Today’s lesson: The Terracotta Army are the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BCE, were discovered in 1974 by several local farmers near Xi’an, Shanxi province, China near the Mausouleum of the First Qin Emperor. The figures vary in height, according to their role, the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.
Now, my thoughts… The general idea of the Army and the actual statues are incredibility interesting. Just thinking that so many of these pieces are still in tact after many centuries is amazing. However the way in which this army is presented was very poor. The entire surrounding area felt like the Bridgeport Mall in Lake Oswego complete with many shops, a KFC and corporate branding from Pepsi. I understand that the need the money to pay for this dig/discovery but there had to have been a better way…
Overall this visit is another that is a can’t miss on a trek through China… Enjoy the more detailed photos below.
I’ve said it before… Sometimes it’s more about the journey than the destination. With the Terracotta Warriors being one of the main attractions near Xi’an we set out on a journey to see this legendary army. This bus ride was the result.
Side note: I’m pretty sure the girl next to me in the video proposed during this bus ride. I can’t be for sure, but I’m about 95% sure.
Welcome to Xi’an… I guessing they knew I was coming and threw we a welcoming party. That was very nice of them. I mean, I knew the word was out that I was on my way, but this was totally unexpected…
In all seriousness we were walking around the city to get our barrings and we came up on this “event”… Just moments after filming these drummers, the man on the left oftered me his drumstick to continue this beat (He saw me standing there for 5 mins studying the beat in my head) Even as I’m sitting down to write this it seems unreal… Although I only took one hit on the drum in fear of destroying this dance, it was defenitly a moment that I won’t soon forget… Welcome to Xi’an.
I really didn’t think I would write another post after a long train ride… But just like everything else here, nothing is the same twice. After literally running to catch out train with one min to spare, we again were off. As we watched Beijing fade off into the night, our thoughts were now on to Xi’an. I personally was quite excited, as I had been looking forward to this city for quite some time and after over two weeks in Beijing it was time for another change.
With this train only being an eleven hour journey I figured with two Benadryl and a glass a tea I would be set. On a side note, I again am fighting a little cold…damn new set of germs over here. But the idea of rest was out the window as soon as we sat down. It started with people asking where we were from… Now usually this only last 30 secs as you say “America” and then they say “Welcome” and you continue on your way. This time the response was, “Oh really, I study in England”… (Me thinking…Yes…Finally!)
Now I wasn’t excited that this gentlemen was living in England because if you know me that usually gets me excited. This time I was thrilled because this would be our first real encounter with a local that could actually have a conversation with us and what a conversation it was… Three hours later and after a few beers shared, Beijing and China was held in such a new light. I don’t really want to get into details but just being able to have a real colloquy with this young bloke was just what I needed.
Even more valuable about this meeting was that he would also be staying Xi’an with his family for the week. This will be our chance to actually get out with the locals again and see a great new side of the culture that China has to offer…aka partying with the locals, yes please.
The beauty of not having to be anywhere at anytime is really starting to set in… Just as long as I can find the internet for 10 hours a day… Nothing else really seems matter… However living with that mind set can come back to bite you in the ass… And this would happen to be the reason I’m still in Beijing…
Thinking; with eight trains a day leaving from Beijing to Xi’an we would be able to find one with seats wouldn’t be a problem, we headed to the train station early last night… To our somewhat of a surprise there were none, but not just for Thursday night but Friday as well… So back to our hotel we went… Greeted with the biggest of smiles and a “What Happened?”, we all laughed as they rang us up for two more nights…
With already being here for 14 days there wasn’t much we hadn’t done… So another night walk was in order…to the Mall this time… This bringing me to the video above… Most busy streets here don’t have crosswalks as there are 5 lanes on each side of the roads, but don’t be confused its not like any driver stays in these so called lanes… In return there are many underground passage ways around the city… I chose this one because I could hear this man signing from outside… After reminiscing earlier in the day about shows on the West End in London and recent concerts such as Austin City Limits, I was really missing live entertainment…and just hours later I was welcomed with the Eric Clapton great “Tears in Heaven”… Now a few notes might have been missed, but vibing out for just 2 minutes what exactly what I needed…
Sorry this entire post is trailing thoughts. That happens from time to time…
On a completely unrelated note and because I am on an eleven hour train ride right now… Where the Wild Things Are will finally see the day of light and here is the first trailer… You have no idea how excited I am for this one… I’m jumping up and down like a 5 year old on his first visit to Disneyland…. Yeah, you know the feeling…
