history overload

5000 years of history has been coming at us in full force.

On Saturday we left the familiar surroundings of Nanjing for Xi'an (pronounced cee' an). Xi'an is best known as home to the Terra-cotta Warriors - now considered the 8th wonder of the world. A well deserved handle I might add.

Quick history lesson: The Terra-cotta Warriors were constructed as a mausoleum for the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuang (Qin Dynasty) in 246 B.C. - B.C.! Yoiks - that's old. He wanted to have an army in his after life so he instructed 750,000 workers to build these life sized warriors from clay. The enemy burnt down the structures housing the clay army leaving it undetected until 1974 when some farmers discovered the warriors while digging a well. Since 1974, they excavated 3 main sites or pits. It is estimate that there are 8,000 life sized warriors and horses in total although only about 1/4 have been uncovered and pieced together to date. They halted excavation because the colours painted on the warriors vanishes within hours of being exposed to air.

Pit 1: This is the most impressive site covering over 14,000 square metres. 204 soldiers have been pieced together and placed in their original formation They believe there are 6,000 soldiers in this area. Each warrior has different facial features to show the different ranks and ethnicity of Qin's army. This was Qin's infantry.

Pit 2: This pit contains archers, chariot horses and cavalry. They have x-rayed the area to determine the contents of the unearthed warriors.

Pit 3: Command Central where generals and special guards were discovered. It is amazing that they can piece this all together given the rubble that they uncover.

There is so much more to it but in the interest of not boring you I will stop the history lesson there. It is amazing. And to think we would have missed it if we had gone to Tibet.

The pictures aren't that great because it is dark in most of the areas to preserve the figures and I'm not very good at taking low light pictures.

The rest of Xi'an is, of course, full of historical sites. It is considered one of the the greatest cities in civilization and was once the capital of China during the Qin Dynasty. More recently though, they created the largest musical fountain in China which can be viewed from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda built in 652 AD - without cement to hold the bricks together, which I only found out after I climbed to the top.

Since I am on the world's slowest Internet connection I won't attempt to download the video of the fountain but if you hum the 1812 overture while blinking really quickly you might get the idea. People stand in the middle during the performance. It's wild.

New pictures are on the way tomorrow of rice terraces and strange mountains. I need sleep and time to assimilate the endless flow of information from our new guide, Hu. Good night from Guilin.