Xi'an - The Terracotta Warriors

The Terracotta Warriors are widely regarded as the "Eighth Wonder of the World." I could easily just post some pictures of them, but you probably wouldn't get a real feel for what they are and what this place is like, and by writing a bit I get a reference for what we saw as well.

If there's one city that you have to go to in China, you have to go to Beijing. If you get two cities to go to where is the second city? I'm going to say Xi'an.

Why Xi'an? Xi'an (formerly known as Chang An) is a city with a history that dates back to over 1,000 B.C., and it served as the capital of 11 Chinese dynasties. This was the final city on the east end of the legendary Silk Road. It was a thriving city of trade, and it was a rich city.

Xi'an is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors, a ceramic/pottery army of over 7,000 life-sized soldiers, horses and chariots. They were discovered in 1974 when four peasant farmers were digging a well and reported their finding pieces of pottery. Archaeologists ended up finding three pits with Terracotta Warriors, a fourth pit that was empty, and Qin Shi Huang's tomb.

Do you see the sign in the pit with the red arrow in the picture below? That sign is marking where the well dug in 1974 was. What an incredibly lucky find...

Like so many of the world's wonders, we can thank the tyrannical rule of a king to pool the society's resources to build these wonders, whether they be castles, Great Walls, or Terracotta Warriors.

Both the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors are attributable to Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who was the first person to unify all of the kingdoms of what is now China. While Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall, his wall no longer exists. The Great Wall that stands today was built in the 1400s. Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 BC and ruled until his death in 210 BC. Yes, China's name derives from his name Qin. Following his death civil war broke out, but the Han Dynasty subsequently reunified China in 202 BC.

At the time in Qin Shi Huang lived, it was believed that what ever was buried with you was taken to the next life. Emperor Qin wanted his army with him in the next life, and that is why he had the Terracotta Warriors made... to take with him to the next life.

This really is the basis of an Indiana Jones movie. Qin Shi Huang's tomb was complete with "flowing mercury rivers and ingenious defences against intruders." Additionally, "The artisans who built it were buried with it to keep the secrets." You can just see Indiana Jones exploring the tomb while dodging traps and stumbling upon skeletons along his path.

Actually, it didn't become an Indiana Jones movie, but it became the basis for the recently-released "The Mummy" movie series. Haven't seen the movie? Well now you need to go rent it!

Why did the emperor's tomb have "flowing mercury rivers?" At the time, alchemists believed that since mercury can dissolve gold, it somehow provided everlasting life. So Qin Shi Huang started consuming mercury in his diet. They hadn't discovered mercury poisoning, yet, so they caused the emperor to become psychotic, paranoid, and bipolar before finally prematurely killing him with his mercury supplements.

Mao Zedong called Qin Shi Huang China's greatest leader and looked to him for inspiration. Qin Shi Huang, for example, ordered all of the empires books to be burned and intellectuals to be either killed or sent to remote areas of the empire. Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) the Communist Party also engaged in similar practices of destroying books and killing intellectuals or banishing them to rural areas to be "re-educated."

Being compared to the First Emperor, Mao responded: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold.

For all of Qin Shi Huang's vice's there were many virtues. He unified the country's legal system, money, built a robust transportation system, built a defense (the Great Wall) to protect against the northern invaders, and unified the language through written script. All of us students of Chinese and Japanese have Qin Shi Huang to thank (or curse!) for today's Chinese characters.

So with that background, let's enjoy the wondrous site, brought to you courtesy of slavery and oppression. While I say that kind of tongue-in-cheek, I truly do mean that it is an amazing site that should not be missed!

A couple of years after the first emperor died, the pits were raided, looting any valuables and smashing all but one of the Terracotta Warriors. I would suspect that when the wood roof ceilings rotted and collapsed that the earth above would have broken the the figures, but it probably would have been easier for the archaeologists to put them back together again since the pieces would have been in close proximity to each other.

