Xi'an

This place is better than I expected. The vibrant Muslim quarter is just behind our hotel; it's a great place for a stroll (if you can avoid being run over by a tuk tuk) and offers varied foods, including what looked like a set of lungs.
The city is enclosed by massive city walls, which have been reconstructed/modified to allow large roads through each of the four gates. We walked down to the south gate and hired a tandem, completing one circuit of the walls in 80 minutes.

Of course the main reason to visit Xi'an is for the Terracotta Warriors. We booked a trip that included Banpo village, the Qin tomb, the Terracotta Warriors and Huaqing Pool.
Banpo village is an archaeological site dating from 4500BC. I like a bit of history as much as the next man, but I can't get all Tony Robinson over some ancient post holes and broken pottery.

The tomb of Qin Shi Huang has never been excavated; officially for technical reasons, but perhaps because they sent in probes and found nothing. This important fact has not prevented the construction of one of the world's worst tourist attractions, in the form of a "reconstruction" of the Qin tomb - brought to you by the Blue Peter team. It really is jaw-droppingly bad.

Next we were to see how the terracotta warriors were made. This is of course a thinly veiled disguise for a visit to a warehouse selling tourist tack. Next was lunch, which would have been over quickly, if two members of the group had not wandered into the silk factory.

So five hours into the tour we finally arrived at our primary destination. However the tack is far from over. First there is the Qin Dynasty International Plaza, with architecture from the good people who brought you Milton Keynes. I don't want to down play the actual terracotta army, but what you get is exactly what you'd expected - nothing more and nothing less. There are three hangers sheltering the pits in which the re-assembled soldiers stand in battle formation - pit 1 is the largest and best known.

Our final stop was the Huaqing pool - a hot spring complex that supposedly dates back to the 11th century BC, but now looks like the pool complex of a 3-star hotel. The tour of this site was truly soporific.

My advice would be to do a surgical strike on the army (so to speak); in and out in half a day, and stay well clear of the rest of the out of town tack.

We now have a 15 hour train to Chongqing, arriving at 6am.