Xi'an

Wednesday

Terracotta warriors day. In the taxi on the way I reflected that I hadn't seen a horizon since I had landed in China. Xian seemed to be worse than most cities as it was more rural and the industry was far more antiquated. The sky was perpetually grey and visibility was not great. Despite all the pollution and people excavating by candlelight, they wouldn't allow you to take your cameras into the warrior pits on the excuse that cameras might damage 2000 year old terracotta statues. After we had driven past the tomb of Qin Shihuang, one of the emperors, which looked like just a large hill, we came to the warrior complex which turned out to be about four huge excavation pits with canopy roofs.

Visited pit one and two. The sheer size and enormity of the statues and pits was overwhelming. Each statue is individually carved and different. All the soldiers are arrayed by rank just like a military procession, and are arranged to guard the emperor buried in the middle. It was really interesting that the statues were far less protected than I thought they would be. The excavators and workmen smoked around them and lights and cords were draped amongst them. After visiting the real thing, we were taken to the inevitable replica factory where it was hoped that we would spend lots of money buying souvenirs.

The Bampo Neolithic village was next stop where they were excavating remains of the original inhabitants of the land in that area.

The taxi and guide took me back to the Xian city we be looked at the city and especially the city wall. Part of the wall had been reconstructed so that you could walk on it and look at a reconstructed officers quarters, originally used to guard the city. Then it was on to the Big Goose pagoda which is a tall seven-storey structure in the middle of the city. Climbed to the top where the view was outstanding if you could see your hand in front of your face. The gardens of the pagoda were very extensive and held a large number of monks who lived at the pagoda. If you want to pay more you could ring the City Bell with the attached large log.

The afternoon shopping stop was at a pottery factory and of course I had plenty of room in my luggage for several large pots!

I was taken for an early tea, where again I sat by myself, until I was taken back to the hotel and left by myself for the evening. It went for a wander to see some of the town and learn a bit more than I could from the back of a taxi. Wandered into a couple of shopping centres which are more like a high-rise buildings, and caused consternation as the shop assistants were not used to foreign tourists. The next morning my guide was quite upset that I had been walking and shopping by myself, and told me quite forcefully that I should only go to the shops that she took me to, because if the goods were faulty I'd be able to come back and exchange them (didn’t think that was very likely from Melbourne)