Xuzhou (徐州)

The life-sized terracotta warriors in Xi'an I've seen several times, but I'd never seen any of the other three sites featuring 20 to 40-cm soldiers, one of which is located in Xuzhou. We had some time before we had to catch the bullet train to Beijing, and decided to check out the Han terracotta warriors.

The site was found under a brick factory, which had destroyed one of the pits.

Others were still fine, though it sure is crowded in there.

In a way, these 40-cm guys (and girls, actually, though not pictured here) are scarier than the life-sized versions, in a weird way.

Some of the pits were discovered underwater, and yet others still haven't even been excavated.

Next door is the Chu prince's mausoleum, which although nearly completely empty, was an amazing site where you can actually walk through the underground corridors and rooms carved out of stone 2,000 years ago, the first such structure I've ever been in. Unfortunately, the unnecessarily gaudy lights add a very modern Chinese "color" to the atmosphere.

Another mausoleum nearby has yet to be explored as archeologists develop better excavation and preservation techniques.

In another building there were also Han dynasty stone relief carvings on display. Here's my personal favorite: weapons.

Here're some real swords from that era.

The End [of yet another fun and successful trip]

[until next time...]