China - Day Five (I think!)

Arrived safely in Xian last night and another lovely guide with a history/geography lecture in the car on the way from the airport - impressed her with my chinese too!!

Sofitel hotel is fantastic, beats the Grand Hotel Beijing which takes some doing!

Anyway, today was the day when I saw the Terracotta Army and it exceeded all my hopes and expectations - a dream come true! The Pit 1 which has the largest number of excavated soldiers and horses was astonishing and I had 30 minutes just to walk round and take pictures (yes, Daddy, we were allowed to take pictures as long as there is no flash); suffice to say I finished one memory card and started on another whilst I was there.

The sheer numbers of warriors and the detail on them is magnificent - you could just spend time looking at them all.

They have also excavated beautiful bronze horses and carriages which were on display - amazing craftmanship.

This was the first time I saw other europeans to exchange a few words with since landing in China almost a week ago - quite nice to hear an american accent and I never thought I'd say that!!

When you leave the exhibition halls you spend about 10 minutes walking through all these souvenir shops and restaurants with people trying to persuade you to buy things - of course my heart strings were pulled by a 5/6 year boy and I parted with all of about 70p to buy a pack of postcards. Also managed to be interviewed for a Korean documentary on the Army - it's becoming all in a day's tourist-ing now...

Lunch in a nearby restaurant (left on my own to eat in a completely empty restaurant!) and had to laugh when at six different dishes were bought for me! Bearing in mind the Beijing Belly was still evident I had to decline something that looked suspiciously like spam although I did try the toffee potatoes - another odd experience! (Kate - I did think of you when ate these)

Anyway a visit to the Great Wall of Xian today too (it's a walled city) and to the Great Mosque before nipping back to the hotel now before going out this evening. I've agreed to go to a performance of something (I can't for the life of me remember what!!) and I'm being picked up in 45 minutes.

So will fill you all in tomorrow morning on the details of whatever I've seen tonight and the dumpling feast scheduled for afterwards (funny how I can remember that part hey?) and upload a couple of pics of the Army for you to enjoy too.

Due to fly from Xian to Guilin tomorrow - for those of you have this month's Ideal Home, the advert on page 3 or 5 of a man punting down a river with a bath on a raft (sounds odd I know) is taken in Guilin and that's where I'll be - yippee!!!