Sierra Leone News: Travelogue: China’s tourism

After our education on the Chinese dream it was time to be exposed to the “Chinese way.”
This to me was an eye opener as I was able to see the operation of China’s vibrant tourism industry with all its attendant ramifications.
We took a bus to Xian where we were to see the famed Terracotta warriors. This is an archaeological site which had been dressed up and made viewer friendly as a museum to showcase China’s rich history.
The Terracotta Army is a designated world heritage site. It is a collection of claylike sculptures which were reportedly buried with the first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang way back in 210-209 BC.
There was such a huge crowd to visit this site and for us it was a special experience to view what was considered to be the eighth wonder of the modern world.
There was a video film in a separate hut apart from the three pits which had the physical structures – depicting what had happened and how the Terracotta warriors came to be. It showed the Chinese army fighting and conquering a number of other groups. These groups came and laid down their flags before the conquering emperor who strolled from his majestic throne and walked or stepped on the flags albeit to depict submission. Later the people from the conquered groups were put to work to fashion out the Terracotta warriors. The film showed how they gathered earth, manually pounded the earth using their feet, then the earth was mixed and poured into casts and then baked. The resultant clay figures were then further hand sculptured to depict the human like features of the soldiers, horses and others.
These were done in huge numbers and Chinese history puts the figure at over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses. This is the largest pottery figurine group ever found in China. Of course this was an extraordinary feat and this I believe is what earned them the status of a world heritage site. It is believed that these terracotta warriors were buried with the emperor to protect him in the life beyond or afterlife. The film however showed what seemed like a rebellion and then an attack on the terracotta warriors with them being destroyed. That was way back in history and our guide did tell us that there was initially no mention of them in Chinese history.
The site was eventually discovered by villagerson the 29th of March 1974 in Xi’an in the Shaanxi province, who whilst digging a well brought up fragments or broken parts of the terracotta warriors. This prompted the intervention of Chinese archaeologists and the result is the world heritage site.
There were three pits and I walked through all three.
What was interesting for me was the fact that most of the terracotta warriors had been destroyed but the Chinese were painstakingly restoring them to what they looked like thousands of years before and one could only wonder at the effort.
All of this was done for good measure however as a lot of money is being generated from the site. When we visited it, the place was so full with foreign visitors, but the largest number were of course Chinese, indicating that home grown tourism was much more lucrative.
It did not stop there, there were small factories on the site where women were carving out ornaments that were sold as souvenirs to tourists who visited the sites and wanted to take home memoirs. Viewers were not allowed to use flash photography but platforms were erected close to the actual warriors and tourists were asked to pay a small fee to take a picture near the warriors. In another room people had to pay a small fee to take a picture among the warriors.
But it was not all about making money the lessons for me was that it was also about creating jobs and livelihood for the Chinese people. There were virtually armies of women who were cleaners and they made sure that within the space of fifteen minute intervals if you drop a piece of paper it is picked up. This gives the very clean atmosphere around the site. Also there were lots of young women and men who were guides and who made sure the artefacts were protected. There were also those in the factories who were busy painstakingly crafting replicas to be sold as memoirs. These were lessons for me which I wish Sierra Leone will copy.
Friday October 04, 2013