The Terracotta Warriors

After leaving Huaqing hot springs, I caught the bus onwards to the final destination: the Terracotta Warriors. As I did at the Huaqing hot springs, I tried to get off the bus a stop too early, and the conductor (a man this time, not nearly as pretty as the previous conductor) prevented me from making that mistake.

On the way there, I took a few photos of the countryside. This gives you an idea of what it's like: flat, trees everywhere, and ramshackle buildings just visible past the trees.


Once there, I made my way through the carpark where this fellow stood guard:


- and was immediately approached by a tour guide offering her services. She was very insistent that I hire her, as even the Chinese people that come here hire a guide, otherwise they will miss out of very important historical information. I declined, politely, several times. I was approached by another woman once I was inside the gates, who did tell me the ticket price at least (and once I was told, I was able to see it staring me right in the face). I wasn't grateful enough to hire her, either, but at least she wasn't as brash as the other woman. I got my ticket and walked to the main gate. After that there was a walk through a pleasant and pretty big park. There were many paths through it, but a moment's consideration showed they all lead to the same place. I took the path with the fewest people on it.

From the path I was able to see the complex I was approaching:


When I reached the main complex itself, the wooded park opened up into a wide open area with several large buildings to choose from. I chose the one right in front of me, which turned out to be the main exhibition hall, containing most of the Terracotta Warriors themselves. It was very big, and very full of tourists. I haven't seen so many people who aren't Chinese since I came here. I didn't take photos of them (except for the Japanese tour group, because I thought the women in kimonos were cool), but I did take photos inside the exhibition hall. You only get a little idea of how big it is from this.


Since the tour guides were so insistent I would miss out important historical information, and since there were numbers corresponding to the audio tour which you could also purchase dotted all around the place, I figured I would take a friend's advice and just make up my own historical information.

Here we have a faithful re-creation of Qin dynasty soldiers leading their horses in the most solemn of rituals, the walk before applying styling mousse to their horses' manes.


This set of statues commemorates a particularly hard night of drinking on the part of the imperial soldiers. As you can see, most of them are so sloshed that they haven't even noticed that they are no longer holding their cups - only air. The superb training of the soldiers shows in their ability to stand at attention, but while none of them are legless, poor Johnson in the back has drunk his head right off.


After the party, Jones really really needed to pee, so Terry stood lookout while he relieved himself.


This is the aftermath of the ill-fated Pottery Rebellion, shortly after the emperor's death. Which side won is lost to the ravages of time, but judging from this scene, it is safe to say: neither. Eric, in the back, appears to be the sole survivor, but despite his stoic demeanour he did not come away without injury. Without his arms, he will never complete the quilt he started before he left for the war.


"Doctor, hurry! I don't know what came over him! We just found him lying there!"
"Oh dear, let me have a look."
"How is it? Will he be alright?"
"He's - he's stone cold."
"Is that bad?"
"I don't want to alarm you, so please don't take this as being a bad sign, but yes, it's very bad."
"Oh! Can - can you do anything for him?"
"Sorry. It's too late. He's - well, there's no easy way to put this. He's a statue."


"Joe, I'm having problems. The pressure is getting to me. I'm starting to crack, man. It's too much. I'm coming apart at the seams."


One of the other buildings turned out to be the museum, and one of the more interesting exhibits was an exhibition by a contemporary Chinese artist inspired by the Terracotta Warriors. I thought this was the pick of the crop:


It looks a lot better in person. Photography doesn't do it any favours.

This poster brought much glee when I saw it. It's the first real example I've seen of government propoganda, and a particularly unsubtle one too, much to my delight. It's pretty mild, but it was nice to see "adhering to take Communist Party's line and policy as guiding ideology".



Finally, after seeing the warriors and the museum, I was ready to leave. This was my parting shot, from the steps of the museum:


Those mountains are closer than they appear. Although it took an hour, maybe, to get there, the smog from the city still lies around the place, and makes the distances seem greater. Despite the smog, it's a pretty scene, and you can get some idea of how well-presented this place is - manicured gardens, wide-open and well-designed public areas, and even a scenic setting.

