Xian

The Chinese Government decided to commandeer our booked train from Beijing to Xian so I had a frantic day trying to book some air tickets; fortunately I found some at not too unreasonable a price. I also had to find a day tour of the Terracotta Warriors which I also booked for the day after arrival. The Hotel was an Ibis that I had booked from the UK but I was a bit apprehensive about the price, as for two nights including breakfast it was £34. As it turned out it was the usual Ibis standard as found in the UK. I had researched the local restaurants and found a famous dumpling one near to the Bell Tower square called the Defachang. We were unable to get a Taxi so we decided to walk but at some point got lost, luckily I flagged a Taxi down who took us directly there. The choice was either shrimp, pork or seafood with a variation which included mushrooms, we ordered Pork and Shrimp which was somehow lost in translation as we eventually got a steamer of 10 pork and shrimp dumplings so we had to order a further 10. I was slightly appeased when the bill arrived for 20 dumplings and 3 beers, altogether £5.20.
The tour next day was ‘different’ as the guide was not the usual boring type but a Chinese guy call Clarence Guo who had written a book on the Qin warriors who were the models for the Terracotta Warriors. The weather was bad and we started out by visiting some Chinese cave dwellers, not my idea of a tour, invading people’s homes but the family seemed Ok about it, must be the financial remuneration.
The next stop on the tour was the highlight of our visit to China, the Terracotta Warriors. Words cannot describe the experience as you gaze into the pits, as they are called, 3 in total, rows upon rows of different types of figures from archers, kneeling and standing, charioteers, infantry, horses and officers all moulded with different features and stances. What we saw was only a fraction that have been uncovered to date, in pit 1 alone there is estimated to be 6000 figures in total. Pits 2 and 3 contained similar figures but were fewer in total.
Another announcement that amused us at the Airport as we were leaving Xian was ‘Passengers for Shanghai are requested to board through gate 6 and please enjoy your fright’