Immediately after the tour of the Wild Goose Pagoda, we rushed to see the famous Han Yangling museum. This is located in the northern part of the city , on the banks of the Wei river.
This place has the tomb of the Emperor Jingdi and his wife Empress Wang. It is said that this tomb was constructed over a period of 28 years!!
There are 81 burial pits around the Emperor's tomb.The pits display clay warriors, maidens, animals, utensils which tells us about the royal life as well as the life of the ordinary people of the Han Dynasty.It is an underground museum and we can see the relics standing on the 'glass floor' built above the buried treasure. It was an unique experience indeed.
You have to pay an entrance fee to enter the underground museum. It is one of the places worth visiting in Xian.....
If you are lucky, you can catch the 3D/ laser show about the Emperor that was really breath taking. Photography is not allowed in that theater. The play is in Chinese but they provide you with recorded translators with headphones so that you can enjoy the show in your preferred language.
Now for the tour.....
.
The first day of of tour in Xi'an came to an end. We wanted to rest but still we had to finish off dinner. SO we headed to a hotpot restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal. Later that evening, though we were dead tired, we freshened up and went for a walk to the bell tower. We wanted to experience the city at night. The roads were busy with a lot of tourists and some locals going around.We did some shopping and tried some local vegetarian street foods. We returned around midnight to catch up with our beauty sleep. There was a busy day ahead the following day........
Till we meet again, take care...
This place has the tomb of the Emperor Jingdi and his wife Empress Wang. It is said that this tomb was constructed over a period of 28 years!!
There are 81 burial pits around the Emperor's tomb.The pits display clay warriors, maidens, animals, utensils which tells us about the royal life as well as the life of the ordinary people of the Han Dynasty.It is an underground museum and we can see the relics standing on the 'glass floor' built above the buried treasure. It was an unique experience indeed.
You have to pay an entrance fee to enter the underground museum. It is one of the places worth visiting in Xian.....
If you are lucky, you can catch the 3D/ laser show about the Emperor that was really breath taking. Photography is not allowed in that theater. The play is in Chinese but they provide you with recorded translators with headphones so that you can enjoy the show in your preferred language.
Now for the tour.....
The map at the entrance
The Emperor's tomb
The Nanque Gate
The entrance to the burial pit
The path leading to the underground museum
Some inscriptions on the wall
The floor plan at the entrance of the underground tomb
The relics can be viewed from the glass 'floor' that is constructed above the area where the relics are buried. It was such a different experience!
One of the pits with clay pottery
The pit with clay animals
One of the pit with human figurines
In most of the pits, the figurines and pottery have remained intact while the excavation process was carried out. SOme have been destroyed though as you can see above.
The famous horse drawn chariot
Male and female figurines have a clear distinction....
When the clay dolls were buried, they were dressed like the one above. But as the years passed the cloth got 'eaten away' and now only the raw structure remains
Another display of the male figurine in costume
The close up of the chariot
A display with the figurines as they were buried with the costume and how they are seen today
Some of the weapons and utensils that were buried here
A closer look...
The terracotta horses
The terracotta dogs
A display with all the animals - horse, dog, hen and pig
The cow
Some of the utensils that were buried
The utensils recovered during excavation stacked up
Just like the lucky tortoise in Qingdao, we tried our luck here if we could touch the dragons head through the small hole on the side and place money. And yes, we could!!! Aren't we lucky!!
The souvenir shop at the exit sells replicas of the terracotta articles as seen inside. They were pretty expensive
Some of the other items in the shop for sale
My ever favorite chopsticks were sold there. I saw ones in jade, soap stone, bamboo...
Isn't it a lovely sunset! Yes, it is.. But not a real one. It's a painting on the way out!!
We walked out from the semi darkness into the evening sun and got ready to leave.....
The refreshment stand was long closed and we were the last to leave the place....
The first day of of tour in Xi'an came to an end. We wanted to rest but still we had to finish off dinner. SO we headed to a hotpot restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal. Later that evening, though we were dead tired, we freshened up and went for a walk to the bell tower. We wanted to experience the city at night. The roads were busy with a lot of tourists and some locals going around.We did some shopping and tried some local vegetarian street foods. We returned around midnight to catch up with our beauty sleep. There was a busy day ahead the following day........
Till we meet again, take care...
