Xian

Another amazing day. Sha and I went to the National Time Service Centre in the morning. We were not allowed to see the clocks as they are apparently secret and have something to do with the Chinese GPS and their lunar landing mission.

I gave my talk on pulsar timing and using pulsars to create a time standard. As far as I know, Sha didn't fall asleep during the talk. We then all went out to have a traditional Xi'An lunch. It was great. We had to break some bread into a big bowl and then they filled it up with lamb soup. There were heaps of other side dishes. We also had to keep toasting each other and drinking down lots of extremely good, but very strong alcohol.

After staggering out of the restaurant we had a personalised tour of the Xi'An terracotta warriors. Wow. Seeing hundreds and hundreds of these life-size warriors standing ready to fight is a phenomenal experience. Each person has a different face and the details are incredible. Even the soles of the shoes are carefully reproduced. They must have represented real people of the qin dynasty. Apparently the emperor started the work when he was 13 and it finished when he died 40 or so years later. The museum was wonderful. Particularly as it was so clear that most of the warriors have not been unearthed. They haven't even considered opening the actual tomb of the emperor because they expect rivers of mercury and cross-bows ready to fire at anyone coming close!!

Xi'An is also beautiful. It is surrounded by some wonderful high mountains with spectacular temples on the top.

We then went back to work before having a few games of ping-pong and then going back to the hot-springs! Sha preferred the pool with small fish to the one with large fish :)

We're off to Beijing tomorrow, but I really hope to come back to Xi'An again sometime soon.