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From the Itinerary: This morning you’ll experience a total eclipse of epochs with a visit to Xian’s storied terra-cotta warriors – among the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century and a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. Some 7,000 life-sized terra-cotta figures of soldiers, horses and chariots marshaled in battle formations guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. This afternoon you’ll fly back to Shanghai.
LE ROYAL MERIDIEN HOTEL (B,L)


Day 12 - August 5th - Xian to Shanghai

From the Itinerary: This morning you’ll experience a total eclipse of epochs with a visit to Xian’s storied terra-cotta warriors – among the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century and a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. Some 7,000 life-sized terra-cotta figures of soldiers, horses and chariots marshaled in battle formations guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. This afternoon you’ll fly back to Shanghai. LE ROYAL MERIDIEN HOTEL (B,L)

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Day 12 - Xi'an and the Terra-cotta Warriors then to Shanghai In the Sofitel five star hotel the power went out while Cyd was in the shower. We had a buffet breakfast. We boarded the bus for the drive to the Terra-cotta excavation. Xi'an is somewhat polluted. We entered the site and were sequestered into a modern room that had a large and comfortable chair for each of us. Shortly the curator of the archeological excavation site entered to our applause. He seated himself and with the help of our guide, Robin, acting as his interpreter he gave us a quick overview of the site and the work that is going on. We were served tea as he spoke. It was quite an honor to meet him. At his exit I was able to thank him and shake his hand. We were lead over to and entered Pit #1. This pit is enclosed and is large enough to park two 747's. We were lead to an overlook that was only 15 feet from the front warriors. The other tourists were back about 50 feet from them. The photos from this area speak for them selves it was an utterly fantastic sight. The best was yet to come. Our guide led us to the far end of the pit where about 100 statues are being repaired. He walked us up onto the surface those figures were standing on and we were allowed to walk among them. We could have touched them if they would have let us. It was a treat beyond words. Our guide, Leon, has been to the site over 100 times and this was only the second time he has seen this done. Our tour company pulled some strings somehow. Here we were only 16 of the thousands of people there and we were standing with the statues. After touring the two other pits and the gift shop we had a wonderful lunch there on the site. We bought a one foot terra-cotta replica for 500 yuan and bought a book that was signed in our presents by the farmer that was digging the original well back in 1974 that first discovered the warriors. We boarded our bus for the trip to the airport where we flew back to Shanghai for our last night in China. We walked down to the Bund with Bill, Dave, Anne and Jim. We took the tram ride under the river to the new business development area and dinned on the river. Jim left his GPS unit at the restaurant and returned for it making us almost late for the last tram ride back at 10:30. They were not happy with us.