Ni Hao

Well the snow is still falling here in Xi'an and our day started at 8am with breakfast and I had tea in a gin and tonic glass!!!

Our guide collected us and off we went.The first place we visited was an old village. Ban Po dates back more than 6000 (4500 BC) years ago and here we saw old village settlements and some graves dating back to that period. Depending on how people died dictated which way they were buried.
Face up=normal death, Face down=tragedy. If a normal death they pointed your head to the West as the sun sets there and they believed that is where life ended.

A bizarre thing was that all babies got buried in jars, and if they were quite big they used 2 jars to cover the body.

From here we were taken to the Terracotta factory where they produce replica warriors from a few inches high right up to lifesize that you can buy for your garden and they will ship it home for you!!!!

The snow was really falling and causing chaos on the roads they shut the freeway down and everyone was stuck in the city, I asked if they used grit or snow ploughs but it seems not as we were at a standstill for a while till we squeezed between two lorries and made a break for freedom.

Next was Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleoum, he was 13 when he became emperor and was the emperor that standardised everything in China from money to writing. He had the tomb built but fearing that the workers would know the secrets of it once they finished it he had them all buried alive near the site.

He was also the emperor that had the terracotta army built which we still had not seen but knew that we would get there soon!!!!!

It was then onto lunch and there was plenty to eat as usual and i got to try some pomegranate wine (would not recommend it!!) and could not get rid of the taste for ages afterwards.

Next was a tour of a silk factory another surprise of the day which the whole group whizzed through as we had no interest but bizarrely the guide asked us to stay 20 minutes so she got her stamp or kickback so we stood around chatting and watching the clock till 2.30pm arrived and we were released!!!

Eventually it was now time to visit what has been described as the "8th wonder of the World" the terracotta army.The site is divided up into 3 pits each with different things in them. Pit 1 is the biggest and has over 6000 warriors in the ground and it is fantastic to see how well preserved most of them are. Pit 2 contains all the kneeling archers and cavalrymen and Pit 3 is like the command centre with all the generals in it. All the army faces East as that is where the emperor thought that the potential threat was greatest. I did not realise that they had all been painted as well but over 2200 years and oxidation the colours have faded away to leave the grey colour of the clay.

Each soldier is 1.8m high and every single soldier has different features, expressions and is hollow!!!

After several hours here we emerged back into the cold and were surrounded by people selling replica warriors for 5 Yuan/30p but we passed up on the chance to own some for now. From here Mel and I left the rest of the group and went onto the old imperial palace and hot springs.The site was all dusted in snow the lake was frozen and we imagined how different it would look in the summer when all the blossoms are on the trees and the sun is shining, but it had a magical feel with all the snow everywhere. It is where the emperor would spend his holidays bathing in the natural hot springs and being entertained by his concubines.

The daylight was fading and we took a car back to Xi'an.The journey took around 2 hours as the roads were solid with snow and cars all trying to move at the same time. We got back to the hostel and found our elusive train tickets waiting for us, we found out that they were the wrong ones but they were a ticket which we should be thankful about as they are better than no tickets at all!!!

By now it was 9pm and we settled down for dinner and a chat in the bar with some fellow travellers, if you ever get to Xi'an I recommend the dumplings they are ace and really tasty.

Lots of Love

M & M

xx