After a two hour bus ride we arrived at what has now been made into a huge archeological and museum site. Our group had a private bus and our own local guide, so it was nice to be able to ask all the questions we had about the Army. However, perhaps naively, but neither of us realised most the Army was discovered in bits and therefore the feat of the last 36 odd years has been putting the dudes back together. This left us wondering if this huge collection of over 1000 (out of 7000 discovered so far) individual pottery life sizes figures, were less impressive as the had been reconstructed. Or perhaps more awe-inspiring as each one has been restored like a jigsaw puzzle, putting back together over a 1000 pieces and taking a year to make one figure. And each of them is completely unique, with their own expressions, different heights and poses - apparently modelled on actual people that lived with or near the people that made them.
Never the less we are glad to have seen them, and be able to ponder upon the Emperor's state of mind when he chose to build this vast army to protect him in death.
That evening we took our third over night train from Xian to Chongqing. The queue getting into the train was horrendous (the Chinese do not do queuing) Finally, we made it aboard and it was a pretty nice journey. It was the first time we'd shared the six person bed area with just Westerners and I think we must be getting used to the train rides as it was a smooth trip.
It looks absolutely amazing. Long term employment for someone:)
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