Terracotta Warriors

A rainy day in which the rain only let up for short periods but fortunately much of our time was spent indoors. The main feature if the day was a visit to the terracotta warriors. Having seen the original exhibition which came to Edinburgh many years ago I was still blown away by the sheer immensity of this afterlife army. The emperor who chose to build himself such guarantee of safety in the afterlife was by all accounts a cruel tyrantq who use one third if the taxes he extorted throughout his lifetime to accomplish this feat. Each of the warriors is life size and has a unique head and facial features as you probably know. However, the emperor Qin Shi Huang did manage to unify the seven kingdoms of China. I was impressed with the way in which the tombs were presented give the immense numbers of visitors they cope with (9 million last year !) only at a couple of points do you feel the press of the crowds.

In the afternoon we visited the Muslim quarter in Xian and the Great Mosque in Xian which is totally unlike any other mosque I have seen, no dome and everything done in a very Chinese style.

The day was rounded off with a banquet and performance of ancient Chinese music and dance in which many of the instruments were from centuries ago.