The warriors at last.

Thursday, July 1 Yesterday was the first day I didn't manage to write the journal. It was not that the day was so long, but that the demand on the hotel's one computer was too much, and I didn't have enough time to find an Internet cafÈ. My friend Louise, now in Beijing, just wrote and promised me that the cigarette smoke in those places will prove to me just how much people smoke. Speaking of smoke, it has been 100 degrees in Beijing all this week. We feel blessed having only had to endure rain - and now we have and dry, sunny days here in Xian. We headed out to the warriors yesterday morning. They are very strict about not letting you photograph inside, and last year someone in the Illinois group got in trouble for sneaking pictures, so we were on our best behavior since it is our guide who really gets the heat. Walking inside of Pit # 1, the first pit to be opened, you find yourself inside a huge building that looks like in might hold fifty indoor tennis courts. Below you are the infantry warriors most of us have seen in photographs, or in displays in American museums. They are impressive from any angle, but somewhat predictable given all I had read about them. We paid the exorbitant price of 150 yuan (pronounced yuen) -- $18 for a large group photo which we will then have reproduced back in the United States. What caught me mostly by surprise was the effect of looking down on the soldiers which were lying unreconstructed, just as they we found. The decapitated warriors with limbs akimbo and faces smashed in look in truth like a war zone -- sort of a three dimensional Guernica, and the heavy dust that covered them halfway was a ready reminder of films of World War I soldiers stuck in the trenches. For me this was not a monument to an emperor, but a stirring reminder of the effects of war, even on these doll-like figures. Further along we saw an area where figures were being reassembled ý la Humpty Dumpty. The final figures are coated over so the cracks don't show and in fact we aren't aware when we look at the presentation figures of just how much is real and how much was reconstructed. From Pit 1 we headed to Pit 2 which presents a different image. It is darker, with just a few halogen lights on the view at large, and you have more of a feeling of being in a cave. It is in this area where excavations are currently going on. The figures here are kneeling archers, standing archers, and chariots, so the decision has been made to excavate them, since they will provide more variety than more infantry soldiers -- more than 1,000 of which are already on display. Pit 3 is much smaller and evidently represented a war room of some sort. The terra cotta figures are facing each other and there are only ceremonial weapons. This area is also being left partly reconstructed so that visitors can appreciate the space as it looked when it was discovered. There is a pit 4, but so far there appears to be nothing in it, so work there has stopped. A small section has a glass dome over it, just to prove that there is nothing there. After the 4 pits we went to the audio visual presentation -- a film in 360 degree surround. It is a little cumbersome in the staging, but effective in giving a sense of what soldiers would look like in battle wearing the armor that we see on the figures. Originally the figures had been colored, and little bits of color have been left on the excavated figures, but it fades quickly in the air, so the film gave a more accurate sense of what a battle scene would look like from the point of view of the colors, too. Our final stop was a small gallery with two bronze chariots, the only ones found. One was a hearse -- another interesting reminder about the life of warriors. In the gift shop area we were told that one of the farmers who originally discovered the warriors was signing books, and most of us took advantage of his presence to have the books signed. I am not sure he really is the guy, but who knows. As with everything in the souvenir area, you need to pay what you are willing to pay for what you see, and not count on any promises. Our group is getting somewhat organized against the hawkers. Those wanting t-shirts banded together to present and bargain for a group price. It is too early in the trip for me to be picking up t-shirts. but I did buy a few small warriors from the street venders for the universal price ($1). The exhibit is so big, we didn't head out to lunch until almost 1:00, and then headed on to a small exhibit of a Neolithic village which was excavated in the 1960s. The size of the village was impressive, but the limited number of artifacts isn't going to turn this site into something the average tourist is likely to want to see. Xian is trying to promote itself as a major tourist center, and of course with the warriors, it is sure to be on most travelers' lists. ---- Today we got out into the countryside. Some years ago a group like our would be limited to where the bus could stop, and Bobbie had discovered that asking to see some obscure tombs was the only way to get out into the countryside. We drove along the roads past corn and pomegranates and wheat and garden vegetables. Then we stopped at a village the group discovered last year that has a rather gaudy Catholic church prominently visible from the road. The farmer who invited last year's group to visit his house was not in evidence, but his neighbor happily made the offer and showed us her compound. The farm houses and walls are all made of red brick and look quite cheerful. She showed us how the original well now has an electric motor, and we had to look past the television set to discover the picture of Jesus on the wall. This woman was not a Catholic for a long time, but joined after the church was built. The church itself is said to have only 20 members from the village, but based on the private strips of padding on the kneeling benches, I would guess there are more people than that at services -- perhaps from neighboring villages. The priest comes by once a week and we were told that he had studied in Germany and had been to Rome, although the "official" Chinese Catholic Church has no "official" relationship to Rome. Of course all this activity in such a tiny village produced many toddlers (the older children were apparently all in school) and we passed out candy, balloons and pencils to all and sundry. Heading further out into the countryside, we came to the Tang Tombs (long ago robbed by grave robbers). There are some fresco-type paintings on the walls, but the originals have been removed to the museum in Xian -- a good thing because there is no effort at climate control here. Beyond the open tomb we headed up onto a hillside where there is a sacred walk with statues. By now our appetite was whetted for more village experience, so some of us made quick work of the sacred walk, and then headed down the country road, past farm houses that rarely see the likes of us. One woman invited me into her house which is actually a cave with a door. Of course they all have something they want to sell, but I didn't have any small bills, and had to settle for passing out candy and balloons to the children. Two little boys -- about eight or nine, joined me and seemed able to understand my Chinese enough for a conversation -- their names, the fact that their family has an apple orchard, etc. They continued to follow me down the road and I was teaching them in English the names of the colors of their clothes. In a few minutes we caught up with someone else from our group who had come upon an elementary school. The students eagerly took us into the building and showed us the classroom. There were no teachers in evidence -- apparently this was lunch time -- but we had fun together. I took the chalk and wrote some arithmetic problems on the board and they had a good time showing me what they knew. By this time most of our group was assembling -- and most of the children ready for afternoon classes. What had been a calm interchange suddenly got hectic and somewhat out of control with the passing out of more candy (preferred), stickers, and barrettes. I was out of loot and helped someone else with the barrettes, which was an interesting proposition because they were only for the girls, and the girls enjoyed telling the boys to go away. When the situation looked pretty chaotic, our leader urged us to get back in the bus, and we turned over what remained of the candy to our local tour guide. He had no better luck trying to give it out in a sensible manner, so we then entrusted it to an unsuspecting adult, and headed off down the road. Upon reflection, if the teachers had seen us coming, they probably did the right thing by hiding.