On The Move To China - Day 10

We actually slept in this morning! I was grateful because I had a horrible night sleeping. We have to have the window open because the room is so hot and on the street is some HORRIBLE music playing over and over. The room was HOT all night, the beds were rock hard (Linda loves ) and the street was noisy most of the night.

With bags under my eyes, we headed out of the city to visit what we came Xi’an in search of – The Terracotta Warriors. After a stop at a factory which makes the Terracotta Warrior replicas that we can take home we headed to lunch at a local restaurant. We were thrilled to eat at a non-tourist restaurant. The place was filled with local men eating, drinking and smoking. Many people were having a very good time!

Finally, we arrived at the Terracotta Warriors burial site and it was huge! It was amazing. A poor farmer found remains while he was trying to dig a well. He took the artifacts to the government officials and they determined they were part of the Chin Dynasty.. The warriors are 1.5 kilometers away from the Emperors’ Tomb. This Emperor ruled for 38 years and was known to be very extravagant. He had many years to get ready for his after life! The poor farmer was given a months salary, the government built him and everyone in the village apartments, and they gave him a job at the gift shop. He signs books and posses for pictures – of course for money! Considering the cost to get in is around $20 per person and they average 40,000 people a day – the farmer did not make out too well!

They have found three separate tombs. The first one found has 6,000 warriors, horses, and chariots in it. To date, they have excavated and put back together 1,000. We loved the warriors they have put back together, all the piece still in ruin, the horses, the bodies without heads, and the work in progress. I kept thinking of the ad -"if have fallen and I can get up."















The second hall has the layers taken off the top and shows the ceiling that was over the top of the tomb. They have excavated a small portion to give them clues as to which figures were in this tomb so they can determine the importance and significance of this tomb.









The third tomb was the most important – it was the deepest and most important because they believe was the “operational headquarters” for the construction of all the tombs. This tomb had very few warriors, all of higher rank and most without heads! They believe this final tomb didn’t get finished. The Emperor died suddenly and at the young age of 50 so they were not able to finish all of the heads and fill the tomb with more possessions!

After visiting a shop and negotiating a good price and I am proud owner of good looking warrior –an officer, mind you. Linda negotiated a good price for a mask of an archer. Once again, our guide couldn't believe our ability to negotiate.

Happily we headed back to the downtown of Xi’an begging to eat at Pizza Hut. We went inside the city walls to a great area to eat. It was good, very similar in flavor to our pizza but had some interesting combination. My favorite – breaded deep fried chicken pizza. I settled for a New Orleans thin crust pizza and shared it with the tour guide. The restaurant was very swank and the menu was ½ inch thick offering everything from fried rice, smoothies, pizza and desserts. We loved the experience – everyday people having a great time on a Friday night. The traffic was horrible, the lights were bright and the city was busting with energy.