A visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors

On Saturday, June 10 we were taken to see the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum about one hour outside of Xi'an. We rode in the school mini-bus accompanied by our English teacher Grace. The burial site of the first emperor of all China, the Qin Emperor ruled before more than 2000 years ago. Shortly after he became Emperor he began construction of his tomb which took 30 years. Buried with him was a huge terra cotta army of thousands of soldiers, archers and lancers as well as horses and chariots. Each of the 6000 unearthed so far has a different face, and they come in various sizes. The detail on the statues is unbelieveable! Buried under many yards of earth they were not rediscovered until 1974 when a farmer was trying to dig a well. The figures were all originally painted but the color faded out when exposed to light. As a result many of the soldiers are purposely left underground while scientists are working on methods of preservation. Also buried with the army were weapons including some swords that were chromium plated 2000 years before the process was "discovered" in the 20th century.

On the way back to town the students all decided that they wanted to eat lunch at Pizza Hut which some students had discovered earlier in the week. After calls to all host families to let them know of the delay we were let off in front of the restaurant. The boys were especially HUNGRY, while some of the girls injoyed iced-latte. It was a wonderful trip!