XIAN

1ST - 3RD JULY 2005

We got a cab to the station, not quite the same level of adventure in getting to and from stations with this group but it came as no surprise that the station was completely chaotic, anyone entering the station has to go through an x-ray machine! The station is massive therefore so is the number of people who use it, so the rush for the x-ray machine is immense, the Chinese don’t believe in queues they just push push push until they get to go their way, it was a complete joy wrestling my rucksack on and off, a real test of endurance some would say! It was the same kind of rush and push for the train, we had a 6 berth hard sleeper, which basically is the cheapest beds, its an open carriage with the good old ripe smelling squat toilets at one end! We were off the train at 20 to 7 and then whisked off on our air conditioned bus (pure heaven!) to see the terracotta warriors, they are about an hours drive from Xian so had chance to catch up on a bit of sleep! They are a major
tourist attraction but because we had got there so early it wasn’t unbearably busy. It is so hard to imagine that they were built so long ago, they were built in the 3rd century BC due the reign of the first emperor of China and only discovered in 1974 by a peasant farmer who was looking for water from an old well! There are 3 pits, that look a bit like air craft hangers, that contain thousands of soldiers, horses, archers and generals, they are really life like and their facial expressions are incredible, there are rows and rows of them standing guard - it’s awesome.
There is also a 360 film screen which shows the history of it and a museum, and loads of tourist souvenirs. We were there a good few hours but then it was time to head back to the bus, go and check into our hotel and check out the city of Xian. We had free time to do whatever we wanted which was good, Rob went off to get his haircut but I stayed at the hotel to catch up on diaries and