Woke up early due to jet lag, but full of spirits. After all, it is the first day of vacation!
Had a decent breakfast in the hotel, then head towards one of the highlight on this trip: Terracotta Warriors(兵马俑）. These are the famous statues built under the order of the first Qin Emperor, as a burial relics.
The site of the Terracotta Warriors are located about an hour drive away from our hotel. The first historical site we saw, however, was related to the Shang（商） dynasty. Our guide pointed to a structure located on the top of the mountain and told us that is the watch tower （烽火台）when a Shang emperor had trick his subjects in order to draw a smile from his favorite concubine（烽火戏诸侯）. I have my doubt if a structure from Shang dynasty would have survive all these years, but our guide claims this is not a recreation.
From the parking lot, it is a 5min tram ride to the actual entrance of the museum, which is build right over the evacuation site. The first stop: watch the re-enactment of Emperor Qin's conquest, slaves laboring to build his tomb and terracotta warriors, his death and subsequent destruction of the site of his tomb in a 360 degree surrounding theater. This serves as an introduction.
The actual museum is divided into 3 pits. Pit 1 is the largest. When entering the pit, I was amazed by how big the site is! Without checking measurements, I will venture a guess it is at least the size of a soccer field. There are about 5 rows of soldiers facing forward, with 2 rows of soldiers on the flank facing outwards. From the railings, it is difficult to tell the intricacies of the terracotta patterns, but each statue do look different. There are also some statue of horses. The warriors look like they used to hold some sort of weapons, but the handles were probably made of wood and has long rotten away. There are also some obvious darken earth around some broken statue, explained as fire burn mark left by intruders trying to destroy Emperor Qin's grave.
Despite the fact that the terracotta warriors have been discovered for more than 10 years, there are still unexcavated sites in pit 1.
Had a decent breakfast in the hotel, then head towards one of the highlight on this trip: Terracotta Warriors(兵马俑）. These are the famous statues built under the order of the first Qin Emperor, as a burial relics.
The site of the Terracotta Warriors are located about an hour drive away from our hotel. The first historical site we saw, however, was related to the Shang（商） dynasty. Our guide pointed to a structure located on the top of the mountain and told us that is the watch tower （烽火台）when a Shang emperor had trick his subjects in order to draw a smile from his favorite concubine（烽火戏诸侯）. I have my doubt if a structure from Shang dynasty would have survive all these years, but our guide claims this is not a recreation.
From the parking lot, it is a 5min tram ride to the actual entrance of the museum, which is build right over the evacuation site. The first stop: watch the re-enactment of Emperor Qin's conquest, slaves laboring to build his tomb and terracotta warriors, his death and subsequent destruction of the site of his tomb in a 360 degree surrounding theater. This serves as an introduction.
The actual museum is divided into 3 pits. Pit 1 is the largest. When entering the pit, I was amazed by how big the site is! Without checking measurements, I will venture a guess it is at least the size of a soccer field. There are about 5 rows of soldiers facing forward, with 2 rows of soldiers on the flank facing outwards. From the railings, it is difficult to tell the intricacies of the terracotta patterns, but each statue do look different. There are also some statue of horses. The warriors look like they used to hold some sort of weapons, but the handles were probably made of wood and has long rotten away. There are also some obvious darken earth around some broken statue, explained as fire burn mark left by intruders trying to destroy Emperor Qin's grave.
Despite the fact that the terracotta warriors have been discovered for more than 10 years, there are still unexcavated sites in pit 1.
Also at the back of the site, on a section of unexcavated ground, are reconstruction terracotta warriors from bits and pieces found in the cave. We jokingly call these the "Marshall's" section.Pit 2 and pit 3 are much smaller compare to pit 1. Warriors in pit 2, in particular, are mostly destroyed. Right next to pit 3 are some display of various types of terracotta warriors. This is the only opportunity to observe them up close and personal. The details of the statue is quite amazing. The softness of the fabric wore by the a soldier under his armour can be seen. Not as elaborate as some ancient Greek/Rome sculpture, but detail nonetheless.
