Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors

We arrived early in the morning before our hotel rooms were ready, so we went out for breakfast and coffee. My steamed dumplings were delicious and about twenty cents each, while my Starbucks was almost six dollars. The disparity is crazy.

My cheap, delicious dumplings.

The terra cotta warrior exhibit was our whole reason for visiting the city, so we took a bus over to the ancient burial site of one Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Literally thousands of these guys were buried underground, meant to protect the dead emperor. Farmers stumbled across the national treasure while digging for a well, and since then have been very well off. We had lunch with a family that benefitted from the discovery of the terra cotta warriors. The government had moved them off the site and built them a large new home. They couldn’t farm anymore, so they cooked traditional meals and talked with tourists as a means of income.

Our tour group after lunch with the locals.

The first exhibit hall of three. They were still actively excavating this site.

All of their heads were different.

Me, being there.

They buried a real armory for the Emperor, too.

Some particularly elaborate chariots also unearthed there.

That evening we explored the city a little, checking out the bell and drum towers used to rouse the citizens and tell time back in the day. We walked through a night market and passed by a Muslim temple where lots of halal cooking was going on. Certainly was unexpected to see Chinese Muslims, but there they were.

A drum or bell tower, can't remember anymore.