Shaanxi, China. – All the light to them. They are the center of attention surrounded by the frenzy of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people watching in ecstasy despite the humid 40-degree heat. Fingers are pressed against the shutter or on the circles of the touchscreens, anxiously to capture the very particular faces of soldiers or the tense hands of shooters who seem to be standing or kneeling ready to engage in combat. The glasses and gazes stop again and again in the infant’s military posture, the stable man’s gesture, the general’s dungeon gesture; Carved soles detail and arrow marks on garment; Visible colors in battle armor. It is the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China, whose mere presence would be enough to secure a place for this province on the world map. However, this region, located in the geographical center of the country, has many other reasons to be in the heart of the Asian giant.
internal preservation of sovereignty
Qin Shi Huang went as far as unifying the scattered and warring kingdoms of early China. He is also famous for having an army carved in clay taking care of him on his way to the spiritual plane and his grave is buried just over a kilometer away. Such fine art would have remained in eternal rest were it not for that farmer who, in 1974, in need of water for his thirsty land, dug a well and discovered what is today a source of admiration for historians and experts in the world. Military arts.
The numbers are arranged in the same order as the Chinese army two thousand years ago: archers and archers in the foreground, followed by cavalry, and, at last, the infantry. Each carried original weapons and because of its facial features, uniforms, and hairstyles, it has been determined that they were carved from certain models, as none of them were duplicated, explains the expert leading the tour.
Three different annexes make up this archaeological complex: the largest and most famous, with two thousand statues visible out of the estimated six thousand found here; second, where what might have been a command post with a chariot driven by high-ranking officers, with their corresponding escorts, was found; And a third facility, which retains space for displaying the various primitive forms of those hitherto found, many containing original pigments, in glass vessels. But this is a living museum, where you can see archaeologists working on clay shedding light on and recovering an army that seems eternal after more than 20 centuries of anonymity.
Tea in the blood, corn in the fields and the Silk Road
Shaanxi is the province of tunnels, endless bridges, cornfields that disappear into valleys or grow on terraces, watched by traces of villagers’ ancestors.
On the full ascent towards the small town of Jiangjiaping, a young woman with a beautiful smile and a face evoking dollhouses reports that seven out of the world’s 13 kinds of tea plants are grown in these parts. Especially the one known as Jiaogulan, which literally means twisted orchid. This plant, baptized as the “tea of immortality” for its beneficial properties for human health, is processed in high-tech facilities. Companies such as Zhengda Pharmaceutical invested millions of yuan in its study, producing 40 essential ingredients that were later turned into 94 drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
The silkworm is a treasure that the businessmen and authorities of Shekuan District display with vainglory. They started, in 2017, in Xiehe County, a peculiar region that integrates the primary industries of breeding and post-processing of cocoons to make fabrics, with other secondary and tertiary industries such as tourism. They seriously bet on the beauty of the cloth, which at that time dazzled the Romans and European feudal emperors, and which in the twenty-first century aroused similar feelings among lovers of high fashion anywhere in the world.
Steel will forged in the caves
Shaanxi saw the revolutionary crucifixion that brought China out of humiliation and poverty to be mitigated. This batch found refuge in habitable caves, very popular since ancient times around Yan City as a quick, cheap and safe way to build a house; So much so that, as of 2016, these vaulted hollows, dug into the slopes of the muddy mountains in that part of the county, were still home to this city of about two million people.
To this day, its imprint is noticeable in the window arches of modern buildings and other famous buildings, such as the one that hosted in 1945 the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of China (PCCH); By the way, it is located near the cave from which Mao Zedong established his base of operations from November 1938 to October 1943. In the gloom of one of these caves, the leader of the Chinese revolution uttered his famous phrase “All reactionaries are paper tigers”, during an interview with American journalist Anna Louise Strong , on August 6, 1945.
To another habitable cave, but in the village of Liangjiahe, he came in 1969, from Beijing, to spend the night for seven years, the boy he knew then described him as unpicky when it came to eating and willing to help others. Here he will know the value of each grain and will shape his character as a sober worker and an enemy of waste, as the current Secretary General of PCCH and Head of State, Xi Jinping, commented later, recalling this specific stage of his life. life.
It doesn’t matter if the ingenuity of the caves, of the nine-story pagoda symbol that has withstood all the hardships and onslaughts of that city in the past thousand years, Yan represents the determination of the inhabitants. Shaanxi to overcome difficulties.
The party train leads the race
Time did not seem to have passed in this area, as kernels of corn were left to dry on the ground, in front of the houses; appreciation of freshly washed clothes on bamboo stalks or hung on racks attached by a truck driver; Or in the details of a blacksmith with wrinkled features who sells shovels large and small at the door of his workshop. But the fact that the merchant in question offers their products through a QR code, and the latest model of the driver-operated car has turned into a washing machine, suggests that things are still changing in these places.
Other clearer signs come from Nango Village, the town of Gaiqiao that has eradicated extreme poverty for 12 percent of its residents. The party leadership was key to dealing with this situation, its representatives there say. They sum it up with this sentence: “If the train is running fast, it is because its locomotive and the party are running well.” From that organization, they identified, they formulated the initiatives for change in property management and the extensive, but ecological exploitation of the land; As well as in diversifying the local economy and strengthening autonomy.
This turnaround schedule was completed after noting the progress of the five major positions of more than 100 companies in the Hengkou stuffed toy industry, which supplies its plush toy stores in the United States and Europe; Or from the high-tech district of Ankang, whose urban planning concepts illustrate the creation of businesses in harmony with residential, service and infrastructure areas, without losing sight of the environmental component of the process.
This edge is also evident in Chang’an City, Pingli District; And in Ziyunnanjun community, Hanyin District. Both reflect China’s policy to improve the living conditions of rural residents. This step included the resettlement of more than three million residents of this governorate in residential apartments or developments with all integrated services. However, the territorial authorities responded, they made sure to keep the arrivals from dozens of scattered villages connected by including crops in the vicinity of their new homes or by linking them to the intensive farming project.
House 13 Dynasties
Xian, the provincial capital, is in itself a source of pride for its hosts. And not just for being from 13 Chinese families; Also for its historic center walled with its Bell and Drum towers, the urban layout of which was carefully planned by ancient urban planners, who drew rectangular blocks and allotted specific areas according to their purpose. In addition to the above, this city is now reviving the glories of when the legendary Silk Road started from here.
Goods such as those obtained from an automated soybean oil plant do not leave for Central Asia and Western Europe in camel caravans as they did five centuries ago. But in trains that can cover, for example, the route to Hamburg, Germany, in just 11 days, from its international logistics park of more than 300 hectares, it is driven by drivers and technicians trained at the local Polytechnic Institute.
In the August days, Xian resorted to the shade of sterculias to relieve the stifling heat. At night, art shows and commercial areas make the visitor feel immersed in a television or film studio, seeing artists and vendors dressed in costumes typical of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).
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The feelings of walking amid what many consider to be the eighth wonder of antiquity was just a spark of confirmation that Shaanxi was an inevitable part of Chinese civilization.
Shaanxi faces
How do you recognize a country that lives at full speed, moving from one place to another at a frantic pace? One way might be to stop at the faces of simple people, wonderful in their simplicity, and expressions like those seen in Shaanxi.
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