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Xi’an
We arrived at Xi’an (pronounced “She-an”) with a gentle rain to greet us. Ivy, our local guide, filled us in on the history of Xi’an while driving to the Great New World Hotel. The lobby was beautiful, but the rest of the hotel was a bit tired-looking. We had dinner with Judy and Paul at the western restaurant and had an early evening.
The next day we drove to the site (again in the rain) where the terracotta warriors were discovered in 1974. What an amazing history! Around the year 200 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, decided he needed an army to guard his tomb, so he had more than 8,000 warriors built. The life size terracotta statues are found in 3 separate pits; pit one has 6,000 infantry soldiers, several hundred horses and several carriages. Each warrior is about 6 feet tall (taller than the actual people at the time) and has unique features.
Pit 2 has 1700 middle guard warriors as well as horses and carriages. Pit 3 has only 68 warriors. These were the officers so this is considered the command center.
All of the statues were found in broken pieces and many of the warriors have not been fully repaired. Just like Humpty Dumpty, it will take years to put some of them back together again. Seeing all the pieces reminded us of a giant jigsaw puzzle.
We had lunch at the on-site restaurant where we watched the chefs ‘throw’ handmade noodles; some very thin used in a ramen soup, and thicker noodles which served with a yummy ground pork sauce.
Afterwards, we went to the Muslim center of Xian where we visited the mosque and walked along the open market to find numerous exotic food and dry good vendors. China has a large Muslim population, though only 8% of China's population practices a formal religion. The largest is Buddhism, followed by Taoism, and then Islam.
We dined with Judy and Paul at the hotel's Chinese restaurant and ordered way too much food!
We arrived at Xi’an (pronounced “She-an”) with a gentle rain to greet us. Ivy, our local guide, filled us in on the history of Xi’an while driving to the Great New World Hotel. The lobby was beautiful, but the rest of the hotel was a bit tired-looking. We had dinner with Judy and Paul at the western restaurant and had an early evening.
The next day we drove to the site (again in the rain) where the terracotta warriors were discovered in 1974. What an amazing history! Around the year 200 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, decided he needed an army to guard his tomb, so he had more than 8,000 warriors built. The life size terracotta statues are found in 3 separate pits; pit one has 6,000 infantry soldiers, several hundred horses and several carriages. Each warrior is about 6 feet tall (taller than the actual people at the time) and has unique features.
Pit 2 has 1700 middle guard warriors as well as horses and carriages. Pit 3 has only 68 warriors. These were the officers so this is considered the command center.
All of the statues were found in broken pieces and many of the warriors have not been fully repaired. Just like Humpty Dumpty, it will take years to put some of them back together again. Seeing all the pieces reminded us of a giant jigsaw puzzle.
We had lunch at the on-site restaurant where we watched the chefs ‘throw’ handmade noodles; some very thin used in a ramen soup, and thicker noodles which served with a yummy ground pork sauce.
Afterwards, we went to the Muslim center of Xian where we visited the mosque and walked along the open market to find numerous exotic food and dry good vendors. China has a large Muslim population, though only 8% of China's population practices a formal religion. The largest is Buddhism, followed by Taoism, and then Islam.
We dined with Judy and Paul at the hotel's Chinese restaurant and ordered way too much food!
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