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Day 13: Of boats, warriors and imposters
Lissa One of the things I loved about Shanghai was its skyline. That will always stick in my mind. The population of Shanghai rivals Beijing’s, but Shanghai is known for being more progressive, especially in its architecture, so you’ve got buildings that look like the Eiffel Tower, and others that look very contemporary with different parts jutting out and holes in the middle of a skyrise, and European colonial-style buildings next to some in bold colors like red and blue and green.
And we also got a taste of the ancient. We had an hour-and-a-half drive where we were snapping shots of the skyline on the way to a nearly 1700-year-old water city called Zhujiajiao, very traditional with lots of canals. There we visited a post office that was almost 2000-years-old.
Cathy From the pictures it looks like Venice!
Lissa That’s right, this city is known as the
Venice of China!Cathy So did the gondoliers sing to you?
Lissa No, I was the gondolier!
Cathy Oh, I hope you didn’t sing!
Lissa I almost drove the boat into the wall! Our guide said the residents do everything in the water. They wash clothes, they wash dishes, and waste goes down the river. I said thank goodness I didn’t know that before we ate lunch, because they washed all our dishes in the water.
We were all kind of worried because you guys flew off to Xian on your own and it was tight—an overnight round trip to see all you wanted to see. We kept talking about you all day.
Cathy We made it just in the nick of time! We had a guide who met us on the other side, but until that point it was just the three of us. It was a little bit scary having to navigate the airports, but we managed.
I was surprised at how pretty the countryside of Xian was. There were lots and lots of weeping willows and cherry blossoms and peach blossoms. I felt like wow, I didn’t get to see the cherry blossoms in Japan, but at least I’m seeing them in China!
The terracotta warriors story was so fascinating. We found out they were discovered by farmers who were digging a well and came across some pieces of broken clay and dug further, and that’s when they found the first pod. The authorities came in and excavated the area, and now there are three large pods of thousands of terracotta warriors.
Each face, hairstyle, their clothing—every one of them was unique. The emperor who had them made for his tomb wanted to be protected in his afterlife. When the whole thing was done, all of the artisans who worked on the terracotta warriors were killed!
Our tour took a few hours and Darrell and I were fascinated, but after 30 minutes or so the fascination had worn off for Nicki. I guess for an 8-year-old, after you’ve seen one terracotta soldier you’ve seen them all!
When we were leaving, Nicki said she wanted to take home one of the full-size replicas, $25,000 apiece. I don’t think so! She had to settle for the pen-size gift pack.
Our guide told us a really funny story about a German man who actually disguised himself as a terracotta warrior. He jumped in the pit and took his place among the warriors, and for a while he managed to go undetected!
When he was discovered he did not want to leave, he said he was a warrior at heart, and he had to be physically removed. And what struck me was if we happened to be there and Nicki had said Mommy, I just saw one of the soldiers blink! I would have said come on, don’t be silly!
I thought you would find it interesting to read on your own, it’s a really cute story.
http://www.chinatour.com/attraction/terracotta.htmPhew! It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it. Before we knew it, two days had flown by and it was time to rejoin the rest of the group. We set sail from Shanghai without even seeing it—oh well, one more reason to come back!
