Feet of clay

Mid-November 2006 - Xi'an

Along with Beijing, Hong Kong and the Yangtse; Xi'an was one of my top China destinations. However, being such a vast country and with limited time, we very nearly didn't make it up there but with a bit or re-routing and a couple of extra days spent on the train, we managed to squeeze it into our trip. And I'm so glad that we did.

The main attraction lies about an hours drive outside of the city; the Terracotta Army. This is a collection of currently over 8,000 life-size terracotta figures which were buried near the body of the first Emporer of Qin. The Emporer ordered thousands of craftsmen to create an exact replica of his army; if any figure didn't look like the soldier it was modelled on then the craftsman was killed. Slightly obsessed with the after-life I think. Anyway, it makes for an impressive tourist attraction.

When entering the first excavation site, you can't help but be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the place and the number of figures. To put it into perspective, it's in an aircraft hanger the size of two football pitches.

The site was discovered in 1974 by local farmers digging a well. The superstitious among them stupidly ran off thinking they'd seen a ghost but one lucky chap got his trowel out and the rest is history. Despite being illiterate, he's learnt to sign his name and offers book signings to get even more cash from his discovery. He's now a very rich man, and who can blame him; it beats selling dog meat to unsuspecting tourists.