Terracotta Warriors

I loved Mulan and not just as a child, I do to this day. Now Mulan has nothing to do with the Terracotta Warriors, I was just throwing it out there.

So Kristy and I have finally headed out of Beijing on an overnight train towards Xi’an to go see one of the must dos when visiting China.

Pit 1- Main Pit

Here is the first of 4 excavation pits of warriors uncovered. It is the most photographed one because technically the second size comparable pit of warriors isn’t uncovered. They did this to preserve the warriors since every single one of them were originally painted. They are however, planning to open the second pit at some point but they are waiting on technology and machinery to catch up as to allow for the least damaging extraction method.

Look closely, every single warrior has a unique face. Of the 8000+  soldiers not a single  face was duplicated.

Floor plan outlining the warrior and chariot placements.

Despite appearances, most of the soldiers in the topmost pictures were actually not intact when they were originally found. Over the years they have been rebuild and put back together to replicated the original design; there are still workers putting together the soldiers today.

This is what most of the pit originally looked like.

This particular solider is called the Kneeling Archer, his is the only completely intact solider found so far.

Chariot meant to carry the Emperor’s Soul to the afterlife.

City of Xi’an

Bell Tower on the city walls.

I’d like to just point out the fact that I am the Emperor and Kristy is the General :P hehe Queen Nadine!