Warriors and Pagodas

Hello everyone! Here's a new update, although you have Stephen typing today on a keypad that has all the letters rubbed off so expect some mistakes!!

WEDNESDAY 11th April

Today we were booked in for the Eastern tour which the hostel runs. We left at 9 in the morning and our first stop was a 'factory/giftshop' where they made terracotta warriors and ceramics using the traditional techniques. It was interesting to see some of the people at work creating the works, but the vast majority of the place was just a shop. Luckily we didn't stay for long but we did have time to grab our own little terracotta warrior. Our next stop was a small museum that had exhibitions of artifacts found in the local vicinity from different dynasties. This was only a short stop, which was good as most of the place was a building site (like just about every "historical" place seems to be in China). Our next stop on the tour was a place called Hua Qing hot springs, this was a site where the Emperor used to retire in the winter to bathe in the hot spring pools. However, the buildings had been destroyed long ago and all that remains now is modern reproductions built to resemble how it once may have been. Our next stop was for lunch which we did not have any choice in the location. We were taken to a restaurant that was probably more shop than food eatery! However the people we sat with, who were also on the tour, were nice and despite eating overpriced dishes, whilst being harangued by the staff to buy paintings, it wasn't that bad. Next we moved on to the main attraction, although the walk to the terracotta warriors site was a slog through a city of souvenir shops and hawkers. The pits containing the warriors were vast and it was difficult to imagine the scale of the whole site (especially as only 3 pits of 7 are open to the public). Seeing them set out in regiments gave the impression of how imposing and extravagant they must have been when they were all created. Out of all the warriors excavated only one has been found completely intact, and most of the pits look like ginormous jigsaw puzzles! After the warriors we headed to the tomb of Qin Shin nearby. However, the tomb has yet to be excavated due historical records reporting rivers of mercury and recent measurements having shown very high concentrations inside the burial mound. As a result there is little to see except a big mound which we climbed to the top of, if there air wasn't so hazy we would have had a lovely view! Tonight we were lazy and just had dinner at the hostel which is nice and convenient when you have achy feet.

THURSDAY 12th April

Today we headed out to the Big Goose Pagoda using the buses which was fairly painless and cheap (1Y each!), although there are few seats and the drivers can be a bit heavy on the brakes! The Pagoda was fairly interesting and the view of the sprawling city of Xi'an from the top was just about worth the climb up six flights of stairs! It was interesting to see a different style of architecture from all the newer Ming dynasty buildings we've seen over the past week. After grabbing some lunch we walked around the Shaanxi history museum which was nice and quiet. However, as usual not all of it seemed to be open due to restoration work. There was still a large amount on display to keep us busy, but before long we were back on a bus heading towards the hostel. We finished pretty early today but it was good to rest our weary feet and limbs!

That's it for now, we're gonna head off to hunt down some dinner!