Duquesne Asian Study Tour 2010: 8th Wonder of the World

Being able to say that we visited the greatest archeological find of the 20^th century is almost too much to fathom. We left our hotel at 8:30 AM to head to the site where the Terra Cotta Warriors were discovered about 35 years ago ( about 25 miles away from our hotel). You’ll notice some photos (see Snapfish) of the scenery as we drove to this part of Xi’an. The street lamps look like Chinese knots, which are symbolic of the tightness or closeness of family, and you can also see a tram traveling on one of the mountains. I couldn’t figure out where it was going. Once arriving at the site, we had to walk quite a distance to get to the burial site. Farmers discovered the Terra Cotta Army when digging a well. No one had discovered them prior because they never dug that deep before (the army was about 20 feet below the ground’s surface). Unfortunately, the Chinese do not own land, so the farmer did not get anything from the find. The one does work in the gift shop signing books—I sneaked a photo of him. J

The site is divided into 3 pits. Buildings were build over each pit in the order of discovery—mainly to protect the soldiers. Pit 1 is the best pit and was the easiest to photograph. The other 2 pits are kept very dark as archeologists don’t want the light to damage the findings. If you look through the Snapfish album, the lighter photos were in pit 1, and the darker images were in pits 2 and 3. Also in pit 1, archeologists were working or “digging”, which is unusual to see. The army was in millions of pieces when discovered and any that you see that are intact have all been restored. There are several types of soldiers and they can be differentiated by their hairstyle and/or hat. For example, a general wears a hat that looks like a butterfly, archers (including kneeling archers) wear a hair bun that is off to the left side (so they can reach back and get their arrows, which were stored on the right side of their body). There were 2 types of horses and these were differentiated by the way their tail was “styled.” Some of the photos show some warriors that are still being restored.

A museum is also located on-site, where many of the artifacts that were found are on display. The 2 main items to view in the museum are the bronze chariots. These were not built to scale as they would have been too heavy and the Chinese believe the soul can fit anywhere. One of the chariots is a replication and one is the original find. The details are exquisite!

After visiting the Terra Cotta Warriors, we went to lunch—it was “ma ma hao hao” (so-so), however an employee was conducting a Chinese Noodle Making Demonstration, which was really cool. After lunch, we went to a pottery factory where they make Terra Cotta replicas. This is the most famous factory as they make them as close to the real thing—not the look of them but the process and materials. They do much custom work (i.e., a bust of Obama was being made for the American Embassy). We could stand behind headless warriors and become one, which was hilarious! They also manufacture lacquered furniture, which is beautiful.

After our factory visit, we went back to the hotel and walked to the Muslin Quarter, which is a street with many shops and food vendors. Students spent about 2 hours and loved being able to barter with the shopkeepers. Some negotiated great deals. At 6PM, we went to dinner for hot pot. It was a little different than what the students had in Beijing as everyone had their own individual pot. At the end of dinner, we celebrated Tom’s 20^th birthday with a bowl of longevity noodles, which wish a long, happy life, and we sang the Chinese version of happy birthday. We then surprised him with a cake and the entire restaurant sang happy birthday (in English). The cake was amazing! Something tells me that this is a birthday he will never forget.