Xi'an - In the interests of moving this story along...

---

Hi, Susie here. In the interests of moving this story along, I'm covering our brief visit to Xi'an.
We were expecting to take the 12-hour overnight train, arriving in the city at 8:00 a.m. Because of a mix-up in booking the tickets, we stayed an extra night in Beijing and took the "bullet train" on Thursday afternoon, reaching speeds of 303 km/hr (180 miles/hr) and arriving in Xi'an at 8:36 p.m. that evening (yes, it's that prompt) in first-class comfort.
Our guide Michael Ma met us at the station and, after regaling us with the story of his 100 dates before finding a wife (hey, this is a family show!), we arrived at the Golden Flower Hotel where we had a brief rest before packing up and heading for the terra cotta warriors museum.
Our first stop was at the terra cotta warriors workshop, where the girls had an opportunity to press clay into the molds forming various miniature-size soldier figures. AiLi won the prize, creating the figure of a general. After a brief shopping expedition at the workshop, we moved on to the warriors themselves.
The warriors are billed, justifiably, as the eighth or ninth wonder of the world, depending on what you're counting. Discovered in 1974 by some farmers drilling for a well, the warriors were originally made between 246 and 209 BC to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Wang, which is 1.6 km west of the soldiers, chariots and horses. There are three "pits" that have been excavated and covered with stadium-like roofing. We can see them standing where they were originally placed, more than 2000 years ago, in deep trenches that were roofed and covered with several metres of dirt. Some 8,000 figures were created by 700,000 artisans during Qin's reign. There is a difference of opinion among the many archeologists from all over the world who have come to Xi'an as to whether they should be reconstructed out of the fragments that remain or left smashed as they now are, the result of revenge exacted by general Shiang Yu who smashed them in a grudge-fest following Qin's death after 38 years on the Dragon throne.
We were all very impressed. This is an extraordinary site (and sight). One highlight of the visit was having a book about the warriors signed by the farmer who originally found the warriors.
Following our time with the warriors, we dashed for the airport to catch our flight to Chengdu (panda paradise). For a heart-stopping moment it seemed Marty and Laila might not be able to get on the flight, but Michael did his utmost and we all arrived safely there and into the custody of the very capable Emily Wang, our guide for this leg of the trip.

---