So today we went to see the Terracotta Warriors! We met our group in the lobby of our plush hotel at 9am all feeling very rested and smug after having a lovely hot shower! We took a local bus to the Terracotta Warrior site which cost us 70p each - bargain! It took about an hour and we got to see some of the Xi'an countryside. When we arrived at the site the bus dropped us off and we felt a bit stranded as you have to walk quite far to actually get there! But we eventually found it, and blagged cheaper entry with our 'student cards' which meant that we only paid three pounds to get in!

The first thing we went to see was the video which tells you a bit about the history of the Terracotta army. It was quite dated and slow but we got a good idea of how it all happened - and how it was found. The Emperor at the time (who was the same guy that started the Great Wall of China project) was so paranoid that he wanted an entire army to protect him when he died and thought that it would help him to continue ruling through the afterlife. No such luck mate. It took his people years to form all of the warriors, and no two faces are the same. There is an entire army that has been made, including chariots and horses. It's absolutely breathtaking when you enter the main dig - there are just hundreds of terracotta people standing there in rows. The first dig was the best, it is the one featured in most of our photos. There are two other digs that you can see, however they aren't as perfectly preserved as the first one. It turns out that after the Emperor died, many people rebelled and actually tried to destroy his Terracotta Army. So we are really lucky that so many of them survived. They were originally painted different colours but now they are all the same colour - the paint has flaked off over the years. In the second and third dig, most of the amy has been burned or is congealed in to one but you can still tell what it must have looked like. Amazing. There is also the token 'have your photo taken with the army' tourist stuff which was crap and we didn't even bother going, but it was well worth seeing the first site and trying to imagine what it must have looked like when it was first made.

After seeing the digs we found our way back to the bus stop and caught a pretty ropey local bus (which STANK!) back to Xi'an. This took us a different way so we got to see some of China's ghettos - rubbish everywhere and animals randomly roaming the streets. Very run down and totally different to all the touristy areas that we have seen so far.

We are now back in the internet cafe next to our plush hotel (have to keep saying 'plush' because we doubt we'll get another hotel like it on this trip!). Tonight we are to experience 'Chinese Karaoke' which we are feeling a bit dubious about! The group is all going together and some people have threatened to sing but we're not sure if we'll go that far. However we will be quite happy to go along and laugh at them! We'll probably have a few drinks too, but to be honest we're not really feeling like drinking much as we're so tired all the time after all the sightseeing. It's a hard life really! Then, tomorrow we have to check out of our luxury room at 12pm and wait around until the early evening when we take a 17 hour train journey to Shanghai. Hopefully this one will be nicer than the first journey and we'll actually get some sleep!

Will probably update our blog when we get to Shanghai so until then lots of love, take care and write soon! H&M xxxx