This morning we went to a studio that worked on reproductions of the Terracotta warriors prior to our visit to the real thing.  Most of the work is done in this studio is by hand.  The bodies of the soldiers are molds, like the originals, but the faces on each of the soldiers are all different.  The details and done by hand with various tools.

At this studio, the also make Chinese lacquer furniture.  We learned about the various phases that take place in creating some of the lacquer tables:  cutting the wood, placing putty on the wood, placing mother of pearl in the putty (pictured below), painting, and adding

around 15 coats of lacquer.

After the studio we moved on to the real thing.  The Terracotta Army was built for the first emperor of China, Emperor Qin (pronounced Chin.  Q in Chinese is pronounced Ch.)  Many believe that the origin of the the word CHINA comes from Qin (Chin).  This mausoleum, built to protect the emperor’s afterlife, contains over 6,000 soldiers and also included horses, weapons, carriages, chariots, and other relics.  Each of these soldiers has a different face.  The detail is simply amazing.  There were no soldiers found in one piece and most have been restored by archeologists.  Each one of these soldiers weighs over 400lbs.

Following the visit with the Terracotta Army, we went to the Great Mosque of Xi’an.  Unlike any mosque that we have visited, this mosque’s architecture is completely Chinese.

This was our final stop and we boarded Air China back to Beijing.  When we got back, Ricky, Susan, and I went out for some duck!  You can’t go to China and not eat duck.  This was the first time that I have had it carved table side.  The head of the duck was still on the serving cart.  (see the video below.  A little long, but you can see the head.)

Duck Preparation in Beijing

Here is our new friend Ricky after some delicious duck!

In the morning we head to Guam.

Other comments…

Xi’an is one of the cleanest cities that I have visited.  The people take a lot of pride in their city.  Also the street cleaners use feather dusters. 

Below is a picture crossing the tracks out of Xi’an.  It was definitely a different neighborhood.

This is a taxi in Xi’an.  It only has 3 wheels and I bet it gets great gas mileage.  This is similar to a tuk-tuk that we took in Thailand.

-Allen

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am and is filed under China, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.