Phil's China Viking Yangtze River Cruise - Blog 7 (rivercruising.co.uk)
After a great nights sleep we are off to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. Guess what? Its just a 1 hour drive from the hotel. Everything in China seems to be a 1 hour drive..!!
Our Viking guide Bonnie has provided us with small radio receivers for a live running commentary during our tour. We are able to listen to Alan our local Xian guide without him having to shout to the goup. This is a great idea.
We arrive at the tomb at around 10.30am and the weather is beautiful. The surrounding grounds are georgeous with the leaves on the trees in autumnal colour, it really isn't what I expected. Its like a spring day in England with the colours of New England in the fall.
The anticipation was now building as we made the short walk to Pit One...
A deep breath and then in we all went in and 'WOW' 'WOW' 'WOW'.
It is awesome, when you consider they have been hidden away for over 2000 years from back in 246 B.C. when empreror Qin (Chin) who was only 13 years old, had work started on his mausoleum.
The Terra Cotta Warriors were discovered by a farmer whilst digging a well in March 1974 and were first showed to the public in 1979.
When they first uncovered the Warriors they were painted in colours. Their hair was black and faces pink etc but within a short period of being exposed to the ultra violet light, a reaction faded the colours completely.
On average 10,000 people a day visit the Terra Cotta Warriors!
The walk around the 'pit' was something I will never ever forget.
More than 7,000 life-sized Terra Cotta archers, infantrymen, soldiers, horses and chariota in full battle gear and standing in formation were standing there facing ME...!!
It is just breathtaking!
Whilst the sheer scale is amazing, when you consider Qin made his people build these warriors for him over four decades and then buried these same people alive - it was also particularly ruthless..!!
These warriors were built over 2000 years ago for the emperor to protect him in afterlife. The tallest is 6ft which is slightly taller than the soldiers of that time. The Emperor wanted bigger warriors to protect him in his afterlife.
In the Qin Dynasty there were 12 ranks in the army and in order to get promotion the soldiers had to kill the enemey and cut of their heads and then tie the heads to their horses and bring them back to their general. Each of the Terra Cotta Warriors has his rank sculpted on it. The more heads they brought back the higher the promotion.
Emperor Qin was responsible for standardising the written Chinese Characters. Although there are many variations of spoken Chinese, Emperor Xing standardised the reading of the language.
This was a true highlight and Viking River Cruises organization was quite superb.
Guess what.... Another 1 hour drive to Xian airport for our short flight to Beijing. Yes! We are off to see the Great Wall of China...Everyone is so excited.
I must emphasise that when we arrived at the airport, all our boarding cards were waiting. We went straight through security to the gate and onto the plane. We landed in Beijing - a 40 minute drive on Bonnie Bus to our hotel and all this without touching our luggage.
That is why the Viking River Cruise China experience is so good!
Time to get some sleep and ready for our next new adventure in China with Viking.
I will be giving a shout out to a special friend tomorrow live from the Great Wall as promised.
