Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors

Terracotta Warriors:

We began the day at a pottery place. Here they make terracotta warriors and a variety of other imitation pieces. The terracotta warriors in this place are built from the same earth (the same piece of mountain clay) as the real terracotta warriors are. The difference is that these warriors are new and not thousands of years old. Finally, we made it to the real location of the terracotta warriors. It was the most crowded place I have ever been. You couldn't take a deep breath without hitting somebody. We had to push and shove our way to get to a point where we could actually see the warriors. Many of these warriors are damaged and being repaired piece by piece. The first pit was massive! It was larger than a soccer stadium! It was amazing to see the amount of detail that went into each of these warriors. They all were based on real soldiers and each had a different face. On one soldier, that was particularly well preserved, you could even see the gripping points on the bottom of his shoes.

We ate lunch at a 5 star hotel. Holy smokes! I cannot fathom what the cost must be to stay in a place like this. There were hedges in the shape of animals and multiple fountains. I felt out of place here but the food was really good!

Xi’an ancient city wall:

The Xi'an city wall was first built in 1370. This wall was initially used as defense for the city because at the time Xi'an was the nations capital city. This was my favorite part of the day. This wall is 18 meters high and 10 meters wide. It was used as defense for the city in the city a long time ago. Most of the bricks have been restored due to wars, age and etc. Still, about 10 percent are bricks from the ancient times. On the top, Joe and I rented bikes, but sadly was not able to bike the whole 8 mile square due to a marathon. Still, we biked a good portion of the wall and had a good time! Waldner did not want to bike with us because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to do the hike the next day. I think, he was just lazy and didn't care to do it.