We stopped off en-route to Shanghai for a brief stay in Xi’an to visit the Terracotta Army. Strolling through the night markets in the Muslim quarter, we ate delicious steamed dumplings and haggled hard with the shop keepers for a Xun.
The fountain show at the Big Goose Pagoda would make the Bellagio jealous and we never got bored of watching people getting drenched unexpectedly by a new jet of water.
We joined some other travellers on a public bus to the Warrior’s excavation site and clubbed together for our knowledgeable guide Jason. What the archaeologists have uncovered so far is very impressive but the vast majority still remains buried until more advanced preservation techniques are developed. We were surprised to learn that the warriors are decoratively painted and this quickly decays when they are exposed to air. We imagined that it might look a bit like this.
3 comments so far
October 4th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Just been watching a documentary on the Terracotta Army, they say that less than 10% has been uncovered so far! Helen, your Mum is walking in the Peak District this weekend so you should have a blog comment free couple of days.
October 4th, 2008 at 11:03 am
that’s a bit confusing….I wrote the last entry and it’s come up as your Mum, I better put this bottle down and get back to the painting in the kitchen!!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Just be warned ‘Daddyo’……..even when I’m away I can still get ‘in on the act’???
Pictures of the terracotta soldiers are brilliant……I didn’t think you could get that close. Did you buy a Xun??……what a good Scrabble word that will be for future reference!……What’s the Bellagio?……..Travelled on a public what???? to the warrior’s site…….the Indiana Jones film is a bit scary!!
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