Journey to the train station kind of felt like we we're a freak show so many people just gwarping at us. I've decided I'm going to stare back!
The rush when they announced boarding of the train was almost comical..someone actually trod on my leg to get in front. They don't really have queuing rules here. Normal train - cheaper seats are the top beds so we don't have much room. As usual I read a few books we got onto the conversation about the first few meals we want from home..I got that excited about the thought of a Sunday roast that my moms planned for the first Sunday back I punched the top of the train - a lot harder than expected.

Journey all in all was painless..arrived in Xian after being a bit worried about not knowing where to get off.
No one really speaks English at all here the taxi man got lost despite the address being written in Chinese. We actually ending picking up some random young Chinese man who could semi speak English and he showed him the way. Certainly by far the nicest hostel we've stayed in £20 for 3 nights too! It was FREEZING the first day. We went out in 10 degrees and rain to book our train tickets..took us an hour to find a bank first. Had the ticket request written in Chinese so that was painless and booked our final hostel for Beijing - last train last hostel it's all very final!
If it's possible we get stared at even more here! It's quite amuZing/weird.
We went for a walk of xian today thank god it was a lot warmer. There isn't much to do here other than the Terracotta Army which we already knew we asked the hostel anyway - she replied there's a park. But it's crap. Lots of cafés that we got food and drink by pointing at things as the menus are in Chinese- the staff always find it astonishing they are serving English people. At one point mart had a whole restaurant go quiet turn round and look at him.
The whole city is enclosed by a wall that goes around. I wanted to walk the wall but mart didn't want to spend £10 booo. So we just pottered around..one old man just took to laughing hysterically at the site of us- we embraced it and laughed too and then stopped for chocolate cake!
The evenings the hostel has a live band on which is really good- how I do love live music!
So tomorrow is the day to go and find the Terracotta Army. God wish us luck. We have the bus number written in Chinese not that it will help much!!

We started the day off super healthy chicken burger and chips for breakfast..mart made a quick exploration while I was still eating and found the bus stop. Queue was a mile long but went quickly, was £1.40 for a 70km round trip - bargain!! Made friends with an old couple on the bus who adopted us for the day they even paid for a tour guide for us all. Was actually really glad a tour guide as she was full of fun facts.
The story briefly was the emperor schsuan (I don't know how you spell that) was actually from Beijing but due to feng shui wanted to be buried in xian (FINALLY established it's pronounced she-en) he had protection from the mountains on one side the river on the other but had nothing protecting his tomb from the east. Hense why he build the Terracotta Army to protect his tomb for the afterlife. The detail in the statues is almost creepy- life size, they even have the lines on the palms of their hands, everyone single one individual and unique every face different. It took over 700,000 workers to complete them over a 38 year period...and the emperor had them all killed as they knew the location of his tomb - made them drink poison unknowingly. The precision of the work was pretty cool- however if any of the workers got a slight detail wrong him and his whole family would be executed- no room for mistakes here! The crazy fool also had 2000 wives- what a weirdo. The emperor is buried 39 metres down - there's loads of unexplained stuff like how they had iron coated weapons 2000 years before it was "invented" in America etc- but cause he'd killed everyone no one will know. The husband of the old couple was tall and thin and the guide pointed out a statue that looked like him, she also told mart she had one that he looked like. Turns out it was a middle ranking officer with as she described it "a big belly from drinking too much wine".

Several thousand years later a farmer in xian was digging a well for water..and uncovered the mass pits of statues all facing east protecting the tomb. In pit 1 there is 6000 statues there's 3 pits open to view but so many more to uncover. The statues used to be all painted - pink faces, blue armour and black boots. Within 2 hours of the initial uncovering the colour had vanished from a reaction to the air and photographs being taken. That's why so many of the pits are still covered until they can't find a better method of preservation.
The preservation and restoration work they do it's unreal!! Takes 2 years to restore just one statue- and they only work at night.
We brought some mini terracotta statues and paid far too much for them £3 in total however and caught the bus back to xian.
Early night of packing as the train to Beijing tomorrow leaves at 05:45. Again we've been advised to buy a face mask due to the pollution- think we might have to! Last stop for china!