Xi'an Arrival, a Visit to the Shaanxi History Museum

Terra Cotta Warriors. Some with heads.

I was whisked from Beijing to Xi'an, about 600 miles away, via China's high-speed rail.  This is reputedly the best and fastest in the world.  And while the breathing air looked a little difficult throughout much of that journey, Xi'an was a different world.  It is a clean, historic city.  Compared to most of the major cities in China, it qualifies as a small village of a mere six million people.

And all six million people from this small Chinese village were at the museum today.  The line to get in was long.  The museum itself was packed.  It's "high season," although there were few western tourists inside.  School groups visit during this time of year.

It is in a beautiful new building.

The exhibits are arranged in chronological order from a brief exhibit on Lantian Man (a rural cousin of the more famous "Peking Man," from about 500,000 years ago) through the time that the last emperor left his residence in Xi'an in the mid 1300s.
 

Xi'an was an imperial capital of China, on and off, from the Qin Dynasty (200s B.C., for whose first emperor the terra cotta warriors were created) until the mid 1300s, when the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Nanjing.  (Actually, there was a small exhibit titled "1391-present," or something like that.  This museum is a history of Xi'an and Shaanxi province so once the capital was forever gone, who cared?)

Jade, I believe.

If this goose was not one of the major pieces on display, it should have been.

Terra cotta warriors in miniature:

Tomb guards:

This is a famous "seal," with more than a dozen sides.  It was designed by a man who married off his three daughters to three sons in the royal family.  One stamp with all the necessary seals kept everyone happy.

This camel is one of dozens of pieces throughout this area representing Xi'an's key role being on the famous "Silk Road," where Chinese products (porcelain, silk, manufactured goods, scientific knowledge) traveled west to Persia, Europe, the Byzantine, and North Africa, and western goods (fruits and vegetables) flowed east.

Below would appear to be more of a "porcelain army" than terra cotta, but technology was developing as we moved deeper into the museum.

I include this vase or water jug or whatever only because it was one of my few pictures from inside the museum that was not a blurry mess.

Finally, we conclude out museum tour with a reclining Mama Cass, in porcelain, from the 1300s or so.

Xi'an is a much more manageably-sized city.  It is not overwhelming.  It is rich in history, having been an imperial capital for the better part of 1500 years, and having been the terminus of the Silk Road.  I recommend that Shaanxi History Museum -- with an English-language guide please -- as an introduction to all this history going on around you.