Manicured Xian and the Terracotta Army

Our trip today was to see the Terracotta Army. But driving out of Xian city, we were impressed how neat, tidy and clean the city is. Beautifully manicured gardens lined the streets, which themselves had been washed by water wagons. We stopped off at a factory that makes all sorts of replica Terracotta Army figures, from minature to giant. Then onto the place itself, which used to be farmland, until a farmer, digging a well, dug up one of the figures in 1974. The farmer was paid off by the government for his land and is now a celebrity, signing books in a local tea shop / restuarant (in fact the one we had lunch in, but he was out and about when we visited). To see the warriers is amazing, but even more amazing is that all except one were broken when archeologists started the process of uncovering the figures. There is a warrier 'hospital' and we saw hundreds of broken figures being painstakenly put together; once repaired, they are put back in place. 7000 are already restored and form an impressive display.

We then visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda - a Buddhist temple. The name comes from an event when a goose fell from the sky and was seen to be a message from the gods - so they built a temple on that spot. A lot of Chinese tourists were here, especially from the countryside and one old gentleman asked (via his daughter) to have his picture taken with us, as he had never met a Western person before!

In the evening, we went to a cultural show, with very colourful local style dancing and musicians playing old fashioned instruments; surprisingly, we were pretty much the only Westerners there. It was a very enjoyable affair, with very good food (the dumplings were delicious). Even better, the Chinese red wine was very palatable and cheap!