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The story of this region began during the 11th
Century, when numerous nation-states were fiercely battling over
land. The kingdoms built protective walls that eventually became The
Great Wall. By the 3rd Century B.C., a 13-year old
youngster (Katarena's age!) became leader of the Chinese state of
Qin, and took the name of Shi Huang, meaning “First Emperor”. He was
essentially a bloodthirsty tyrant, who commenced upon a beneficial
program of standardizing language, measurements, and unifying much
of China under a centralized government for the first time. He also
conscripted some 700,000 laborers and artisans over the next four
decades to begin building the Terracotta Soldiers to protect him in
the afterlife, just as real soldiers did then. (Apparently the Qin
ruler had softened the practice of all slaves and concubines being
buried alive with the head honcho when he died to using models of
them.) Nepotism in its most naked form was the law, and he anointed
his son to carry on the nation building. Regardless of their
general improvements, the masses had had enough of the tyranny, and
overthrew these dictators after less than 50 years of their
oppressive rule, making way for a more benevolent Han Dynasty. The
Han Dynasty was a bit better, incorporating Confucianism as a way of
legitimizing their rule, which lasted about thirteen times as long
and greatly extended the boundaries of China. This was a time of
connecting the mini-walls, enhancing and enlarging them to become
the now formidable Great Wall.
Fast forward to 1974: Shaanxi province, of which
Xi'an is the capitol, was experiencing a drought. Three farmers were
digging a well when they shoveled into something much harder than
the surrounding soil. They had found a 2,000 year old chamber
containing the hard, high-heat fired terracotta, life-sized
soldiers. This discovery, which is currently 7,000 figures and
growing, has brought in many leaders and heads-of-state, besides
multitudes of ordinary turistas such as us, all of whom marvel at
this “8th wonder of the world”. (former French President,
Jacques Chirac)
We were all tired, and wanted a nap after the meal,
but we certainly could not lay down here. Katarena and Enrique
practiced their bargaining skills, buying t-shirts, and I bought an
excellent pair of Jade earrings for Elena. A sure sign of tiredness
was that I didn't bargain, instead forking over the posted price.
All of us had had enough, and decided that we ought to go back to
the airport to avoid missing our (19:10) return flight to Beijing.
It meant passing through the horde of sellers again, and Enrique
once again was able to bargain for a miniature terracotta soldier.
Our conveyance was still there, the driver resting in
the back seat. He seemed surprised to see us and pulled out a map of
Xi'an. It had numerous tourist sites marked on it, to which he
indicated areas he would happily take us. However, we were all
tired, and didn't want to miss our flight, so I pointed to the
airplane. Within an hour, he had dropped us at the airport. Once all
of us were out of his vehicle, he waited patiently for me to give
him the payment of five 100¥ ($60USD) notes, I peeled them off the
ever-diminishing rolled of fortune that I had acquired a few days
ago when I thought cash only would be accepted for our train
tickets to Russia. Mutually bowing heads in formal separation, he
waited for the next customer while we turned and entered the crowded
airport.
A clock showed that we had arrived us three
hours in advance of the scheduled departure. We did a 180 and
returned to the sedan we had just gotten out of, figuring that we
would engage him for a bit more tour of the area. But he had
already acquired new passengers, and we could see him speeding down
the ramp. We went back inside the terminal, found an empty table and
pulled up three chairs.
We had barely sat down when a waiter approached us,
and, when we indicated we weren't interested in a purchase, he
pointed to a sign, written only in English, that only paying
customers could sit here. I looked around and saw lots of people
occupying seats but not eating or drinking. Heck, several people
were even sleeping, something I felt a need for. The waiter,
alert to my own observation, gestured that the small rack
constituted a separation from his restaurant and the terminal, and,
once again, pointed at the sign. Accepting the fact that we either
had to buy or leave, we left. It wasn't that comfortable anyway.
We went downstairs and found a mini-hotel, where we
could rent beds to rest upon. We knew we only had a couple hours
wait, and I was too cheap to pay for what seemed outrageous price,
20 ¥ ($2.40USD) per hour. We wandered toward a darkened hallway,
found the remotest corner possible in which to posit our bodies.
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