What more can be said about the Terracotta Warriors? Everyone has seen them on the telly, but to see them in real life is truly incredible. The only drawback being the several million other people who want to see them at the same time. Actually the museum with some of the more interesting figures and the hall with the chariots were even better than the famous main hall built over Pit No.1. The house where the bloke (Wang something) who discovered them signed autographs is still there although he died last year. The tourist blurb reckons that people made the warriors in their own images, which is why they are all different, and were then put to death afterwards. Dont know if it is true.
In the afternoon we went to the Muslim sector of the old town which is just as interesting. Every conceivable type of fruit and vege growing in China is on sale as well as snacks, spices, pastries, clothing, metal goods, fried squid (I ate one, rather rubbery and tasteless), ice cream cut into panda shapes, toys (bought Cameron a thing with Peppa Pigs doing a helter skelter and Aonghas a panda) etc. The cricket fighting was fascinating: there are two crickets in a box and the people put bets on which will kill the other. Bit like cockfighting only smaller. Utensils for the cricket fighting industry are on sale: things for catching them, tiny bowls for feeding them, devices for tickling them and making them angry. Brilliant. We also saw the Drum Tower which looked rather austere in the daylight, but glorious when it was lit up at night.
