Next Stop Xi`an

Our other day in Beijing consisted of shopping in the Pearl Market and bein super negotiators. That evening we took the bullet train to our next stop which was the city of Xi`an. The train is very sleek in design and made for fast performance. We loaded our luggage, took our seats, and were quickly off at a speed of 300 km/h!!! Before we new it we had travelled far but quickly to our new city!

Some Fun Facts

Bell Tower rings to let people know it is morning

Drum Tower to tell it is night time.

1974 Studied Terracotta Pieces were discovered as 2,000 years old and many of the pieces were put back together. After five years a museum was built and opened up. The first pit shows about 2,000 out of the 8,000 warriors. People are still working on excavating some of the Warriors but many will be preserved and left underground. The second pit is te second biggest and has not yet been excavated. They have only begun to excavate it. The final pit is the smallest and most important of the pits because it was the headquarters. Many animal bones can be found from the sacrifices that took place.

The soldiers are different rankings. The most common are the lower ranking officials with the hair knot on their right side. The archers have their knot on the left side because of the way they shoot their arrows. Higher officials have different number of knots and some even come from Mongolian decent because they traded and trained the horses.

All of the faces are unique to that soldier and there are no two faces alike. 

Five farmers discovered the Warriors. They were uneducated so the government taught them how to write their names to sign for tourists. They sit there on most days greeting people. Recently 4 of them died but one is still left. Bill Clinton visited him and shook his hand.

Ching Dynasty was the one that united all of China. Ching is were they got the name China from when Europeans talked about it. 

Many believe the emperor, Ching, was a great man while others debate he was a monster. He restricted speech and burned much information. Very suspicious person. He believed there was a magic medicine that would let him live forever so he ordered a minister to look for the medicine. The minister asked for 3,000 children to go to the sea and find this island with the medicine. He took 1,500 boys and 1,500 girls and when they sailed they were able to find the island. Here they settled down and lived out their lives. This island is now called Japan!!! Or so the Chinese legends says. 

Visiting the Warriors was a very cool experience! It blew us away that these things were so old and were only recently discovered!!!

After touring the Warriors we took a quick nap back at the hotel. The even was very nice because we went to a dumpling banquet and Tang Dynasty show. It was a very pleasant evening specifically because we enjoyed it with a couple that we met during the Terracotta Warriors. The couple was from South Africa and loving life to the fullest. Throughout the evening we shared travel stories and it seemed like they had been everywhere. After their four children grew up they began to travel all over!!! Wishing Venice and Lawrence the best of travel wishes!