I don't need real friends, I'll make them from clay!

So yes, I went to see the Terracotta Warriors. Well you have to really. I mean if you go to China what are people going to ask? "Did you see the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors?". And if you say no you'll probably just get a strange look and people will wonder WHY you went to China and start wondering where your hostel was in relation to the red light district and... well, OK, probably not for me, but I think I WOULD wonder why not!

Anyway, so I went to see them because it's the "done" thing. Fought my way through the crowds of shouting elbowing tourists (predominantly Chinese), nearly had my eyes taken out several times by those little flags the tour guides hold so the rest of their group can find them (incidently the rest of their group can find each other because they all have matching baseball caps). I knew it was a big site and there were a lot of warriors and eveything, but I don't think I was quite prepared for the SCALE. I mean this guy Qin must have pissed off a LOT of people to think he was going to need that much protection in the afterlife! So you walk in and you're in this aircraft hanger. And facing you are lines and lines of full size ancient warriors. The whole hanger has yet to be excavated, but it's basically enormous and all filled with army ranks. Rows and rows of different soldiers that had real weapons, and terracotta horses that used to have chariots attached. And every head is different. Maybe I should emphasise that more? EVERY HEAD IS DIFFERENT!!! And there are 1,000's And this was just pit one. There are 3 pits, although 2 and 3 are smaller than pit 1. And here's the amazing thing about it - this tomb is over 2,000 years old (we're talking BC here ok?) and there are metal working techinques used that were only discovered in the Western world in the 1920's, paint compounds that were still unknown to the Western world when this was discovered in the 1970's, I mean we're talking a very advanced and old civilisation here. Makes us look a bit pathetic in comparison hey?

So how to top that? I can't really. But the sun DID manage to break through the smog here, so yesterday I cycled around Xi'an city walls - all 14km on a rattley bike with no discernable suspension... But worth it for the wow factor. These are no 'York' city walls. These are walls designed to keep people out and make them wonder why they ever thought it might have been a good idea to try and get in in the first place!

So that's it for Xi'an - tonight I'm on a sleeper back to Beijing.