Day Fifteen

Terracotta Warriors

Up bright & early & eating our full English breakfast in the hostels restaurant. Andy thought it was ok but I begged to disagree, there wasn't enough grease for me & the toast was soggy.

All changed & ready for the day. Out of the hostel & on our first bus heading to the main train station to buy our tickets for our onward journey in the next couple of days. Buying tickets at the train station is crazy, there were people everywhere in all queues. Some people don't believe in queues so arrogantly they barged their way to the front. Finally tickets were bought after waiting 40 minutes & barging our way through. Time to find our next bus heading for the Terracotta Warriors.

On the coach for the Warriors the little ticket man came round & collected our money - whoop whoop we where on our way. On the journey I was made up sitting by the window & waving to random people in little carts going past - I don't know who was more made up me or them. They are absolutely fascinated by us & they can stare at us for hours (sometimes it gets a bit too much & annoying)!

The bus journey was about an hour long then we pulled in to a car park where we had to all get off. It was about an other 15 minute walk from the bus to get the tickets for the entrance to the Warriors. They are not soft the Chinese because the ticket stand was quite far away from the actual entrance which means you have to walk past lots of shops, vendors & people selling you anything they can - they are a bloody nuisance & they don't do themselves any favours, if I was left alone I might look but out of spite of being hassled I won't look!

In the entrance of the Warriors & we came in to a massive square which had various different buildings. We had been told that there was 3 pits of Terracotta Warriors, all different to each other but the best order to view them is back to front as in pits 3,2 & then 1, so we decided that's what we'll do. Walking around & trying to find pit 3 for a while because the buildings weren't labelled as good as they could have been. Surprisingly as we charged around we bumped in to another lad we knew, he had also been on the Great Wall of China tour with us. It was becoming apparent that most people where heading in the same direction through China as us.

We eventually found pit 3 so we entered. At the front just before you go in it has a bit of information about the pit, when it was found & what's in it. Walking up to the pit to look down the room was very big & it was also very cold, I presume this is to preserve the artefacts. In pit 3 was a few warriors lined up & their chariots & horses. You could see the details on the warriors costumes & how each one was totally unique. Each face of every warrior is different & no 2 are the same. The horses were the same, they didn't look the same. In the pit it showed slopes which would have been used as escape routes. It was crazy to think that these warriors & the whole village & army was built so they could fight after death! The way the story was being portrayed it was clever the way the plan of attack for the army was thought out & the position of each warrior. Also in pit 3 were lots of broken warriors which have been excavated but left in the original place because they are so fragile & moving them would break them even further.

Moving along to pit 2 & this place was much much bigger & far more cold. In here there where less warriors but it showed you how they lived in bunker style homes. It showed how they had used wood, clay & other preservative materials to make their home last for thousands of years - it's just a pity the builders of today don't know how to build a decent home. In pit 2 there was many sections that have been covered up & not excavated in order to keep their original state. Not many people who haven't visited the warriors themselves actually know that they were brightly coloured & decorated but when they where first found & brought up from the holes they were dug from, the oxygen in the air made the colours on the warriors disappear after just 2 days. We slowly walked around pit 2 as it was big & there was lots to see & read about. On one section on pit 2 they had encased some warriors in glass boxes so you could see them more closely instead of trying to look down in to the pit areas. In the glass boxes was different styles of warriors, for instance there was a normal warrior, a general & a kneeling archer each as brilliant as each other. Seeing them really up close helped you to appreciate the craftsmanship, time & effort put in to these statues - truly remarkable! Like I have already mentioned the Chinese are selfish, arrogant & rude - as I was trying to take a picture of one of the warriors in the glass cases there was a chinese man than literally barged in front, pushed me out of the way & stood in view of the picture I was trying to take. Next minute I just seen Andy's hand on the shoulder of this mans jacket & he pure ragged him out the way whilst shouting in his face that he was rude & some other obscenities that I don't think I'll mention - justice!

After a toilet stop (real toilets again - yippee!) we heading for the last, the most important & magnificent pit, oh yeah pit 1! Pit 1 has been the biggest find of it's kind to date! The size of the place was unbelievable, it was definitely bigger than an aeroplane hanger. You could also tell that this was the most precious pit as there were hundreds if visitors, many tour guides waving their flags for people to follow & many people again trying their luck to make a quick buck. As we went in & looked down in to the pits there was hundreds of warriors all lined up in rows. Again totally fascinating & amazing how even their hair, clothing, height & weight were each different. I would say that it is a place that you would need to see for yourself - my description certainly doesn't do it any justice. We slowly walked around, carefully looking at each warrior & how they where positioned in the pit. Again there was more chariot horses & these were laid out in front of their warrior riders.

