Xi'an, China

On to the next lag of my trip to China - Xi'an (pronounced 'shee-ann')!! Xi'an is an old city rich in Chinese history. 1300 years ago, it was the original capital city of China and the starting point of the famous Silk Road. You could feel the difference compared to Shanghai just by driving through the city. It simply felt much older and you could almost feel the history in the air.

Here is a picture of one of the gates to get into the walled part of the city. The city wall is very modern compared to other parts of the surrounding area - it was built only 600 years ago! LOL It always made me laugh when they referred to various aspects of "more modern" construction because most of the "more modern" structures are more than twice as old as my country!

The city wall and various look-out towers are lit up at night and are beautiful! :)

As are the original Drum Tower and Bell Tower used to signal alarms and communicate with the surrounding area!

We hired a car, driver and guide for the day to take us to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Terra-cotta Warriors. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was pretty neat. It stands just over 7 stories high and was built in 652AD by Buddhists to store their religious writings. There is still a functioning monastery on site with about 100 practicing monks. However, they now apparently all have cell phones and satellite dishes. Very different from the monks of the past! LOL This is a statue of a famous monk - Xuanzang.

So there's an odd legend for the origins of the name.....apparently there was a sect of Buddhism that used to eat meat. One day the monks simply had no meat so they prayed that Buddha would provide for them. Suddenly, as a flock of wild geese were flying overhead, the leading wild goose broke it's wings and fell dead to the ground. They believed Buddha had granted them their request, so they built a pagoda there and named the temple after it. Oh and they stopped eating meat after that too, the legend goes. LOL

I hiked all the way to the top to take a picture - awesome view! :)

The monks still light and sell candles for practicing Buddhists who visit the site to light and offer prayers to their Buddha idol inside the temple - you can kind of see it through the door.

This cool looking tree was just outside the temple on the terrace with the candles, so I snapped a shot of it. LOL

From the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, we drove another 40 minutes to the one of the coolest sites in China - The Terra-cotta Warriors! Personally, I think the Great Wall was THE coolest, but the Warriors were a close second! :)



Ok, the site is divided into 3 main pits. Between the 3 pits, there are over 8,000 statues. Pit#1 is by far the biggest holding 6,000!! Buildings have been built around and over the pits so visitors can view them and the air temperature can be controlled. It was REALLY cold inside Pit #1! It is HUGE!!!! I was stunned at the enormity of this pit. I had seen pictures of it before, but they really didn't do it justice. It seriously is ENORMOUS!

It really hit me what an undertaking it would have been to have all these statues made back in the day. They were built during the Qin Dynasty (246BC) to honor and protect the Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the after-life.

The channels were filled with these life-size warriors and then logs were placed overtop to protect them before being covered up with earth. They were modeled after actual soldiers of the time and no two are exactly alike! I loved looking at all the faces......they really are all different!

Pit #2 - Much has still not been unearthed yet, as they are waiting for technology to catch up before they take the buried warriors and horses out. Each of the warriors was painted in bright colors, but the color fades and completely disappears within 3-6 minutes of exposure to the air. The Warriors are impressive just as they are, so I couldn't imagine how amazing they would look painted in the vibrant colors they were decorated with!

Pit#3 - Is the most 'powerful' pit as it is a military command center. The highest ranking officials are only found in this pit as well as the honor guards. Emperor Qin didn't fool around when it came to strategically burying things! He was fully prepared to enter the after-life with all his men there ready to fight and protect.

The site was found only 36 years ago, when some local farmers were digging a well in 1974 and found broken "pottery". I actually got to meet the farmer who discovered this site, and he signed my book on the history of this place! :) We weren't allowed to take any pictures of him though and he couldn't speak English, so that was kinda funny. LOL Here's a picture of where the well was dug (by sign marked 1).....had they dug a few more feet back, who knows if they would have even known this massive terra-cotta army was there!

Here's a pic of the "Kneeling Archer". He is considered to be lucky because he was the ONLY member of the Terra-cotta Army that was found completely whole and intact without anydamage or broken pieces. The detail on the armor and even the shoes was incredible.....couldn't imagine how they were able to construct all these guys and how long that would have taken!

That's it on Xi'an for now! Onto Beijing........:)