It was unbelievably hot and my travelling companion turned amateur electrician decided he'd fix the fan. First he got it going by sparking the live wires sticking out the back and when that didn't succeed, whipped out his lighter and melted them together - all about 30 cm from my head. It did get the fan working but some things are best left to the professionals.
My first day in Xi'an it was pouring with rain so I took myself off the the museum. It was an incredible collection of artifacts dating back to more than 1000 BC - many more recent ones were brought back along the Silk Road by Chinese envoys. This gold statue dates back to 475 BC which I find very impressive considering the workmanship.
While China has great respect for its antiquities, there's also the need to make a buck. I stumbled upon a museum of stone tablets - one about 40 metres long and four metres high was an ancient dictionary of every known Chinese word at the time, others were collections of Confucian sayings. The tablet in this picture dated back to the 19th century, virtually space age compared to the rest of China's history but old nonetheless and the workmen is making a rubbing of the carving to sell to tourists. It completely destroys the stone but the people in the gift shop didn't seem to mind!
And then the reason I'd come to Xi'an... the Terracotta Warriors. It's unbelievable to think that one Emperor could commission such a project purely so his reign could continue in the afterlife. Each of the 7000 statues has a different facial expression and originally they were all in colour - the paint wore off 40 minutes after the pits were opened and the warriors were exposed to air. It's extremely commercial but still fascinating. The peasant who discovered the pits in 1974 is still signing books at the end of the tour!
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