This morning finally wasn’t an early one, and by that I mean it was an 8:30am start instead of 7:30am. Still, it gave us enough time for a slight lie-in and a quick pit stop to grab another Chinese burger, which we were told yesterday is actually a breakfast food.
Fueled up, we joined the group on our private bus for the hour-long journey to the Terracotta Army museum. Along the way, our guide mentioned how much he loves the history behind the army, casually dropping that he even appears in a BBC and a Netflix documentary talking about them. Having led this tour for ten years, he assured us he never gets tired of sharing the story.
He also gave us a breakdown of China’s rapid progress over the last 10 years. When he first started guiding, this exact route took 28 days to complete. Thanks to better roads and modern high-speed bullet trains, that same trip now takes just 18 days.
Michael went on to tell us about Emperor Qin, founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor to unify China, standardize its currency, and align its written language. Interestingly, the name “China” comes from a historical mispronunciation of his name. “Qin” (pronounced “Chin”) was passed along the Silk Road by Arab traders and later written as “China” by the Romans, who added the “a” at the end to signify it as a place.
Emperor Qin ordered work to begin on his mausoleum back in 246 BCE when he was just 13 years old. The massive project took over 30 years to build, which makes sense given that it covers roughly 38 square miles. It holds an estimated 8,000 unique terracotta soldiers, over 600 horses, and according to historical texts and modern soil samples, literal rivers of mercury. Legend has it that the craftsmen knew they would be executed once the tomb was finished, so it is easy to imagine they dragged their feet a bit to keep the project going longer.
The site remained hidden until 1974, when a local farmer digging a well accidentally unearthed a terracotta soldier’s head. The farmer is now in his 90s and quite famous across China, partly for his legendary discovery and partly for a supposedly hilarious diplomatic mix-up during a meeting with President Bill Clinton. Since the farmer didn’t speak English, he was taught to say “How are you?” and instructed to simply nod or reply “Me too” in agreement to whatever the president said. When the moment came, instead of asking “How are you?”, it came out as “Who are you?” When Clinton chuckled and replied, “Oh me? I’m just Hillary’s husband,” the farmer cheerfully replied, “Me too.” Whether the story is entirely true or not, Michael found it absolutely hilarious to tell.
Since the Terracotta Army is one of China’s top tourist destinations, visiting on a Saturday meant joining the massive weekend crowds and queuing up in the rain. But expectedly, it was worth every minute.
There are three main pits, and they are all enormous. Each displays statues at various stages of discovery, including completely untouched sections, partially excavated sites, figures currently being pieced back together, and fully restored sculptures. Most of the army actually remains buried underground, as exposing the statues causes their original, vibrant paint to fade rapidly into the iconic plain terracotta finish.
Even so, seeing them with such vivid detail lined up in such incredible numbers was awe-inspiring, even if we had to gently elbow our way to the front a few times. Being on the taller side definitely helped us see right over the crowd, though a few people in our group were not quite as lucky! But it was wonderful to behold and we spent a long time admiring all of the different features, hairstyles, outfits and poses, until eventually it was time to go.
After our tour we were taken for some food, which as always was delicious and seemingly never ending with plates of veggies, tofu, meats, rice, noodles and bread coming out until we were stuffed. Particular highlights of this meal included some delicious pork in a sticky sauce and some warm cooked chilli in a doughy bread. Followed by a tasty desert of pomegranate.
We were supposed to cycle around the city wall in the afternoon but seeing as it was chucking it down with rain, we decided to actually spend a bit of the holiday relaxing. So we spent a cosy afternoon reading books and playing games in the hotel while watching the rain outside.
Tomorrow is another early one, we need to be on the bus at 7am to catch our next bullet train to Chengdu.
Will tell you all about it soon, love Alice x