This isn't the actual dig site, of course. That's a fair distance away - off to the right, going by the picture above. If you followed those mountains, staying the same distance away as the spot this photo was taken from, you'd come to it. It's closed to the public, though.

When I got on the bus to go home, I noticed an unusual sign on the door, so I took a photo. I still haven't taken it to someone who reads Chinese to find out what it really says, but my sister thinks it means "no crowding to get on the bus" or something similar.


I, however, stand by my original interpretation of the image: no showering on the bus, or perhaps: no peeing on the door.

Huaqing Hot Springs

While on the bus to see the Terracotta Warriors, two things worth mentioning happened. The first is that there was one other foreigner on the bus, a slightly manic Israeli. He was stunned at how little people earn per month over here ("Seriously? I spent that in a day!") and his accent was very thick. It took me most of the bus trip to adjust to it enough to understnd more than half of what he said. He was very busy, too - he had one of those hectic tourist schedules that means he only has X amount of time for this because he has to be on a plane to somewhere else that evening.

That was why he didn't succumb to the bus conductor's spiel about Huaqing hot springs. It took me a while to work out what she was saying - she knew exactly enough English to almost articulate what it was she was trying to say. I didn't even realise she was saying "hot springs" until I got off the bus - it sounded more like "hostel". I did manage to figure out it was a garden of some kind, with several thousand years' worth of history behind it. Much more than that was lost in translation. The girl tried hard, though, and I figured, why not? I'm already pretending I'm a tourist today, I might as well see everything. Having figured it out for myself I was able to tell the Israeli guy what the hell she was going on about, since he understood her even less than me. He declined, due to his schedule.

Once I got off the bus and saw the signs saying "Huaqing Hot Springs" I realised what it was the conductor was trying to say, and laughed. I read the description outside, and figured it was worth a look. And, it was.

Huaqing hot springs are famous for two reasons. The first is that they're the scene of a famous romance, between an emperor and his concubine. That's obviously the main focus of the tourist attraction. The second is that they're the site of the "Xi'an incident" - a chapter in China's more modern history. I'll relate that here, since I never did figure out which building it happened in, so it doesn't turn up in the photos.

Sometime between the first and second world wars, China was divided, and in the middle of an attempt at a communist revolution. Unfortunately for them, they were also being attacked by the Japanese. One general took the leader of the the not-communists prisoner at the Huaqing hot springs, and the resulting negotiations led to his release and a truce between the two parties, allowing them to unite against Japan. The main reason the leader was recovered by negotiation rather than force was because of Stalin's involvement; China needed Russia's support at that time. It's a bit more involved and political than that, and I've probably botched something important in my retelling; go research it yourself if it interests you. At any rate, it's called "the Xi'an incident", and Huaqing is where it happened.

The first thing that happened was that I was persuaded to pay for an electric car to whisk me around. I did this because I thought it would be necessary. It's really not. All the places the cars will take you to are entirely walkable, and why else are you there if not to dawdle and see the sights? I got off the car at the first stop.

Once I got off, this is where I found myself:


If you look carefully, you can see that the people in the background are lined up at the edge of a pool. This is what they're looking at:


This is another shot of the same pool. I have no idea what the building is for. All the other tourists (all Chinese - I didn't see any other foreigners while here) were keen on taking photos of it, though.


Just around the corner was this much less crowded, and very picturesque pool:



As well as this secluded little spot:


A bit more wandering took me to this statue of, it seems, naked women with water pitchers. It's a nice statue, but I couldn't help but feel I was there at the wrong time of day - there must be a time when it catches the sunlight.


I'm fairly sure the naked statues are because people at a hot spring were probably naked a lot. This particular statue was very popular amongst the other tourists, as you can see. I don't know who it is, but given the story of this place, I imagine it is the emperor's courtesan. As a side note: the statuary here is, as you can see, very good, easily on a par with the more famous Greek statues. Given the tendency for two-dimensional Chinese art to lean towards symbolism and minimalism, it came as something of a surprise.


Speaking of two-dimensional art, this was inside one of the bath houses. All the bath houses are empty of water, by the way; this is strictly a tourist destination now, you don't go here to actually bathe.


