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| What happened to Yang Zhifa and the other villagers who once farmed above the heads of the warriors and horses? At first, not much. They continued to farm the area around the dig. Gradually, as the scope of the dig increased, some of them were employed in various aspects of the work. Some of them opened small souvenir ships on the lane leading to the first of the exhibition halls when tourists started to show up. Changes began to happen rapidly after that. Tourism increased, the road was paved, and the stands for souvenirs increased. When I first visited the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum the road from Xi'an was being paved. There was a long walk from the car to the site through home-made souvenir stands. In 2005, buses and cars parked far from the site and electric trains shuttled visitors back and forth along manicured plantings and identical architecturally neutral souvenir stands.
In an article by Luo Yuanjun in the China Daily (2006) a woman in her 50's, Yang Juxiang, was featured as an example of the fate of the villagers of Qinyong. She started out as a cucumber farmer with a roadside stand and gradually moved into souvenirs. She makes her own stuffed tigers for sale and gets reproductions of the terracotta warriors from a local factory and sells them as well. The rest of the village has turned to the tourist industry as well. In 2002 a new modern housing development was completed and the villagers moved from their old village to the new Qinyong Village. It has two story townhouse homes with balconies and a little piece of garden. Central heating, electricity, cable television, modern kitchens, and broad band are some of the amenities included. The move was necessary because a few years previously the area designated as having probable dig sites was greatly expanded. It was decided to stop farming in the area to allow better protection to be put in place. To support the villagers new entrepreneurial careers the government offers them reduced rents for the new retail space. I prefer the stands along the road leading to the site, but governments like to combine them all into a building to make things look neat. Somehow walking along a featureless road lined with uniform bushes seems to take longer than a road lined with little souvenir stands. |
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Last
update: March 2010
© Marilyn Shea, 2010