Terracotta Army

The full warrior formation seen fron the entrance of Pit 1

The entrance to Pit 1

All the restored warriors in the front row

All of the warriors have different faces

The site is called Terracotta Army and Horses

Restoration work of the corridors that had been damaged by eg. fire

New soldiers restored on site

We didn't see the actual restoration work in action

Some of the stautes were in better condition than others

So this is how they restore the warriors

The site where the well was being built when discovering the pit

Pit 2 had less warriors on display

The pit is still active and work is still done to recover statues from the ground

Pit two represents the military guard

Picture showing how different all the soldiers are

All warriors used to have paint on them to resemble real people

I had seen this warrior on dispay in Stockholm some years ago

This is more like what I had imagined the pit to look like

The farmer that made the discovery, writing autographs

Entrance to Pit 1, looking more like a entrance to university

The museum on site

Terracotta Armeijan näkeminen oli minulla jo pitkään toive listalla, joten poikkesimme Xianissa yhden yön. Olin jotenkin kuvitellut, että paikka olisi alkeellisempi, ja että armeija on löydetty keskellä kivistä peltoa, ja että se on nyt hangaarimaisen rakennelman alla. Näin se oli joskus alkuvaiheessa, sillä nyt paikka oli tehty turistiystävällisemmäksi. Paikka näytti ihan kampusalueelta ja kolmen hauta-alueen lisäksi paikalla oli museo ja teatteri. Terracotta armeijakeisari Qin hautaa vartioima rakennelma. Sotilaita ja muita veistoksia koottiin 38 vuoden ajan, ja keisarin kuoltua hautakammiot suljettiin. Tämä tarkoitti, että he jotka vielä tekivät töitä kammioissa, jätettiin sisään kuolemaan. Hautapaikasta ei kerrota historiassa mitään, joten se tuli yllätyksenä, kun maanviljelijä vahingossa löysi sen kaivaessaan kaivoa maallaan vuonna 1974. Kaivaminen ja sotilaiden kokoaminen jatkuu vieläkin.

Pit 1 on suurin ja se on 230 metriä pitkä ja 62 metriä leveä. Täältä on löydetty 6000 sotilasta ja hevosta, jotka on jaettu yhteentoista kolumniin. Kaikilla sotilailla on erilaiset kasvot ja ilmeet, ja ne ovat tehty muistuttamaan oikeita sotilaita. Sotilaat olivat maalattuja ja värikkäitä, mutta maali on hävinnyt melkein kokonaan. Pit 2 löydettiin myös sotilasmuodostelma, mutta paljon pienempi, ja täältä löytyi hevoskärryt. Pit 2 ei ollut jäljellä paljon näkemistä, sillä paljon oli poistettu alueelta ja pistetty museoon. Toisaalla Pit 2 kaivetaan vielä. Näin esim. terracotta sotilaan pään sisällä montussa. Pit 3 oli pienin, jonne armeijan johto oli aseteltu. Itse en edes muista mitä pit 3:ssa oli, sillä siinä ei tainnut paljon olla esillä. Museo oli todella kiinnostava paikka, vaikkakin siellä oli sen verran ihmisiä, ettei rauhassa voinut kaikkea katsoa. Museon ulkopuolella näimme myös maanviljelijän, joka oli paikan löytänyt, kirjoittamassa nimikirjoituksia.

                                 ☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★  

The Terracotta Army wasn’t located in a place that I had imagined it to be like. I had imagined that there would be three pits with an open-like hangar and that the surrounding is just some kind of sandy flat ground between some mountains. The surroundings were green hills and the area looked almost campus-like, with large buildings and pavements. I think I just underestimated the touristyness of the place. Of course it looks like I had imagined twenty years ago, but now it’s made more tourist friendly. At first we didn’t find the ticket office, so we bought tickets from some weird exhibition hall-shop. The first pit we went to is the largest of the three. It is 62 meters wide and 230 meters long and more than 6,000 soldiers and other figures are estimated to be in the pit. All of the statues have different characteristics and faces, to give them a more human look. The pit is still active which means they are still recovering statues and rebuilding the ones that tare damaged. There were lots of statues that were being restores and even though you weren’t supposed to take pictures of these broken ones I managed to take some accidentally.

