A good sleep in our larney hostel/hotel room (you know it’s good when they supply toilet paper and the walls are made of brick) followed by a light breakfast and then off on a tour to the Terra-cotta soldiers :gps:(GPS)::34.38428::109.27459:gps: – Another ‘must see’ on our list. Took about an hour to get out there with our guide and 12 other travellers.

It was good to have a guide for a change – saved us spending an hour on Wikipedia. Pits 2 and 3 are interesting with excavation and reassembly of warriors apparently ongoing but a chap on the tour who had visited 9 years ago didn’t feel much had changed. We saw the ‘kneeling archer’ – the first to be discovered accidentally by a local farmer who was digging a well in the 70’s. BTW the farmer was in attendance to shake hands and sign books. I guess at his age it’s easier work than tilling fields 🙂

Pit 1 is the one we had in our minds. Some 2000 painstakingly restored infantrymen (total discovered so far around 8000) with horses lining the corridors in this massive area. They were all originally painted but exposure to oxygen destroyed the paint. A few have traces of colour but photos from the excavation were on display to give an idea.

Pits 4 and 5 are ‘new’ and some distance away from the main area. Apparently they are not open to tourists yet – sorry Dad. Also, the chariots are on display at the Worlds Fair in Shanghai. Maybe we’ll catch them there. It was well worth the fee (£19 each) although the claim that these are the 8th wonder of the world is a little optimistic.

From the pit complex we were taken off to an optional lunch (which we cunningly got out of) passing the tomb of the looney emporer (Qin) that had the army built.

The sleepy ride back to Xi’an also saw our guide snoozing. One last stop was a visit to a small temple in town. We have to admit that they are starting to all look the same but at least with a guide we got a little insight into how they are laid out. Back in the hostel it was just too comfortable and we ended up in the lounge all evening. I even resorted to a burger for sups (yip it was good) !

We are plotting and planning again. From here we want to go to Chengdu, then Chongqing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Then fly to the Philipines for 2 weeks, come back into China and take a southern route up to Tibet and into Nepal. From Nepal we’ll fly to the cheapest South East Asian destination – probably Thailand. Budget cuts will definately take Australia off the table and possibly some of SE Asia.

[Pictures: Me with the Kneeling Archer and V with an army of clay pots]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi