Quite A Lotta Chinese Terracotta...
Warriors, that is. Ni Hao, blog buddies! It's time for another exciting installment of blog-o-rama. As if you couldn't guess, I'm now in Xian, China and am finding it to be quite to my liking. The city if clean and interesting, the people seem nice, and the hotel lobby has free wireless- all in all, a good combo. I am off for a total of about 2 weeks while the set/costumes/ props(etc.) clear customs, so I am trying to see the sights of Xian. Luckily for me, there are plenty of them.
As the title of this blog installment suggests, we visited Xian's main attraction yesterday, namely the Terracotta Army. For those not familiar with these clay fellows, the Terracotta Army is a collection of thousands of life sized clay soldiers from about 200 B.C.(E.) that were constructed to protect the tomb of the first Emperor of China's Qin Dynasty. This great and terrible ruler(his name escapes me at the moment) was the first to unite China into a single kingdom/country and the Terracotta Soldiers were to be his protection in the next life, guarding his tomb and providing him a sort of spiritual security blanket in the afterlife. He died at around 50 years old, some say as a side effect of drinking mercury, as he thought it would prolong his life.
Duh.
Anyhoo, the soldiers lay undiscovered for almost 2000 years until in 1974, some local farmers unearthed the head of one of the soldiers while digging a well. They freaked out, thinking it was the devil himself and contacted the local authorities. It was determined, much to the relief of the nervous and superstitious farmers, that the head did not belong to the devil, but in fact was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in Chinese- nay, human history. As a reward, the main farmer was given a cash prize and some lovely parting gifts. As a further(well deserved) thank you, he was given a job for life at the museum autographing souvenir programs for tourists like me. I was not fortunate enough to meet him, as we arrived after he had departed for the day(@ 3PM- good hours!). Seeing as he's around 80 years old, I'll cut him some slack, seeing as I got a signed copy anyway! Lucky me!
One of the interesting things about the excavation site is that of the suspected 10,000 life sized figures buried there, since '76, only some 2,000 have been unearthed. It is painstaking work to Humpty-Dumpty the soldiers back together again and it is expected that it will take another 200 years, more or less, to complete the excavation. So, if your children's children's children's children's children teleport, or however they'll get around in those days, to Xian, they'll get to see the whole site unearthed. It seems like a long time, but, hey, they finished the Big Dig in our lifetime right?
Right?
Well, it's easier to get to Logan, anyway...
Xian is the former capitol city of China and is a tourist destination for many world travelers as well as for China's own citizens. Some other sights are the Drum Tower, Bell Tower(guess what those are?) and the Xian City Wall, which is the only one of its kind in China to have survived the destruction of war, be it ancient or modern.
Don't it feel like yer here with me? Don't it!? Well, maybe not, but I'll keep trying to paint mental pictures through this here blog and maybe someday, I'll be reading one of your blogs about the wilds of Africa...or sumthin' like that.
I'll be in Xian for about 3 weeks, then to another city or two for about 2 weeks, then on to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It's funny, but every time I come back to Asia, I keep hearing people say, including myself, "Well, when will I ever be here again?" To which I silently say "Probably next year!"
Thank you for you attention. We now return you to your regularly scheduled goofing off from work, or whatever do on your computer to make it look like you are accomplishing something.
Til next time,
Gags
As the title of this blog installment suggests, we visited Xian's main attraction yesterday, namely the Terracotta Army. For those not familiar with these clay fellows, the Terracotta Army is a collection of thousands of life sized clay soldiers from about 200 B.C.(E.) that were constructed to protect the tomb of the first Emperor of China's Qin Dynasty. This great and terrible ruler(his name escapes me at the moment) was the first to unite China into a single kingdom/country and the Terracotta Soldiers were to be his protection in the next life, guarding his tomb and providing him a sort of spiritual security blanket in the afterlife. He died at around 50 years old, some say as a side effect of drinking mercury, as he thought it would prolong his life.
Duh.
Anyhoo, the soldiers lay undiscovered for almost 2000 years until in 1974, some local farmers unearthed the head of one of the soldiers while digging a well. They freaked out, thinking it was the devil himself and contacted the local authorities. It was determined, much to the relief of the nervous and superstitious farmers, that the head did not belong to the devil, but in fact was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in Chinese- nay, human history. As a reward, the main farmer was given a cash prize and some lovely parting gifts. As a further(well deserved) thank you, he was given a job for life at the museum autographing souvenir programs for tourists like me. I was not fortunate enough to meet him, as we arrived after he had departed for the day(@ 3PM- good hours!). Seeing as he's around 80 years old, I'll cut him some slack, seeing as I got a signed copy anyway! Lucky me!
One of the interesting things about the excavation site is that of the suspected 10,000 life sized figures buried there, since '76, only some 2,000 have been unearthed. It is painstaking work to Humpty-Dumpty the soldiers back together again and it is expected that it will take another 200 years, more or less, to complete the excavation. So, if your children's children's children's children's children teleport, or however they'll get around in those days, to Xian, they'll get to see the whole site unearthed. It seems like a long time, but, hey, they finished the Big Dig in our lifetime right?
Right?
Well, it's easier to get to Logan, anyway...
Xian is the former capitol city of China and is a tourist destination for many world travelers as well as for China's own citizens. Some other sights are the Drum Tower, Bell Tower(guess what those are?) and the Xian City Wall, which is the only one of its kind in China to have survived the destruction of war, be it ancient or modern.
Don't it feel like yer here with me? Don't it!? Well, maybe not, but I'll keep trying to paint mental pictures through this here blog and maybe someday, I'll be reading one of your blogs about the wilds of Africa...or sumthin' like that.
I'll be in Xian for about 3 weeks, then to another city or two for about 2 weeks, then on to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It's funny, but every time I come back to Asia, I keep hearing people say, including myself, "Well, when will I ever be here again?" To which I silently say "Probably next year!"
Thank you for you attention. We now return you to your regularly scheduled goofing off from work, or whatever do on your computer to make it look like you are accomplishing something.
Til next time,
Gags
posted by Gags at 10:46 PM
1 Comments:
The doctor said I wouldn't have so many nose bleeds if I kept my finger outta there.
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