WALLS AND WARRIORS

Only a week was allotted in our itinerary to explore the delights of China. It was an action packed week starting with arriving in Beijing at midnight with no tour guide greet us. All our dealings with the tour company were via the internet and we hadn't printed off our itinerary, (which included the name and address of the hotel) and the only information we had was the Bales emergency number. Arriving in a country where you can't speak the language let alone read it, without a name of our hotel etc. constituted an emergency in my books! Joy our tour guide finally arrived 40 minutes later and we were swiftly dispatched to our hotel. We spent 3 days in Beijing and flew to Xi'an for three more days.

China is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and the capital is preparing itself to welcome the world. The airports, roads, public transport systems and other infrastructure are very clean efficient and modern and build to cope not only with the crowds expected for the games but an exploding and increasing wealthy population.

Tienamen Square, Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven have vast open spaces and despite the crowds of locals and Chinese tourists, never felt overwhelming which is what we had expected. The sheer scale of the squares and public buildings dwarf the throngs of tourists beetling about. China is not the grey and dower place we naively thought it would be but vibrant, dynamic and colourful.
The countdown clock to the Olympic Games in a prominent position on Tienamen Square. I wonder if there is one in London or are the British authorities just trying to ignore the fact that they will have to have everything ready for the 2012 Games in 5 short years?

Our whistle-stop tour of Beijing had us dashing through Tienamen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and a rickshaw ride through the old town of Beijing noted for its thousands of kilometres of narrow alleys and passageways. A Peking duck diner was not to be missed and David spent many hours perusing all the markets for that elusive Ming vase at a bargain basement price!





We flew to Xi'an, home to, most famously the Terracotta Warriors. Fortunately the excavations of the warriors site is undercover as It poured with rain on the day of our excursion.

We were all surprised by just how vast the site is with ongoing excavations revealing new finds everyday.

Each of the Terracotta figures are unique with different facial features and expressions. The foot soldiers, archers, cavalrymen, captains and generals are all in battle formation, though many of the figures were damaged in a peasant uprising shortly after the emperor died. The ongoing restoration work is labour intensive and time consuming, but is impressive and well worth the effort.

This brief stay in China has whetted our appetite to explore more of this country. Our tour only touched on the highlights and urban areas and we would like to return and explore the more rural parts of the country before the rapid development of changes it forever.