Xi'an - The Silent Army

After a fairly simple purchase of a train ticket (you will see why this is strange later in the blog entry) we were on a clean, comfortable and efficient overnight train to Xi'an. We went native and joined our fellow cabin mates and sat on our bunks eating a a pot of noodles for our tea.

We arrived at 08:30 in Xi'an and were greeted by a scene from a science fiction film. There were hundreds of people carrying bundles in a frozen snow covered city under a dark cloud of pollution that made the sun a dim orange glow.

We stayed in a mid-range hotel this time, in the centre of town where the nice floor concierge takes our washing to the "disinfecting room" and returns it the same day clean and pressed.

The trip to the Terracotta Warriors is interspersed with heavy snow bound traffic and lots of "shopping" stops. We arrive at a set of vast stone buildings and are guided around the impressive pits of thousands of warriors placed there 2000 years ago to guard the tomb of their emperor. Quite a statement really and then you get to pit 3 where the "officers" HQ is and they don't have heads! We were told that because nobody liked that particular emperor (he didn't seem to do very much, apart from arrange for thousands of terracotta warriors to be made, that is) and he died before it was completed, they did not bother to finish it. The army is truly impressive, not only in size (the biggest pit, pit 1 has over 6000 Terracotta Warriors in it and it hasn't all be excavated) but in the incredible detail with which they are individually rendered.

The trip to the warriors was followed by the Bhuddist monastry at the Big Goose Pagoda. This towering structure looms over a walled monastry that exudes calm and peace in every temple and courtyard. All this in the centre of hurtling suicidal traffic and teeming hoardes of little people.

That evening our first "hot pot". Paul had the spicy one and claimed he could hear colours it was so hot. You had to order the various dishes of things that you wanted to cook in the hot pot. The waitress told us we had ordered too much (ah, it is like tapas restaurants all over again) but we managed to finish everything - funny that!

The next day we made an attempt to purchase train tickets to Chongqing at the train station which was crowded like you would not believe. After being in line for two hours under strict police supervision (I had the audacity to stand next to Paul in and stand slightly out of the line and was physically moved back into the line by the policeman - I didn't step out of line again!) we were informed that we were in the wrong queue. The correct line contained about a thousand people (absolutely NO exaggeration) all standing in the snow - we gave up! Later we found out it was the school holidays and spring festival and the roads are closed with the snow so everybody is trying to get the train. 10 minutes in our hotel travel centre and we have plane tickets to Chongqing for 5 pounds more than the train. China overland, my ass!!

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