We were prepped pretty hard for this day by Professor Liu—up and out by 9:30am, and not back to the hotel until 9pm. This was confusing because there didn’t seem to be too much on the agenda. We were planning on going to the Terracotta Warriors, the Huaqing Hot Springs of Emperor Tan, and then a show at 8:30pm.
First item on the agenda was the (one of many) 8th Wonders of the Ancient World, the Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin. I think absolutely incredible that the Warriors weren’t found until 1974, purely by chance. It makes you wonder what else is out there that hasn’t been discovered yet, just under a few feet of dirt. They were discovered by a farmer who was trying to dig a well—the farmer who discovered them actually works at the museum now, signing autographs (of course, you have to buy the book to get the autograph…) but that was awesome. They’re still in the process of uncovering parts of the Warriors, too. There’s an entire pit exhibit that all you get to see is the roof support of the rooms the statues are in, but we hear they’re working on taking off the roof to uncover the soldiers, horses, and chariots inside. We also stopped by a “Terracotta Warrior Factory” on the way there, where they make the most incredible art—mostly replicas of the Terracotta warriors of all sizes, but also furniture cut out of stone, swords, other metalwork, and art from house artists. When I’m designing my mansion when I’m rich and famous, I’ll probably have a few somethings from this place featured.
We had lunch and dinner at the same restaurant. The first meal was on our tour guide, because he showed up an hour late to pick us up (turned out to be a good thing). It was apparently a bit more traditional Chinese, but was incredibly delicious all around. The only weird thing about the meals was that there were people trying to sell us art the entire time. During dinner, it was auction style. The prices were attractive (~$15 for a full 8-foot banner size painting), but no one ended up buying anything.
The Hot Springs were pretty boring, because we didn’t have time to climb or cable car up the mountains. There was a naked statue, and so we took some pretty mature and austere photos with her, but other than that we just twiddled our thumbs after we felt the pee-temperature water.
However, the 8:30 show is definitely a highlight of the show. We were told we could take photos, but turns out we couldn’t, so I don’t have much to show you, you’ll just have to take my word for it. The stage was split—the back half was a normal stage, but the front half was a big pool. The craziest things would come out of the water—most commonly a stage that sat 5cm below the water that would light up, giving the actors and dancers the illusion of walking on water. There was a line of fountains that created a “water wall” that was used as a projector screen, and the craziest pyrotechnics. The main plot was the love story of Emperor Zong Xuan and his favorite concubine, Yang, who killed herself because he spent too much time with her and not enough on the state, causing China to get ransacked (the fire came in during the fight scene). It was difficult to understand, because it was in Chinese (despite me being fluent and all) but the dancing was beautiful—reminded me of ballet—and the visual effects were stunning. The theater was outside with a mountain behind us, and they used the entire mountain in the show. If it was a night scene, they’d turn on individual points of light all across the mountain, and a GIANT screen half a mile away would show a moon just over the mountain. Overall, an incredible show.
The other great part about today was that I didn’t spend a dime—lunch was on the tour guide, dinner was on Professor Liu, and all admission prices (around Y400 total—that’s like $60!) was covered by Professor Liu and our program costs. I’m going to have plenty of money to last me—I’ve got around Y250 left for two more days—Xiaoxia told me that she got my emergency Visa checkcard in the mail, so as soon as I get to Shanghai I’ll be able to withdraw money again. This trip has been incredible, and Shanghai’s going to be the best part. Get excited.
