Xi'an and Terra Cotta

Today's Update is going to cover Xi'an. In Xi'an was the Terra Cotta warriors.... but I'll get back to that.

Xi'an was the capital of the first Chinese dynasty. So the history there was pretty massive. It was an ancient city, even still having city walls and a moat! How cool is that? DC needs a moat. I digress. Here we visited a Buddhist temple, stopped by some artist shops, where I got Rachel's gift. And had a brief lesson on Chinese calligraphy. Ultimatly it was a pretty cool city. Lots of construction going on there.


While in Xi'an we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.
As I mentioned Earlier, Xi'an was the capital of China's first dynasty (as seen in the movie Hero with Jet Li). The terra cotta warriors then were built for the burial of China's first emperor. He built an entire army and then burried it underground guarding his tomb. Facing East, towards his enemies. The name Terra Cotta is actually latin for "baked earth", and perhaps shows the Western influence on China. It was definently pretty cool to see though. The increadible detail in the soldiers. The horses, which you may or may not be able to see how tiny they are. No wonder the larger western horses were so valuable in China. There were two sections that we saw. The first had the army open for us to see in all the detail. Then at some point they realized that the army was held under a wooden overhang, protecting them from the earth. And that hey, this is an archaeological dig and we should keep it in tact.... So yeah, the second section is a view of..... dirt mounds /facepalm. Anyways Terra Cotta warriors? Pretty cool stuff.

In related news, evidently they know where the main part of this emperors tomb is, but China refuses to let them access it until they can prove that they can preserve it. Also, it is rumored to have rivers of mercury. That sounds like a pretty cool looking river to me!