This picture is part of a series of a few dozen, telling the story of the emperor and his concubine. This one isn't particularly descriptive; I chose this one to take a photo of because I liked it. It was a wonderful moody atmosphere, with a bare minimum of brush strokes (that part is not so obvious from the photo). However, all the pictures were, when it comes down to it, excellent. They told the story on their own, although it would undoubtedly have helped if I could read the captions. I probably should have taken photos of all of them, but I couldn't be bothered, and I wasn't sure how well any of them would come out in the dim interior anyway. As it is, I've forgotten most of the story that I was able to figure out; but the most lasting image is of the emperor and the concubine planting a seedling together, and seeing the same seedling in later images as a grown tree, as a recurring symbol of their love.

There's no story to this next photo: I just love ivy-covered buildings.


It's not immediately obvious from this photo, but if you keep looking you will notice what look like terraces in the background. They are actually part of a very windy staircase that looked marvellous, but that I couldn't find a way to get to. I suspect it's not one of the parts tourists are supposed to go to.


And finally, an empty pavilion. This is a rare find in a tourist attraction with tourists all over the place, but here it was. Naturally, it was in a more out-of-the-way corner of the hot springs.


Next up: the Terracotta Warriors!

Oops! And a Trip to the Zoo

I thought I'd already written about these things! I knew the zoo was missing, but I thought I'd at least gotten around to the Terracotta Warriors. I distinctly remember writing captions for the photos. Well, let's remedy this!

First, the trip to the zoo. On the 12th of October, our school planned a trip to the Xi'an zoo for all our students. None of the older senior-level kids came along, but there were still a good hundred or so students, with ten adults to manage them.

To begin with, we arrived at work far too early for a reasonable person, and then waited for the kids to arrive. After that we herded them back out again and into the buses - I forget if we all piled into two or three. They were big buses.

This brings us to the first photos! Namely, of kids on buses, and not being very badly behaved either. Good on them. This lot of kids is all of J4O that showed up, plus a random kid from J4C. They're good kids, actually, even for a class that only has boys in it. From left to right: Austin, Tony, Jake and Mark. I don't know who the kid in the background is; she's not in any of my classes.


These kids are from J2H, which I used to teach, once upon a time, before I was put in the awful S11D class because no-one else could teach it. From left to right: Helen, Shannon, Cici and Janet.


If you thought these kids looked younger than the others, you're right. They're from K2F, and are five years old, I think. They're adorable kids, although the one on the left is trouble. Mostly adorable trouble. The one on the right is a good kid; she likes to play and run around screaming outside of class like everyone else, but she knows how to listen when she's actually in the class. From left to right: Lily and Fancy. Yes, some parents here are working hard to make the namespace of English speakers larger and a little weirder.


These three are from J4C. The one in the middle is the most trouble, although that's not saying much; this is a very good class, I never have any problems with it. From left to right: Betty, Becky, and Emily.


After we finally made it to the zoo (the bus trip was over an hour), we stopped for more photos after herding the kids together, just before going in. I'm there! So is Ivy. This is two groups merged together; each group had one foreign teacher and one or two Chinese teachers.


One of the first stops we made was to a circus in the middle of the zoo. They had a man and a young girl doing acrobatics while being swung around the inside of the cage, suspended from a length of fabric. If you've ever seen anyone "climbing the silken ladder" then you know the deal - I don't know what the real name for this kind of acrobatics is. I also don't have any photos of that - I rather sensibly took movies instead, which I can't be bothered uploading. Sorry! I did take photos of what came before, since I was still wildly optimistic about my camera's ability to take photos in the dark interior at that point. So, before the acrobatics, we had:


Alright, so it's kinda hard to see what we had in this picture. We had boxing bears! Yes, those fuzzy brown things are bears, wearing boxing gloves. At first I was a little horrified, the bears go for each other very convincingly. I never really felt comfortable watching it, but eventually I saw the funny side, after realising that they can't have been hurting each other. The oversized boxing gloves saw to that, preventing their claws from causing what would be real damage. Also, they never bit each other, and they always backed off immediately at the end of each round. After the boxing, the gloves were taken off and the bears performed acrobatics tricks on parallel bars, among other things.

