We had arrived at our hotel in Xian (SHE-an)
late afternoon on Monday and had the entire evening to ourselves as dinner
was on our own. The ANA Grand Castle Hotel where we stayed was a
first class operation and it's restaurant was above average.
Tuesday morning, after a great buffet
breakfast, we boarded our bus for a full day of sightseeing in Xian.
Our first stop was the famous "WILD GOOSE PAGODA" with its'
beautiful gardens and museum area.
On arrival at the Wild Goose Pagoda, we
discovered that there was snow on the ground in the shaded garden. We
were told that it had indeed snowed in and around Xian the night before and
later in the day we were able to see that it had been a heavy snowfall in
the mountains to the north of the city.
We spent a couple of hours at this site and
then headed out of town to the north where we would have lunch and explore
one of the highlight attractions of the entire trip "THE TERRA COTTA
SOLDIERS AND HORSES" excavation site. This site has been called
the 8th Wonder of the World.
Back in 1974 a group of local farmers, while
trying to dig a well, unearthed several terra cotta, life sized, figures buried
underground. They reported this find and gave permission for archeological
excavation on the property, which, has subsequently discovered and uncovered
over 1400 terra cotta figures, several bronze chariots and over 500 horses
in three separate areas of excavations.
How did they get there? During his
lifetime, Emperor Qin Shihuang had his Mausoleum constructed with, it is
estimated, over 6000 live size terra cotta soldiers and figures, many
chariots and horses arranged standing up as an army to protect this
mausoleum.
To date, only part of this Mausoleum and its'
protectors have been unearthed. The current display, consisting of 3 separate
pits, has been enclosed in 3 monstrous buildings to display and protect the
figures. Inside these buildings the atmosphere is kept constant and
there is very low light which along with signs and verbal reprimands
discourages photography.
We stayed at the exhibit until about 4:00
o'clock and then headed back to the hotel.
That evening we had a Banquet and enjoyed a
special Tang Dynasty Spectacular Show.