Today was a day free of the Olympics, although we did miss the excitement from the night before it was good to get a break for a day trip. We traveled to the city of Xian, which is pronounced "see on". This city is located in main land China and was completely different from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is very commercial and all of the people speak English. Our guide who spoke English very well told us about the different Chinese dialects and how the written language had been simplified and unified. Then we arrived at the museum. We were not allowed to drive as close as usual because of the Olympics, but we were able to take a golf cart type transport up to the main entrance. We finally got into the first pit as they called it. At first it was hard to believe all of it. Every statue was life size and everyone unique. No two had the same face. There were also horses and places where wooden chariots would have been. In the first pit alone there are believed to be 6,000 warriors buried although they have not all been excavated. We learned that people of more ancient times believed that when they died their soul went to another world and so if they bury items such as money jewels or warriors it will go with them to the next world. We also learned that much of the land has not been excavated but much of it is believed to hold treasures of similar kinds. We were then able to go to a place where replicas of the warriors and horses were made. We got to make our own but we were not able to fire them since time did not permit. The warriors were an amazing piece of historical and spiritual history.