Terra Cotta Soldiers

Friday, October 11, 2013
This morning we walked a bit of the Xian city wall. The 12 km wall surrounds the old city and is about 15m+ high and about 20m wide. Apparently no one ever really attacked it since it was considered to be impregnable. It is very substantial.

 The gates are few and relatively small. There are a some old military buildings right on top of the wall.

 Afterwards, we visited a jade factory and learned a bit about carving jade sculptures and jewelry. The factory guide is holding a set of nine (I think) jade balls nesting inside each other, all carved from a single solid block of jade rock. Tricky.

 After lunch, we visited the Terra Cotta Soldiers excavation site near Xian. An ancient emperor had at least 8,000 of these life-size clay soldiers, some with chariots and horses, fashioned and arranged in battle formation to protect him in his tomb in the afterlife. The soldiers were set in pits in the ground. The pits were covered with a timber and dirt roof. Many of the terra cotta figures were smashed shortly after the emperor died when an invader discovered them. The roofs caved in and the site was lost until 1974 when a farmer digging a well discovered them. Since then the Chinese government has done a huge dig and restoration. They have built 3 large buildings over the pits that have been discovered so far to protect them. It's an amazing sight and something I've wanted to see for a long time.

 The restoration project is on a massive scale, just like almost everything else in China.

Hard to believe.

All of the figures are life-size. The bodies of the soldiers are similar but all of the faces are different. It took many years by many artisans and labourers to create this underground army. It seems that the Chinese people, whether under the rule of an emperor or a Communist government that tolerates no dissent, have been accustomed for centuries to all pushing in one direction. What they can accomplish is awe-inspiring and a bit scary.