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We arrived in Xian around 5.30am after the 19 hour train journey from Hangzhou. We checked into the hostel and had a couple of hours sleep before we began our tour to the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. There was were an Australian couple along with Matt and myself to make up the group. We also had a tour guide from the hostel. Our 1st stop was the workshop where replicas of the statues are made. It was really good to see the different sizes of the statues and actually how big the real statues are, they are life size. The next stop was the museum of the Army of the Terracotta Warriors which was the sight in which all the warriors were found. Over 2,200 years ago, China was split into 6 different states each with its own ruler, one of the rulers decided to get the whole of China as 1 country and therefore a war broke out until the ruler defeated all the other states and thus became the Emperor of the whole of China. He then decided to make a tomb in which he wanted to be buried and created the Terracotta Warriors as a symbol of how many people it took to make the tomb, he killed everyone who was involved thus the 8000+ warriors that have been found represent the people killed. It took over 4 decades and when he died he was buried in the tomb. However rebel groups set alight and destoyed the tomb bringing down the earth and crushing all the statues. Until 1976? not 1 had been found.
We 1st went into the area where the horses and carriages were kept and had a look at them. Everything that was original had been destroyed when the earth collapsed and fell in, so in this room everything was a replica. We then went onto the video room to watch a dvd on how the Terracotta Warriors were found and about the history around the time that they were 1st created which was pretty interesting. From there we went into Pit 1 which is the largest Pit and where over 6,000 warriors had been found. It was incredible to see, all of the warriors had been destroyed also when the earth collapsed on the Pit however all the warriors had been put back together piece by piece as each individual warrior has unique marks and no 2 are the same. It was an amazing site to see the Pit with all the warriors in. From this we went into Pit 3, which is the smallest of the Pits and the Pit in which the generals were. Only 68 of these have been found and it was more like the headquarters for the warriors. We then went onto the last Pit, Pit 2 in which there is not much to see as they are currently excavating and working on piecing together all the warriors and horses. The museum was really good and such an amazing piece of history. It is crazy to think that the warriors were buried underground for so long before they were found. The man who found them is a hero in China and has met many famous people in the world including President Clinton. He was actually at the museum signing autographs when we were there!
After the Army of the Terracotta Warriors we had lunch and then went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda which is a temple.
In the evening, the Australian couple and Matt and I went out for a meal in the Muslim quarter and had a look around the shops. It was a really good day!
The next day Matt and I had a walk around Xian and had a look at some of the sights before we went to get our train to Beijing.
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