ROUTE 1I: Xl'AN--THE MUSEUM OF
EMPEROR QIN SHIHUANG' S TERRA--
COTTA ARMY
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! We will be visiting Qin
Shihuang's Terra--cotta Army today. The museum is 35 Kilo-
metres away from the urban area. It will take about half an hour to
get there.
The slope we are getting down on is called Changle Slope.
Downwards flows the Chanhe River, and this place is historically
famous. Here used to be the first courier station east of the capital
city in the Sui and Tang dynasties. It marks the only way for earlier
business travellers to take. And it was the farthest place for towns-
people to see off their eastbound friends or relatives. Emperor
Zhong Zong of the Tang Dynasty had the Changle Palace built on
the slope. Therefore the avenue running about seven kilometres
from the Chanhe River to the east city wall is called Changle Road.
This is the Chanhe River. Apparently it has a small flow ca-
pacity. But more than 6,000 years back, it was quite wide and had
a vast amount of water flowing through. Fishing in the river was an
indispensable productive activity among Banpo inhabitants. The riv-
er also provided a water source for the Dragon Pool (kno~vn as
Xingqing Lake today) in the Xingqing Palace of the Tang Dynasty.
Xi'an has eight rivers flowing around it, hence "a city of eight
rivers". Those rivers refer to Jinghe, Weihe, Chanhe, Bahe,
Fenghe, Haohe, Juhe and Zaohe rivers, respectively.
Please turn right and look out at the structure with a gray--
colored roof. It is the first museum built on the site of excavation in
China. The museum houses the remains of the Banpo Village which
dates more than 6000 years back to the Neolithic Age of matriarchal
clan community.
The expressway that greets us is the first of its kind in the
Northwest. It runs 23.9 kilometers from Xi'an to Lintong where
Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terra-cotta Army is located. Along the
expressway there are a number of tourist attractions such as the
Banpo Village Museum, the Huaqing Pool, Lintong County Muse-
um and the Museum of Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terra-cotta Army
as well. In fact, this travel route is universally accepted as the most
popular in the area of Xi'an . In order to meet the needs of the in-
creasing number of tourists and clear up traffic congestion, the state
government invested in the construction of this expressway in 1987.
The whole project was completed and put into use in 1990. As a re-
sult, the time-distance has been shortened by at least half an hour
from Xi'an to Lintong County.
This is Bahe River, formerly called Zishui River. As early as
the Spring and Autumn Period (770--476 B. C. ), King Mugong of
the Qin Kingdom, through one victory after another, drove the Jin
Kingdom, one of the five powerful states of that age east off the
Yellow River, and established the Zishui River as a dividing line be-
tween the eastern part of the Qin K4ngdom and the Jin Kingdom.
Later, King Mugong renamed the Zishui River as the Bahe River to
display his feats of arms. By the way, the Chinese character "°Ô~"
(ba) means "power". In this sense, the Babe River shows evidence
of King Mugong's hegemonist power. Baqiao Bridge is the oldest
and most famous stone--beam bridge in Chinese history. Its proto-
type, simply a wooden structure, was built in the Han Dynasty.
But it was burnt to the ground in 22 B. C.. Later, it was restored
and renamed as the Everlasting Bridge. The present-day bridge was
rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. It is 386 metres in length. It has 64
holes and 408 columns. Each column is several millstones piled up.
So the bridge is extremely solid. Baqiao Bridge is a typical example
of China's millstone columnated bridge, and counts as a unique one
in the Chinese history of bridge works. In 1955, its top surface was
paved with steel--reinforced cemen slabs, but its lower part was
untouched. The Bahe River is lined with rows of willow trees, and
those green trees give much shade. There are historicel records
about those weeping willows. As early as in the Sui and Tang dy-
nasties, weeping willows were planted on the banks of the Bahe
River. In early spring, catkins blew off and drifted about in the air,
just like snowflakes. No wonder we have such a poetic version as
"Drifting like snowflakes around the Baqiao Bridge, willow catkins
caress my face." The drifting of catkins has since been one of the
eight sights across the Central Shaanxi Plain. Again in the Sui and
Tang dynasties, a courier station was set up near the Baqiao Bridge.
