Trains and Warriors

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So 16 hours later, at 9AM, we arrived in a very warm and muggy Xian. This is a past capital of China, and current regional government centre and is quite prosperous and large. It is also the starting point of the old Silk Road trading route so has a large Muslim population. Pollution is a huge issue - you cannot believe the air quality. But still, it is a great place for a visit. In fact we all agreed that we wished we had more time here.

Our location was great, and after a quick shower up we all headed off to do our own thing. I visited a few sites outside of the city walls - the Great Goose Pagoda and surrounding temple, as well as the Shaanxi Museum. Afterwards I headed to the city wall and rented a bike to ride around the top of the wall - it is 15km on very bumpy flagstone and you have 100 minutes to do it in (or pay exhorbitant rental rates😊) so it was an experience for sure. Afterwards a group of us met up for a dinner of dumplings (a local specialty) and then spent the evening wandering the Muslim quarter and night market.

Next morning we visited the terra cotta warriors. These were discovered by some farmers digging a well in the mid 1970's and were in the tomb of the Qin emperor. Over 6000 warriors in formation were in the first pit - 4 have been unearthed in total. Incredibly, each warrior is unique and has different facial features etc.

The late afternoon included a visit to the mosque before collecting some dinner to take on the train for our trip to Pingyao - another overnighter, but shorter this time. We take what are referred to here as 'hard sleeper' seats, which simply means six bunks per 'room' (no doors) made up of two rows of three bunks stacked. A long trip, but at 9:30 lights are out so it wasn't so bad. I was concerned about the smoking and the toilet facilities, but not so bad after all.

Hope all is well - plan on loading up some photos in the next day or so.

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Photos

The train
Six bunks in this cubicle

Bao zi
dumplings for dinner