Silver Birds Travel: Xian

Xian is the home of the famous Terracotta Warriors and we travelled there from Beijing by high speed train, the journey taking a little over 4 hours. The train travels at 310kph and we were seated in pre-booked seats in second class which although utilitarian was nonetheless comfortable enough with a seating configuration of two seats per side. There is a refreshment service on board but the offerings are very basic so taking your own refreshments is recommended. The train leaves exactly on time and only makes one stop on the 1,000+ km journey. The journey passes through both rural and urban areas and we saw many mega developments comprising massive blocks of apartments blocks, factories and road systems but with no people, some of these are known as 'Ghost cities' by the locals and clearly demonstrate the massive development that has taken place in China and in turn contributed toward driving the economy as fast as it has. The lack of activity around these developments is some cause for concern about the sustainability of the Chinese economy into the future and the effect this will have on the Western nations particularly those reliant on China for their resources exports.
The Terracotta Warriors are housed in a large complex and the presentation is fabulous with plenty of opportunity to view this iconic phenomenon. The complex was crowded with tourists but the Chinese authorities have more than catered for this and with patience we managed to get good viewing positions. As part of the tour we were taken to a pottery factory where replicas of the famous figures are modelled using the same clay that was used centuries ago to model the original items. This factory is a bit of a tourist trap with shop assistants buzzing around to get you to make a purchase of a figurine or copy of an artifact, but as we learnt this is an integral part of a tour of China.