If I remember correctly the army was built for the Emperor Qin, who was one of the worst emperors of China and also the first one who united China. The army was built for the emperor’s afterlife. As the emperor died, and he was buried, all entrances where closed, which meant that people working in the pits where left to die. Some people that knew about the mausoleum destroyed part of it and e.g. all weapons where taken. In the past all soldiers had spears, but nowadays all most non are left. But still almost 40,000 other bronze weapons have been found in the pits. The mausoleum was never mentioned in history, so when a local farmer discovered it in 1974 by accident, when making a well, nobody knew about what could be found. The building of the mausoleum took 38 years 700,000 people worked on the construction of it. The mausoleum is said to be an underground reproduction of the earth world as lots of cultural relics have been found there.

The warriors are laid out to protect the tomb from the east. Pit 1 had the largest warrior formation laid out in 11 corridors. Pit 2 was smaller and had less on display was built as a war chariots and represented the military guard and the pit 3 had the command post with high ranked officers. I found the first pit the most interesting, as the other had less on display. There was a movie hall showing a video of the building of the warriors and we watched that for a while. The museum located in a separate building was interesting, but there were lots of people that made it really uncomfortable to move. We even caught a glimpse of the farmer that discovered pit 1 writing autographs. The Terracotta Army was a place that I had for a long time wanted to visit and it is worth seeing it, even though it was completely different to what I had expected.

Xi'anin turhin nähtävyys

Matkalla katsomaan terracotta armeijaa Xianin ulkopuolella, jäimme bussista pois matkalla, ja kävimme katsomassa kuninkaallista kylpylä-palatsia. Tämä oli kyllä ensimmäinen turha historiallinen paikka jossa olen käynyt. Paikan päällä oli paljon turisteja ja nähtävänä oli vain vanhoja kivi altaita, jossa jokin prinssi tai keisari joskus on kylpenyt. Paikka on kiinalisille varmasti jännempi, jos he historian tuntevat, mutta minusta paikan päällä ei ollut paljon nähtävää.

                                 ☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★  

On our way to the Terracotta Army in Xian, we stopped by a place we never heard about before. It was the Huaqing Hot Spring imperial bathing palace. Actually this is a place not worth going to and paying 100rmb at the entrance. There are lots of empty pools that were used by the prince, crown princess etc. Lots of people, but not that many interesting things to experience.  It would have been better if we would have gone straight to the army and then we would have had time to visit the city in the afternoon.

Shaolin Kungfu

 

Olimme kaksi päivää Luoyangissa, joten toisena päivänä lähdimme aikaisin matkaan kohti Shaolin Temppeliä. Temppeli sijaitsee toisessa kaupungissa, joten jouduimme ensin ottamaan bussin keskustan bussiasemalle, jossa vaihdoimme suurempaan bussiin, joka vei meidät Dengfeng kylään. Matka kokonaisuudessaan kesti noin kaksi ja puoli tuntia. Matkalla näimme kung fu kouluja, jossa pienet lapset harjoittelivat pihalla. Shaolin temppeli oli kauhea turistirysä. Paljon ihmisiä ja munkit möivät turistikrääsää kojuissaan. En nähnyt melkein yhtään aitoa munkkia treenaamassa, vain ainoastaan etukäteen tehdyt esitykset. Esitykset eivät sinänsä olleet huonoja, vaikka olin lukenut, että ne olisivat. Esityksissä näytettiin kung fun eri tyylilajeja ja myös yleisöstä kolme pääsi lavalle näyttämään taitonsa. Esitysten jälkeen menimme temppeliin, jossa oli niin paljon ihmisiä, ettei kunnon kuvia saanut oikein otettua. Temppeli oli samanlainen kun kaikki muutkin jossa olin käynyt, joten ei mikään erikoinen. Temppelistä jatkoimme matkaan vielä Pagoda metsään, missä kuolleet munkit on haudattu. Paikka oli ihan kiva nähdä, sillä se on niin tunnettu, mutta menisin mieluimmin autenttiseen kouluun katsomaan heidän harjoituksia.

                                 ☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★  

We spent two days in the city of Luoyang, so on the last one we decided to go Shaolin Temple in the nearby city of Dengfeng. We took a bus to the main station where the transferred into a bigger bus. The trip all in all took two and a half hour. On the way there we saw some authentic kung fu schools and the children training outside. The Shaolin temple wasn’t what I had expected. There were massive tourist groups and even the monks where selling overpriced touristy stuff in small shops. I didn’t see that many children training, which I had been looking forward to, but instead we attended two of their shows. The shows were actually pretty good and they gave an introduction to the skills that they learn in the school. The temple was a disappointment, and looked like all the temples I have seen before. There were lots of people which made taking pictures a nightmare as everybody was in front. We also visited the Pagoda forest, which is the burial site of past monks. It was nice to visit the site, but I’m more interested in seeing an authentic school, and not as touristy as this one.