Then we had tigers! Yay, tigers! The big cats put on the kind of show you can expect, seeing the picture below. Standard circus stuff, including jumping through flaming hoops. The tigers were very uncooperative that day, and several times didn't do what they were told. At any rate, the tigers at Dreamworld are much better; this isn't the place to go for an impressive tiger show. However, they're still tigers, and tigers are still worth watching.


This picture doesn't really need much of a caption. It's two kids and an elephant. I took it mostly to tease the kid on the right, as we'd been making fun of each other. I don't know the names of either of these kids, though, as they're not in any of my classes.


This is me again, with some of the kids from my group, in the stuffed animal exhibit.


This is from another part of the same place. You can see Ariel amongst the kids there; she was the Chinese teacher in charge of our group. The kid in the front wasn't originally in frame; he ran in to steal the show just before taking the picture.


There were other things at the zoo - a seal show, for example, that was pretty good - but I forget most of it now, so I'll skip straight to the monkeys! The baby monkeys were dead cute:


Especially this one, who become enamoured of a plastic bottle that ended up inside the enclosure:


Eventually we'd all seen enough, and went to lunch. We swarmed a restaurant and took over all of the seats they had upstairs, and a table or two downstairs as well. Have you ever been to a child's birthday party at McDonalds? Imagine that, only with three or four times as many kids. On the plus side, we just had traditional Chinese food instead of McDonalds, so it was actually pretty good. The restaurant is run by what is, from the sounds of it, a farmers' collective. The restaurant is a very large place, with a lot of the eating areas outside; the complex doubles as the farmers' homes. Lunch was several dishes in the middle of each table, from which you helped yourself. The kids decided they were full long before any of the teachers did, so they ran around downstairs while we finished up.

After another long bus ride we got back, and got all the kids to the right parents. Nobody got left behind, so it was, overall, successful. Some parents took their time coming to pick up their kids; Fancy, who you should recall from an earlier picture, was the last kid to leave; she stayed at the school for a good half an hour after everyone else had gone. She didn't seem to mind it; she's not a kid that cries easily, and we (well, mostly I) entertained her by running through the hall and playing games.

After everyone left, we had one last group picture, just the teachers. From left to right: me, Sally, Vivi, Ivy, Kiko, Melinda, and Apple.


Later today I will finish my backlog and post about the Hauqing hot spring and the Terracotta Warriors!

National Day Holidays

I've been very slack about updating this!

Last night I went out with Dane, a guy I met at the TESOL course in Australia and who ended up working in the same city as me, along with the girl who's tutoring him in Chinese, some of her friends, and some other people I didn't know. We had dinner at a "Latin restaurant", although I'm not really sure where the Latin part came into it. Perhaps the sushi was Latin sushi? It doesn't matter much either way - it was enjoyable, and I liked most of the people I met.

After dinner we went to a bar at a youth hostel, and had a lot of fun with drinking games. Nobody got particularly drunk despite that, but I now know some awfully fun games! Finally, Daphne (Dane's tutor) mentioned that the bar would give a free drink to anyone who would sing a song. Apparently they didn't really mind what sort of song, so I put my hand up. We had to wait a while, so by the time I got up to sing everyone was ready to go. I sang "A Formidable Marinade", by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. It's a great song, especially when surrounded by ex-pats who do understand the lyrics and locals who sometimes understand some of them. Look up the lyrics if you don't know the song, to see why it was so amusing to sing. It also turns out that I can hold a note a lot better when I've had several drinks. Who'd have guessed.

I didn't have any trouble waking up this morning, so I went to yoga - the last three days there hasn't been any yoga, since they get holidays too, after all. After yoga, the owner invited me to lunch with one of the teachers and the girl who actually speaks English. We went to a little noodle restaurant just down the road, and it was mighty good. Much better than the buffet the night before that was five times more expensive! I like the little diner-style restaurants over here, they're always the best way to eat.

So, the last couple of days have been pretty darn good, even though I didn't get out of the city like I'd planned.