I really am hopeless at this thing that is called ‘travel writing’. The ratio of writing to travel has thus far been decidedly low.

We left the urban jungle of Shanghai for the reddish wastes of Xunhua province, with a day-long stopover in Xi’an, a city of several million people which was at various times the capital of 13 dynasties, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang (not that I know much about any of them besides the Qin). Was very dusty and reminded me inexplicably of Blenheim, if Blenheim was very much bigger and coated in Mongolian dust. We spent a few hours out at the site where Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta army was rediscovered.

Very interesting etc. etc.

They’ve built a massive complex out there. Seriously, you have to walk for ten minutes to get from the carpark to the statue pits. That whole distance is lined with shops, most of which were empty when we were there, but will no doubt be in business soon with the Beijing Olympics not far off. The layout put me in mind of a supermarket, where you have to walk through the produce -or souvenir - section in order to get to the ancient burial monuments, or biscuits, if you will - with Tibetans following you the whole way and trying to sell you tiny brass replicas of biscuits in various authentic poses.

Later that night we walked around the Muslim market not far from the city centre. It was quite interesting, though not the sort of market to walk around in if you have serious objections to seeing dismembered sheep at every turn. I bought a hat. I didn’t take any pictures of the hat, but can model it on request. It is not very exciting.