We continued to stroll around the pit until we came to a part where they were actually carrying out excavations in front of us. It was great seeing them use all the different pieces if equipment & how they carefully manoeuvred around the digging site. Further along again after a few more rows of warriors we came to a section where their were teams of people actually reconstructing the warriors from the remains they had found. The people working doing this were very particular, they had measuring tapes, lights & other tools - they were also writing down every detail of the reconstruction. I was totally amazed & wouldn't have minded a job working there at this point. We had nearly walked the right way around pit 1 & I would agree that it was the best pit! If we hadn't followed the advice of doing the pits backwards then I can guarantee that we would have been highly disappointed by the time we had reached pit 3. Pit 1 by far out shone everything else there. Just as we were coming back around to the entrance of pit 1, there were 2 monks that where getting a pay per view of the warriors so that told us that the warriors we special. Just think, who knows what else lurks unground?!

Wow we had seen the Terracotta Warriors up close & personal! How wonderful - this was the main highlight for us coming to China, as well as the Great Wall of course. Now that we had done the rounds the only place left was the Terracotta Museum. We entered & there were massive marble steps leading into a square down below on the bottom floor which a had a massive (not real) Warrior which had been put in the middle for all visitors to see. There where 2 floors for us to look around. In the first floor was artefacts such as weapons & pottery that have been dug up along side the warriors. It is crazy to think that these artefacts & items have been on the earth for over 2 millennia! Extremely clever, well operated & prepared where the Warrior makers.

Moving down to the bottom floor there where massive wrought iron figurines that had also been found in the dig. The iron figures were of the warriors & their chariots. The cast iron detail was remarkable. There were 4 horses all with head pieces, they were situated in front of the navigator who stood bold & proud on his massive chariot. Looking at these made your imagination run wild & you could slightly picture what it would have been like. Amazing to say the least!!!

Another 2 bus rides back so I think it's time for a little nap! I slept away whilst Andy kept his eye on the route. Back at base & at the hostel time for a short rest before we grabbed some food. Decisions of where we should eat was hard, we knew for a fact that we couldn't handle anymore pot noodles for a while so we decided to go out & explore the area to see if we could find somewhere nice to eat for a change. We walked & headed down a main road & we came to one restaurant that looked lovely so we went in & asked to see the menu before we actually sitting down - what a bloody good job too. I could only understand 2 things on the menu, intestines of some unknown animal or a dish called Mr & Mrs lungs & again of some unknown animal, sod that we scarpered pretty frigging quick. We found another little semi decent place so we decided to just go in & sit down & see what happens.

Again another bloody mistake not because of the food but the waitress - I was looking to knock her right out! As we went she showed us to a table so we sat down & as normal she passed us a menu. After she handed over the menu to Andy she proceed to flick through the pages Andy was trying to read & using her pen to rudely point out food that we had no idea what is was. As Andy was taking his time to chose as this point only 40 seconds had passed (she never left the table side) she started to huff & puff extremely loudly so Andy being put under rather uncomfortable pressure just picked any old thing. At this point I was fuming with the cow. Oh great my turn to chose now!!! I thought sod her I was going to take my time to decide what I wanted. She began doing the same to me, flicking the pages & arrogantly point at pictures, as I had ignored her she started to loudly tap her pen against her order pad - I was raging & trying protest to Andy for us to get up & just walk out but he wasn't having any of it!

Food finally ordered & it came in drips & draps. It was certainly different to what we thought we had ordered. The first dish was liver & onions which I didn't mind too much as I like liver but Andy was struggling a little. Time for the dish Andy ordered! God knows what it was - it came out looking like beef with peppers & chilly but it certainly went down like dog! I would my life on it that it was dog but Andy thinks that it was the crap meat of some animal - to be honest we weren't sure if it was meat! The only part of the meal that nice for me was when we got up & left! I was totally disgusted with the service & the food plus it was a more expensive type of place that we wouldn't usually eat at - never again, were sticking to street venders!

Back in the hostel & it was still quite early so we were thinking what should we do with ourselves. In our room & slightly bored we started to play games with a pair of socks & my pyjamas top. The game was to try & get the socks through the top as we took turns of piece to hold the top open. Quickly bored of that the sock game turned to football. The next game was over head kicking the socks off the bed & the other person had to catch then without touching the ground. If the socks were caught then the person who caught them could throw the socks as hard as they like at the kick taker - it proper amused us for ages. Feeling sick after messing around on our full bellies we decided to play cards.

Bedtime now & ready for the next day! We are going to cycle 17km around Xi'an on it's city wall - that should be fun.......