Xian Friday April 6

This morning we visited a large city park, where children and elderly people were out doing their morning exercises. The number of people was astonishing, with a bias to elderly retired people. Every group had a CD player, playing different music to accompany their activities. There was badminton-type bats and balls, choirs, tai chi with swords, calligraphy, ballroom dancing (Western style), and a challenging game of "soccer" using a feathered weight with feet only. It was a delight to see them enjoying themselves so much in the fresh air and sunshine undertaking healthy exercise.
Then a bus trip to the Terracotta Warriors - an amazing discovery made in 1974 but dating back 2000 years. Each figure is unique, with different body positions and facial expressions and clothed according to their rank. Figures of men and horses are lifesize, and still in their positions underground as they were found and the broken ones still in the process of matching parts and assembling into a complete figure. They were originally painted in colour, and many of the weapons were encrusted with jewels. The main pit is covered by a building nearly as large as the MCG, open every day, and after close the archeologists and their teams work under lights with torches and brushes painstakingly undertaking the ongoing delicate recovery of the figures still buried. The warriors were designed to defend Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb and ensure that he would have an army to protect him in the afterlife (and presumably also to show a continuation of his power and strength even after death). The "army" work began when he was quite young, and continued for more than 70 years (his tomb is 1.5 km away, although his remains may even be located elsewhere with the tomb being a decoy). It is believed that the surviving workers (about 750,000 worked on the project over his lifetime) were buried alive with him to protect the secret of the construction. Many archeologists think that the 6,000 warriors discovered so far could be only part of an even larger army buried in vaults around the tomb.
The farmer who was digging the well and discovered part of a warrior is still alive - now in his 80's. He is very famous, and still spends some time at the site. If he is present, and you purchase a book, he will autograph it for you in Mandarin. We saw him the day we visited.
Flight to Quilin.