We took a night train from Datong to X'ian. When we woke up in X'ian it was my birthday! We decided to head straight to the Terracotta Warriors and it was a great choice for many reasons. First, because it was my birthday, and I think that is a pretty awesome way to spend it and second, because the next day Simon, Auburn and I got the flu.
The Terracotta Warriors
This is one of the main attractions that we wanted to see in China and we were not disappointed. The Terracotta Warriors were built to protect Emperor in his afterlife. There are three pits with an current estimate of 8,000 soliders and 520 horses.
All of the faces of the warriors are different. They were originally all holding spears or swords and were painted different colors.
A happy little traveller
This is the first and biggest pit. These pits were discovered by farmers in 1974 while they were digging a well for water. These guys were buried for over 2,000 years.
One of the two bronze chariots
The warriors are dressed differently according to their rank.
This is Pit three, the command center, with the highest ranking officials.
They are still being excavated. After a quick google search I just found out that 120 more soldiers were found, like last week. I read that they may have 6,000 more to excavate.
Here you could see where they are reconstructing pieces found.
This was a highlight on our trip for us.
The day after the Terracotta Warriors was, well... slow. We were all a little under the weather. We went to the History Museum in the morning. After a nice loooong nap, we went for a little walk around the city.
Bell Tower
Big Goose Pagoda
The next morning we got a plane to Guilin. It was either that or take a 28 hour train ride. I was grateful that my husband was willing to find a good deal on a flight so we could fly.
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