Xi'an

Trip to Xi’an 4/30/10-5/2/10

I basically travelled 700 miles to see one thing so I need to give a little bit of history in order to put into context this weekend’s trip. About 700 miles southwest of Beijing is the city of Xi’an. Xi’an formerly the capital of China (we’re talking thousands of years ago) remains to this day a busy city with over 4 million people would rank as America’s 2nd largest city in front of Los Angeles and Chicago, however in China Xi’an is just a blip on the radar that would have fallen into relative obscurity if it weren’t for the spring of 1974 when three farmers started looking for water and were drilling test wells.
As a result of his father’s death in 247 BCE Ying Zheng took over as emperor of China at the age of 13 and became known as Emperor Qin. This period of time was known as the Warring States period in China as the provinces within the country were constantly at battle with each other and bloodshed ruled the land. Because of his age at the time of his rise to power Emperor Qin had little to do with the running of his country and his mother and ministers handled the affairs of the nation until the young Emperor was 22 years old. Emperor Qin lead his military into overthrowing the other 6 provinces and unified the country (it is believed Qin was the first ruler to use the term Emperor in his name). Emperor Qin was not only a military leader but he worked to create a legitimate system of government by creating a standard monetary system, a single system of writing, and creating towns, counties, and local governments Qin was a revolutionary.

Beginning in 247 BCE (when Emperor Qin took power) and lasting until 208 BCE (just after the Emperors death) there was ongoing work to build the Emperor’s mausoleum. The actual burial site of Emperor Qin is within the northern foot of Mount Li. Mount Li is a standalone mountain that was surrounded by the burial pits for the workers who constructed the warriors as well as the Emperor’s final resting place. In order to protect the Emperor and his mausoleum over 700,000 works were buried alive so that the secret location of the Emperor’s final resting place would remain a secret and protected. There is speculation that shortly after his death there was looting of the mausoleum and fires were set to it. Since the mausoleum sits within the mountain there isn’t easy access to and modern archeological tools don’t allow for safe exploration of the mountain at this time so it remains a mystery.

There are 4 pits that have been opened and have housed the “Terracotta Warriors.” While the vast majority of the of the figures are military there have been some that are not military including figures of ministers, and performers (acrobats and musicians). There is some debate as to why the warriors were made one thought process is to be with the emperor and protect him in the afterlife. The other is to honor those people who were partially responsible for the outstanding success the emperor had during his reign. It is estimated that there are around 8,000 warriors in total however due to the painstakingly slow pace required to unearth and restore the figures. Currently there are around 1,000 warriors that have been unearthed and completely or partially restored. It will be years before the remaining warriors are brought to the surface and on display given the amount of time it takes to unearth one and repair (up to two years per warrior).

Like a lot of things I’ve seen in China so far the relics themselves haven’t been the most awe-inspiring things. It’s the history behind them that makes them so interesting. The Terracotta warriors were no different. The pits themselves are now housed in what amounts to glorified airplane hangers packed with smelly Chinese people. We worked our way through the hangers and saw the warriors which was why we went to Xi’an but outside of the warriors there wasn’t much to see in the city or the surrounding area.

As part of our “tour” we were taken to places like the Neolithic village, and the tomb of the emperor. But both of these places can be summed up in one word: Snore. The emperors’ tomb is a pile of dirt that hasn’t been opened and the Neolithic village is a few spots of excavated graves and what they call home sites if you use your imagination.

Xi’an boosts a large Muslim population and the Muslim quarters are one of the highlights of the city. With a shopping area that doesn’t come alive until after dark that boosts food vendors selling all sorts of treats to vendors selling all sorts of crap it essentially turned into a cluster of people that made it near impossible to move. The highlight of the area was the great mosque that serves as the center of the Muslim community and is one of the oldest mosques in the world.

After 2 days in Xi’an we were all ready to leave we had made the trip to see the warriors which I’m glad I was able to see but is one of those places that once you’ve seen it you’ve seen it!

I wanted to say that I won’t be posting for the next two months I’m leaving in the morning (June 30th) to head to Shanghai for the World’s Fair, I’ll be following that up with Tibet, Mt. Everest, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and hopefully Vietnam. I hope to be able to make a post from the road but I don’t know if that will be possible. If not I’ll begin again when I get back to China at the end of August. Please feel free to email me and keep in touch at stevensnow82@gmail.com.