Hong Kong with Tom and Jenneke: City Wall and Terracotta Warriors

Today we visited the Xian City Wall and the Terracotta Warriors. We started at the City Wall, built to protect the city. Back before people had clocks, the bell would ring throughout the day to signal when to get up, lunchtime, and when the work day was finished. We rented tandem bicycles and rode around to see the sights.

Ready for a bike ride

After the City Wall, we drove to see the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors were built by Qin Shi Huang, the same Emperor who built the Great Wall, starting in 221 BCE, . The Chinese believed in an afterlife, so Emperors were often buried with their warriors, servants, and jewels to serve and protect them. Qin had servants build an entire army of terracotta warriors, estimated to be 8000, to protect him. Each warrior is unique, their facial features gave details about what region of China they came from. Many of the workers were killed after the project to maintain the secrecy of its location. The warriors were made off-site, but any worker who was involved in digging the mausoleum or transporting the warriors to the final location were killed. The Army was not discovered until 1974 when a farmer digging a well dug up part of a warrior and contacted the government. There is evidence that other farmers found pieces of the warriors in prior years, but did not turn them in. Once the Terracotta Army was discovered, the entire village was seized by the government. The farmers were given housing in the nearby town, but without their farms, they had no way to make an income. The other farmers were angry with the farmer who found the warrior. Even though the government has made millions of dollars off of visitors to the Terracotta Warriors museum, the villagers received nothing. When President Bill Clinton visited in 1998, he encouraged the Chinese government to find a good job for the farmer who had discovered the Army. Now, the government pays him to sit and sign books about the Terracotta Warriors.

It is amazing to see the thousands of warriors in rows and the amount of detail each one has. There are 4 different pits. Archaeologists have been working on putting each one back together. The warriors were all painted, but as they are exposed to air, the paint fades. They have left a large section of the warriors covered, until they can figure out the technology to preserve the paint. Reconstructing the warriors is a very tedious and time-consuming process. They find the pieces of the warriors, label them with their exact location, and move them to a separate area to reassemble them. Instead of using glue, they use water to put the pieces together, preserving the look of the warriors. They wrap it in saran wrap until it is dry. Once the warrior is finished, he is returned to his original location in the pit. Our guide, who visits the warriors often, said he rarely sees workers working on the warriors. He said even once they come up with the technology to preserve the paint, the Chinese government will not be in a hurry to finish the warriors. Once the warriors are finished, a visitor would have no reason to make a return visit. While it is a work in progress, people will be interested in returning to see new things.