May 13 (Day 6)

Today, we visited the terra cotta warrior exhibit. What a fascinating exhibit! It was amazing to think that a farmer digging a well in 1974 stumbled onto this amazing treasure. Some consider this to be the 8th Wonder of the World and it made me wonder what else lies undiscovered below this great country. The dynasties and ancient history that I've learned are very intriguing and I've never been a history buff.

For the terra cotta warrior exhibit, over 2000 warriors have been unearthed and the sight of the detailed ceramic statues lined up in their trenches left me awe struck. What’s more amazing was the fact that these intricately detailed soldiers were never intended for public display. The purpose of the terra cotta army was to protect the emperor's tomb upon his death. Therefore, they were placed in trenches and then covered with earth. The emperor ordered the creation of the soldiers and they were modeled after real live soldiers in the emperor’s army. The detail on the soldiers is unbelievable especially for them to be buried underground. One kneeling soldier has treads carved onto the bottom of his boots. Another has his hair in a ponytail. You can actually see the carved strands of hair that compose the ponytail!




That night, we attended the Tang Dynasty show. It was like a dinner theatre. The food was great and our table was at the very front of the stage. The costumes were so elaborate and colorful. The women looked beautiful in their traditional Chinese regalia. I really enjoyed the show. There was one weird guy in the show, however. He played a special pipe organ looking flute. Apparently, it is an ancient instrument and not many players exist that can play it so he's special. Anyway, he really thought he was hot stuff. He was such a drama queen. I can see him now whipping his mouth across the flute from side to side with all this flare. He was so caught up with himself that he gave an encore performance at the end of the show that no one requested! He was so weird. His expressions and make-up reminded me of the joker from Batman. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him. I wish I had.