Indeed alan and I woke up at 6:45am to go running, but erik was feeling a bit sick so he decided to lay in. So we went and started our run towards the city wall.
The streets were pretty quiet, probably because it was early sunday morning. However the few people that were on the street were staring at us as if running in public was a strange activity. We made our way to the city wall to find out it doesn't open till 8am. Bummer! Oh but wait, there was a opening in the doors, so I told alan we should try to get on top anyhow. Alan was a bit nervous and very hesitant to get on the wall without proper approval. I was like if we get caught we will just speak english and pretend we didn't understand them.
After some convincing he agreed to run in with me. It was really neat on top. Literally no one was there, except a few people cleaning. We had the whole wall to ourselves. As we ran, we stopped to peek over the wall to see what's going on in the city early morning. We found out why old chinese people are skinny and healthy. There's a park that runs alongside of the wall and there were all these elders exercising. They were doing tai chi, aerobics, playing ping pong, and using equipment to work out. In the public park, there's exercising equipment that doesn't require power, such as a treadmill that the floor is based on rolling pipes, benches to do ab work outs, hanging equipments, cycling and such. All these old folks were exercising on them. Pretty amazing and a great way to stay healthy.
Alan actually brought his camera, so we were able to take some cool photos, which includes us running and jumping on the wall. Pretty cool, you have to be there to understand.
We then got ready back at our hostel to head to the terracotta warriors. Steph was a bit under the weather, which she thinks it's from the drinking for erik's birthday. So, to make life easier, and save time we decided to hire a taxi to the site.
Our driver was bill. He was very excited to converse with steph since he wanted to practice english with her. He first drove us to check out the drum tower, where I quickly snapped some photos. Then we hopped on the highway.
Our first stop was the tomb of qin shi huang. He became emperor at the age of 13 and unified china for the first time within 25 years. During his dynasty, he decreed all books, except those on history of Qin and practical matters as agriculture, to be destroyed. Only a few confucian scholars hid their books. Qin shi huang was also the emperor that began the construction of the great wall.
Qin shi huang had no wife, but 45 children. How you may ask? Maybe because he had 2,000 concubines. To charm his girlfriends, he would award them with jade from the mountains. The girls believed if they washed their face with the water that is soaked in the jade they will become younger. Interesting...I should try it sometime.
In his tomb, there are a lot of other human remains, which researchers believe are concubines and princesses that were killed to follow the emperor to the afterlife.
The emperor was very keen on not having his tomb robbed. He made sure his tomb was covered with poisonous mercury (no one knows where it came from) and made sure there was no document of it. Hence it wasn't robbed or found for many years.
Although his story was really neat to learn about, there was nothing to see there besides a huge mound hill since modern technology still hasn't figured out how to open it without damaging it. Yes he was that good. We also had to walk up lots of steps to get only a view of agricultural landscape...not so impressive.
Next stop was the terracotta warriors, which is west of qin shi huang's tomb. Bill helped us arrange a tour guide to the terracotta warriors for 100RMB ($15) for 2 hours, not bad. The guide's name was Mark, and he was thrilled to tour us around.
The emperor built them to protect him from his enemies from the east, thus all the warriors are facing east. The warriors were not discovered until 1974 by a peasant sinking a well, 2,000+ years after it was created. It was hidden so well because there was no documentation of this and after the walls and warriors were built it was covered with soil. The whole section was 200 meters long and 63 meters wide. But all the soldiers were fragmented when it was discovered.
Archaeologists are still working to put the warriors back together. It takes approximately 6 months with two people to rebuild one warrior and took 6 years after discovery to get it ready for viewing.
Each of the thousand soldier figures are on average 1.8 meters tall, and have different facial expressions. All of them needed to be handsome to be part of the army. Although double eyelids are considered beautiful, all the warriors were single eyelid because the emperor had single eye lids.
Officers wore hats. Back in the day, if a soldier kills 30+ enemies he would become a officer and be granted a lot of land for his family. Men with buns are warriors. Horsemen wear armor and are usually tall to jump on the horses.
None of the real spears, arrows and bows are on the warriors now since most had decayed or broken. Remains are now found in another museum. These warriors were once painted in bright red, yellow, and blue, but none of the outfits are alike. All men who joined the army only gets weapons and not armors. The clothes are from the families.
