Charming Terracota General
Ah, the famous Terracotta Army.
Leaving Pingyao, we made our way to Xi'an, where Chris had last been in 1989, and is the home of the Terracotta Warriors.
It was really awesome to see the site, and also to be able to get up close to some of them (as seen here) to really appreciate the level of detail...Famously, each one has a different face (although the bodies often look like they are of a similar cast), and here you can see how detailed they are.
And wow there are lots of them! with most still under the dirt, waiting to be revealed. Rumour has it there is a contingent of female warriors too (traditionally, Qing dynasty archers were young women firing light, but equally lethal, long range arrows) but they aren't excavated yet.
We made our way there under our own steam (eschewing the overpriced guided tours that are really only an excuse to take you to the local jade sourvenir factories :)
It was a great day out, and the way home really entertaining. There were road works on the way back into town, so our bus driver just meandered off into the country. And promptly got lost. So we got to see all kinds of teeny farms and villages with puzzled looking farmers watching our big city bus roaring by driven by an increasingly crazed maniac with mutinous passengers. We even got to go to a restricted Chinese military facility and see all the fancy fighter planes! That was cool, I must say, and I felt like a real spy
Anyhow, we got back, and - tiring of the big city - decided to bugger off into serious country side.
