Qingzhen Dasi

Today we visited the Terracotta Army - it was amazing and we were lucky it wasn’t too busy. Enclosed in 3 different bunkers (called pits) were a total of around 2,000 life sized warriors, chariots and horses. It’s said there are around 6,000 more still to be excavated. How painstaking the excavation must be! They are yet to excavate the tomb of the first emperor - which the Terracotta Army “guards” - as apparently they are too worried about causing damage for now. The expectation is that once it is excavated, the findings will be even more sensational than the Terracotta Army.

We marvelled at how well preserved and detailed the figures were after all these years. Each one had a slightly different face and pose - some kneeling archers, some with spears, some who were higher ranking than others etc. It’s a shame the colours on the figures had faded as reconstructions showed brightly coloured clothing and armour. We finished off with our first ice cream of the trip - chocolate terracotta warrior shaped ones which came in much nicer packaging than the ice creams in the UK!

After a brief siesta at the hotel and with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice in hand, we headed up to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower which had great views of the city. We then walked through the Muslim quarter where every street you looked down was packed with people and food stalls. It was hard to know where to go with so much choice, so being nervous tourists we chose a restaurant where we spotted other tourists (though to be fair there were plenty of locals eating in there too). We ate hand pulled spicy biang biang noodles and pao mo which is a pitta and lamb soup, with pickled garlic on the side. When it arrived, the lady running the restaurant served up the soup and mixed our noodles for us after giggling at our feeble attempt! Both dishes were excellent and like nothing we’d tasted before. For those and two plum juices to drink cost around £8.

We really loved Xi’An, it has a relaxed and welcoming feel and the traffic is certainly better than Beijing! Early start to catch train to Chengdu tomorrow!Read more