The Terracotta Warriors

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Xian was the shortest stopover on the entire trip, only 12 hours. We'd spoken to several people who'd gone there and then been stuck for days on end as all the transport out of Xian was fully booked. In China you can only book a train ticket 3 days in advance and you have to get the ticket from the place you intend to leave from which really restricts any forward planning. So, we arrived early that morning and left late that night. The people ahead of me in the ticket line had to purchase standing tickets for the 26 hour journey to Shanghai. We were lucky enough to get a sleeper.

Being tourists, the natural place to head to in Xian was the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Although its not a world wonder, it is one of the world heritage sites and one I would recommend. The ruins of the terracotta army were only discovered recently in 1974 by some peasants while digging a well. It is essentially an underground vault where thousands of lifesized terracotta soldiers and their horses stand in battle formation. There has been a massive restoration effort with good effect. Originally the statues were painted with bright colours however all of that has now faded. I have very few photos to show from Xian as we were only there for such a short time...

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Photos

The top bunk
We were a bit cramped up on the top bunk of 3 on the train ride from Beijing to Xian. We got to sleep most of the way so the time went really quickly

The Terracotta Army
This is one of the excavation sites with some soldiers that have been restored while others still lie in ruins

Soldiers
Each soldier was the replica of real Chinese soldiers. For this reason, each face is different and individual, as are the poses, weapons and type of garment depending on rank

Headless
This is looking down on one of the other excavation sites. There were quite a number of headless soldiers and I'm not too sure why. They even sold souvenirs of headless soliders

The 3 wheeled truck
These trucks were everywhere in Xian

The train station
There were people everywhere at this train station, absolutely packed

Chaos
One of these guys asked what I was taking a photo of. I tried to explain that in New Zealand we only have 4 million people compared to the billions in China. We made it on the train without getting trampled and then were off to Chengdu...