We gathered our bags and got off the train in Xi'an, 西安. In Chinese, 西安 means Western Peace. Outside the train station, we are greeted by our volunteering coordinator, David. He takes us to the place we will be staying for the next two weeks. We are staying with a host family who are muslims. The mom is the Director of the kindergarten school we will be teaching at, and the dad works for the government, in the Department of Education. They told us to call them both Teacher Ma. They have one son named Gary, who is studying economics in college. Once at the apartment, David told us about our volunteering program. After a quick orientation, David left, and we went to get a good night's sleep.
Today is mother’s day, so we decided to take Teacher Ma and my mom out for lunch. We went to Muslim Street and tried many delicious snacks. Then, we went to have lunch. For lunch we had fried tofu, fish, noodles, bread soup, and 中国的可口可乐. 中国的= Chinese 可口可乐= Coca Cola. Chinese Coca Cola is a sweet plum juice that looks very much like Coca Cola. I loved it! Then, we went back to the apartment.
Today is our first day of teaching. When we arrive at the school, we are greeted by the director and the English teacher. We got there just in time to see the raising of the flag ceremony. Then, we introduced ourselves to the kindergartners and then went inside to talk to the English teacher. She showed us the textbook she used to teach. She brought us into one of the classes, so we could see how the students were being taught. Then, we discussed our lesson plans for the rest of the week. Next, we had lunch at the school. The lunch was delicious, and I am glad that we will be having our meals at the school. Then, the children had a nap time for two hours. They unstacked their beds, took out their blankets and stuffed animals, and went to sleep. Two hours later, the girls would form a line, and the teacher would do each girl’s hair! My dad and I called the hairstyle “sprigster” because it was a sprig at the top of their heads! It was very adorable to watch. Then, we gave the teachers a lesson on how to teach their students the phonetics. Then, we had dinner and left the school. That was a wonderful first day, and I couldn’t wait until tomorrow!
For the rest of the two weeks, we arrived at the school, greeted the parents, had breakfast, and then taught two classes. In the class, we began with the phonetic song. Then, we reviewed vocabulary that the head teacher had given us. Finally, we sang many songs. After the two classes, we had lunch, and the students took a nap for two hours while Max and I did our homework. Then, we taught two more classes and had dinner. Next, we said goodbye to the children and their parents. Then, we went back to the apartment.
On the weekend between our two weeks of teaching, we visited the Terracotta Warriors in the outskirts of 西安. The name in Chinese is 兵马俑 (bīng mǎ yǒng) which means soldier, horse, and terracotta. The warriors were discovered in 1974 by a local farmer. Now the warrior receive six million visitors per year. Before 1974, the local people would bury their dead here. Originally, there used to be 8,000 warriors, but now there are only 2,000. Also the warriors used to be colorful, but after being exposed the open air, they lost their color.
The first emperor of China, who reigned in the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C, built these warriors to protect his tomb. This first emperor also created China’s writing and money. Out of all the 500 emperors in China, this emperor had the largest tomb. His mausoleum is 56 km2, and his tomb is in the center. Around the tomb, there are the warriors, clay horses, clay acrobats, jade armor, bronze animals and chariots, and dead concubines who were buried alive! He started building his mausoleum when he was thirteen. It took forty years to build, so it wasn’t completed in his lifetime. He unified China when he wears thirty-nine, and he died when he was fifty. His son completed his tomb. 720,000 workers were used to build his mausoleum. 西安 was the capital of China at the time, so he built his mausoleum as close to the capital as possible. His tomb is inside a mountain. There is a river flowing down the mountain with jade residing in the river. There also is gold near the mountain. Therefore, the emperor said that the mountain was his head, the river was his feet, the jade was his hand, and the gold was his other hand. This symbolized 风水 (Feng Shui), which is the unity of the Earth.
Pit 1:
There are three pits to hold the warriors. The first pit was discovered by the farmer. When they were first discovered, most of the warriors were in pieces. This is because the emperor had built wooden walls around the warriors, so since wood rots, the walls fell on the warriors and crushed them. There are 6,000 warriors in the first pit. Before, all the warriors held bronze weapons, but those were stolen during the years. The soldiers face East to protect the tomb, so they have their back to the tomb and are facing the enemy. The floor is made of bricks. Every warrior is different, but they all have long hair and mustaches because at the time it was illegal for men to cut their hair short. The warriors are very tall: 1.8 meters or 6 feet.
All the soldiers are infantry, and soldiers on the outer ranks form a wall to protect their fellow soldiers inside. The warriors’ armor are made of leather. The emperor rewarded warriors who fought well, and he took care of the dead warriors’ families. He was the first emperor to do that. The soldiers bodies are hollow, but their legs are solid clay. In the pit with the warriors, there are also graves of farmers. They did not know what these warriors were; they thought they were devils, so they left them alone. Only ⅓ of all the warriors are shown to the public out of a total of 8,000.
Fun True Story:
One Japanese man really loved the Terracotta Warriors. He wanted to be just like them. So, one early morning he snuck inside the first pit and dressed himself up to look exactly like one of the warriors. He climbed into the pit and stood there among the warriors. Soon the tourists started to come. Suddenly, one of the tourists screamed saying that one of the soldiers had blinked! The guards climbed into the pit and examined every warrior. Since the Japanese man couldn’t prevent himself from blinking, the guards were able to tell him apart. They dragged him away since he stayed in the same position and refused to move. Soon, the government made it illegal to do what he had done. Here is the video of what happened:
Pit 2:
In this pit, the warriors are face to face. They don’t hold any weapons-- only the ceremonial flag. This pit is the headquarters for the army. At the front, there are four horses pulling a wooden chariot that had rotted. The swords were still very sharp because the emperor discovered chrome plating technology. I am amazed at how advanced the Chinese were 2,000 years ago!
Pit 3:
This is the best preserved pit. There are different sections of the military in this pit. There are archers, chariots, cavalry, and infantry. In the future, when they are able to preserve the color of the warriors, those warriors will go in this pit. In an exhibition next to the pit, there is an archer. This is the only piece that was found intact, and it still has some color. We saw some other exhibitions of a middle-ranking officer, a general three meters tall, cavalry, and standing archer. Finally, we saw an exhibition of a chariot procession. The first chariot is made of bronze, and its purpose is to protect the second chariot. The second chariot is made of jade, and it holds the emperor. This chariot has six horses pulling it.
Then, we left the Terracotta Warriors. They were very impressive to see, and I have loved learning about them. We drove back to 西安 and began our second week of teaching. The second week was amazing just like the first! All the children were so enthusiastic to learn.The teachers were so open and willing, and we had so much fun! On our last day, we said goodbye to the teachers and parents and left the school. The next day, we said goodbye to the family and boarded our flight to Jiuzhaigou!
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