Xian is a city in the middle of China that became an overnight tourist centre when an army of Terracotta Warriors was discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well. They were built by a total of 110,000 people over 38 years in 200 BC, ordered by the first Emperor of China who wanted the warriors to protect him in his afterlife.
The pits are still being fully excavated about an hour outside of the city centre. So you have to be driven out there to see the warriors.
One of the MANY tourist scams in China is to take us on a "tour" with an "English speaking guide" (I say this VERY loosely, since I don't believe that saying yes and no, and a couple of other sentences constitutes an English speaker), where you actually get driven to various tourist traps and left for half hour at a time to "shop". I booked the tour through our hostel and asked point blank if it had any 'shopping' and was assured that all it included was a trip to the museum.
You see where I'm going with this: I was lied to! We were taken to:
...a silk factory...
...a farmers' paintings exhibition...
...a terracotta souvenir factory...
...a furniture store......and an expensive restaurant for lunch, where we were given no choice about the menu or location. GRRRRR!!!!!!! The scam is blatant and ridiculous. There are "workers" s None of us on the tour bought anything, which angered our guide. His loss!
After 5 hours of this run-around, we finally made it to the warriors:
There are 4,000 of them just in this pit.
Mike taking pictures with his favourite camera.
An overview of the pit. with warriors that have been re-constructed lined up.
Mike and I at the first pit. We hung out here for awhile, admiring the work of so many Chinese workers over 2000 years ago.
Some of them are missing their body parts....it takes days to reconstruct just one.
A close-up of one of the warriors.All in all, it was worth the experience to see the warriors. But next time, I think I'll take the bus there myself!
I couldn't resist putting in some more food pictures. We found the Islam quarter of Xian and there was a magnificent food market, where we indulged (yes, again) in lots of things we can't name.
This is an overview of part of the market.
Although this looks like potatoes, it's actually a jelly-like substance. After we got used to the texture, it was actually pretty good! 
Mike getting ready to attact the dumplings!
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