11: Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum & Terracotta Warriors

We have a very full schedule today and are going to be out for around twelve hours and will be visiting the Terracotta Warriors, followed by a walk around the ancient city wall on our return to Xi’an, and then finally the Tang Palace Dance Show after our evening meal.

We're down to breakfast at seven o’clock to give us plenty of time for our eight o’clock start of the hour or so drive to

Shaanxi in Lintong Province for the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum to see the Terracotta Warriors.

During the journey Max tells us the interesting story of the meeting that the farmer, Yang Zhifa who in 1974 discovered the warriors, had with Bill Clinton, the then President of the USA, when he visited the site in June 1998 with his wife Hillary during their ten day visit to China. Yang spoke no English and practised for hours on end to say “How are you?”, to which President Clinton should respond with “I’m well, how are you”, and he then reply saying “Me too”. Nice and easy, what could possibly go wrong...!!! He was so nervous on the day, being just a simple farmer meeting the most powerful man in the world, that he forgot his lines, and actually ended up mistakingly saying “Who are you?”, to which President Clinton

jokingly said “I’m Hillary’s husband”, and knowing no better poor Yang still responded with “Me too”...!!! Still an interesting talking point for the ex president I’m sure!

Now, today just happens to be a public holiday here in China, apparently it’s Labour Day, so Max says that the site has the potential to be extremely busy today! Well he got that right, it’s absolutely rammed; though the crowds aren't too bad while walking from the coach to the site entrance, about a fifteen minutes or so stroll - all very civilised, though that is about to change any time soon!

The site excavations are in three main pits, and these are each enclosed within their own huge building that consist of a walkway around the excavation allowing you to look down

upon these magnificent statues. We regroup outside Pit 1 before heading inside to see the main pit that we all recognise from the photos and programmes we’ve seen over the years.

Well, we’ve never seen so many people crammed together, they are at least five or six deep most of the way around this huge pit... and civilised it is most certainly not! We already knew that the Chinese are not good at queuing but this was on a whole different level, once you start to work your way into the seething crowd you are pushed and shoved in all directions by those behind just barging through, and it’s practically impossible to even lift up your camera.

At one point I managed to get close to the front of this seething human mass, the person in front of me was coming

out to my left and I wanted to squeeze into his space, but the person behind me to the right forced passed me and as we were all squashed together so tightly I was spun around by these two people through one hundred and eighty degrees and was now right back to where I started and facing the wrong way! Never experienced anything quite like it, but it was so worth all this jostling to see what is now described (by the Chinese) as the eighth wonder of the world.

It’s an amazing sight to see once you get to the front, the rows of reformed soldiers standing in their ranks as they would have been over two thousand two hundred years ago. The crushing crowd thins out as we work our way around the hall, and to the rear we can see where they are conserving the statues. Apparently only one statue, out of over eight

thousand soldiers and four hundred and seventy horses, survived intact, so this kneeling archer is the most famous of all these stunning warriors. By the time we get to the other end of the pit it’s all quite normal again as the crowds have really thinned out now and it’s possible to breathe and move around comfortably once more!

We all meet up again where we started at one-thirty to have lunch at the museum restaurant, which is followed by free

time to visit Pit 2, Pit 3 and the Bronze Chariots. These other two pits were also busy, but nothing like as crushing as the first one, probably because there is less to see in them, it’s mostly showing the broken warriors in situ as they were found, with some reconstructed statues dotted around the excavations. Best bit in here, for me at least, were the four horses that were pulling the chariot, though that had long since rotted away. We all know that every warrior had different features, different hair style (dependant on their rank and status), and even slightly different uniform; but I was amazed to learn that even the hundreds of horses discovered also had individual features!

At two thirty we head back to Xi’an to visit the six hundred year old City Wall that runs around the whole city. Following

this should have been the Muslim Quarter but we all voted for returning to the hotel to rest for an hour or so, rather than have to go straight to this evenings Tang Dynasty Dancing Show, with dinner at the theatre, straight from the market.

We all gather at six fifteen in the hotel reception to go to the theatre, where we watch the show from our dining table, the whole theatre being a restaurant. Elaine and I have our backs to the stage, but we are able to turn around when the show starts and as we’re on the first level up in the hall, it means we’re now right at the front with a perfect view of the stage! It was a lovely meal, with great service and an excellent show, Elaine was quite mesmerised by the stunning costumes and beautiful dancing, a huge improvement entertainment wise from our first Chinese theatre experience back in Chengdu.