Today I got to see them.
When I woke up, the guy on the bottom bunk was gone
(thankfully.) Unfortunately, so was Arafat. IT had been nice having someone to
talk to at night, but hopefully we can keep in touch. Kate was still here and
in fact she was going on the Terra Cotta tour today as well.
The tour included a breakfast of French toast. Once again it
wasn’t really French toast but an attempt at the dish. It tasted good either
way and was definitely filling before we piled into the 15 passanger van to go
to the warriors.
There were 23 of us on the tour from 3 different hostels. We
were split up into two vans, and our guide switched back and forth between them
at the toll booth.
“Hello,” she said as she got into our van. She was a Chinese
girl, and I would guess she was between 25 and 30. “My name is Jia-Jia” [that’s
my best guess at the spelling, it’s pronounced more like ‘Jaw-Jaw.’] “I will be
your tour guide today. There are 23 people on the tour. I would like each of
you to introduce yourself and say where you are from.”
We went around and introduced ourselves. I was the only
American. There was a Swedish company, a ton of Dutch people, quite a few
English folk, Kate from Australia, and some buddies from Rio in Brazil (it
turns out it is too soon to talk about the World Cup.)
“Ok,” Jia-Jia said. “Today we will go to see Terra Cotta
Warriors. Very famous. We will also see tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang, very good
emperor. Then we will see a cinema, then we have lunch. Lunch not included.
Then we come back and that’s it. Again, my Chinese name is Jia-Jia. My English
name is Lady Jia-Jia.”
Everyone laughed.
On the way to the tomb she told us about Emperor Qin
Shihuang. I was actually surprised how much I remembered from that article in 6th
grade. The Emperor was the king of the Qin kingdom. He found many battles and
invaded many neighboring kingdoms to unite them as one kingdom. This kingdom
(called Qin, again from which the name “China” comes from) closely resembled
the modern day borders of China. He was the first to declare himself “Emporer”
(which meant he was a son of a god) thus making him the first Emperor in China.
Once he was Emperor (at age 22) he began buiding a great
wall to keep invaders out of his newly unified kingdom. He also began building
his tomb. He also developed many forms of torture, and was the first recorded
leader to use the method of “drawing and quartering” people. The proper
technique for this form of torture is tie the arms and legs of a victim to four
different horses and send them in opposite directions. While the person is
stretched out and hanging mid-air, a sword is used to cut off their arms and
legs, while their body goes into shock and eventually bleeds to death. Wanting
to be emperor in the afterlife, he built the largest tomb in recorded history.
It is significantly larger than any of the pyramids or tombs of the Egyptian
pharaohs. According to records, the mausoleum that would house his body was
carved almost 100 meters down in a man made mountain just outside his capital
in Xi’an. His body was to be surrounded by a moat filled with mercury, and all
entrances and rooms of the tomb were boody-trapped (Indian Jones style) to kill
anyone who entered—because of a moat of mercury wasn’t enough.
“The tomb is just a hill,” Jia-Jia told us on the bus. “I
hope you will not be disappointed. We cannot go inside yet because we do not
have technology. There are plans to open it in 20 years. Maybe you come back.”
When the tomb was found, the mercury levels in the soil are
1000x greater than naturally occurs. This seems to confirm the historical
record that his body was surrounded by the moat. If that is true, it makes
archeologists believe that the other legendary traps were also true. At this point in time, we do not have the
technology (a) to keep a person safe from the high levels of mercury once
inside or (b) to protect the 3000 year old artifacts from oxidation once the
tomb is open. As the mecca of archeology, scientists are working to develop a
method of entering the tomb, but it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime
soon.
The emperor really had a thing for mercury. He didn’t choose
it because it was dangerous, but because he thought it was magical. In fact, he
took a mercury supplement every day so that he could live forever. Shockingly,
this didn’t work and he died suddenly (before the entire tomb was completed.)
We’ll talk more about this later. His body was buried inside along with all of
his gold, treasures, live animals to give as gifts to the gods, concubines
(both human and clay), as well as all of the workers who had built the tomb
were buried alive with him, as to not give away the secrets of how to get in or
out.
When we arrived at the tomb, it was in fact just a hill.
“That is it,” Jia-Jia said. “The hill is man-made and the
body is buried underneath it. The emperor chose this area outside of
Xi’an—which was his capital—because it has good Feng Shui. Feng Shui? You know
it? It is good energy. Certain features of nature have Feng Shui. For example,
building your house with mountains
behind it is good Feng Shui and will protect your house. The mountains as you
can see are behind the mosaleum.”
I couldn’t help but notice there was significantly more
pollution here than in Xi’an. You could barely see the Feng Shui mountains
behind the tomb.
“You can ride little carts around the tomb,” Jia-Jia said,
“but I think here is the best picture.” We took pictures and then walked on to
see the Warriors.
The Warriors are far more famous than the actual tomb. Mr.
Yang was a Chinese farmer outside of Xi’an. When digging a well on part of his
property he began finding remnents or armor made of Terra Cotta. Archeologists
came in and discovered over 6,000 Terra Cotta Soldiers buried on the property.
