Warriors cast in time, 3.8m Noodles & Bike rides!

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Geo: 34.27, 108.9

To get to Xi'an we were lucky enough to go on a bullet train. Travelling over 200kmph, it was quite an experience, one i doubt the budget will stretch to again! The leg room was unreal, and the recline on the seats, was almost to horizontal. It certainly was traveling in style! After this luxuary however, we were put on a 3 tier sleeper overnight train, which was not quite as glamorous, however served a purpose and I actually slept surprisingly well.
We arrived at the hostel at 6am, greated by the news, we would not be allowed into rooms until midday... this was not welcome news to the tired, however, it was just one of those little pain in the bum things! So we had breakfast and some tea... some rushed off to see the terracotta army as soon as they could, others of us, decided that we would not enjoy it being so tired, and so spent the day on the comfy sofas of the bar and read, blogged and ate 😊
Rather than take an expensive tour of the Terracotta Army. the 8th Wonder of the World, we decided to brave the public transport, as apparently it was not all that difficult and only costing 70p each way on the bus and 15 pounds entrance to the site opposed to 29 pounds for the tour... the maths just didn't add up! So the 306 was eventually found, after wandering the bus station of Xi'an, there was already a queue when we arrived, but there was also a queue of buses, waiting to take us too! It was air conditioned and so the 40 min ride was not too bad at all!

On arrival, we obtained our tickets with ease, and on advice from those that had come the previous day, decided to also buy tickets for the elctric shuttle bus to the actual site. It turns out that this was the biggest disappointment of the day, as we had to wait ages in a queue to get onto the shuttle, and infact it wasn't all that far (oh and the driver of said shuttle, nealy killed us, when he answered his mobile and nearly took us into a hedge!)

Once in the site itself, there were 4 buildings to see, 1 museum and 3 pits. We went backwards, however in our heads, it was the right way around! We went to the museum first, to find out all the info of what we were about to see, before we went to see it. In the museum, there were lots of facts about the actual burial of the emperor, that the army were made to protect. He was buried with everything he would need in the next life, including all of his animals and thier keepers. Chariots were also uncovered and were on display inside. Next was pit 3, the latest of the pits, which was still being worked on, but was very interesting to see the stages of how they uncover the areas bit by bit and the painstaking work that goes into it all. Pit 2 is also still undergoing work, however, there are areas completely uncovered, such as the 4 horses and their commanders at the gateway entrance to the area. And lastly pit 1... we saved the best until last, with thousands of warriors, all unique, with different faces and hair. Spectacular! I have been interested in the Terracotta army since i was a little girl and always wanted to go and see them, after reading about them in a National Geographic. It is incredible, that no one knew they existed until 35 yrs ago!

The following day, a few of us went on an explore of the city, with the main aim to ride around the city wall on rented bikes. It took us a while to get there, but when we did it was great fun. We had two tandems and one regular bike. I was with Chris on a tandem. It was great fun to start with, but by the time we made it half way around, our backsides were starting to hurt, esp over all of the cobbles, and to be honest we were most grateful for the finish line. Having not eaten since breakfast, we were all excited about going to the restaurant with the worlds longest noodle (3.8m). The waitresses were lovely and in fact they sold lots of other dishes too, so now having been joined by 2 more, the 7 of us decided to order a dish each including one huge noodle, so we could have a mini banquet! There was definitely nothing mini about it. The food was stunning, with our favorite being caramelized sweet potato! A dish the dentist will love you having, fillings on a plate, but damn good!

I think we all enjoyed Xi'an, although for me, it was all about the Army. As much as i loved our meal out, the city, I am afraid to say, was just another Chinese, built up, smelly city.

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