast, we walked through the Muslim Quarter and shopped for souvenirs. I realize now that Jennie might have been thinking about touring past the Grand Mosque, but we missed the cue. We bought a couple of things on the way back to the hotel, culminating in a prolonged haggling (hassling?) over a few souvenirs for the kids. Once back at the hotel we packed up some stuff and went to bed.