The main reason we went to Xi’an was to see the Terracotta Soldiers. We reserved our room in Xi’an for two nights, even though we only stayed one night. We booked the room one extra night , so we could visit the Terracotta Soldiers in the morning. We wanted to leave our luggage and have a place that we could return to and unwind before taking the night train back to Beijing. The room was was only $23.00 a night, so we felt it was money well spent.
The Terracotta Soldiers are life size figures made out of pottery about 2,200 years ago. Every soldier is different and it is estimated that there are about 8000 soldiers, chariots, and horses. This army of soldiers were made to defend, Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China, in his afterlife. It is hard to believe, that something of this magnitude was not discovered until 1974. Some men were out in a field digging a water well and they found pieces of pottery. Archaeologists were called in and they confirmed the importance of the men’s discovery. Now over a million tourists visit the Terracotta Soldiers each year.
We had read that when we arrived, we should take the shuttle from the ticket area to the buildings where the terracotta soldiers were located. While it was inexpensive, and eliminated a few steps, our purpose was to get to see the soldiers before all of the tour buses arrived, and it worked. When we arrived at Building 1, we could easily walk up to the railing to take photos. We have heard that later in the day there might be fifteen people between you and the railing. The morning sun was beaming in through the windows making it appear that there was a spotlight on the first several rows of soldiers.
The detail on the soldiers and their horses was incredible.
We used our Nikon 7100 camera with our 28-300mm zoom lens to take some of these photos.
Some people don’t realize that the soldiers were buried in sediment, and had to be gently removed.
With archaeology, if you want to preserve everything you find, you can’t just bring in large equipment and start tearing the soil away. We watched these two women who would scrape away a thin layer of soil, place it in a bag, then start scraping again.
In one of their displays, we read that you could tell the rank of a soldier by his boots. The common soldiers had a rounded toe, while an officer had a boot with an upturned toe.
Many of the soldiers and horses have to be glued back together like a large 3D jigsaw puzzle.
“Now where does this piece go?” She gave up, and got a different piece. Notice all of the equipment she is wearing, so she doesn’t contaminate the piece her work.
Did we say, “like a large 3D jigsaw puzzle”? It looks like much more work than that.
If you look closely, you can see some of the cracks where the soldiers have been repaired.
They currently have three buildings where they are unearthing artifacts. Twenty-three years ago, (1996) when Tam’s mother and father visited, they only had one building. We hope to return in a few years, because we understand that they have much more to discover.
To go from Xi’an to the Terracotta Soldiers you can take a very inexpensive public bus. If you would like more information about taking the public bus from the Xi’an Train Station to the Terracotta Soldiers, follow this link: https://oopswrongturn.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=380&action=edit