I ask at the reception desk and am
directed to the 103 bus from a nearby hospital to the railway
station. From there I avoid the queues for the 306 public bus and get
on board one of the Terracotta Warrior buses (RMB 8, 1 hour) running
constantly. This makes for an easy journey. Oddly enough, most people
who get on board turn out not to be going to the site: they're
Chinese who use it as a shuttle bus for shopping trips! Marshals
direct me onto the bus which is a comfortable ride though some
attractive countryside. It feels quite exciting, I have a sense of
anticipation building although I do wish Sarah were here with me! It
passes though a number of shopping areas to pick up more passengers
who then get off at a later stage. Eventually we arrive at a car park
in front of a row of dingy looking shops. I feel dubious this is the
right place, but I get off with all the others and follow the signs
saying “Ticket Office.” It takes me abut 10 minutes to get there
and there are no more signs except EXIT signs, so I just follow all
the Chinese thinking I can't go wrong. Eventually I arrive at a plaza
and in looking for the ticket office try to find the nearest big
crowd. In fact there is not much of a queue at all and I get my
ticket right away. At RMB 120 it's the most expensive attraction so
far.
I start at Pit 3, the smallest one,
following the advice in Lonely Planet. There is a dizzying feel as
you approach, as the pits are much deeper than I expected,, something
like 30 or 40 feet: the experience reminds me of the Grand Canyon in
a way.
Unfortunately photography is very
difficult unless you have expensive equipment owing to the low light
in the pavilions, and flash photography is discouraged: it also
doesn't work anyway. This is because the of the damage this can cause
to the exhibits.
Pit 2 is only partially excavated so
there isn't much to see, but there are glass-encased specimens to
see. Unfortunately I have to negotiate the crowds while taking
photos.
Pit 3 is the most impressive,it
contains 6000 soldiers although only 2000 can be seen at present.
On coming out I walk along a street of
tacky souvenir shops before getting back to the bus. The journey back
takes about 1 ½ hours owing to the bus staying around for a seeming
age in a town called Lintong trying to fill up with passengers.
For more information follow this link:
The journey back takes about 1 ½ hours
owing to the bus staying around for a seeming age in a town called
Lintong trying to fill up with passengers. On returning to Xian I
need lunch but the whole area around the railway station is so
chaotic with traffic that I decide to walk as far as I can until I
can get a bus. This turns out to be impossible so I end up walking
all the way back to the hostel. From there I get the metro to the
South Gate, but make a mistake and end up getting off at the Bell
Tower, a good 15 or 20 minutes from the Gate. Cursing my own
stupidity I finally fetch up in the bar where I sit outside and have
a beer and pizza which is actually not bad! I'm not keen on the local
food in Xian, too much of it is offal, noodles and dumplings, or
unidentifiable matter which I don't want to risk!
After this I go back to the hostel to
try and have a doze. I'm exhausted so I try and get a taxi, but after
2 attempts I give up as they won't take me! I'm not sure why. I try
the metro and its impossibly overcrowded. I like Xian very much but
it's just too crowded! Dog tired I slowly trudge back to the
hostel, shower and slip into an uneasy doze.
Waking up at 7pm I abandon the idea of
going out for the evening as I'm absolutely exhausted. I've been
walking all day. I have some draught beers in the hostel bar and
order a meal of soup, steak and chips and salad which is great value
at RMB 78 or about £8. Sadly it all arrives at the same time, so I
eat the steak first, then the soup as it's hotter, and finish off
with the salad. A Chinese guy I befriended wants a game of pool but
I'm so fatigued that I just go back to the room at about 8.30, open
the window to cool down the room as it's quite warm, and listen to
the traffic noise hoping it will soothe me to sleep. I find it hard
to sleep as I keep dozing and waking: it's always like this when I'm
really tired, and it's very fitful. A noisy car alarm wakes me up so
I have to use improvised earplugs made form tissue paper for a while
to stop up my ears. (Car alarms are useless: all they do is make a
hell of a racket and nobody ever checks them out!)
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