With it being out last day/night in Beijing and I took the time to to go back and read all of my posts from the past two weeks… I’ve heard from a few of you that you thought I’ve been very negative about Beijing and China as a whole… And you know what, you’re are right… well, sort of…
Sure I complain about multiple scams and pollution…and I think I have the right to…because all that crap is nonsense… But even with all of the negative things here I still wouldn’t consider this visit a bust… Just the idea of traveling to China is mind blogging to me… Like “I’m in CHINA right now…” The reason for coming here was to literally see what the hell was going on… And in the past two weeks I’ve gotten a pretty good idea. It’s Communism / Capitalism at it’s finest…And I’m not mad at it… I just wish they didn’t block YouTube across the country…
So all in all I’m very happy with what I’ve seen and learned here and that’s what this adventure is about… Tomorrow is another travel day as we head to Xi’an to check out the legendary Terracotta Warriors. Until then…
Just two more things, a big shout out to Neal, thanks the great words of wisdom… and the pic above is the US Embassy in Beijing, it felt like being back at home…
Today’s entry is pretty basic because I found a “1 UP” (Mario fans?), changed the layout of this blog (thoughts people?) and…
…On any given day in the Blog Craver office we spend a lot of time staring straight at our computers, working diligently. That’s not to say we’re not having a blast, because we are, but sometimes when shit gets hectic we just throw on the sort of mindblowing Crookers remix of KiD CuDi’s “Day ‘N’ Night” and rave as hard as we can…
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The last few days have been incredibly busy and its music like that keep me going… On a side note I got a Visa for Vietnam… I’m heading back to Hanoi next week…
Most of you from Oregon you know exactly who Ramblin’ Rod was and what the above logo is for… And being a TWO time smile contest winner on this very program, you know I am very fond of this gentleman myself. During a dinner a few weeks back I was reminded of this great Portland figure and what he meant to my childhood among many others since the 1950′s. After doing a little bit of research I found that he had passed in 2002 from a stroke and to this day nothing has been done to cement his legacy in…
This is where we come in… We have now purchased and set up RamblinRod.com and are planning to work with the Rod Anders family to set up a charity in his name using this site…and I’d love to give more details now, but we are in the beginning stages of this project… But I just wanted to share some new projects with you…
One more site update… If you look the top right of this page you will see a new tab “Maps“… I have created detailed travel maps from 2005 till now, so if you are interested in where in the world I am click up there to take a look…
Scams… They seem to be around every corner here and they’re not just out for pocket change anymore… They’re out to rake in the big bills… Sure this rickshaw ride above seems fun and interesting… Especially when they tell you its only going to be 3¥, you’d be elated. Except when they take you down a side route that ends in back alleyway and you are suddenly nowhere near where you were trying to go and told to pay 300¥ for the ride you just took…
Granted, we should know better… We were told not to trust anyone or anything here… Because something that seems so harmless as a rickshaw ride around the Forbidden City can end up the way this ride did…
Luckily we are two athletic young men and can fend for ourselves because these two drivers forcefully tried to not let us leave the alley without paying their new price, but with persistence and keeping our cool got us out of this situation… But instant thoughts came to me about traveling in 2006 with Megs and what would of happen if it were her and I instead of Jakob and myself… Or if this would of happen to two ladies traveling here… and the thing is, I’m sure it happens more often then I’d like to know… It’s just sickening to think about how some people sink so low to make an extra few dollars here and it really weakens my view on the people here as a whole…(keep reading)
As for the video I posted two days ago… Yes, I was in the back of a police car… but only for the right reasons… Jakob ran into in another scam a few days back (not going to get into extreme details) and we went through the correct channels to alleviate the issue…
But basically the scam works like this… Two people (two girls or one guy/one girl) ask if you wouldn’t mind helping them with English as they are “students” and they are trying to learn… So most people say sure, I mean why not, it seems harmless… They take to you a strategic bar where some how the bottle of wine they order is 500-800 dollars… But that info isn’t given to you until its time to pay and the two others have no money and the merchant threatens calling the police… We later learned the two that bring the business in get up to 25% of the sale…
However, we went out with the Beijing Police the following evening and recouped the losses from the night before… But you see, something as simple as helping someone with English and grabbing a drink can turn into a huge loss…
I haven’t been down on a place like this… well really ever… I really hope the rest of China changes that…
But: The Dodgers??