well, Laura and i got the overnight train from beijing to xi'an, which took 12 hours...ha! you cant get a train accross GB in 12 hours! you would hit the bottom and start coming back up again!...our little carriage had two bunks on either side with three bunks in each, and we had the top ones (which i am glad of, as i didnt want to wake up and find a chinese person looking at me, we are getting stared at enough while awake without being stared at while asleep!)...
we were collected from the station and brought to the hostel, and again, it is a loverly hostel! we dumped out stuff and went straight out to see the terracotta warriors - which was amazing. they are 2221 years old!!!! (thats 221 BC!). and what i didnt realise was that peasants revolted (literally!!!!!) after the emporer died and broke into his tomb and smashed them to pieces. so whan a little chap in march 1974 was digging a well and found a head, all the warriors that were excavated were excavated in pieces! so it has taken all this time just to dig up the pieces, dust them off and than try and build them back together like a big jigsaw! and there are 2000 of them rediscovered! it was amazing to stand in what looks basically like an aircraft hanger, filled with these warriors all looking at you!
as well as the warriors we had a look at the factory that makes replica warriors now of all sizes from the same clay as the originals, and bampu village, which are the remains of a 6000 year old village, so its really just the house outlines, and skeletons, but because our guide was so lovelry she made it really interesting.
when we got home, we cracked open some beer and chilled out and then some other chaps were going to see the water and music display (?!?) and asked us if we wanted to go, so we did, and it was utterly amazing. there are hundereds of fountains lined up in from of a lit up pagoda, with lights from the ground lighting them up and music playing really loud, and the fountains spurt water in time to the music! its was so so so beautiful!
am loving xi'an so much more than beijing, but from all the people we have talked to everyone pretty much hated the first city they landed in, as you are away from home, you dont know where the hell you are or what the hell you are doing, and you cant figure out how to even call home! but it gets easier!
am loving it now!
xxxx
