See what I mean?
Kevin shared another hilarious story about helping a tourist purchase a large size Terra Cotta replica. They spent an hour reviewing the merchandise and deciding on the best quality of replica, let's call him Soldier Zhou. Then the tourist returned home and sent Kevin an email saying he was so proud of Soldier Zhou and had placed him in his office and received many compliments. Kevin was also so proud of helping to pick out the best one. Unfortunately, Kevin received another email about 2 months later, "Solider Zhou committed suicide." Haha. Apparently, the heat of the season and putting the solider in the window had caused the replica to experience spontaneous self-combustion. TOO funny.
After some perusing the merchandise and avoiding exploding soldiers, we were off again. During the drive we learned more about what we were about to see. The "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses" as they are officially called are all a part of the mausoleum for the first Emperor Qin. The "First Qin Emperor", Qin Shi Huangdi, holds a powerful position in Chinese history as the Emperor to finally unifying all the Chinese "Warring States" that make up China today. In addition, he is credited with standardizing the writing system, currency and solidifying The Great Wall.
He was also a little kooky. Qin Shi Huangdi ascended to Emperor at the age of 13, when he promptly began the design and construction of his burial site. Chinese tradition believed that everything you were buried with, you carried with you into the after-life (similar to the Egyptian beliefs during the times of the Pharaohs). Therefore, the original plan for the tomb was to bury the Emperor's entire human army with him so that he could remain protected in the after-life. (Human sacrifice at the time of burial was common at this time.) It was soon believed that this was too cruel (oh, you don't say?) so they quickly enlisted workers to build individual solider replicas of his army to take with him. Over 700,000 workers to be exact. These workers modeled and designed each soldier individually to the amount of over 9,000 soldiers and horses. Not only is each one different according to their respective rank in the army, but the height, body position, facial features and expressions are all 100% unique to each individual solider. Supposedly, once the mold of the body was produced in the "factory," individual soldiers from the real army were requested to come in a pose for the artists to render the Terra Cotta replica. The army is open for viewing within 3 pits all in different stages of un-earthing. It's FASCINATING.
Cutest story from Kevin was when he shared about how he still gets goosebumps when he was asked to give a tour of 3 private "pits" that remained a secret and had yet to be revealed to the public as even existing. Supposedly, there are actually over 100 pits all containing different types of artifacts, but they have yet to be excavated in order to preserve the history. This goes for the tomb of the Emperor himself which is actually located in a man-made pyramid turned mountain about one kilometer away.
We also encountered our first official hoax of the tourism industry. (Ok, fine, it's not my first, but I thought I was getting better at spotting them!) Kevin told us that we would have the opportunity to get our tour guide book signed by one of the 3 original farmers who found the Terracotta Army. The story went like this, "He was the only one remaining and we'd be lucky if he was even there. The oldest of the original farmers had already passed on, while the 2nd farmer used to sign books but he was too sick to work." Good news! The farmer was there and we were excited to purchase our book & get it signed! ... that is until we went to the last exhibition building and found another "original farmer signing a NEW book." GRR!!!! This farmer even had a picture with Bill Clinton! I've now spent hours researching this hoax and remain confused as to how much we were tricked. I trusted Kevin!
The most encouraging thing I found is that the Bill Clinton hand-shaking guy is a hoax, but still not sure if our guys is real...
"Other men who had nothing to do with the discovery pose as the original farmers, signing books for tourists. One such man is 60-year-old Yang Xi An, who sits underneath a banner describing himself as the man who made the discovery in 1974, alongside a blownup photograph of him shaking hands with former American President Bill Clinton during his visit in 1998.
But, according to more than a dozen people interviewed in Yang village, the man is an impostor.
He was manager of a factory making replicas of the Terracotta Army visited by Clinton and used the image of his handshake to make money from tourists ever since."
Oh well, we still got a cool book and some amazing Terra Cotta pictures out of it! And being conned is part of the China experience! Or as Kevin would say, "TIC" "This Is China"! Haha. Anyways, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
Pit #1
Chi Os Forever! :) even in Xi'an
Emerging from the wall
he's so skinny!
all individual
Pit #2
Various states of excavation
some slight coloring still remains. they were originally all painted
photo of a photo, but you get the idea.
outside view of the museum. beautiful mountainside.
a little blurry, but I couldn't resist!
Fake watches and purses I've heard of, but Fake Farmers?? Only in China
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I did forget to say that the Terra Cotta Horses and Warriors were the highlight of the sights we saw on the tour. I would say a must see for a China visit.
ReplyDeleteAlso encountered this hoax, got our books signed by the guy with his picture with Bill Clinton. They did a really smooth job and we didn't suspect a thing until our tour guide got back to us and told us we'd been had.
ReplyDeleteOh well, the books are nice anyways.
At least we weren't the only ones! Plus, it makes for a great story. :) I didn't know you also visited China! Would love to hear more of your thoughts!
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