BANPO MUSEUM, TERRACOTTA WARRIORS, DUMPLING DINNER & TANG DYNASTY SHOW

Zhao!  (Good Morning)  Cher le ma?  (Have you eaten?)  Famous words in the morning!

After breakfast, we drove to the Banpo Neolithic Museum where it displays the remains of a 6,000 year old village.  At that time, the Banpo people used tools made primarily of wood and stone. Women, the crucial labor force, were responsible for making pottery, spinning and raising the family, while men fished.  The village was divided into three main sections:  the living section, the pottery making section and the burial section.  Among the ruins, there are 46 houses, 2 animal pens, 200 cellars, 6 pottery kilns, 174 adult tombs, 73 burial jars for children and thousands and thousands of production tools and utensils.

Next stop is to a Factory where they make replicas of the Terracotta Warriors.  We watched people mold the clay and shape the figures.  We were shown the kiln in which they fire the figures.  We also watched lacquer furniture being made.  Beautiful art work but expensive.  We were given a lesson on how to differentiate between the status of the Warriors.  There is the Emperor, a 5 Star General, an Officer, an Infantry Man and a Kneeling Archer.  Donna purchased a set of these for Katie.  Madison was happy to buy one figure – the Emperor (for show and tell in her class).  Grace bought some magnets.  Her mom, Betty, bought a drawing.  David was a shrewd negotiator as he bargained his way to purchase a 3-D Terracotta glass display (like a hologram).

The highlight of today’s tour is the visit to see the Terracotta Warriors.  The site is huge and is divided into buildings:  Pit 1, Pit 2 and Pit 3.  Pit 1 is a rectangular pit.  There are over 6,000 terra cotta warriors and horses in Pit 1, of which 1,000 have been unearthed.  Pit 2 is L‑shaped.  The combat formations in Pit 2 are more complex, and the units of armed forces are more complete. According to preliminary calculations, there are over 80 war chariots, about 1,300 TC Warriors and horses, and thousands of bronze weapons. It is a revelation to first discover the Terracotta general, the kneeling archer and the warrior with saddle horse in the pit. According to our guide, Neil, only one TC Warrior is intact – the Kneeling Archer.  The rest have been pieced back together.  Unfortunately, the TC Warriors were all fired first and then painted.  Today, the colour is faded away.  Except the Archer which has some yellow and red colour at the lower back of his uniform.  Pit 3 is built in the shape of the Chinese character "凹".  It is believed that this was the Command Center or Headquarters.  The unearthed artifacts include 68 TC Warriors, four horses and one chariot. 

The TC Warriors were found quite by accident in 1974.  Farmers were trying to dig a well.  They dug 5 meters deep and came upon a lot of pieces...mostly faces.  They ran away as they thought it was unlucky and evil.  Only one farmer stayed behind because that piece of land they were digging on belonged to him.  He picked up a hat of the TC Warrior and took it to the government.  Many archaeologists were called in to excavate.  There should be over 8,000 life size TC Warriors and horses.  These were built in the Qin Dynasty which was ruled by the 1^st  Emperor, Qin Shi Huang.  He was a terrible man and killed many people.  When the 1^st Emperor died, the people rebelled.  They went to the tomb and destroyed all the TC Warriors and horses.  Then they burned the wood roof and wooden chariots.  The roof collapsed and the dirt filled in and no one knew where the TC Warriors were until 1974. 

After the farmer reported the finding, the government took back the land.  In China, you don’t own land.  He was given another piece of land and a reward of 10 Yuan ($2 in today’s currency) which was a lot of money back then.  He was very happy but his wife made him give back the reward as a respectful thing to do.  From 1974 to 1980, nothing changed for the farmer.  In 1980, China opened up to tourists.  His life changed.  Everyone wanted to know what became of the farmer!  He got a job to sit in the museum.  The museum allowed him to autograph for tourists but was not allowed to charge for it.  However, tourists must purchase a book before he can autograph it of which a very small portion is given to the farmer.  The farmer’s name is Yang Xin Man (Yang Shin Man) and is 72 years old now.  We bought a book and got his autograph!

We came back to the hotel to quickly freshen up and then on to our “Dumpling Dinner”  We had several cold plates and a pot of soup to start.  We were then served several dishes of dumplings – fish, pork, ham, shrimp, etc.  The fish dumpling was shaped as a fish, the pork dumpling was shaped as a pig...very artistic.  After dinner, we watched the Tang Dynasty Show.  The performers dressed in ancient attire and sang and danced.  One of the dances was “Spring Outing”.  Gabriel said it was his favourite and said he was going to perform in it.  We watched attentively and tried to pick him out of the group of dancers.  In the end, we learned he was pulling our leg!

It was a busy and exhausting day.  We were all ready for bed.

P.S.  Happy birthday to my brother, Dan! 

 

 

 

MADI’S CORNER:

I ate breakfast at the buffet downstairs.  Today we are going to see the Terracotta Warriors.  I wore my jean capris again and my purple jewel shirt.  We went to a museum.  We left and went for a lunch.  For lunch, I ate sweet and sour pork, shrimp chips, vegetables, rice, noodles and cookies.  Later, after lunch, we drove to the Terracotta Warriors museum thing.  I saw some of the different kinds of soldiers.  They were....the Emperor, Kneeling Archer, Standing Archer, 5 Star General, Officer, Infantry.  They also have some horses.  All of the soldiers are 6,000 years old.  The color fades away from the clay soldier within 72 hours when it has oxygen because of the way it is painted.  There are 3 pits – Pit 1, Pit 2 and Pit 3.  All of the soldiers are being repaired or are going to be repaired or already repaired.  All of the soldiers looked magnificent!  The only solder that wasn’t broken was the Kneeling Archer.  It has a bit of red on the back too!  It has some of its color because in its glass box they sucked up all the oxygen out of the tank.  Archeologists are still looking for more pieces today.  I got to look at every pit.  When we left Pit 1 or Pit 2, there was this guy selling some musical stuff.  Like this egg shaped recorder.  You cover the back hole and use your fingers to change the sound on the other holes.  There was also a bird caller.  I got a bird caller and Katie got an egg thing.  There were different sizes for the egg thing.  Katie got the regular size.  After all the pits, it was time to go.  We headed back to the hotel.  We had a dumpling dinner.  The dumplings were so cute.  Some of the dumplings were supposed to be animals.  Like the frog, the pig, the fish and a duck.  I didn’t eat much but I ate just enough to fill me.  After dinner, there was a show because it was a dinner and show.  Gabriel said he was going to perform in the dance “Spring Outing”.  The dancing and music was magical.  Then we just went home.  End of Day!