Tueday 16 April am
On arrival yesterday evening, we were taken to dinner and then on a night tour of Xian: a rather amazing "dancing fountains" display, a large mall with numerous statues of artistic greats (not sure who they were, so will need to investigate) and then to the old town with its city wall (we were told over 9 miles in circumference), bell tower and drum tower, all lit up (not sure about the authenticity of all this, but it certainly looked impressive.....)
The pace doesn't slacken, as we're off in a few minutes to the terracotta warriors. Judging by the number of tourists at breakfast, we might not be the only people out there today!
Updated Tuesday pm: Although there were no real surprises at the Terracotta Warriors site, I did learn a couple of things. The first is, there's still a massive amount of excavation yet to be done. As almost everything that's excavated is severely damaged, the project is obviously going to keep the archaeologlists busy for years to come. The second is that the site of the warriors is only one part of the Emperor Qin Shihuang mausoleum complex, which actually covered an area of more than 56 square kilometres. Much of the area appears to be used for other purposes today. The results of some of the other excavations are displayed in on the Warriors site, but not a lot of publicity appears to be given to the complex apart from the Warriors. I assume - but don't know for sure - that there may not be much remaining of the other parts..
More generally, I don't doubt that the archaeological work is given first priority, but catering for the visitors certainly comes a close second!
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