Terracotta Warriors

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Genuine 24 hour old Tang Dynasty antique

 

Zodiac figures

Being Sunday, we were given a leisurely start to the day, with our departure scheduled for 9.00 am.  We made the long hike (at least half a kilometre via the tunnel) to the east wing and the dining room – we then discovered that a number of the party were suffering digestive upsets (putting it nicely).  Only one decided to stay behind but another lady certainly should have – every time the bus stopped she managed to vomit everywhere.

On the way to the Terracotta Warriors, we had a stop at a workshop (and gift shop) which reproduced the warriors.  Jimmy, our local guide, managed today to repeat everything he told us yesterday and added to his commentary as well.  He had no trouble using 30,000 words when 300 would have been sufficient!  We were conducted through the workshop and shown how the figures were cast and fired before being ushered into the many large gift shops (we strongly suspected that Jimmy received a good commission).  All the seasoned souvenir bargainers on the tour agreed that the prices were a little on the excessive side and Jimmy probably didn’t do as well as he had expected.

The morning was very warm with this smog, which was intensified by the large coal fired power station almost opposite the workshop for the warriors.  Amazingly, there were dozens of new high rise apartment blocks being constructed right around the power station, but Jimmy didn’t want to talk about the siting of the buildings.

Lunch today was in a brand new restaurant (with Number 1 washrooms!!!) in the city near the Terracotta Warriors.  It was probably the nicest lunch we have had, being buffet with lots of salads and lighter food.

Gladwrapped warriors

Jigsaw waiting to be done

Looking for some shade

In situ horse

A general

Bronze chariot and horses

Not a squat



Then it was time to join the hundreds of thousands of people visiting the Terracotta Warriors – and we had been told that afternoons are quieter!  We were taken by golf carts from the bus to the actual site, but had to walk back through the usual vendors.  Jimmy spent more time reinforcing his previous speeches regarding the warriors before we were finally allowed to see them!  It was quite amazing – and such huge buildings, four in total.  We were given time in each building to wander at leisure and take photos, quite often having to literally elbow our way through the crowds.  Of course, there are lots of photos to bore the relations!

Duck dumpling

Upside down pig dumplings

Tonight, we are having a dumpling dinner, followed by a Tang show, which should all be interesting.  We have been warned that the dumplings are shaped according to the filling: goldfish for fish, pig for pork, etc.  We have also been warned that there will be dog shaped dumplings …

 

Well, the dumpling banquet was interesting: we started with a number of appetisers and water soup, then the dumplings kept on arriving.  As the waitress spoke very limited English and our Chinese was even less, it was a bit of a guessing game as to the contents of the dumplings.  A few were beautifully shaped like goldfish, ducks and pigs but as for the remainder, who knows.  Fortunately, there were no dog or cat shapes.  Table clearance was interesting: a young boy (looked all of twelve) cleared away as many of the plates and dishes as he could, with food scraps just dumped on the lazy susan, then a waitress came and cleared away the remaining glasses (bad luck if you hadn’t finished your beer), then another waitress came and wiped off the food scraps onto a tray and then used the same cloth to wipe over the glass lazy susan.  Of course, some scraps fell onto the white tablecloth and were just swept off – no elbows on this table!

The Tang Dynasty Show, however, was well worth the banquet – we were treated to some lovely music and dancing, with great scenery and lighting.  Very well done and enjoyable.