There is also a museum showing 2 copper cars found in the museum. Also a replica of a candle holder with various spring loading mechanism, said to the some of the earliest spring mechanism ever discovered in the world.
Overall, I find the museum ground well maintained, the explanation and display adequate. We did not hire a tour guide for this part of the tour due to time constraint, but felt we left with a good enough appreciation of the site.
From the museum, it is a 20 minutes walk back to the parking lot. The walk way is along a pseudo-ancient market, with souvenirs stores on both sides. There are ponds/modern sculptures/classical sculptures in the middle. Overall, a fairly pleasant walk, with the exception of constant shouting of sales person, trying to get us into their store. We had a quick lunch in Old Xi'an Restaurant located on this area. Pretty decent food for a touristy locale.
After lunch, we visited Huaqing Hot Springs. A spa retreat since the Tang dynasty, rumor has it that Tang beauty Yang(杨贵妃） had taken her bath in this location years ago.There are a total of 5 spas, all dried. Each spa is located inside a building. One which beauty Yang had used, one for the emperor, one for his subjects, complete with a heated changing room and one for his cooks. I guess they need to keep clean too! In the spa for the cook, there are some depression in the ground. Our guide explained it is where the cooks had scraped their feet, since they cannot scape their feet with their hands for obvious hygiene issues. Given the size of the depression, I think it takes a lot of cook to leave such a deep mark....oh well...
There is a modern artwork in the building containing the emperor's spa. On it was drawing and words of the famous tang poet Bai Ju Yi（白居易）'s poem "Chang Hen Ge（长恨歌）", documenting the love story between the emperor and beauty Yang. There are about 40+ paintings and calligraphy which I enjoy a lot.
Stepping out of the spa buildings, we took some pictures with a modern beauty Yang statue, as well as wash our hands in one of the natural spring water tap. The water is indeed warm, but not hot. I can imagine how comfortable soaking in that spa would be during a cool, autumn day:)
Huaqing hot spring is also where another historical event had taken place. Call "Xi'an incident（西安事变）", it is the place where Chang Kai-shek was forced by his subordinates to make peace with the communist party and have joint effort to repel Japanese forces attacking China before the start of World War 2. Chang's office, bedroom and guard rooms are all maintain, complete with bullet holes from that faithful day. For reasons I cannot explain, I have very much wanted to see where the incident had happened.
Before we left, there was a small music and dance performance in the Pear Garden(梨园）. Not the most exciting chinese music/dance performance I have ever seen...but it's free, so I am not complaining:)
Dinner is in the Muslim Quarter （回民街）in Xi'an city. Here, we tried the famous bread soak in lamb soup(羊肉泡馍）. When I first heard the description of the dish, I am skeptical. A hard bread is been broken by hand into small pieces. Then mutton soup is poured over the bread and served. Breaking of the bread was quite an effort, especially for us out of towner. The result is a soggy bread pudding like food, which has very little texture and not too much taste. While I know this is a authentic local dish, I must say I did not enjoy it very much.
We visited Gao's estate(高家府） located right on the Muslim street, maybe 2 blocks from the restaurant. Gao won second place overall （榜眼）in the exam for choosing civil servant and the emperor gave him a big house. His descendants did well and kept the house. Since we were visiting after dinner, there aren't any other visitors.The highlight was a leather puppet shadow show（皮影戏）. I must admit I am unaware of this art form in China, thinking it exist only in Indonesia:( A team of 3, one working exclusively on the puppet and singing, another exclusively on drums and percussion, and a third doing singing, playing the er hu(二胡）and occasionally helping with the puppets. The puppets can smoke, dance and jump, so it is quite exciting.
From Gao's home, we walk under the drum building(鼓楼） to a open square where there is a small musical fountain performing. It was a nice end to the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment