Terra Cotta Warriors

An hour or so outside of Xi'an is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen in my life. The Terra Cotta Warriors are sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Work on the warriors began after Qin ascended the throne at the young age of 13. It is believed that the Emperor had these built to protect him in his afterlife, and to ensure that he had people to rule. I guess that makes sense when your 13.

The figures in the three completed tombs contain generals, warriors, officials, chariots and horses as well as others. Current estimates believe that there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalary horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. We visited three rooms which were all at different stages in the process of digging and reconstruction. 

When your walking around the these fascinating rooms filled with endless rows of warriors, you can't imagine what was going through the 700,000 workers heads while building these warriors for their Emperor. It's also believed that each one has a face molded after the actual workers. Our guide said that all of the people who worked on the warriors were murdered after they finished thier statue! Therefore, there are thousands of people who died while making an army for the Emperors afterlife. 

Easily Influenced?

Not really, but with all the Mao memorabilia one could possibly be brainwashed. We just decided to get our photo taken with him instead of following his beliefs. Chairman Mao was the founding father of the People's Republic of China in 1949. He later died in 1976 bringing is rule to an end, but not his legacy.

Turtle City

Pingyao's history dates back 2,700 years, and is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the known world. It's renowned for it's well preserved ancient city wall which is shaped like a turtle. Giving the city it's nickname "Turtle City". The wall, which was built in 1370, measures 12 meters high with a preimeter of 6,000 meters. There is also a 4 meter wide mote just outside the walls. With over 70 watchtowers and more than 3,000 battlements you can understand why it became the banking center of China.

Cassie and I spent two nights and three full days exploing this cities temples, shops, and restraunts within its walls. I've left all the photos of what's inside these walls to a photo set. So like us, if you want to see the what was inside this walled city you will have to enter these ancient walls. Pingyao photo set.

Dinner with friends

It's funny how being on the road everyday you can easily start to reminisce about old times. One thing that we have always enjoyed was dinner with our friends. So tonight, come join us. You can even imaging that your siting opposite of us. (Since we are actually sitting on the same side of the table, the lighting was better) I believe Szechuan was on the menu for dinner, you can even have an ice cold Tsingtao. Our treat... 

 

Post-industrial chic (aka) 798 Art District

The 798 Art District in Beijing was easily one of our favorite sites in this bustling city. World class art, housed in what was once military factory buildings. Even these factories could be a museum all on there own without any art inside. Built with large skylight windows and swatooth shapped roofs which maximized natural light provided a blank canvas for atist to show their work.

Since I was respectful of the artist and the galleries I took no photos of the lovely work inside these spaces. I did on the other hand take my liberty shooting all the street art filling in the nooks and alleyways within this neighborhood. While we only ended up spending a good half day walking around you could easily spend a full day and possibly even two exploring every museum.