China has it all – the Great Wall, Silk, Forbidden City, Communism, Tiananmen Square, Shanghai, Tibet, Pollution and the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing, and a great deal of art, culture and history. However, it was the enchanting Terracotta Warriors in Xian that made my visit to China – truly memorable.
After arriving in Beijing, for the first couple of days, I thought we were just getting some bad weather and eventually it would clear up. I finally had to accept the undeniable truth: Mother Nature had nothing to do with all that greyness and it was not going to go away. Beijing is a shocking reminder to our species, the very danger of ignoring our environment while seeking economic growth of unsustainable proportions.
It was day five, we were already more than halfway through our tour, yet I felt like I was just beginning to get my bearings. It was just starting to feel natural greeting people with a "Nie Hao" or showing appreciation with a "Xie xie". On this day, Jackie, our local Xian guide, led us to the site where, in 1974, farmers looking to dig a well on their property were in for a bit of a surprise. They inadvertently unearthed an army of terracotta figures numbering over 8,000, which were intended to protect the nearby tomb of the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (the same Emperor Qin who united China and oversaw the creation of the Wall).
Beginning in 246 BC, the emperor had an estimated 700,000 artisans work for 36 years to create these figures using earth from the nearby hills. The rationale for this massive project was simple enough; he needed a fully equipped military (generals, soldiers, horses, chariots and all) to fight for him in the after-life.
Thankfully, the farmers who unearthed this discovery had the foresight to call the local archaeologists, who promptly excavated a small portion of it. They did not find the nice even rows of intact soldiers that we see today. It is believed that after Emperor Qin's death, his terracotta army was on the losing end of many battles with looters, who stole their very real weapons for use in future rebellions, smashed many of the soldiers to bits and when that task became too burdensome, set fire to the entire complex.
I can understand the weapons part, but how anyone can look at thousands of painstakingly detailed sculptures, each face unique, all of them hand painted in vibrant colours and have the heart to destroy such a work of art is incomprehensible. I imagine it is like going into the Louvre with a can of spray paint and defacing everything in sight. Yet, I recognize how ethnocentric that opinion may be. If the Emperor believed these figures would come alive to fight for him, it is not that improbable, that the looters, many of whom were opposed to the Qin dynasty, feared that they would someday have to fight these 8000 and more figures in a much more animated state.
Either way, what the archaeologists found in 1974, was a lot of rubble, which they carefully reconstructed into what we now see in the 3 excavated pits at the Terracotta Warriors museum (or in our case, 2 pits, since #2 was closed for renovation). Their work is hardly done, since plenty of figures remain unexcavated. However, since all the figures they unearthed have had their colour fade in a matter of hours, the remaining warriors will remain underground until a way to preserve the pigment has been devised.
The same patient methods apply to Emperor Qin's actual tomb which, based on available descriptions, may someday be among the greatest archaeological digs of all time. I, obviously, can only speak for what was on view at present day. But to me, this museum was the highlight, bar none, of our visit to China. Yes, the Wall is spectacular, but what is most remarkable about it is its scope, something that you cannot fully appreciate in person.
The Warriors, on the other hand, are something that although still immense in scale, can be immediately appreciated. I could spend hours examining the details on the clothing, the expressions on the faces, the workmanship that went into each figure over 2,200 years ago. I was completely fascinated. So much so, those hours later, I found myself back in Xian, at the souvenir market near the Muslim area haggling for one of the ubiquitous replicas of the warriors.
To avoid confusion, all the haggling takes place on a calculator (ie. the vendor punches in a grossly exaggerated figure and hands you the calculator, you then hit clear and enter a more realistic amount, and so on, until you either hit upon a mutually agreeable amount or you give up and walk away...at which point, you get chased down by the vendor who is suddenly willing to go a bit lower). I haggled, got a warrior, and had just enough time left before the sun set to visit the Great Mosque, a unique combination of Chinese and Islamic architecture. By the time I left the Mosque, it was already night time, another reminder that the time was going way, way too fast...
The Great Mosque of Xian
The Great Mosque of Xian is the largest and best preserved of the early mosques of China. Located 120 KM west of Mountain Huashan (among China's five famous mountains) the Great Mosque of Xian (Sian) is located in the "Huajue Xiang" district, inhabited mainly by the Muslim Hui minority. The 60,000 strong Muslim community that lives and works today in Xian traces its history to Arab & Persian merchants.
During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese architectural elements were synthesised into mosque architecture. The Great Mosque of Xian resembles a fifteenth century Buddhist temple with its single axis lined with courtyards and pavilions.
The Mosque was built in 1392 by naval admiral Hajji Cheng Ho, the son of a prestigious Muslim family and famous for clearing the China Sea of pirates.
