Sunday March 24

Sleep in and late breakfast at a great smorgasbord here at Shangri-la Hotel.   Meet a driver and English speaking guide for our trip out to the Terracotta Warriors.   Mr Jung and Michael are all we could wish for and we are treated like royalty.  Catriona is still talking of feeling like a princess.   I'm very pleased for her to be having a few special treats.

The warriors were not a disappointment and an amazing story and ongoing eighth wonder of the world. Michael had endless stories to tell us which made the trip so much more meaningful.
Of course there were tourist groups everywhere and many of the guides were carrying little flags on poles so their group could find them in the melee. 

We learned that the warriors were first discovered by a group of farmers digging a well in 1974, when they dug up a terracotta head and thought it was a ghost and very unlucky. When their farms were taken away from them to start the extensive excavations, the farmers were given new jobs sitting at the site meeting tourists, shaking their hands and signing books. We met one who is still alive. There were miriads of stalls as we walked in and out. These have been provided, as a means of making a living, to other farm families in the area who've had to give up their land for the development of the site.The burial site of the Emperor Chin Shi Huang Di is within a couple of kilometres of the pits of warriors and they were placed in front to guard him in the afterlife. The site is a huge burial mound a couple of kilometres long in itself and Chin is buried very deep in side, guarded by a river of mercury and poisoned dart booby traps to deter anyone from digging him up. And yes, he's still in there. The Chinese are too superstitious to attempt it and maybe that's how it should be, although as Catriona suggested "I'll bet Indiana Jones would have had a go".
Chin was the first emperor to unite China two centuries BC and also built the Great Wall in the north. He started building this site soon after his reign and he died some thirty years later while visiting the site!   Sometimes planning can be quite ironic.

All around now, there is a feeling of spring and the gardens around the warrior site are beautiful.

On the way home, Michael took us to a local, genuine, new, and clean noodle restaurant where we ordered, under guidance as no staff spoke English, large green flat noodles with sauce of tomato, ground pork and vegetables. 

 Chilli was served separately so we could add for our own taste - much more successful than the Urumqi experience.

Interesting little interlude when Michael announced that it is local custom to chew a fresh, raw garlic clove with this food.  Not this Aussie!

So it was a wonderful morning and anyone coming to Xian, we could absolutely recommend the Shangri-la and Michael as a guide.

 


With encouragement from our local experience at lunch, we decide to brave the local transport and catch the bus into central Xian, inside the old city wall, to visit the famous Muslim area with narrow streets lined by food vendors. 

As darkness falls, the place is lit up by the neon lights that the Chinese love and there are throngs of people squeezed into the streets, plus bicycles, silent but deadly electric motor scooters, and even the odd car that seems to think it should also be able to fit here! 

 In this area there are also two ancient towers that told time, one with a drum and one a bell. Each heralded either dawn or dusk. They were spectacular lit up at night.

When we arrived back at the hotel of superlative service, the girls at the door were so pleased to see us back, having obviously been worried about our setting off on our own on the bus.