Further investigation led to the discovery of the tomb, all of which confirmed
the myths and legends of Emperor Qin Shihuang.
The Warriors were designed to protect the emperor in the
afterlife. Servants were commissioned to design them. They were supposed to be
taller than the average person, with solid legs and hollow bodies and heads.
Servants worked in pairs, each working on their own soldier, but they would
design the face of their soldier to look like their partner. The clay would molded
and then baked at 1000*Celsius. It took nearly 7 days to get the ovens hot
enough to harden the clay. They were then painted. Once both partners finished
their soldiers (which looked like each other) they were both killed so that
their souls would be transferred to the statues in the afterlife. On one hand,
it’s a promotion. You go from servant in this life to soldier in the next…on
the other hand, you’re dead.
There were 4 types of warriors: Generals, Infantry men,
Chariot drivers, and Archers. The Generals were the tallest and typically had
two large buns on top of their head. The Infantry men were all tall, but only
had one bun. The Chariot drivers were positioned in actual chariots, while the
archers were positioned squatting. Originally they were all buried with
weapons, but being made of wood—and 3000 years old—they have rotted away.
“The archer is magical,” Jia-Jia told us. I never quite
figured out why, but she used a poster to explain that the first statue found
was an archer. The statues have incredible detail down to the treads on the
bottom of their shoes, and individual hairs carved on their heads. She also
explained that shoes were important in the Qin Dynasty. Wives made shoes for
their husbands. If a man did not have shoes, it meant he was unmarried.
Additionally curved toes denoted nobility while flat shoes indicated they were
commoners.
There are current 3 pits of soldiers that haven un-earthed.
There are probably more pits but Ill explain why they are still buried later.
We started our tour at pit 3. It was about the size of half
a football field. The bottom was wavy with chunks of armor and broken horses
sticking out of the ground. Every now and then the ground would break away and
there would be an intact soldier.
“The wavy appearance is caused by the rotted roof,” Jia-Jia
said. “The roof is gone so the soldiers are trapped in the dirt. The waves show
where their heads are.”
They have decided not to unearth all of the soldiers in
order to protect them. The soldiers were originally painted (and when they are
found they are.) Because of the age, the paint oxidizes in minutes and the
color is lost almost as soon as the clay hits the air. Again, archeologists
hope to develop a technology to preserve the color, but until they do, they are
leaving the older soldiers buried. But that doesn’t mean that they haven’t dug
up a lot. In Pit 3, there are 700 unearthed soldiers. In Pit 2, there are 2000
and Pit 1 has 4000.
Pit 2 is smaller, but also cooler. It is shaped like a U
with three distinct rooms. The first room is a meeting room filled with
generals. The second room (across the bottom of the U) was a storage room for
chariots. The final room was for animal sacrifices. Animal bones—including deer
antlers—have been found in this room. Most of the soldiers in this pit are
assembled, and they truly look just like the pictures. The horses have large
round holes drilled into the side so that when they were baked in the oven, the
hot air could escape. The soldiers are baked with their heads and bodies
separate. The neck has a hole to let air escape and the bottom of the head has
one as well. Once both were cooked, they were connected.
Pit 1 is the largest pit and also the original. In it, 4000
soldiers are lined up row after row—most of them infantry men—all in formation
ready to defend the tomb. At the back of the room, there is an area where
archeologists reassemble the broken fragments of soldiers.
I have to say, they were as tall as I imagined, but not
quite as big. For making “giant people,” the proportions are a little off. They
almost look like their torsos have been stretched rather than just being made
larger.
But they were incredible. As I stared at them, I just had a
total ah-ha moment of how old China is. I cant imagine the servants who carved
these things, hundreds of years before Christ. I can’t imagine what to tomb
must have looked like, or what kind of nut-job Shihuang must have been.
And Chinese history is starting to come together for me. Qin
was the first dynasty (which unified China and started the Great Wall). It was
over thrown by the Han (the bloodline that most Chinese people today come
from), and later by the Tang (which was pretty much the Renaissance period of
Chinese music and culture.) That ended with the Mongolian invasion which gave
rise to the Yuan dynasty. They were driven out by the Ming Dynasty (who built
the Forbidden City and finished the Great Wall.) Eventually the Manchurians
invaded to form the Qing Dynasty (who built the summer palace) and they were
the last dynasty leading up to WWI. After about 50 years of disorganized
government, Mao came to power to unite China under the People’s Republic.
After we left the pit, we went to see the movie in the
museum. The attempt at a 360* panorama video waqas really just nauseating and
didn’t show anything that Jia-Jia hadn’t told us. Our final stop was the gift
shop where we got to meet Mr. Yang (the farmer) and Jia-Jia used some of the
souvineers to point out more details on the soldiers.
Lunch—which Jia-Jia continually emphasized was not
included—was very cheap. We went to a nice Chinese restaurant, and for 5USD
each, we all shared dishes. Many of them I recognized as things my co-workers
brought for lunch like sausage and peppers, egg in tomato, and different types
of cabbage and fungus. There were other dishes I’ve had in traveling including
sweet and sour meat, caramelized potatoes, and spicy green beans. I have to
say, while I won’t miss some of the scary Chinese food, I will miss a lot of
the good stuff.
