terra-australis warriors (and horses)

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ahhh xi'an...ancient capital of 12 chinese dynasties, birthplace of chinese civilisation, start and end of the ancient silk road, tourist magnet. mum and i braved an 18 hour seated train journey from suzhou in order to partake of its splendour.
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banpo village

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about seven thousand years ago, our ancestors built a village near xi'an called banpo. featuring semi-subterranean houses, central meeting places, graveyards, pottery kilns and a deep defensive moat around a settlement capable of holding over 200 people, banpo is one of the oldest and best-preserved neolithic villages in the china. (for reference, it's 2000 years older than scara brae in the orkneys). it's exciting to think about our ancestors potting around in these places - what were they thinking? what language were they speaking? our guide said that banpo was a matriarchal society in which everyone worked together for a common ideal and enjoyed complete equality, but i couldn't respond appropriately because i'd forgotten my little red book at home.
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what fascinated me most was the burial process - in general, people were lain on their backs with painted pottery placed on their legs, heads turned to face west. several bodies, however, were placed face down - noses squashed into the dirt - without a chip of pottery in sight. the guide didn't know why that was, but to any australian, what this 7000 year old clan thought of the recently deceased was obvious:
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you were a prick mate, get fucked.
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terracotta warriors and horses

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they say the terracotta warriors and horses are the biggest disappointment in china, and we were not disappointed in being disappointed. discovered in 1974 when a peasant was trying to drill a new well (photo with now-famous peasant for only twenty dollars), the 8099-figure army was built around 210BCE by the emperor of the qin dynasty to help rule his empire in the afterlife. the sheer arrogance is mindboggling. the figures occur in three separate pits - one being a huge army in battle formation, another being a sort of shed area with guards standing along the walls, and a third pit that is yet to be excavated. the actual emperor is interred in a necropolis nearby, which remains unexcavated because the government believes current technology is not advanced enough to ensure the process occurs without ruining the artefacts. i respect that.

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the pits were broken into and most of the statues were smashed after the emperor's death. what i found more fascinating than the rebuilt statues, was looking at the fragments of smashed statues - faces, arms, hands - all lying around randomly on the ground.

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every single warrior has a different face, facial expression and lines on his palms (apparently). my favourite terracotta warriors and horses fact is this: in 2006, a german art student infiltrated the exhibition and hid among the army, dressed as a terracotta warrior. his disguise was so good that he wasn't found for a full two days, but because he hadn't damaged anything and was only living out a life-long passion to be a warrior, he was released with only a simple warning. what a hero!
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xi'an town

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as an ancient capital and the start of the ancient silk road, xi'an was a hive of activity for people of all nations, and even 3000 years ago had a foreign population of over 50,000. can yous believe it? persian and greek coinage has been found littered throughout the suburbs.

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today, xi'an is fresh, relatively pollution free, and lots of fun to be in as a tourist. within the massive city walls - which have been restored so that you can now ride a bike around the entire perimeter - lies the old muslim quarter, with a 1300 year old mosque and an active 50,000 person strong muslim hui minority whose purpose in life seems to be making and selling lots of yummy food.

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mum and i strolled about the muslim quarter on a nightly basis, cramming food into our face-holes, and taking in the sights from the beautiful drum and bell towers that we lived next to.

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just outside the city is the big goose pagoda, a 1300 year old buddhist structure built to hold sutras and buddhist figurines (boring). more interestingly, next to the pagoda is a massive cascaded concrete area impregnated with hundreds of small squirters and lights, and at night an area about the size of 5 tennis courts erupts in the best water show on earth! best of all - you can run through it all if you have the courage. xi'an is a university town, so in the middle of summer, i have a feeling the nightly water shows will be transformed into an orgy of wet panted and t-shirted youths getting sprayed and splayed at all angles. yum.

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so ends part two of mum and bondy's tour de chine. with arses still bruised, we opted for a softer option and got a sleeping compartment on our way from the ancient to the modern capital. find out next time how it's possible to still be in love with beijing after all this time, but first things first: and not necessarily in that order. peace