Day Next

The Terra Cotta Warriors. I have been waiting for this day for some time. I suppose I first heard of this excavation well after the discovery in 1974. I have always thought about seeing this World Heritage Site but never really thought it would happen. We flew west yesterday for over two hours into the heart of China.

A farmer outside the city of Xian found some clay shards in 1974 while digging a well during a drought. The fragments turned out to be over 2200 years old. The life size warriors, foot soldiers, archers, generals and cavalry with horses were in the tomb of a Qing Dynasty emperor. So far over 6,000 have been excavated. This is also the emperor who initiated the building of the Great Wall.

Going into the large structure that covers the excavation was as impressive as I had expected. The entire complex with the main excavation and Pits 1 and 2 is an impressive undertaking. Some of the unearthed warriors will not be excavated for some time so future generations can unearth them. Even the main tomb of the emperor himself has not been touched as those in charge are awaiting advancing technology not present yet before entering. I am impressed by the slow approach taken in this endeavor by the Chinese government.

Coming back to Xian we stopped at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum. Well, I personally did not. Rather I spent my time wandering the streets of Xian and finding a group of elderly people (my age!) playing a Mah Jong. There were over 50 people at tables of five all in rapt enjoyment. I took many pictures and nobody even noticed the American.

Dinner was a dumpling banquet at a quite fancy restaurant. The food was delicious and, best of all, our one or two drinks which are usually included were unlimited tonight. I only had one glass of beer but it never got below half before it was magically restored to full vitality by an attentive waiter. Very nice. Next we went to a show featuring music, dancing and colorful costumes of the Tang Dynasty. It turned out to be an extravaganza, much more that I had expected.

As I have said, I was leery of going on a vacation with a tour group. Also I was worried about the tour company, Smartours. Those questions have been answered in the positive. The final worry I had was with a large group. We have a seemingly unwieldy 41 people. This is gigantic. But a nicer group of people I could not imagine. Everyone interacts with everyone else and would do anything for the group as has been shown over and over. There are no slowpokes that cause a hold up for the rest of the group.

There is one extended group in the tour that fascinates me. Fred is from Brooklyn which he truly believes is the nexus of the universe. He is married to Chris who is from Bogota. Now, along with Fred and Chris are Fred’s sister, Tina, and Fred and Tina’s mother, Marie. It keeps on going. Paula is on the tour. She is Fred’s brother’s ex wife and she is with her second husband Barry. Barry and Paula have two friends along also. It took several days to untangle that web.

Thought for the day: How 41 people can act as one tightly knit unit is beyond me.