On the bus ride back, I slept most of the way. As I drifted
in and out, I heard various conversations about the difficulties of living in
China, including pollution and life without Facebook.
For Dinner, I had bought tickets to go to “dinner and a
show” at the local performing arts center. Kate from Australia was also going,
as were Veronica and Karen (from Jingdi’s tomb.)
As we walked in, we immediately felt under dressed. The
tables had red, white, and yellow table clothes on each table and a full
assortment of dishes and glasses. We each got a cup of tea, a cup of rice wine,
and a cup of sprite. The food then came out on over 26 trays (one again
triggering Beauty and the Beast’s “Be
Our Guest” in my head.)
The first course was vegetable soup, which had mini
dumplings in that were about half the size of an American dime. We then had
seafood dumplings stuffed with crab, followed by wild mushroom dumplings. There
were duck dumplings and pork dumplings. We had some that were filled with lotus
root (another vegetable I will miss when I get home.) There were dumplings that
had fish in them, and were actually shaped like little fishes—with the extra
dough folded into fins and green peas used as eyes. There were ham dumplings
(not sure why ham and pork are different but I didn’t ask.) We had a platter
that had tomato dumplings, cabbage dumplings, and purple sweet potato
dumplings. There were also pork and carrot dumplings, as well as shrimp
dumplings. The final rounds were fried dumplings and steamed dumplings. We then
got into dessert dumplings which included roasted dumplings (that tasted like
baklava) as well as walnut dumplings (which were not as good.)All of them tasted amazing! The pork dumplings and tomato dumpling stick out specifically because they were super spicy, while all of the other ones just kept tasting better and better. The rice wine was also very sweet and pretty tasty (although it did little to soothe the spicy flavor.) As we ate, a woman sat on stage playing some sort of flat harp that made the sweetest most atmospheric music for the occasion.
The dinner lasted 2 hours before the show began. When it
did, it was just as breath taking as the warriors. The directors came out on
stage, one speaking Chinese and one English, both wearing silk robes and fancy
crowns. They introduced each act before it started.
The first was a musical performance. Sitting on the stage,
musicians cloaked in silk played drums, bells, and cymbals. It sounded like
some sort of war march and immediately drew you back into the glorious culture
of the Tang Dynasty. Next was the “White River Dance” where girls in blue robes
with flowing white sleeves danced and twirled in perfect unison. They were so
synchronized even the ripples of their dresses matched. I couldn’t help but
think the costuming looked a bit like Princess Elsa, but I decided not to make
too many Frozen jokes.
Up next, and actor came out to entertain us. The Actor was
more of a musician, so I think we might have had a mistranslation. He played a
nose flute which produced both beautiful and god-awful noises, almost
simultaneously. If you listened to it as music, it was tough to enjoy, but if
you thought of it like the chirping of birds, it was sweet and melodious.
The next act was a group of young girls performing a spring
dance. Again they wore flowing dresses with long sleeves that billowed as they
spun and twirled. They were followed by a male dance troupe that did a masked
dance to ward off demons.
The next one was one of my favorites. They said it was
inspired by a painting in Suzhou called “Looking at birds and chasing cicada.”
They introduced it as “the painting is of 3 women. The first is looking at a
bird, the second is chasing a cicada, the third is missing her family.” Our
dancers will bring this painting to life for you.
As the three women on stage recreated first the painting and
then danced out an adventure of chasing birds and catching bugs, I realized,
the three emotions have a lot in common. Looking at birds symbolizes wanting
freedom. Chasing cicadas symbolizes persuing adventure. Missing a family is a
bit more obvious…but all three have a yearning, and yearning is a pretty
universal emotion. They are also three emotions I feel like I’ve experienced on
this adventure. When I first left the US, I wanted to be free. As I got here, I
wanted to chase adventure. Now that I’ve done both of those things, I miss my
family.
There was another dance after that to celebrate a good
harvest, as well as two more musical numbers called “hunting ducks” and
“smiling tiger.”
But the finale was awesome. All of the performers came out
in read and golden gowns. They dances, and pounded drums while an orchestra off
stage played the most powerful and beautiful music I’ve heard in a long time.
As I watched the majesty of Chinese tradition unfold, I thought back to Yu
Cui’s text when I left for Huangshan…”Now discover china” she had said. I feel
like I’ve done that. I really understand their culture, I love the people, I
enjoy the food, I know so much more about their history, and I feel like my
perspective of China has changed 180* since I arrived.
Thinking back to when I arrived, it does feel like forever
ago. I have this overwhelming sense of “holy rap I did it.” Its been so hard,
but it has truly been an adventure. I am absolutely a different person than I
was when I arrived. I am more aware of how different the world is. I am also
more aware of who I am as well as who I want to become. I also have a whole new
respect for myself. Looking back at it, I think if you’d told me everything I’d
go through in Hong Kong and Beijing, I never would have believed it or have
gone for it, but these past 14 days have been incredible…this whole summer has
been incredible.
And this beautiful show was a perfect finale.
China is beautiful and I am so glad I came to see it!
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