Andy Travels To China--X'ian Day Two! August 4th

Xian - Monday
Today on our way to see the Terracotta Soldier Museum we stopped at a factory that makes terracotta soldiers. I got to make a soldier with clay and a mold. Mervyn gave us some history on the Qin Dynasty - Qin took the throne as King at age 13 and assumed power at 22. He then conquered the other 6 states of China and declared himself the first Emperor at age 39 under unified China. China is named after Qin, and the Chinese name for China means "Middle Kingdom." He planned his mausoleum and ordered 720,000 slaves to make the terracotta army of over 8,000 soldiers to guard him in the afterlife which for Qin came at age 50. Each soldier is an individual with a different face. Qin died before the mausoleum was completed. After he was buried with this army the peasants rebelled and destroyed most of the terracotta soldiers. The site was discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well, and every evening when the museum (which was built on the site) closes and archaeologists reconstruct the statues.

Next we went to the Huaqing Hot Springs which were the Emperor's Garden and bathing palace. The hot springs are dried up, so we could not get in them. The Emperor had a big pool called the Star Pool which was open & when he bathed he could see the stars.

We're going to bed early tonight because we're getting up early tomorrow to fly to Shanghai.

To follow along on Andy's adventures, please click here.