Xi'an & The Infamous Terra Cottas |
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Xi'an as a city is great. After two rough weeks traveling along the silk road our group was delighted to get into a real hotel with western comforts. But, as for the Terra Cottas- MASSIVE LETDOWN. 8th wonder of the world my ass.
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Xi'an, old western capital of China and vantage point from which Emperor Qing united the country under one flag. New Xi'an, nice modern city with a Chinese flavor and a hint of the western comforts plus a whole lot of history. The Terra Cotta Warriars and Qing Tomb. Ugh. First off, no way did archeologists piece together 5,000 terra cottas that we found in shambles and ruined the moment they opened the pits to modern air. Second, if they WERE real they woudn't be sitting out in the open like that nor would they allow flash photography. things that old have to be kept at a certain temperature and normally a vaccum. Only 1 terra cotta was found whole, only 1! You are telling me that they put together the other 4999 to that near perfection? Do you know how long that would take? And, with China's technology?! No way. Fake. Except for the 3 terra cottas that are encased in pressurized glass in the musuem, the rest are all bloody fakes. The fact that they have a museum where REAL objects are kept in controlled atmospheres shows that the rest of stupid fakes. You can buy your own terra cotta for handsome price that looks EXACTLY like the ones in the pitts. Or, you can leave the official terra cotta area and buy one from the many vendors littering the road to the area. Please China, don't try to pull one over on us this time and boast of an 8th wonder of the world. I've been here for 10 months and travled around extensively. One thing you quickly learn about China is that they are ingenius at creating tourist attractions and raking in the money because of them. You can't leave China without seeing the Terra Cottas but I left Xi'an so angry... I'm still angry. ;-)
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View from our Hotel. Xi'an the city was great.
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Another rant... please for heavans sake dont to go the Qing Emperors replica tomb. Our tour guide explained it as very disturbing, very scary- and kinda of like disney land. Give me a break! I wish my program didn't waste our tuition money on that bs. The Qing Emperor has this huge hill that is apparently home of a very luxerious grand scale tomb. They have never opened it because they are afraid they don't have good enough technology to preserve the heavenly secrets it must hold. You can go to this hill, walk up it and take pictures with horses attached to a fake chariot. It strikes me as funny that they are afraid of destroying it but don't mind tourists tromping up and down the hillside that is also apparently the roof of the tomb. Do you think thats a bright idea? I don't. They also put on a pretty colorful show that is supposed to depict the Qing emperor, who p.s. killed millions of people and was basically a huge asshole tyrant.
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Then, you can climb into your overpriced tour bus where they will cart you away to the REPLICA of the tomb THEY'VE NEVER OPENED! They claim they've x-rayed the land and have a pretty good idea of whats inside. My boyfriend fell off the great all, broke two arms and their x-rays showed he only broke one. I doubt, if they can't figure out if an arm is broken they can figure out the exact layout of a tomb. Our tour guide described this REPLICA tomb as very frightening, disturbing and kind of like disney land. It actually made me want to gorge my eyes out. We also weren't allowed to take pictures inside the fake tomb. You are allowed to take pictures of the real Terra Cotta Warriors but you can't take pictures of the replica tomb. Another point against the legitimacy of the terra cotta warrior army. I've read somewhere that like, flashes from cameras actually destroy plastic but help preserve ancient pottery. Grrr.
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I told you so! All imitations. Bastards.
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Back to my hate fest:
The only good thing about the terra cottas was the museum of the ones in glass cases and the chariot.
The only frightening thing about the Qing tomb was that if there would have been a fire in the last moments of my life would have been spent in that peice of shit replica of an unopened tomb.
After this day of tourism that created an mind numbing headache I skipped the other two days of activities and went shopping.
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Emperor's Chariot. Our tg compared it to Air Force 1. :-|
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We stayed at the Xi'an City Hotel. It was REALLY nice with a great location. I'm sorry to report that Xi'an does not have a starbucks... but they have this place called King Coffee that has VERY good coffee.
The iced frapp's from King Coffee were the only thing keeping me sane as I was dragged from one dissapointing attraction to another.
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Favorite part of the day- feeding these horses peaches. Poor guys were tied to an immobile chariot
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Sorry, didnt do any clubbing here.
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One of five potentially legit terra cottas.
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We went to a few different bars where we just sat around and drank, and bitched about the terra cottas and replicas of unopened tombs.
I led the bitter army of American college students against shoddy tourist attractions.
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Can you imagine being fully tacked and tied to a chariot that never moves? Poor poor creatures.
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I didn't eat Chinese food while in Xi'an. Pizza hut, Mcdonalds breakfast... umm yea actually thats it.
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And for what- tourism? Everything else is fake, why did they have to use live horses?
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Shopping in Xi'an is pretty good but a little bit more expensive than what we are used to in Beijing. THey arn't quite so flexible in the bargaining, at least in the stores we went to but they have really unique clothing and some really good gems if you have the time to look.
Unlike Beijing where when the vendor says 600rmb you immediately say 50rmb and end somewhere around 100rmb. Here they say 600, you say 50 and they show you the door.
PS: For the people that commented this report is too negative or vulgar. I absolutely have the right to share my negative OR positive views on any place I visit. And, saying 'ass' doesn't hurt anyone. I speak Chinese, I've been here for nearly a year, and I can dislike a place I visit. I can also judge a place I visit. No way was I going to write about the amazig terra cottas because I didn't feel like they were. I STUDY chinese, chinese culture, economics, and culture... and just like any culture there are negative aspects.
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Published on Friday October 28th, 2005 by vbx000
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