History Continues

Xian is most famous for being the point at which most people start their visit to the Terracota warriors, but that's not all it has to offer. There is a large mosque in Chinese style in the cramped/crowded muslim area, a very imposing solid wall which surrounds the centre and a number of temples scattered all around. We stayed in the bell tower hostel which, logically enough is right besides the bell tower, an imposing pagoda which used to sound the new day with a bell. Its sister tower known as the drum tower is about 100m away and was used to sound the day's end - not very original but they both look quite fancy by night.

Dom gets Lucky

Anyway this was really about the Terracota warriors buried underground since the 1st chinese dynasty, Qin was founded, over 2000 years ago. The excavation and "rebuilding" is just as impressive as the actual warriors, you can see how archaeologists are raising the dead so to speak. First off they reveal a peice of terracota followed by which they spend painstaking hours brushing away the dust and dirt of the centuries, once it has been resurrected it can be placed in line for rebuilding one of the soldiers. The most amazing thing is the number of rebuilt or undamaged soldiers that have been unearthed and put on display still in the pits they were found in, the scale is daunting and it's hard to imagine how much time went into creating thousands of unique peices (everyone has their own features, including face, body and position).

Bell Tower

The Xian wall which has suffered or been blessed with much renovation can be cycled around, it's fairly wide so no fear of falling off and dare we say flat? Probably not since the bricks that have been placed together in all sorts of positions giving anything but a cushioned ride. It's unclear if the wall belows to Tang or Ming dynasty's since the Ming enlarged and initial wall which doesn't seem to be standing anylonger but they probably strengthed the inner one. After the 14km or so we'd seen enough and decided to visit the big wild goose pagoda outside. Don't hold your breath for anything exciting though since it rained so heavily that we ended up walking through puddles up to our ankles.

Minaret

City Wall

Making sure it's Cooked

Qin Chariot

Qin Terracotta Warrior

Terracotta Rebuilt

Terracotta Legions

Terracottas Being revived

More Terracotta