Day 7 – Terracotta Warriors
We started the day in Xian, packed up and checked out of our hotel. We headed out on the bus to the Terracotta Warriors site. It was 16 degrees this morning…7 with wind chill. Ouch! The Xian hotel was probably our least favorite. The water smelled like burnt gas or some chemical. The food was not that great either. We did however see a wedding party in the lobby as we were leaving. It was the groom, holding a bouquet of red roses, making his way down the marble staircase to the decorated Maserati out front. Evidently the tradition is that he goes to pick up the bride and then brings her back for the ceremony and reception.
So we drove out to the Terracotta Warriors, and on the way we passed the hill that is the (still intact) tomb of the emperor. When we arrived it was evident that the facility has expanded. The parking lot was much farther away and there were more buildings. They figure there are 8000 warriors but only 2000 have been unearthed. There are 3 buildings housing the large archaeological pits, and the largest – Pit 1 – is 140K square feet. It is a 3 day holiday weekend so it was pretty packed. The buildings have no heat so it was a pretty brutal cold day. You can see the work space for those working on the dig. There are desks and tools down in the pits. None of the warriors are intact, so they dig them up and try to group together the fragments of each separate warrior.
I have to mention that on the way to the dig site, we stopped at a tourist shop with a huge variety of products including clay warrior reproductions, and lacquer furniture. You can even order a life size clay warrior with the head as a likeness of yourself! However we all are starting to wish that they’d spend less time taking us ‘shopping’ at these tourist souvenir vast retail warehouses. I know that often the tour operator or guide get kickbacks from these operations, so they are often very motivated to take us to every possible souvenir stop. The Jade Factory, the Pearl Factory, etc.
We had a noodle lunch in a big tourist lunch room on site at the Warriors location. It was not too organized and not too fast, so we also felt like we spent too much time hanging around the lunchroom, and waiting in line for the buffet. Last night I didn’t go out with the group to the buffet dinner, and they told me it was a good choice. I needed to just sit down and order a vegetarian meal and have someone bring me exactly what I wanted.
About 3 pm we walked back to the bus (a very long walk past a few hundred little shops and food stalls) to drive to the airport. We flew to Guilin on China Airlines which happens to be a Star Alliance airline, so I am going to try to get credit for Star Alliance points! We landed at Guilin’s brand new airport, and the skybridge didn’t work. After waiting 35 minutes to deplane, they brought stairs to the back of the plane and we deplaned out the back door on a staircase in the rain, then had to climb stairs back up into the terminal. Ugh.
Finally got to our hotel about 10 pm, and it is this huge ornate hotel that looks like it belongs in Las Vegas. White marble, gold embellishments, fancy carved furniture, and a velvet chaise lounge in our room. It is pretty funny… totally over the top.
We check out a 7:45 am tomorrow, and are taking a river cruise to another hotel on the River Li. We will spend one night at YangShuo and then come back to this hotel in Guilin for one night. Sophie is going to have a Chinese cooking lesson tomorrow evening too!
Sophie and I both agreed today that we feel like we are ready to come home after one week, but we also know the next week will be the best part of the trip. Tomorrow we’ll be taking photos of the famous Guilin and River Li landscape and mountains!
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