[Xian]

Xi'an means something like "eastern peace" and is one of the largest cities in China. It was capital of the early kingdom, situated at the eastern end of the "Silk Route." Marco Polo visited in his trek. The central original city remains surrounded by the ancient city wall, quite fully restored at this stage, although some of the gate forts are still being renovated.

The wall itself is wide. Linda and I rented bikes and rode around its 8km perimeter. I have omitted any of the pictures showing its width at this point. I will add them later.

Xi'an was also where the emperor Chin ruled from and died. He "employed" 700,000 workers for 30+ years building his tomb (not yet excavated), and assembling the army to protect him in the afterlife. They created an assembly line for the bodies, but each head and face is unique. On his death, rivals trashed the army and it was forgotten until 1974 when farmers digging a well discovered the tiled floor on which the army stood.

Slowly, the broken bits have been reassembled.

Bell Tower Road

This is the ancient Bell Tower of Xian. The bell rang each morning to signal the opening of the city gates. Drums sounded from a separate tower each evening to mark the closing of the city gates.

This is looking north from the South Gate Tower, our first stop in Xian, before checking in to the hotel.

It was a 2-hour flight from Beijing to Xian. We arrived just before 10 am, toured the South Gate, and went to lunch.
Street Crowd

After checking in to our hotel, Linda and I went walking back to the South Gate to take the bike tour on the city wall. That's when the earthquake hit about 1000km away: 2:27pm, May 12. I can't say I really felt it, but this shows the "panic in the streets" when it was felt in Xian. Our first indication was the frightened people pouring out of all the buildings.

The traffic at the point was still moving a bit; I suspect the drivers hadn't felt anything.
more street crowd Still in the streets. We made our way back to an intersection with a big wide street, as far from the buildings as we could.
store workers at evacuation points

These are groups of clerks/sales people from one of the stores, lining up by department to make sure everyone was out.

The stores were organized into small departments, with a worker for each rack of merchandise it seemed. They weren't really pushy, but were eager to help if you stopped to look at anything on their rack.
Town Wall Park at Xian This is the park on the outside of the city wall.
School evacuees On our bike tour, we passed a place of a great din. Looking over the wall, we saw the school kids still evacuated after the earthquake. Most buildings were emptied for about 2 hours while someone checked the structures for damage.
Train Station evacuees A bit further, another din. This is the evacuation of the central train station in Xian.
Quake damage perhaps

This MAY be quake damage--bricks off the city wall. Or, it could be just a regular project underway (they were pretty lax about keeping people out of construction zones). And, there was never much press about minor damage because of the significant damage at the epicenter.

Members of our group still at the hotel, especially on higher floors, certainly felt the quake. The hotel was evacuated for 2+ hours. We were blissfully ignorant, and went about our merry way, and were certainly happy to be touring, not just standing around.
refuse can lid Top of a trash can on the city wall.
musician for dinner Went to a dinner theater, and this was the musician during dinner. More music and dancing after the dinner, but those pictures didn't turn out well.
warriors in pit 1 Glimpse of the warriors in Pit one, where the major army was.
More warriors and horses. Several of the signs advertising the place on the way emphasized "warriors and horses." I guess the horse lobby got there, or maybe the horse coservators/restorers had something to do with it.
skinny charioteer Our guide said this tall skinny guy was a charioteer. His horse is out of the picture, but there was little sign of his chariot.
woman dusting warrior

Even terra cotta needs dusting now and then, I guess.

This was the prime restoration area, dubbed the "warrior and horse hospital." In other pictures, there are obvious piles of parts, waiting to be matched to something else to make a warrior or horse.
horses for the troups Warriors and horses, showing their parts and seams.
partial warriors Under repair. It's hard to say what sort of armature is holding the head up. The weight of each warrior was said to be between 500 and 700 pounds, if I remember rightly.
warriors with some color Only a few of the warriors we saw showed signs of color, but the guide said they were all painted once. They are limiting excavation now, hoping future techniques will allow for better preservation of the original colors.
group of warriors More partials, and one fellow "taking a nap."
shot in pit 3

There are three pits open to the public. I think this is Pit 3, where the officer corps was located. There is still a lot of excavation to do here, too.

There are also other pits on the general site, but not yet open to the public. One excavation includes entertainers for the emperor in afterlife, too. He planned ahead, and did his best to "take it with him."
officers of the realm

This was headquarters for the army, since the officers are facing one another, as in a staff meeting.

I have many more shots, and will sort through and post a few more pictures later.