The three pits are still actively being dug. There is no digging during they day while tourists spend their money, but at night they continue to dig and recover the figures.
Pit 1: 6000 warriors and horses
Pit 2: 1,300 warriors and horses
Pit 3: the command center for the army's senior leadership

Now for some pictures:

The grounds of the Terracotta Warriors obviously have had a lot of money flow into them. The buildings and grounds are gorgeous. Here's a picture of the museum.

A sign giving a brief overview of what this place is about. Notice the mountains in the background...

All four of the farmers who were digging the well are still alive today. At least one of them is here everyday to sign books about the place. Having them there does sell books, we probably wouldn't have bought one otherwise. Here is Dad getting his book signed. Also notice the picture of him with President Clinton in the lower right corner of the picture. Bill was everywhere we were on this trip.
Mom & Dad outside of the museum. Pit 1 is there to the left.

Pit 1 pictures:

You're obviously not allowed down in the pits unless you're an authorized archaeologist...

...or President Clinton on his 1998 trip:

I had originally thought that the Terracotta Warriors were buried, but they were not. As this sign says, ditches were dug to place the figures in, and then a wood roof was built over the ditches and then buried, effectively creating a collection of underground tunnels. There are 11 corridors in Pit 1, which are 10 feet wide and paved with tiles.

This area is at the back of Pit 1. This is where the figures are put back together again.

Still lots of missing pieces...

Pit 2 Pictures:

Outside of Pit 2... another nice building
Mom & Dad looking at Pit 2 with our tour guide

They even use bamboo ladders here...
This shows entrances to corridors where the figures were placed
Fragments of horses and warriors yet to be put together

Here is the one figure that was recovered fully intact. It is a kneeling archer. His bow and arrows were made of wood and disintegrated over the years.

Each warrior's face is different. Here is a close-up of his...

Mom & Dad checking out the kneeling archer...
This is a picture of the sole of the foot that you can see. These figures are amazingly detailed, you can see even his sole has treads.

More pieces yet to be put together. Notice the tile/brick floors of the pits.

Here's an interesting "find" while we were here. Read this sign about chrome plating:
Turns out this "new" technology discovered in the 20th Century had already been in use over 2,000 years prior. Here is the chrome plated sword...

What's the significance of this? There are certain historical books out there that mention various metals and processes that were used over 2,000 years ago. Some scientists discredit these books claiming that such techniques were not invented for centuries or even millenia afterwards. How foolish and prideful that is to discredit those claims, and this is yet another example why we shouldn't put our complete faith in science to prove our history.

Ok next picture. This "guard" made me laugh. I wasn't sure he was even working...
... but then he heard my camera and he quickly popped to attention!

Pit 3 pictures:

Mom and Dad leaving Pit 2 going to Pit 3 in the distance

This is the smallest of the pits, as it was the headquarters for the army.

Last stop... of coarse this place is going to have a souvenir shop! You can buy your own replica Terracotta Warrior. They say that only these in the museum shop are guaranteed to made from the same clay that the original statues were made from. But the price to pay, for a full-size warrior is $15,000! You can get the smaller statues anywhere in China for about a 1/10th the price they charge here at the museum souvenir shop.

If you want to upgrade to a warrior made from jade...... it only costs RMB496,000, or about $73,000. I almost bought it, but then I thought that if it's jade it is no longer a "terracotta" warrior, so what's the point?

The only obnoxious part of the day is that you had to wonder how you were going to be scammed next. The taxi driver called his tour guide friend who met us when we arrived, she in-turn pressured us to by things at the gift store and go to some restaurant... you could just see the commissions would flow from one to another. I'm sure our tour guide thought she was going to get my parents to buy some jewelry... she had been pushing the topic of jade throughout the day. When we finally arrived at the gift store my mom told her that she wasn't interested in buying any jewlry and the tour guide lost her cool and said, "You must sit down and listen to them... they're experts!" Sorry, but that tactic doesn't work with us, especially not with my mom. We were out of there quick. Besides that part (and that part was quite small, and a bit funny too) the rest of the experience was fantastic.

