Xian Terracotta Warriors
The big day to see the all-important Terracotta warriors, something I had looked forward to seeing for many years. I was part of a group of 22 people ,from Poland,Hungary,Ireland ,Germany,Holland,US ,England,Italy and me. It took about an hour to get there, the roads here are just horrendous, scary! We saw at a guess, an 8 year old child in the middle of the road with cars going in complete disorder. I have to assume he survived, hopefully anyway. I would not have had the guts to cross there or indeed, any of the roads here; even pedestrian crossings are fraught with danger!
In the town of Lanchou after the discovery of the Terracotta warriors in 1974, shows very clearly that they brought money in the area, with underground power/phones etc. Something I had not seen before in China. The tickets are 150 cny, which I thought were rather expensive. after going through the turnstiles and bags through the x-ray machine we did the long walk to Pit2 to start with , not a great deal to see there, then we moved on to Pit 3 which was another dig with some of the terracotta figures. All the pits had huge sheds covering the digs to preserve them from the elements. It was Pit 1 that had us all entranced, fascinated that they could have been done over 3000 years ago. All made in separate pieces, the head went on last, just so it sat the body part, the body in two halves, the legs separately. The horses were magnificent, loved to have a souvenir of one of them but space being at premium as it is makes it impossibility.
After watching a rather useless movie, we saw the old man who had found the site. He was signing books that you had to pay for, of course!
I was not pleased to find out they were charging 1cny for the toilets, especially when they were smelly and disgusting. My disabled toilet hunch is right there seems to be a western toilet in all of them. Still stunk though!
After leaving all the pits behind, we headed for a Chinese restaurant for lunch, which turned out to be a very nice one with tasty food. The eggplant one was my favourite, do not know the name either, one of the Irish girls was very partial to it as well. The surrounding areas were very beautiful with their flowering trees and the landscaping, framed by the mountains.
Took a tumble, usual not watching, there are traps for the unwary everywhere Just a small bruise on my knee, despite falling flat on my face! I appreciated being helped up by the Italian gentleman with whom I had been talking. I think we were the only
two lone travelers on the tour, so spent a bit of time with him. Then it was back to the hostel and the crazy drive. It was wonderful seeing a mass display of kites in one of the parks, being a holiday.