Tried to catch up on some sleep and I was so tired no-one woke me up when they moved around. Did some washing and went to Dads for breakfast (what did I say last night?!) for a very average pancake. Travellers must be very homesick to enjoy this place, or have no food appreciation, or hate to try Chinese street cooking (or just too scared judging by some of the naïve kids that I met here last night.) It was raining and so the perfect day to sit on a bus and see the Terracotta Warriors, after buying a very British looking umbrella in the market outside the train / bus station. The first pit was very impressive but lacked any info. The newer (dug) pits were better but I still had many unanswered questions. Why would someone build such a vast and impressive project and then hide it? Then I saw the circle 360 cinema which gives some propositions to the questions. Basically it was a Mausoleum Fort to guard the Emperor in his Underworld afterlife but it was destroyed during revolts after 3 years of its completion. Then the CD-ROM left me somewhat disappointed. Apparently during the revolts all the soldiers were smashed. What you see now are rebuilt sections of the original ‘china’. And I thought it had all been found underground still intact. I fell asleep on the bus back to Xi’an. Tried to buy a sleeper train ticket to ChengDu but again had trouble. Gave up. Instead wandered around the lively Muslim night market and ate lovely noodle broth. Then a relatively early night.

• Previous Entry: Xi'an
• Next Entry: Day in Xi'an