The Great Wall

Mom & Dad wanted to go to two cities besides Shanghai while there were here in China: Beijing & Xi'an. I knew I would be headed back to Beijing with Mom & Dad so while I was in Beijing the first time, I opted not to go to the Great Wall -- I figured rather that seeing the Wall with tons of foreign tourists during the Olympics I'd get to see the Wall with tons of Chinese tourists during National Holiday week!

First off I need to say "thank you" to a friend and fellow Olmsted Scholar and her husband for letting my parents and me stay at their place while they were out of town in Phuket, Thailand. I stayed with Phoenix and Cliff during my stay during the Olympics. Their place is in a beautiful section of Beijing, very convenient to get anywhere, and very free! So again, thanks Phoenix!

We spent three days in Beijing and went to Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City on the first day, the Wall on the second day, and Summer Palace on the third day. Since I've already included pictures of the Wall and Summer Palace from my first trip, I won't repeat those places here now.
So now for the Wall...

We decided to go to the Mutianyu section of the Wall. It's a bit further out from Beijing than some of the other areas, but this section has survived the thousands of years well and is just in such a gorgeous setting. It was about a 90-minute car ride on highways for the most part to give you a feel for how far from Beijing we went.

When you go to Beijing (and you do need to go some time, it's just amazing), you can either go the Wall with a tour group in a van/bus or you can hire a taxi or private driver. We opted to ask a taxi driver who was very friendly how much to take us, wait for us while there, and bring us back... so about 7 hours of work and 150 miles of driving. He quoted us RMB 600 (about $90) and we took it.

I can't say since I've only been to one section of the Wall, but I've heard that Mutianyu section is the best section because: 1. the Wall is in great condition, 2. the mountainous terrain make for some incredible views, 3. there are cable cars to take you up and down, 4. it's the longest section of the Wall that you can get to as a tourist if you're interested in walking 20km of the Wall and 5. it's a little further out than some of the other sections so there are less tourists.

We couldn't have been happier with the setting or the weather... look at the sky is all of the photos. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and more importantly no haze/smog, just an amazing blue...

On to the pictures:

The entrance of the cable cars...
Must be the best section of the Wall... President Clinton came here during his visit in 1998.
We were in line behind a group of clowns, I mean, traditional dancers. We never saw this group when we got to the top. Kinda disappointed, I thought they would have performed.
Picture of Dad on the way up...

and a picture of Mom. You can start to see the amazing setting this is.
One of the first things that we saw was this sign. Cute slogan ~"this was a structure of war, now a symbol of peace" blah, blah... but the real message is that the Germans paid the bill for restoring this section of the Wall. Man, the Germans are everywhere and they have money!
So I'm taking pictures of Mom & Dad when this Chinese gal asks me if she can take a picture with my parents... what?! I just laughed. I'm totally used to it now with everybody taking pictures of our girls. I just really want to know what she will do with a picture of my parents!

The Wall was built before OSHA was organized, so the steps are very uneven to say the least. Mom opted to not actually go up which was a great decision. Here we're watching to see if this lady will fall or not as she climbs down the stairs...
Some pictures of Dad on the Wall...

A picture of the steps...
Seriously, just look at this sky!

Ok, a bit of a funny story. I'm just taking pictures, minding my own business. Later that night as I'm reviewing my pictures I notice this picture, do you see anything abnormal?
Looks like the boy had to pee, so he dropped his drawers completely. At least in this next pic he was a bit more discreet. Seriously, I had no idea this even happened!
Dad is such a gentleman. I'm sure that's where I learned my skills... right Morgan?

Look in the middle of this picture on the horizon. Can you see it? Look harder, do you see it now? Unfortunately it's a bit tough to see in the picture, but we could actually see the Beijing skyline from this Wall... it was just a beautifully clear day.

