Terracotta Warriors and Xi'an

We are staying in a hostel right downtown that is clean and convenient although the bed does not have an ounce of move in it. I could have slept on the floor and it may have been softer than the mattress. There are 2 wee cats here, probably just a month old who were squalling away and making a terrible uproar. I asked the folks what they were feeding them and they said bread and water so...being me, I bought them some milk and kitten food and now it appears I may have 2 small additions in my pack. We have nick-named them pee-wee and pissy-pants as one is grossly undergrown and the other squatted on the couch last night and without a shred of self consciousness, vacated a good portion of the couch.

A good part of travelling here is trying to decided where to go, how to get there economically and then to try to get it done. We spent the morning deciding to go to Chengdu next and will fly there as the train here nearly killed us with smoke. We were in a hard sleeper - read patty stacker - 3 bunks on each side reaching to the ceiling. Between the cigarette smoke and stereophonic snoring - soundsurround - it was not fun getting off in the morning. The plane fare is not too much and will save us 24 hours on the train.

Today we saw the 8th man made wonder of the world - The famed Terracotta Warriors and they were, and are, everything they are cracked up to be. It is an astonishing sight and the Chinese have really outdone themselves on building beautiful facilities around them. There are so far 2000 of them reconstructed with another 4000 set to be excavated and reassembled. We took the local bus (well, we got on the wrong one first) to the train station and then caught another one to about an hour from here to where they are housed. Funny, when we were getting on our bus, they were filming with a big camera and asked us to get off the bus again so they could film us getting back on. Inevitably we will end up on some cheesy tv commercial or promo or such. The bus ride was comfortable and we got to experience the culture a little more than had we booked a tour.

Chengdu tomorrow where we will go to visit the panda preserve and who knows from there.