Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an

We took the 21:25 train from Beijing West station. Getting into the station was completely mad. It was packed with people. We took a leaf out of the local's book and didn't bother queuing, we just pushed our way through with our luggage. After going through security (x-ray machines), we found the platform easily and within minutes we were boarding the train. We had three beds booked in a four-bed cabin. We were sharing with a very quiet young man who hardly made a sound, awake or asleep. I was amazed that we could get all our luggage (2 big rucksacks, 3 small daypacks, a food full of snacks, drinks and fruit and a kite) into the small space provided, but we did easily. It was a really comfortable night. It was only a shame that it was dark when we left the city so there wasn't much of a view through the large picture window.

The next morning, about an hour after waking to a tape of a woman giving some kind of inspirational talk and some loud instrumental music, we had arrived in Xi'an. We were getting picked up from the station by our guide, who would be taking us straight to the Terracotta Army. Again, the crowd at the station was crazy. 'Tiffany' - surely not this young Chinese woman's real name - was there to meet us and we popped into McDonalds to grab some breakfast before getting in our mini-van.

First stop was the obligatory terracotta warrior statue factory, where we saw them making the figures, which ranged from 5 inches to lifesize (only £1500 to be shipped home). We didn't buy anything here and a good job because we later realised that they were seriously overpriced and that all their stock was available all over Xi'an for a tenth of their prices.

It was then about a 40 minute drive out to the Terracotta Warrior musuem complex. We were really surprised at how it's totally geared up for tourism. I think I was expecting a couple of sheds. They've built some really striking buildings to house the warriors. For those who don't know much about this archaeological find; a farmer was digging a well in 1974 and found some pottery which he took home. It turned out that the pottery signalled the presence of some 8000 figures made of terracotta, which formed the army protecting the remains of emperor Qin Shi Huang, buried in 210BC.

We had been to see the travelling exhibition when it came to the British Museum back in 2008, so we thought we knew what to expect but seeing it in 'situ' was just incredible. I am getting goosebumps just writing this now. There are four pits excavated (three open to the public) and there is speculation that there are more, still undiscovered. The emperor's tomb itself has not been excavated but is it rumoured to contain palaces, rivers of mercury and jewel-studded ceilings.

We also saw two amazing puppets that they used in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

We bought a book in the gift shop and had it signed by a really old man purporting to be one of the farmers who first made the discovery of the pottery that led to the unearthing of the army. Who am I to doubt him?

Over expensive tea and buns in the teashop, we gave our guide a bit of counselling over a personal problem she had with a friend - Cliff as a part-trained counsellor, thought she was setting up a scam.