We went to see the terracotta warriers toady. We met up with Das & Louise that we met in Chengdu as they had now arrived in Xian. We got the public bus there it took about 1.5 hours, got our tickets and since there were 4 of us chipped in and got a tour guide to tell us all about the place.

History
The terracotta army was discovered by accident in 1974 at Xian, in China, when 4 local farmers digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-size terracotta figures . Excavation in 1976 revealed two further pits both filled with terracotta warriors. The terracotta army was guarding the tomb of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang di, who lived over 2200 years ago. Before they die an emperor will build a tomb with things in it to protect them after they are dead hence all the warriors, of which no 2 faces are alike and they are all life size figures. He also became famous for instigating the building of the Great Wall of China.  
 
We did Pit 3 first which they are still excavating so there wasn't much to see here, then it was Pit 2 where there were a few warriers but the best of all was Pit 1 where there has been loads recovered and restored – its amazing to see them all, I got pics of ones that were literally sticking out of the sides of the wall still to be excavated – was amazing to see them all and to image the sheer size of all of the pits put together what it must have looked like back in the day.

We were taken into the souveneir shop where one of the farmers who actually discovered the door was there signing copies of his book – Das was over the moon bought the book and got his autograph.

We got the bus back to Xi’an went out for some dinner and beers, back to the hostel to sort out some accommodation for Shanghai – all that done time for a movie then bed before our train tomorrow at lunch time to Beijing – this time a soft sleeper (only 4 beds in a compartment with a closed door) fingers crossed for some sleep !!