CHINA DAY 4

Guide Frances and Driver Mr Wong.

General Dion at The Terracotta Army Factory.

Dion in front of Emperor Qin at The Terracotta Army Museum.

Inside Pit 1 the biggest pit and display of some of the 8000 Terracotta figures and horses.

Melisa and The Army.

Dion by a photo opportunity display of the different ranks of the army.

Pagoda at Huaqin Hot Spring Park.

Huaqin Hot Spring Park.

Dion and Melisa by a Drum Prop used in a performance at Huaqin Hot Spring Park.

Day 4 Fly to Xian and visit Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army, Huaquin Hot Spring Park and Chinese Opera.

We left Beijing and took a small plane trip 2 hours south to the centre of China to Xian. This is one of the oldest cities in China and 8 million people live there. The number 1 reason tourists travel there is to visit the famous Terracotta Warriors. They were found by local farmers in 1974 who were drilling for wells. The site was proved to be one of the biggest burial pits of Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. There are 3 pits of over 20,000 square meters and nearly 8000 terracotta armoured warriors and horses found. They recently found a 4th pit and are working on it. The warriors and horses are over 2000 years old. All the warriors have their own unique expression on their face and have different ranks and uniforms. We met Frances our friendly bubbly guide and Mr Wong the calm silent driver. We arrived in the afternoon and Frances said we were to go straight to The Warriors Museum which was really exciting. First we went to a Terracotta Factory to see how the warriors were made and to watch some of the workers. The factory also did tri colour glazing on porcelain horses and camels. They were so beautiful but too big and expensive to cart back to NZ via Korea. The factory also made beautiful lacquered furniture with colourful paintings on it. There were 2 huge shops to buy souvenirs in which we did indulge in a bit. Afterwards we drove through the countryside to The Terracotta Museum. Frances told us to buy from the factory as locals make terracotta figures to sell to tourists but the quality is not very good. We noticed loads of side stalls and shops selling warriors. Xian is so different from Beijing and it was interesting to see rural life in China. We got to the carpark at The Warriors Museum and like The Great Wall it was crowded with bus loads of tourists. We walked 20 minutes in the heat of the afternoon to get to the 1st pit but it was worth it. The place was huge and The Terracotta Army all stared up at us with ghostly expressions on their faces. It was so amazing to see them. We could only view them 3 metres away as there was a barrier but it was still worth the effort to travel to Xian. We walked around the pit and took photos from various angles and then went to pit 2 and 3 which were smaller. We spent awhile there and then we took a horse and carriage ride back to the car park. After that incredible experience we went to Huaquin Hot Spring Park and walked around the beautiful grounds. The Emperor had pools made for his concubines. One of the best ones was the star pool which had a view of the mountain and no roof so you could sit in it and look up at the stars. We drove back to Xian and went to a restaurant and had a dumpling banquet. Dumplings are a speciality in Xian and were very tasty. After that we watched a Chinese Opera. The clothes were so colourful and the musicians played traditional Chinese instruments. It was fun to see. We finally rolled up to our hotel to book in and crash.