We had a 12 hour overnight sleeper train to survive from Beijing to Xian. Definitely better than the Indian sleeper, nice “cosy” cabins and better bunks. However everything vibrated as the train moved including our bodies so we did not really sleep much. We shared the cabin with a Chinese man who once he overcame his shyness at sharing with 3 foreigners was very friendly. The only way he could communicate with us was for us to write down a question and he would respond in perfect written English. He was unable to speak it or to understand us speaking.
Although tired we firstly visited the history museum for the province which is very famous. We were really tired and one pot began to look like another. After this we blew the cobwebs away by having a walk on the amazing city walls. Really high and thick and very well maintained. Unfortunately the temp was not any warmer here and up high on the walls there was a brisk wind. We were lucky enough to witness a re-enactment of some traditional guards at the gate.
So the next morning onto the main point of coming to Xian – the famous warriors. They were really fantastic and it was incredible to think of the craftsmanship that went into creating these 2000 years ago. The lines of them really was impressive, we particularly liked the horses and the Archer. Some pits were not excavated as the technology is not yet there but it was good to see that the site was being preserved. One of the most interesting things was the bronze horse drawn carriage really intricate workmanship. Definitely ticked this box on the world sites to see – well done!.
No comments:
Post a Comment