Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an, China

Ping Ma Yong, the terracotta warriors

Over 2,200 years ago, when peasants carved the arid Chinese lands and Kingdoms across China fought for superiority, one man rose and unified all the lands. Emperor Qin Shi Huang became China's first emperor and founder of the Qin Dynasty. 

Ready at attention

Under his rule large scale construction projects were begun including the Great Wall but most notably he built himself an imperial gigantic mausoleum. Inside the tomb, it has been described were palaces of riches, rivers of mercury and frescos of the day sky. Most impressively however as a way to protect and aid him during his impending afterlife he had over 700,000 builders and slaves carve and painstakingly built at least 7,500 terracotta soldiers as well as horses, chariots and servants from clay found beneath the ground. Sealed off and closed for centuries the mausoleum was accidentally discovered around the 1950's. The tomb, known in Chinese as Ping Ma Yong (soldier and horse funerary statues) has become a world wide sensation and one of China's most ancient treasures. 

Soldiers and their horses

We had only just arrived in the hot and dry imperial city of Xi'an and pushing through the hoards of people we went off in search of the bus station. Hoping to find a direct bus to Ping Ma Yong, Emperor Qin's famous Terracotta Warriors we wiggled through the crowds with our small bags.

The bus was easy to spot, there was a slow moving mass of people with arms, legs and children circling around the periphery. It was hot outside, the air was dry, dusty and the pollution level was high but we joined the hoard eager to go and see the famous Warriors. The bus was back-sweating hot and unsurprisingly overcrowded. We soon set off into the Chinese countryside passing small rural towns. 

John resting in the shade

The traffic was horrendous and we arrived an hour later than the scheduled time due to the endless lines of cars. As we had approached we think the bus driver was also so fed up and deciding he'd had enough pulled over and ordered everyone off. Fair enough, we were close enough to walk, but we didn't know at the time what was going on or where we were! There were stalls along some of the paths selling cold rice noodles, kebab-like meat and further on the drying furry skins of that meat. 

Entry into building one

Finding our way through at least a thousand car carpark we kept our sights on the large McDonalds and surely there was the ticket office. 

Lining up for tickets was confusing and a shambles, so we both joined a line and watched which one went faster. As a public holiday during one of only three long weekends in China it was particularly busy and all around us tour group operators shouted through megaphones to be heard. The tickets got us through two checkpoints, a bag check and the long warm walk through a straggly patch of bush. 

The tombs of the Terracotta army, were initially discovered by a local farmer out working his fields, digging a well for water. Today his land is owned by the government and he lives a comfortable life signing books for tourists. As we approached the end of the path, in front of us were large white concrete buildings. Each one protecting one of the unearthed pits, inside. 

As it was a particularly busy day there were people milling about like Australian flies. Some where taking shade under large green trees, squatting on the ground and fanning themselves. Others stood around smoking while their children happily ran through the gardens chowing on processed sausage sticks. 

Masses of people

Hiding from the strong sun

We weren't really sure where to go first so we randomly turned right and walked into the first white building. Inside was an unorderly mass of chaotic people at least 6 rows deep in a frenzy to see something. Cameras and selfie sticks were thrust into the air and elbows were flying left and right, forward and backward. We were surprised to say the least but we weren't worried, we had this and we dived into the tsunami wiggling our way forward.

Lost your ropes there buddy

Parts of the graves

We didn't stay in the first building long which happened to be a sort of collections museum rather than an open pit like what we expected. 

Horse drawn carriage found in the tomb

Close up of a soldier

Soldier made to fight

Protected horse and soldier

Trying to avoid the hot sunshine as much as possible we quickly darted into what looked like the largest building. We found the first big pit, dark and protected from any natural light, we squinted and stared down at the broken fragments of men before us.

Ready to serve their emperor in the after life

These are the collapsed roofs of the pit

Below in the pit were hundreds of these intricately carved life size masterpieces; the sheer size and difficulty of the first emperors enormous task lay before us. So many of the warrior men stand headless or limbless, but the grandeur of what they once were still emanates from the dark carved tombs. As we stood looking down we overheard a young Chinese girl leading a tour, she said many people died during the creation of the Terracotta Warriors from starvation and maltreatment.

Time has taken its toll

The emperor was a brutal leader who forced labour on the masses, taking slaves as far away as Japan but what he created from their efforts is truly astonishing. Just in March, two months ago, archeologists believed that they have also found forty five mass tombs from the Qin dynasty which are believed to be a number of the 720,000 builders.

Heads, appendages and torsos

What stuck out to us was that every soldier has its own unique face and the entire army was placed in battle order, separated by rank and rule ready to serve their emperor in the afterlife. 

The statues, buried upright, stand in formation and although they have now been removed at one time each warrior held real weapons such as bows, spears or swords. We read that the rank of the soldiers can be determined by the arrangement of the hair. 

One bob in the hair is for the common soldier, the infantry man, or the archer. A boxy headpiece adorned the officials while a general would have two bobs in his hair. 

Lined up to protect

Lone soldier

After walking the entire edge of the first pit we again raced outside through the harsh afternoon heat and into the next, the largest pit. On entering we were suddenly caught from behind and thrown against a wave of people, squashed against a human wall unable to move forward or back. It was madness as people fought to see the thousands of warriors below. 

Replicated soldiers from across China

Eventually we made our way to the front with our hip bones grinding on the metal railing and elbows digging into our sides. It was here that we let out an impressive sigh, 'wow' the pit was ginormous, huge against all odds. As we admired the pit we overheard a young American couple next to us who had also squeezed their way forward. It was evident that they strongly felt the warriors were fake. We asked them why they thought that and they quickly, in a matter of fact way said the army was 'discovered' during the cultural revolution, at a time when Mao Zedong was comparing himself to Qin Shihuang and that the discovery would have symbolised him as a unifier. Also soldiers are described as over 1.76 tall, which is much taller than even the average Chinese man today let alone men at that time, but not only that, they believed that the famous army, was just a heap of charred rubbishes a mix of dust and fragments when exhumed. Sure there may once have been warriors but these weren't them, they said.

The soldiers were once painted

Close up on a soldier

Made it to the front! 

We looked closer, did something feel off? Here maybe they were too lined up, separated by rank and rule but maybe they seemed too perfect. There were very few broken limbs and the tidiness and their suggestions left us too feeling suspicious as to the Warriors' authenticity. However, real or not we had to admire that the absolute size and work having gone into creating them is impressive. Which story is true we might never know. It is China after all.

By the time we had finished looking around we went off in search of a bus back to Xi'an.

Tot siens,

John and Kara