Day 48

A real "Wow" day.  We headed 40km out of town to see the Terracotta Army, but however many pictures you have seen of them in advance, you are still not prepared for that first view as you walk through the entrance of the hanger like building that covers Pit 1. I can only say that I was stunned.

All bar one of the soldiers that have been excavated so far were damaged and a major reconstruction of them has been underway almost since they were discovered in 1974. When first uncovered they were brightly painted but this has faded over the years and is one of the reasons most of the estimated 8000 soldiers remain buried.

Aswell as Pit 1, which was the first "army" found when a local farmer was digging a well, there are three other pits. Pit 2 contains the command centre with ceremonial guards and generals, Pit 3 contains archers, cavalry and chariots and Pit 4 is empty, apparently never completed. Presumably they have surveyed the entire area for other treasures before they covered it in concrete.

It seems incredible that nothing was known about it until the farmers well was dug in 1974.  Yet the official Chinese history is now able to state that 720000 people were involved in it's construction, and it took 40years.  That's the advantage of being able to write history.

Back into Xian and some lunch then Beth, Tom, Tracy and I went up onto the city wall with the intention of cycling the entire 13.2km, but the heavy rain of yesterday afternoon had apparently made the cobbles dangerous for cycling so the hire shop staff had been given the day off.

We walked about a quarter of the distance then took a taxi back to the hotel, where Simon and I did some vehicle maintenance. I rotated my wheels to keep the wear even, and removed the low oil pressure sender which was remote mounted along with the sender for the oil pressure gauge.  The sender had been leaking a bit of oil since before we left home and no amount of tightening or replacement copper washers seems to have sorted it. The low oil pressure warning light hasn't worked for some time (perhaps due to this sender being faulty) so I keep a regular eye on the gauge.

Xian is the most north-easterly point we reach in China - from tomorrow we turn south, and a little bit west.

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