The Terracotta Warriors

The plan was to wake up at the usual time, sneak upstairs for some breakfast and then walk the half hour to the train station and get the bus out to the Terracotta Warriors. It didn’t exactly go to plan. With my watch alarm set for 8:00am pretty much every day, somehow neither of us heard it go off in the morning. However, we were woken up by someone knocking at the door repeatedly. This has happened a couple of times and it seems to be people who have organised a tour which leaves early in the morning but the tour person has got the wrong room. James jumped up and told whoever it was to get lost and we settled back in to sleep. The next thing I know James has thrown off the duvet and exclaimed “it’s 10 to eleven!” whilst rushing into the bathroom. Oh dear.Looks like we would have to get our own breakfast.

Even though we had a late start we managed to get ourselves ready and down to the bus stop for just after midday. It was a very chilly day, something that we hadn’t really expected after Haven had said that Xi’An was generally warmer than Beijing. We soon identified our bus, number 306, and jumped on board. The fare was 7 Yuan and we couldn’t help but shake our heads at the people who paid well over the odds to have a private car/minibus take them there when it is easy to get the bus and save your hard-earned.

At the back of the bus, for the legroom!

It took us a while to identify the ticket booth as we walked round in the cold surrounded by people selling all manner of Terracotta Warrior tat. Just to ruin the image further there was a KFC standing proudly at the entrance. Gnnnnngh! With our tickets purchased and the numerous offers of guides refused we headed back up the road to the entrance.

Inside it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It seemed to be much more of a museum-style arrangement with fresh new buildings presumably housing the warriors. We found the biggest building (Pit 1) and entered with all the other tourists keen to see the clay feast that awaited us. I did my “Grand Canyon trick” of looking at the floor until I knew I would have full view of the army and then lifted my head to see them all laid out in front of us. It was a fantastic sight. There are hundreds of them, all unique in their design, and it is hard to believe that they are well over 2,000 years old.

The Terracotta Warrior army

We wandered round Pit 1 taking numerous pictures and marvelling at the army of clay soldiers that stood below us. We made our way through to Pit 2 and Pit 3 and saw many more of the warriors and learned some of the history behind them. It was still pretty darned cold out there so we were happy to climb back onto the coach after the few hours we had seeing the army. Again, another 7 Yuan back to Xi’An and within 45 minutes we were back at the train station.

Pit 2... I think 

After another power-walk back to the hotel we decided to try out the ramen/noodle place over the road from the hotel and I was thoroughly pleased with the place. Nice and cheap, some English on the menu, but absolutely none spoken by the staff. Still, it didn’t matter to me, I was well away with my chopsticks and dumplings, etc, but it was a different story for James as they didn’t understand “fork” in English. It looked tricky eating duck noodles with two thin spoons.

Nom nom nom!