Mark, our guide, told us a funny story. Supposedly one year a german student who admired the warriors snuck in the display with an armor similar to the warriors and painted his face with the clay on the ground. He stood still and no one noticed him until a young boy told his mom one of the warriors was moving. Since then, there are no admittance signs and guards at the site.
We then headed to Vault 2, which was found 10 years after the discovery of vault 1. In this vault, there were taller generals facing each other. It looks like they were having meetings. Also, they found deer horns in the vault, which means animal sacrifice was probably done there.
It is believed one of the head generals is figuratively located there because they found jade that is carved into a tiger in the vault. Back in the days the emperor's stamp would be made up of two pieces of jade carved into tigers. One for himself and the other for the head general.
All the heads of the soldiers were knocked off when they found the vault, probably because people were upset at the emperor. The floor was original.
We then went to the jade store where they showed us how to tell the difference between real jade and fake jade. In the end, I decided to buy a black jade pendant. After stiff negotiation we got it for 270RMB, 70% off the listed price.
On our way out we stopped by a building to meet the farmer that discovered the terracotta warrior. We bought a postcard for 10RMB and had to pay another 10RMB for his signature...pretty pricey deal.
Afterwards we walked back to the taxi and stopped for some food. The waitress was trying to rip us off by offering us the most expensive dishes on the menu, but our guide came to help us and got us noodle with chicken and celery. It was alright...seemed like we got shafted with all the pieces of meatless chicken.
At this point we were ready to go to the airport, but our guide suggested that we stopped by the Huaqing Pool. It was created in the Tang dynasty and was a complex of bathing houses and pools. So we did and it was very rushed. We had 20mins so we paid for a cart to drive us around. All in all it wasn't worth the trip. At least now we can say we went there.
Off to the airport we went. When we got there, I noticed I didn't have my duffle bag that had my around the world ticket. Damn! I left it in the hostel and we were an hour before our flight took off. After lots of confusion trying to arrange for our hostel to bring me my bag, we realized it was best to stay an extra night at Xi'an. The airline was pretty nice because they changed our flights to the next day without a fee.
We got back to the hostel, steph and erik decided to lay down while alan and I sat on the internet. When we were done, we painted on the hostel's wall where guests were welcomed to leave their markings. Talented I sketched out a globe surrounded by the chinese, american, Scottish, and norwegian flags. Alan helped me paint it, but smart him put too much water while he was painting the globe that it dripped onto the american flag and another group's artwork. We somehow saved it in the end.
Alan and I returned to the room to find steph and erik being lazy. They wanted to stay in so alan and I decided to explore the muslim quarter. Yes, muslim chinese, but clothing is less conservative. The women just wore a scarf wrapped around their heads and normal clothing. The men just wore hats.
The streets were very crowded, with tons of street food. We had some roasted chestnuts, sweets, and scallion pancakes along our way to the restaurant. We also visited the drum tower to snap a few photos and then went to a few souvenir shops. I tried to buy a painting, which the girl's starting price for was 2,500RMB. I told her no it was too expensive, so she dropped to 1,500RMB....no again....500RMB...no...how about 300RMB...still too expensive so I walked away. It was a nice painting, so I figured I will sleep on it then decide tomorrow if I really wanted it.. Eventually we found our muslim restaurant.
It was a 15 year old kid that served us with a muslim hat on. We didn't know how to speak cantonese so he gave us an english menu. We ordered some kebabs and noodles. Alan asked for beer, but the boy was like "no beer.". But then alan pointed to the menu and said "beer.". The boy said "no beer" and pointed to his hat and said "muslim."
None of the food was really good. In fact we left a lot of food on the plate and a old lady asked for it. We said sure take it, but the waiter started yelling at her. I felt bad for the granny and told them to let her have it.
On our trip back we were too lazy to walk, especially since a cab cost like $2. So we tried to hail for cab, but a tuk tuk wanted to take us. So I entertained the idea and asked for a price. First offered price was 20 RMB. I said no, 10RMB or else I am getting a cab. Three tuk tuk started to negotiate prices with me, going from 20RMB to 13RMB, eventually someone agreed on the 10RMB. Back to the hostel we went.
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