Arrived here this morning from Xi-an having been well enough in the end to participate in Tuesday's activities. We went to see the Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin - the first Emperor of a united China, and quite a despot if the stories are to be believed.
The site is about an 1h30 outside Xi-an and we drove out there yesterday in the sweltering heat and humidity - 38 degrees plus! The warriors were uncovered in 1974 by three farmers digging a well in a field (indeed one of them was on hand to sign copies of a new book on the topic...) There are three main sites you visit where they have reassembled the warriors: shortly after Emperor Qin died there was a rebellion (unsurprisingly) and a lot of the site was sacked and burned. The detail of the sculpture work is very impressive and it was interesting to consider what else might lie under the green fields in the area!
The rest of the afternoon was free and I decided to pursue my "convalescence" in a park with a good book. Ah yes, the tonsillitis or whatever it is / was. It has really cleared up now, mainly due to the train journey we took yesterday evening from Xi-an to Lanzhou. The latter is at 1500m altitude and the journey led to a welcome release of the pressure in my right ear which had been sitting there since last Monday (i.e. 10 days ago!). I can not describe the relief of this event... :) As we are moving on tomorrow to Xiahe - "little Tibet" - at an altitude of 3300m I went to seek an additional medical opinion at the local hospital as to the likelihood or not of my ears coping with this - especially later in Tibet. No definitive answer, and a lack of faith on my side in the doctor's abilities: the latter wanted to do a blood test to diagnose a sore throat! But it should be ok.
Today has been a long, but excellent day. Having arrived by train at 7am, we followed the Yellow River along to a dam where we took speed boats up the river to a site of caves hosting Buddhist sculptors dating from 1600 years ago.
The sculptures range from the smallest pieces through to a vast Buddha housed in the wall of the cliff - an amazing site. The landscape was stunning as well and well worth the visit.
Equally stunning, but not necessarily in a positive way, was our driver's seeming intention to chance his arm at every hairpin bend undertaking some perilous overtaking! I've been told this is common practice in the mountains - lovely!So tomorrow, early start as we drive westwards towards this little Tibet, stopping on our way in the Hui region - Muslim minorities in China - to see several mosques. The landscape should be stunning too and I am hoping the sky will be blue (not a common occurrence in China by my experience so far). This evening it has been raining - welcome too after the furnace of yesterday!
More to follow :)
Rob
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