Wednesday 21st

09:00 start for the one-hour drive to the Terracotta Warriors.  It was overcast this morning for the first time and there were a few spots of rain but nothing more.  Temperature still 34C.

Arrived at the site and we were nowhere near the first.

They are very geared up for a LOT of tourists.

But the statues range from the sublime.....

.....to the ridiculous

The terracotta warriors are 2,200 years old.  They were discovered by a local farmer who was digging a well for water and came across some clay body parts.  The farmer went on to be given a job in the museum.  Bill Clinton asked to meet him on a visit to China but the farmer who had no English didn't want to.  They got him an English teacher who taught him "How are you?" and expecting the response to be, "I am well, thank you" the farmer would then give the response, "I am too".  Instead the exchange went like this:

Farmer: Who are you?

Bill: I'm president of the United States

Farmer:  I am too.

Cue our guide falling about with laughter.

Anyway, another golf cart from the entrance to the pits.

And you arrive at the pits.  There are 3 buildings within the complex containing 5 pits between them.  The first building was constructed after Pit 1 was opened.  Buildings 2 and 3 were constructed the next set of pits were opened based on lessons learned about protecting the artefacts once the pits are opened.

The whole experience is fantastic and I can't imagine how amazing the whole thing must have looked when it was first built.

The vast majority of artefacts were broken when discovered.  Each one takes 5-6 years to reconstruct.  There is a "hospital" to do this complete with surgery and post-operative care.

As well as clay there are bronze items

There were 4 reconstructed items to look at up close.  Note the detail on the sole of the kneeling figure. Amazingly, the kneeling figure was discovered intact.

These are 2 pits that are unopened until the scientists can work out a better way to protect the artefacts.

 Our guide said that when pits 1-3 were opened, the colours on the artefacts faded within minutes.

On the way back to the car we went for a tea tasting.  The woman offers you a selection of 11 teas.  You choose the ones you want to taste and she makes each one for you.  Before pouring the hot water into the teapot, she pours it over the animal figures.  The figures have to change colour to show the water is at the correct temperature.

After the tasting comes the hard sell but they were very nice about it.

Drove back to town for a visit to the city walls which Aria (just like Jonathan in Pingyao) said was the only remaining intact city wall in China.

The wall is 13.74 metres.  13 for the number of dynasties and 74 for the number of emperors.  I don't know which came first, the city wall or the kilometre but I found this hard to believe.

There are 3 options to get around the wall: walk, golf cart or bicycle. We chose the latter even with the ridiculous temperature.  There is not much to see but the sheer scale of it is very impressive.

After that it was a drive back to the hotel to make sure we got there for happy hour.

On the drive back, Aria tried to sell us tickets to a show and special dumpling banquet, but we weren't impressed by the brochure so gave it a miss.

Happy hour is over and we really caned it today.  Off to dinner now so if anything happens it will have to be an addendum.