By Sarah, Jena, Nicole
大家好！ Hello everyone! Greetings from Xi’an! Xi’an (西安) is Ms. Li’s hometown （老家), and we’ve heard so many wonderful things about it, so we were very excited to start our tour!
Xi’an is one of the most historical cities, especially in China, since it was the capital of China for thirteen dynasties. After arriving late last night and meeting our new tour guide Ken (or Golden Dragon if you’d like to call him by his Chinese name), we were pleasantly surprised that today’s start time would be 9 a.m. Today was our first full day in Xi’an, and it was a jam-packed day full of lots of fun activities! We’re excited to share with you the highlights of our day!
We started off our morning with a beautiful buffet breakfast at the hotel. Some of the options included a combination of western-style breakfast and Chinese-style breakfast. Our personal favorites included the stir fry noodles, the steamed mantou, and even little Swiss cake rolls. After we got to sit down and enjoy multiple rounds of the buffet, it was time to hop on the bus to the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses (兵马俑博物馆).
To reach the excavation sites, we took a quick shuttle ride. It was beautiful to see spring in action with all the trees in bloom and the colorful flower petals falling gracefully.
Once we arrived we went into the three different pits. Each one was extremely crowded so we had to push our way through. It was amazing to see such a huge display of terracotta warriors. The terracotta warriors (兵马俑) are all intricately designed and beautifully carved. Every single sculpture was unique — no two had the same face. There are around 8000 warrior sculptures, but only around 2000 have been dug up and restored. We saw many parts that archaeologists are still working on discovering and restoring to this day. We learned that all the sculptures originally had color derived from minerals. For example, their white pigment came from animal bones. Techniques have now been developed to preserve the color on sculptures should any colorful sculptures be found. After taking many pictures and making our way through the gift shop, our stomachs signaled that it was time for lunch.
For lunch, we made our own biang biang noodles. The Chinese character for “biang” is one of the most complex Chinese characters, with over fifty strokes to write! Lucky for us, making the noodles was not as complex as writing its characters. We watched the professional model show us how to pull and smack the noodles into their iconic long shape. Then we each got to give it a try and cheered each other along throughout the process. We later got to eat our creations, along with other delicious food. One biang biang noodle was enough to fill up a small bowl (or one portion)!
Next, we visited a terracotta warrior factory, where they make replicas of the warriors in all different sizes. We met the owner and expert of the factory, and he demonstrated how we could make our own sculptures. When the warriors were originally made, they were handcrafted using a coiling technique. Today, we took a shortcut and used premade molds to get that perfect shape and detailed design. We all got to make a different soldier, and many of them resembled sculptures that we saw in the pits, including a general and kneeling archer. The process involved rolling out the clay and pressing it into all the crevices of the mold, keeping the sculpture hollow like the original ones. We tried our best to replicate these sculptures, and at the end we were so generously gifted a larger terracotta warrior sculpture. It’s like we’re getting the chance to take a piece of Chinese history home with us. Be sure to make a space in your house for these new additions to your decor!
Our final major stop was Huimin Street (回民街). Also known as Muslim Street, this market has so many shops to explore, from food to clothes and souvenirs. There were many bright and colorful lights, shops, and pieces of architecture. We got to explore one section of Huimin Street, and we got to put our bargaining skills to the test, which some of us had a lot of success with! Souvenirs ranged from personalized engraved fans to custom made bracelets, and some people even bought some larger bags to fit all of our new goodies.
On our way to dinner, we got to see the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower is right in the center (中心） of Xi’an, and since Xi’an is the middle of China, the Bell Tower is the direct center of China.
Today felt like such a meaningful day because we got to see and experience so many things that we had learned about in the classroom. Now, our classroom has expanded into the streets of China, where learning has truly become a hands-on experience. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s in store for us tomorrow!