Here's a crop of the picture where you can start to make out the skyline. Not bad for 50+ miles.

Beautiful highways... we did between 60-75 mph on the way there. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the picnics on the side of the roads. We saw several groups of several cars that pulled off on the side of highway to eat a snack and chat. Looks like rest areas may be the next step for China highways.
Final stop before returning home was to drive past the Olympic venues. Unfortunately we were not able to make it in for Mom & Dad to walk around -- they gave out tickets for the day every morning at 7:30 am. Enterprising locals wait in line to get there max allotment of 10 free tickets, and they in-turn sell them to tourists. It was a crazy scene so we didn't bother with trying to buy any.

Our driver told us that the Olympic Village, shown below, is actually a condominium complex. The landlords bought these residences knowing that they were not allowed to move in until after their places were used for the Olympics and Paralympics. Interesting.
Final note... if you need a driver while in Beijing to pick you up from the airport, take you to the Wall, or just take you around town, we totally recommend our driver Mr. Wu! Very courteous and humble, just a nice person and perhaps most importantly, he quotes a fair price for his services. We liked him so much we asked him to take us to the airport when we left. At any rate, for what it's worth, here is his cell phone number: 13520967361

The Fabric Market

There are a couple very popular (and huge) fabric markets where you can get anything made that you can imagine. We've had some nice things made there, so we took Mom & Dad there, where they had a couple of winter jackets made, as well as a couple of suits for Dad. Here are some pics...

Mom picking out the material for her coat:

A couple of days later as Dad tried on his new suit pants... like the changing room?! See all those finished suits? All custom-made...The fabric market is in a fun part of town... what you can still call "old Shanghai." Many of the buildings of what is "old Shanghai" are being leveled, making room for the new pretty skyscrapers.

So after having our measurements taken for various pieces of clothing, we strolled through the streets and alleyways of the area. It's a shame that this is all disappearing (or at least being "relocated" out of the city). I guess that's what we call progress, right? At any rate, we always enjoy walking through this area when we're in this part of Shanghai.

Here's a zoom in of the above picture for a closer look. Just look how busy everybody is. Two ladies with kids on their bikes, a guy with four 5-gallon jugs of water on his scooter, another guy pushing a bunch of boards. Add cars and pedestrians to the mix and you have a controlled chaos that just works.I love this view. You have the uniqueness of the old streets of Shanghai, and then you have the world's second tallest building (the World Finance Center) in the background on the other side of the river.
Friendly people, friendly faces...
I just bought a "zongzi" to show Mom & Dad. It's sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and some type of filling that are then steamed in the the bamboo racks. The guy above is checking some steamed dumplings. I got the dessert zongzi with sweet red bean paste in the middle.
Fresh old-fashioned popcorn anyone?


See this couple below wearing their pajamas? This is a fairly common sight throughout China that people where their pajamas out and about. And high school girls in the U.S. thought they were trendy? Only as trendy as old Chinese people!
You may have noticed that most of the shops in these pictures have bamboo frames with fabric or plastic sheets attached to the frame. Bamboo is used everywhere here... much of the scaffolding on construction projects is out of bamboo, many ladders are bamboo ladders, the list goes on and on.

Well, here's a bamboo salesman going through the streets calling out if anybody needs to buy some bamboo...

Bamboo isn't only used for constructing things, it's used for constructing people... by eating it! I knew pandas love eating bamboo, and I've eaten bamboo shoots in my Asian food, but I didn't know you could eat a bamboo tree.

As we were walking along, we watched a couple of people selling fresh bamboo. The salesman shaved off the outer layer and chopped it up into 8-10 inch pieces. We saw a couple of people sampling the bamboo before they bought it.

Well we got caught in our fascination of watching them and they invited us over to try. How could we say no? So Dad took a video of Mom and me getting our free sample of bamboo!

And one more picture. I was surprised with how sweet the bamboo was. I knew it would be very watery/juicy, but I wasn't expecting sweet. No wonder why pandas loves this stuff!

