Xian - Home of the Terracotta Warriors! And Chongching!

On arrival our guide Christina was waiting for us and we were swiftly shown to our air-conditioned van. Super - we were all looking forward to some luxury for the next 12 days! She was local to Xian and looked after everything for us whilst we were there.

We had two nights in Xian which was more than enough. The first afternoon we hired bikes and cycled the city wall. It is approximately 11km long and a couple meters wide and a great way to catch a view of the city. However yet again the visibility was very poor, and not being able to see for more than a few blocks was a constant reminder of the quality of the air we're inhaling.

We then visited a Muslim Mosque with Christina, and she brought us to a restaurant in the area where we had one of the best meals we've had since arriving in China. It just goes to show how knowing the language/a local helps immensely in ones quest for food! The cheapest item on the menu was less than two euro and everything was tasty!

The following day we visited the Terracotta Warriors - which was an incredible sight. Along the way we stopped at the factory where they make touristy replica terracotta warriors to give us an insight into the labour and skill involved when these things were first constructed over 200 years ago. Interesting enough however it was yet another tourist trap where the only way out is past the souvenir shop and whilst the lads aren't suckers for tourist tat, I am! Dave constantly convincing me I needed another fridge magnet didn't help matters. Jesus my collection is seriously getting out of control - must stop!

There are three pits of the warriors on show, the largest is the most impressive. Archaeologists are slowly excavating and assembling the broken warriors before replacing them back in the tomb. Many are broken as the grave was torched during a peasant rising. In fact the warriors were originally painted colourfully, but after the fire this turned them all black. The truly anazing thing about them is that each face is unique. The tomb was built approx. 200BC for the very first emperor during the Qin dynasty. He ordered the grave be built for him, as he was the man responsible for uniting all of China (amonsgt other things). The grave took 40 years to bulid!

This city really had nothing until some farmers discovered the site in 1974 digging a well. Since then a museum has been built and the area has flourished from the proceeds of tourism. One of the farmers still alive sits in the museum and you can buy a book and get his autograph. He's part of the attraction. Crazy. The city is constantly being developed, old bulidings knocked and replaced with new ones. You can buy terracotta warriors for your back garden if you wish and have them shipped home. You can even arrange to have your face placed on top of a life size replica model. Hilarious (ly scary).

The upside to a package tour like this is that we were being brought to really good restaurants for lunch that had huge buffets catering for Western tastes. I've a feeling what with the constant transport on offer and good food, we'll be leaving China a few pounds heavier!

We visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda that afternoon and climbed it. Pagoda's are particular type of architecture, a type of tower, when you've seen one you've seen them all. Besides the view from the top there's not a whole lot to them. However they seem to feature a lot on our itinerary! A way to work off all the dumplings perhaps!

We left Xian pretty excited about our Yangzte River cruise. We flew into Chongching where we had the afternoon to kill before getting the boat that night. The city unknown to us before turned out to be an enormous -33 million people in the city and surrounding province. It's the only city in China where no-one cycles because it's so hilly, it also reaches temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius in the Summer. Ouch.

Having being deposited in E'ling Park for a few hours where we climbed to a view point of the city to be blown away by the height and vastness of this city. Skyscrapers stretched for miles around us. The Yangzte and Jialing rivers wound their way around the city and its countless buildings - truly a breath-taking sight.

After that we visited the Three River Gorges Museum where we got a fair bit of background on the Dan Project. Our guide had a permanent smile as she walked and talked us through the museum. The dam is being built mainly for the purposes of irrigation, flood control and navigation (apparently - power anybody? not interested int he electricity it produces??) . By raising the water they can allow ocean bound ships up and down the Yangzte. However this has resulted in 1.3 million people being 'displaced' due to whole towns being submerged!

On questioning our guide it emerged that the towns have been blasted before the river rose, and whole new towns were built further uphill. The new towns and cities have better accommodation and facilities for their residents than before apparently. However needless to say better job opportunities means nothing to the elderly, and so many are unhappy whilst the young are over the moon with new apartments and jobs. Alternatively the displaced were moved to larger cities.

One amazing case was that of a large rock which was worshipped by the local people. Not wanting to jinx themselves the Chinese have built a glass museum around it, so that when the river rises people can still go down and visit it - a murky underwater relic.

So on to the next step of our tour - the cruise.