Xi’an – Day Trip (continued)

Continued from Xi’an – Day Trip

When we left off, we’d just visited the Huaqing Hot Springs not far from the Terracotta Warrior and Horse Museum.  We explored the rest of the hot springs resort, but we felt we didn’t have enough time to use the chairlift to climb to the top of the mountain.  Watching the clock (we had to be back at the airport by 6pm) we felt we should finish up by 4pm, so we finished up and left the resort.

Our driver was quite surprised at how quickly we’d been through the locations (we’re fast walkers) and as we were driving back to the airport, he suggested we visit a mausoleum which was 1.5 kms off the airport expressway.  We felt confident that we must have enough time, so we agreed and, in hindsight, I’m so glad he suggested the detour.

The main burial mound

We ended up at the “Yangling Mausoleum of Han Museum” which (as we found out later) is not far from Xi’an airport, in north west Xi’an.  It is a museum on top of the excavations of the tomb of a western Han dynasty Emperor and Empress’ tombs and it is really amazing.  The mausoleum area dates from just after the Qin dynasty, around 153 BC and the excavations began in 1991, and were publically announced in 1999.  The present day museum was constructed and opened in 1999 and displays about 1900 artifacts from the various dig sites around the Han mausoleum.

From the chinauniquetour.com website:

Construction of the mausoleum took 28 years, beginning in 153 B.C. and ending when the empress died. The mausoleum covers an area of more than 10 square kilometers – nearly six kilometers east to west, and up to three kilometers north to south. The tomb complex is symmetrically constructed with the sacred road from east to west. Yang Ling mausoleum, standing at the western end of the sacred road, is about 32 meters high with circumferences of 670 meters and 238 meters at the bottom and top respectively. It looks like a topless pyramid. Beside it is the tomb of the Empress. In ancient China it was the custom that an Empress, although she held much power, be buried separately from her husband.

The Yangling Tomb, a Western Han (202 B.C.-16 A.D.) imperial mausoleum that had been undisturbed for about 2,100 years, has been excavated partially. Found in the tomb were color-painted nude pottery figurines, and 90 large subordinate burial pits around it, covering an area of more than 7,000 square meters.

It would be an understatement to suggest we flew through both exhibition locations.  Pressed for time, we had to swoop through both levels of the second museum, snapping some photos and admiring some of the many figurines which have been unearthed during the past twenty years.

A representation of the mausoleum area / figures recovered from the tomb

Horses recovered from the burial pits / assorted pottery from 100 BC

The real highlight though was the main building, adjacent to the main burial mound.  The second building we visited (I think we might have visited them out of order) was fundamentally the most interesting building we visited all day – a tall order if you consider we’d just visited the famous Terracotta Warriors!

A figurine in the welcome gesture

The main difference was the museum itself.  Constructed on top of the excavated sites, it fully enclosed the contents of the various pits and keeps the contents at a specific temperature to preserve what remains.  The real highlight is that the complex allows you the unparalleled advantage of being able to walk over the pits (you can view through the glass floor).

A model representation of the burial grounds / Inside the dig museum

An amazing experience, really making you feel like you are actually exploring the dig site itself, in contrast to the Qin Terracotta Warriors museum, which restricts you to walking around the actual sites from the outside.  Another treat, rare in China, is that we basically had the whole museum to ourselves.  There were maybe five or six people when we initially entered, they disappeared and we were alone to enjoy the entire site by ourselves.  Amazing.

Again, watching our watches, we had to be brief and circumspect.  We spent about half an hour inside the main building, moving from pit to pit, amazed at the number of antiquities found within each location.  We descended to the bottom floor, which was actually the depth of the pits, and were able to view a cross section of one of the long trenches, which contained even more figures, horses and what looks like the remains of a large horse.

We raced through the final room, which was about two stories high, marvelling at the collection of antique pottery and burial jars before resurfacing to the burial mound.  There was also a short feature film available, but we felt time constrained and had to skip it.  We found our driver ready and waiting, so we jumped back in and sped off towards the airport.

Looking through the floor

The main crosswalk with glass floor / One of the burial pits

Ground level cross section / Horse statues buried and partial excavated

Sample figures dressed as they were when they were entombed / Pottery excavated

Once we arrived, we tipped him 20 RMB (not much, but all we had) and thanked him for his suggestion and time – and skill driving.  The roads around Xi’an are not for the faint of heart!

We checked in for our outbound flight to HangZhou, and bid farewell to Xi’an.  I’m pleased to report that our journey home was incident free, and although it is cold (when we arrived it was –1’C) we’re happy to be home.  Our next journey is on January 19th when we travel East to the land of the rising sun – Japan.

Tune in soon for more.