A word of caution if you ever get the thought of trying this at home... they told me that I needed to spit out the fiber after chewing all the juice out. Apparently this high-fiber food will do wonders out the other end if you swallow everything! ;-)

Bamboo... it's not just for pandas anymore...

"Grammy & Gramps" Come to Shanghai!

Tim's parents came to Shanghai for three weeks from 18 September - 10 October. Where did the time go? We had such a fun time here in Shanghai and then Tim took them up on a trip to Beijing and Xi'an. With all the fun while they were here we didn't get around to blogging.

So now to record some of the fun times we had together. We're using both pictures that we took as well as pictures they took... it's nice to get a refreshing viewpoint to remind us of some of the views we have just become used to.

With that said, here are some pictures from the first weekend here with them...

Welcome to our home! A huge complex of 40 apartment buildings, with 30 floors each and 4 rooms per floor... quick math yields 4,800 apartments in our little corner of Shanghai!

Despite all of the buildings, there are several parks in our complex that gives us plenty of "green space."

Grammy & Gramps know how to make an entry... presents for the kids! The first day we threw them right into the fire... we went to our local 9-story mall and let Mom & Dad see what millions of people feels like. Here's the first time with Mom & Dad of the hundreds of times that we were stopped for a look or a picture of our kids.We went for our first Chinese meal here in Shanghai... Pizza Hut!! Pizza Hut here is still considered "fine dining" so the restaurants are all quite nice. A large, pan pepporoni pizza is $12 here... but it is sooooo good!

If you ever come to Shanghai, you actually should eat at this Pizza Hut at Super Brand Mall... it has THE BEST view of the Bund. When's the last time you had a view like this eating pizza?!
While there at Pizza Hut, we saw the advertising boat. This boat goes up and down the river with a huge TV playing commericals all day. Fortunately it doesn't have any sound capabilities.
The next day Tim had class, so we went out without him. It was a beautiful day and we went to one of the parks to play...

There is a lot of unique play equipment at the playgrounds here. here is one of them... a bicycle merry-go-round. Gramps could get it going fast and the girls loved it!

Later we went to the sand park. I don't know which part the girls like better... playing at the sand park or washing their hands and feet after playing there!

It's time to go out again... we love it when Gramps ties our shoes!

Finally here are some pictures that Dad took from the guest suite at our place.

Looking straight out you see the Pearl Tower:

Looking to the left you see the river and the beginning of the Bund.

Looking to the right, and UP, you see the 88-story Jin Mao Tower and the newly-completed 101-story World Finance Center.

And looking down you can watch the construction of a tunnel under the river.

How much for a room with such a view? All you have to do is bring some goodies from America with you when you come! ;-)

October 1st, National Day in China

Happy National Day everybody! Today is National Day, for on October 1, 1949 Mao Zedong and his Communist Party founded the People's Republic of China and brought this great country under tyrannical communist control... let us all rejoice!

Everyone gather together and celebrate Chairman Mao's "Great Leap Forward" program in which Mao's government took control of all industries to improve social and economic harmony, only to fail miserably and starve an estimated 49 million citizens. And let's not forget the Cultural Revolution which purged China not only of foreign cultural and religious influences, but destroyed Chinese culture and religions as well. So yes, let's gather round and celebrate because National Day is here.

So National Day is part of Golden week, where the Chinese now work Saturday and Sunday and then get Monday through the following Sunday as vacation time off.

So literally millions come to the big cities like Shanghai to shop and tour. We went out to give Mom & Dad a glimpse of what big crowds really look like! Dad is taking a video with his camera of us with the girls in the stroller as people came by to see, touch, and take pictures of the foreign kids when all of a sudden a fireworks show started at the base of the Pearl Tower where we were. So we got a nice, and unexpected, front-row view for a 15-minute fireworks show. Here's a cropped 1-minute video of the action:

Happy National Day everybody!