Great Wall of China and Terracotta Warriors
The Great Wall of China
UNESCO enlisted the Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, in the World Heritage in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus stretching approximately 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections of the great wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.
Regarded by many as one of the world's great engineering achievements, the wall stands between 6 to 9 meters high, is 8 meters thick at the base, and spans 5 meters across the top. Within its length, it contains some 25,000 watchtowers, gates, fortresses, castles, and temples. Beacon towers were spaced approximately 18 kilometers apart, and would use signal fires to warn of invasion. No one can tell precisely when the building of the Great Wall was started but it is popularly believed that it originated as a military fortification against intrusion by tribes on the borders during the earlier Zhou Dynasty. Late in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC), the ducal states extended the defense work and built "great" structures to prevent the attacks from other states. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that the separate walls, constructed by the states of Qin, Yan and Zhao kingdoms, were connected to form a defensive system on the northern border of the country by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (also called Qin Shi Huangdi by westerners or the First Emperor). After the emperor unified the country in 214 BC, he ordered the construction of the wall. It took about ten years to finish and the wall stretched from Linzhao (in the eastern part of today's Gansu Province) in the west to Liaodong (in today's Jilin Province) in the east. The wall not only served as a defense in the north but also symbolized the power of the emperor. The present Great Wall in Beijing is mainly remains from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) Since then, the Great Wall has served as a monument of the Chinese nation throughout history. A visit to the Great Wall is like a tour through the history backwards.
There is no way to visit a site such as the Great Wall and not come away with your mind reeling from the facts surrounding its construction....... the shear magnitude of the project is overwhelming! Not to mention the climb to the top of the wall........ And we didn't have to carry stones or mortar! My legs hurt for a couple of days!
We visited the wall at the Mutianyu site about 1 1/2 hours from Beijing, as there is less of a tourist zoo there. That's not to say that there was not the usual markets and hawkers, loud music and colorful additions (the Chinese love amusement parks and even at the great wall they had built a luge to come down ...if you dared...and had music blaring.) Even with all that, it was an awesome experience to stand on the wall and look in both directions at the miles and miles of structure as it stretched out over the mountain terrain! Wish I could post more of our pictures but not easy on this blog so they will have to wait till New Zealand.
Regarded by many as one of the world's great engineering achievements, the wall stands between 6 to 9 meters high, is 8 meters thick at the base, and spans 5 meters across the top. Within its length, it contains some 25,000 watchtowers, gates, fortresses, castles, and temples. Beacon towers were spaced approximately 18 kilometers apart, and would use signal fires to warn of invasion. No one can tell precisely when the building of the Great Wall was started but it is popularly believed that it originated as a military fortification against intrusion by tribes on the borders during the earlier Zhou Dynasty. Late in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC), the ducal states extended the defense work and built "great" structures to prevent the attacks from other states. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that the separate walls, constructed by the states of Qin, Yan and Zhao kingdoms, were connected to form a defensive system on the northern border of the country by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (also called Qin Shi Huangdi by westerners or the First Emperor). After the emperor unified the country in 214 BC, he ordered the construction of the wall. It took about ten years to finish and the wall stretched from Linzhao (in the eastern part of today's Gansu Province) in the west to Liaodong (in today's Jilin Province) in the east. The wall not only served as a defense in the north but also symbolized the power of the emperor. The present Great Wall in Beijing is mainly remains from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) Since then, the Great Wall has served as a monument of the Chinese nation throughout history. A visit to the Great Wall is like a tour through the history backwards.
There is no way to visit a site such as the Great Wall and not come away with your mind reeling from the facts surrounding its construction....... the shear magnitude of the project is overwhelming! Not to mention the climb to the top of the wall........ And we didn't have to carry stones or mortar! My legs hurt for a couple of days!
We visited the wall at the Mutianyu site about 1 1/2 hours from Beijing, as there is less of a tourist zoo there. That's not to say that there was not the usual markets and hawkers, loud music and colorful additions (the Chinese love amusement parks and even at the great wall they had built a luge to come down ...if you dared...and had music blaring.) Even with all that, it was an awesome experience to stand on the wall and look in both directions at the miles and miles of structure as it stretched out over the mountain terrain! Wish I could post more of our pictures but not easy on this blog so they will have to wait till New Zealand.
Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors
We arrived back in Beijing late afternoon, grabbed a bite to eat and some stocked up on provisions to snack on, and headed for our train to Xi'an, some 14 hours away, where the Terra Cotta warriors awaited.
The train trip was an experience in itself.... 4-berth 'roomettes', upper and lower berths. The train was cleaner than Vietnam, (and much cleaner than India as one of the couples in our group who had just visited there pointed out!) but that is not to say that it in any way compared to the luxury of trains across Canada or many other countries! Unlike Vietnam though, there was not even one toilet in each car that had a western toilet, all squat toilets! Uggh! There are times that being a female are tough! We had our own sleep sheets (lovely silk ones from our trip to Vietnam last year) and when exhaustion took over, we managed to get a couple of hours sleep. Some of our group used local pi jou (beer) as sleep aides! Jim took advantage of that to win his first pot at poker in a long time! What a hoot!
