Today (Saturday, 11/3/18) we are on the South China Sea back from our 3 day excursion to Xi’an and Beijing, China. We saw A LOT so we’re breaking this into two posts. Our ship docked in Taijin, China and from there met our guide. “Martin” who took us on it a 3 hour bus ride to the Beijing Airport for a 2 hour flight to Xi’an (pronounced “She An”) where the legendary Terra-cotta Soldiers are located (more on them later.)

Immediately upon arrival, Martin took our group to see the City Wall. Xi’an was the capital of China for many centuries beginning in the 11th century BC. Like many feudal cities in China the city was completely walled, surrounded by a moat with only 4 gates – North, South, East and West. Today, the wall around Xi’an is the only one remaining intact in China and it stretches for 8.5 miles around the central city dating back to 1568.

At each gate was an Arrow Tower where archers were positioned to shoot from the window at the enemy.

From the wall we were driven to a large dinner theater where the Tang Dynasty Show was presented with a multi course dinner. This was an amazing pageant with a combination of Classical Chinese music, dance and costumes and a state-of-the-art high-definitely full stage video. We were exhausted at this point but the show was terrific with a full orchestra.

After a 16+ hour day of travel and touring we collapsed into bed. Our guide Martin persuaded the group that it would be best to get to the Terra Cotta soldiers EARLY so we were on the bus by 7:15 for the 1 hour ride to the location.

The Terra Cotta soldiers were buried for the after life of Emperor Qin. Construction started in 246 BC and finished when the Emperor died 37 years later. This army of over 8000 soldiers, archers, horses and chariots created to protect the Emperor’s tomb which is about a mile away. The tomb itself has never been excavated as it is protected by underground water and literal rivers of poisonous liquid mercury. They estimate it will be at least another 50 to 100 years before technology can be developed to excavate and enter the tomb safely.

The entire site was lost to antiquity only to be discovered by a farmer digging a well in 1974. If the location of his digging moved 1 meter, the location would never have been uncovered. The sign in the middle of the photo below shows the edge of the pit where the original well was dug…

When uncovered the terra-cotta soldiers were in pieces and painstakingly reassembled by archeologists.

The work has been ongoing for 45 years and it is estimated it will take at least another 50 years to complete.

From there we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda – a Buddhist temple over 1300 years old where we patted the laughing Buddha for luck!

Then it was the most beautifully presented box dinner on the bus for our return flight to Beijing.