Thursday, February 23, 2006
The Terracotta Warriors
Walking into Pit 1 to be faced by hundreds of unique soldiers and horses in battle formation was one of the most incredible things the lads had ever seen.
The Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin (221-209 BC)
To the east of here are the Terracotta Warriors.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Big Goose Pagoda, Xi'an
The journey from Tai'an to Xi'an in Shaanxi Province was a long and uncomfortable one. Even though the pair had managed to get a train ticket with their dodgey Manadarin it was for cattle class and boy did the 16 hours go slowly.
Tai Shan
There were 6660 steps up to the top of the sacred Tai Shan mountain - it was like something out of Lord of the Rings.
Tai Shan, Shandong Province, at about 1500 metres
It was getting quite chilly at this height. There were also a few more poeple around in contrast to the near deserted ascent.
Chinese students wanting a couple of English to experiment on
The boys had a good chat with these friendly students wanting to practise their English on the train. Fowler perfected the Mandarin for 'toilet'.
Franks Cricket, on the train to Tai Shan
Fowler got chatting to a Canadian bloke who'd been living in China on and off for 15 years. Every now and then a strange whistling sound would start up but Fowler thought nothing of it. Frank eventually let on that he had a pet Cricket in his coat. Apprently its common for Beijing folk to carry round a cricket in a small jar during winter to keep them company if they are on their own. When the cricket gets warmed up it'll start singing, they cost about 3 quid each and live for 90 days if you feed and look after them well. As you can see from the rather blurred photo this was no ordinary Cricket - it was a monster.
Chinese Acrobatics in Beijing
Dee, Ollie and Des witnessed some unbelievable performances at the acrobatics. One act wasn't quite as impressive, a man changing his face mask every few seconds and looking very pleased with himself. In comparison to the jaw dropping feats previously this made the trio fall about laughing.
Ollie is 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Dee and Ollie celebrate in style at Vicks in Beijing)
Ollies 30th birthday was an evening of 2 halves. At about 5pm Burdett announced he had flu and wasn't coming out. By 7pm Butters and Fowler had managed to get him to have some diner and a quick drink in the hotel - just on the off chance he might perk up a little. The rest is history.