We arrived in Xi'an at about 6am and made our way through the throngs to our hotel, where we dropped out luggage and went on a walk about until we could get into our rooms to shower and rest an hour! Unfortunately, the wonderful and unseasonably warm weather we had been enjoying decided to desert us, and our first impressions of this former Imperial capital city were seen in drizzle. We went to the parks at the south end of the walled inner city and say people ballroom dancing, practicing Chi gong, Tai chi, and all sorts of exercise regimes! Some of us even joined in.......I think as much to try to get our bodies to work as for any other great benefit! The center of Xi'an is enclosed by an enormous city wall and with a population of only about 6 million; it felt like a small city compared to Beijing, and is one of the few Chinese cities where ancient walls are still visible.
Our journey to the Terracotta Warriors took about 45 minutes. In 1974, while digging a well, some farmers made the amazing discovery of the Terracotta warriors of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (259-210BC), the first emperor who unified China's divided territories into one nation and standardized its written language. (AMAZING how much history we have absorbed!) The State Council authorized to build a museum on site in 1975. Life size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations are the star features at the museum. They are replicas of what the imperial guard should look like in those days of pomp and vigor. The museum covers an area of 16,300 square meters, divided into three sections: No. 1 Pit, No. 2 Pit, and No. 3 Pit respectively. They were tagged in the order of their discoveries. No. 1 Pit is the largest, first opened to the public on China's National Day, 1979. There are columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back. No. 2 Pit, found in 1976, is 20 meters northeast of No. 1 Pit. It contained over a thousand warriors and 90 chariots of wood. It was unveiled to the public in 1994. Archeologists came upon No. 3 Pit also in 1976, 25 meters northwest of No. 1 Pit. It looked like to be the command center of the armed forces. It went on display in 1989, with 68 warriors, a war chariot and four horses. Altogether over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed from these pits. Most of them have been restored to their former grandeur.
I will post one of our photos taken at the museum.
For now, time for breakfast. I will continue to update this blog when we return. Now that we have a connection and my laptop back (did I mention that we left it and some other stuff here in Bangkok when we went to China? so much easier and safer than packing it all with us) and I would like to do the notes on China while it is all still so fresh in my mind.
bye for now
The train trip was an experience in itself.... 4-berth 'roomettes', upper and lower berths. The train was cleaner than Vietnam, (and much cleaner than India as one of the couples in our group who had just visited there pointed out!) but that is not to say that it in any way compared to the luxury of trains across Canada or many other countries! Unlike Vietnam though, there was not even one toilet in each car that had a western toilet, all squat toilets! Uggh! There are times that being a female are tough! We had our own sleep sheets (lovely silk ones from our trip to Vietnam last year) and when exhaustion took over, we managed to get a couple of hours sleep. Some of our group used local pi jou (beer) as sleep aides! Jim took advantage of that to win his first pot at poker in a long time! What a hoot!
We arrived in Xi'an at about 6am and made our way through the throngs to our hotel, where we dropped out luggage and went on a walk about until we could get into our rooms to shower and rest an hour! Unfortunately, the wonderful and unseasonably warm weather we had been enjoying decided to desert us, and our first impressions of this former Imperial capital city were seen in drizzle. We went to the parks at the south end of the walled inner city and say people ballroom dancing, practicing Chi gong, Tai chi, and all sorts of exercise regimes! Some of us even joined in.......I think as much to try to get our bodies to work as for any other great benefit! The center of Xi'an is enclosed by an enormous city wall and with a population of only about 6 million; it felt like a small city compared to Beijing, and is one of the few Chinese cities where ancient walls are still visible.
Our journey to the Terracotta Warriors took about 45 minutes. In 1974, while digging a well, some farmers made the amazing discovery of the Terracotta warriors of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (259-210BC), the first emperor who unified China's divided territories into one nation and standardized its written language. (AMAZING how much history we have absorbed!) The State Council authorized to build a museum on site in 1975. Life size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations are the star features at the museum. They are replicas of what the imperial guard should look like in those days of pomp and vigor. The museum covers an area of 16,300 square meters, divided into three sections: No. 1 Pit, No. 2 Pit, and No. 3 Pit respectively. They were tagged in the order of their discoveries. No. 1 Pit is the largest, first opened to the public on China's National Day, 1979. There are columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back. No. 2 Pit, found in 1976, is 20 meters northeast of No. 1 Pit. It contained over a thousand warriors and 90 chariots of wood. It was unveiled to the public in 1994. Archeologists came upon No. 3 Pit also in 1976, 25 meters northwest of No. 1 Pit. It looked like to be the command center of the armed forces. It went on display in 1989, with 68 warriors, a war chariot and four horses. Altogether over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed from these pits. Most of them have been restored to their former grandeur.
I will post one of our photos taken at the museum.
For now, time for breakfast. I will continue to update this blog when we return. Now that we have a connection and my laptop back (did I mention that we left it and some other stuff here in Bangkok when we went to China? so much easier and safer than packing it all with us) and I would like to do the notes on China while it is all still so fresh in my mind.
bye for now
posted by Jim and Judy @ Tuesday, October 26, 2004
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