Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors

We arrived in Xi'an in the early evening after our suprisingly good flight with China Eastern Airways, even though everyone had expected the flight to be a white knuckle ride.

The first day we had there was a free day and with both of us feeling a little under the weather, a 13km bike ride round the city wall or a city trek didn't appeal so we opted for the expensive option (or at least by the time we finished) the muslim quarter market.

We once again put our hard bargaining skills into action and picked many of the items we wanted (we just wonder now how Tesco will react to our skills when we return).
I picked a Mont Blanc pen (real Mont Blanc is very, very, very expensive) and the trader said to us whilst negotiating "more money, it's Mont Blanc" we both turned to him and had to point out, "it's not Mont Blanc, it's fake!". It's gone down as our quote for China because the guy said it like he really believed it.

Day two was the reason for the tour stopping in Xi'an and our number two reason for coming to China, the Terracotta Warriors.

Back in 1976 a group of local farmers discovered the hidden warriors whilst digging a well. Only one of them actually realised there importance, he is now really quite famous and very rich.

Pit one was the main excurvation site and contains hundreds of terrecotta statues. It was enclosed in what looked like a massive aircraft hanger and had about 11 trenches that held the remains and restored warriors.

The other pits were smaller with not as many statues but was no less impressive.

There was a 360 degree cinema that told the story of why the terracotta army was built and how they were destroyed during the peasants revault.

On the way out there were loads of hawkers trying to sell replica warriors and despite having already bought some in Xi'an, I still tried to bargain them down to 2RMB (13p) but the lowest they would go was 3RMB so we left empty handed (much to Samantha's delight).