It was a usual place for natives of Chang'an to see off east--bound
guests. What's more, they usually broke off a wicker and gave it to
east--bound friends or relatives in hope that they would make a
longer stay, because the two English words "willow" and "stay7
are
homophones in Chinese. By giving a wicker to friends or relatives,
they also meant to wish that their cherished friends or relatives
would have a new life wherever they went, just as a wicker contin-
ues to come up wherever it is transplanted. As a result, there aren't
as many willow trees on the banks of the Bahe River as in the Sui
and Tang dynasties. But when it comes to the Tree-planting Day on
March 12 every year, volunteers, one group after another, come to
plant willow trees. In the years to come, snow-like catkins will
reappear as a splendid sight over the Bahe River.
Paper, compass, printing and gunpowder have been universal-
ly accepted as the four inventions of ancient China. China's earliest
paper was discovered in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in
the vicinity of Baqiao Bridge in 1957. Judging from other relics dis-
covered in the tomb, it must have been made in no later than 140 to
87 B.C.. The paper, known as Baqiao paper among Chinese ar-
chaeologists and historians, is uniform in thickness, and has proven
to be a kind of linen-fiber paper, as a result of analytical tests.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have got into I.intong County. Lin-
he and Tonghe rivers flow across the county, hence its name Lin-
tong County. In fact, many Chinese place names are closely associ-
ated with mountains, rivers and lakes. For example, Qinghai
Province, which is situated in the northwest region of China, is
named after the Qinghai Lake. Hebei and Henan provinces literally
means River North and River South. These provinces are so called
just because they are located north and south of the Yellow River
respectively. The same is also true with Shandong and Shanxi
provinces (literally Mount East and Mount West), because they are
situated east and west of Mount Taihang respectively.
Lintong County abounds in pomegranates. Naturally, so many
pomegranate orchards greet us along the road. Natives of Xl'an
have a strong liking for the brilliant red pomegranate flower, so it
has been established as the city flower. Pomegranate was originally
grown in the area of Central Asia, including Afghanistan, Iran and
Tadzhikistan. It was introduced from the Western Regions and first
planted in Lintong County by Zhang Qian, an envoy of the Western
Hah Dynasty, 2,100 yeais back. Now, pomegranates produced in
this area are exported in large quantities to Hong Kong, Macao and
southeast Asian countries every year. Chinese people have a com-
mon taste for this particular fruit since there has been an influence
of traditional culture over them. A pomegranate, as it is, contains
many seeds, and the words "ced" and "son" are homonyms in
the
Chinese language. So the association between these two different el-
ements is quite evident; that is to say, many seeds mean many
sons. In spite of state's birth control policy, local people especially
country folks, still prefer to make a pillow cases or counterpanes
embroidered with a pair of pomegranates as presents for newly-weds
to wish them an everlasting marriage union and a houseful of chil-
dren.
The mountain standing far on the right is called Mount Li. It
is an offshoot of the Qinling Mountain Range which serves as a de-
marcation line between the North and the South in China. The
character"æê"(li) as in Mount Ii is defined as "a black horse"
in
classical Chinese. In retrospect, the mountain was densely covered
with towering pines and jade green cypresses. Seen from afar, it
looked like a galloping black horse. This is how the mountain got its
name. Mount Ii has been a tourist attraction from the time im-
memorial. Huaqing Pool which is located at the foot of the moun-
tain was the resort palace of Zhou - dynasty kings 3,000 years ago.
Maintenance and repair work on the palace was carried out in later
dynasties respectively, since it was reserved for feudal rulers as im-
perial gardens in ancient China.
At dusk, Mount Li looks like a flame-colored horse in a myriad
of evening sun rays. "Sunset Glow over Mount Li", in fact, is one
of the eight splendid sights across the Central Shaanxi Plain. At the
top of the mountain are also located Laojun's Temple, the beacon
tower of the Zhou Dynasty and the First Mother's Temple built in
honor of Niiwa, a legendary Chinese ancestress of the remote past.
The statue of Lao Zi, founder of Taoism, which was formerly wor-
shiped in Laojun's Temple is now housed in the Museum of Forest
of Stone Tablets in Xi'an. The statue was created by Yuan Jia'er, a
specialist in stone carving from the Western Regions, as was re-
quested by Emperor Xuan Zong of the Tang Dynasty.
By the side of the road are patches of persimmon trees. Per-
simmon gives a high yield and comes in many varieties in Lintong
County. Out of the many varieties, The Crystal Persimmon is ex-
eremely peculiar to this area. Incidentally, the fruit is so called, just
because of its flame--like flesh and crystal--clear skin.
Ladies and gentlemen, here we are at the museum. We'll stay
here for an hour and a half. OK! Let's get off and visit the muse-
um.