3rd Aug : Xia'n Terra Cotta Warriors

---

Today was one of the highlights of our journey - to see the Terra Cotta warriors. Having experienced the non-value of an organised tour Yesterday, we decided to use local transport to get out to see the Warriors which are about 20km nth east of Xian , so off the railway station to catch a local bus (just 8RMB) to get there. A steamy hr later, we arrived at the village that was the entrance to the site. About a 15 min walk thu bush lands, and we got to the site. Organised in three massive pits, we saw this astonishing collection of life size terra cotta models of the Emperor's army, servants, farm animals, family etc The photos describe the site better than I can. Only discovered in 1974 when a local farmer decided to drill a hole hole for water and stumbled upon the tomb that has since being described as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Truly spectacular is the scale and the individuality of the models -each is different and probably is an image of an actual soldier.

Probably the greatest tomb contents that I have ever seen - tempered only by the excessive heat that we had to endure -touched 40 today, and the mass impact of thousands of Chinese tourists shouting and pushing throughout the day

Off to the railways station tonite by local bus to catch our overnighter sleeper to Lanzhou.

---