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Published: July 16th 2013
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We woke up just before seven,when the attendant bought us the tea and coffee we had ordered the night before. We got ready, used the shared amenities and arrived right on time at 8 am. We were met by Dingyi who escorted us to our car and driver and we planned our day. First we went to Badong museum. This is a 6000 year old village that has been discovered and excavated. It was very interesting but very hot and humid. There were also a lot of Chinese tourists and the heat in the hall with the excavations was almost overwhelming.
We then headed to the Terracottoa Warriors. The drive out was interesting but the views were disappointing because it was very hazy again. When we got to the Terracotta site our driver took us to a little restaurant where we had a fabulous lunch for $8 each and included a delicious potato dish that we all enjoyed.
We then met up with our guide for the warriors, Montain and we walked over to the entrance. He said that over 30,000 people a day visit and there were certainly a lot of people around. The warriors were discovered by 7 farmers in 1974
and there are over 600 separate pits with only 3 on display. We looked at them all, with a few forced potential shopping stops, before dashing through the rain back to our car.
our driver dropped us off at the Xian north railway station, which looks like an airport, about 2. Luckily we had a couple of hours till the high speed train was due to depart because it took us quite a while to work out how to pick up our tickets. The girls bought some McDonalds fries, Baskin and Robbins ice cream and Dunkin Donuts to tide them over till dinner.
The train left right on time again and we settled in for the five hour trip back to Beijing. The train got up to over 300kms an hour and while Erin and Jemima napped Emily, Mitchell and I played carrds. The scenery was varied and included mountains, paddy fields and huge factories bellowing out smog. No wonder it was so hazy.
When we arrived at the station we followed the signs to the taxi rank. We were harrased all the way by people trying to get us to take their cars/vans but we kept saying no and joined the line.
We had about a 45 minute wait (they stopped bothering us after about 15 minutes) until we reached the head of the line. Only problem was only 4 would fit in a taxi. We tried to squeeze the 5 of us in but he wouldn't have a bar of it! We waited for another taxi that Mitchell got in after showing both drivers the address. We set off and tried to keep Mitchell's taxi in sight ( lost it once), and found the hotel. The two taxis only cost $17 all up so we were glad we waited because the private drivers would have been a lot more. Checked and we all enjoyed long hot showers before bed. Hotel 161 is quite nice, the staff are very friendly, there is free wifi and the showers were great.
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