Xian - Day 1

Xian is an ancient capital of China. It is most famous as the site of the Terra Cotta soldiers. During the Qin dynasty (221 B.C. to 206 B.C.) the emperor Quin Shi Huang had a subterranean army of about 8,000 "soldiers" created. The soldiers are life size clay figures, solid at the bottom and hollow at the top. They were discovered in 1974 by some farmers digging a well. The Terra Cotta soldiers are considered modern China's greatest archaeological discovery and are referred to by some as the eighth great wonder of the world.

Three separate pits have been excavated by archaeologists. This is pit 1, which is the original pit discovered.
 

A closer view of some of the soldiers. The clay figures are about 6 feet tall. Each soldier is different in some way. The bump you see on the side of their heads represents the hair style of that era; men did not cut their hair, so it grew very long. They would curl it up on the top or side of their head.
 

The head covering indicates the rank. The second figure from the top in the front row represents a general. To his left are two figures with flat caps; these are officers. The ones without a cap are ordinary soldiers.

There were also figures representing horses. The figures are believed to have originally been painted, but the paint has deteriorated during the last 2,000 years.
 

The ceilings of the underground rooms collapsed in time, causing the the figures to be broken, as seen here. Archaeologists have been reassembling the fragments into complete figures, as seen above.
 

That evening we went to a Tang Dynasty (618 A.D. to 907 A.D.) stage show. I'm not sure how authentic the costumes, dancing, and music were, but it was very entertaining.

This guy played a very amusing tune on this harmonica-like instrument.
 

The masked warriors performed this dance to expel evil spirits and epidemics and to promote well being.
 

Three lovely ladies who seem to be really enjoying this dance.
 

More lovely ladies. This grand finale was almost a Las Vegas style performance.
 

Tomorrow we see more of Xian and then head further south to Guilin.