Evidence for grandiosity gene 'compelling', claim researchers

A soft sleeper train refers not to the mattresses, but to the fact that there are only four bunks in the coupe, and a door to close ... rather than the six bunk open coupes of the 'hard sleeper' carriages.

Our new tour group leader, it turns out, has a couple of games to bring a new group together on a slightly cramped train ride, notably squeezing as many as possible into one compartment and playing 'Mafia'. Jokes about the judge being corrupt slide past while police and innocent bystanders suffer shocking deaths and complicated pleas of innocence go unheeded ...

Morning brings Xi'An, a modest city (ie 3 million people ) with a long heritage and some interesting old buildings, but which only took off tourist-wise after the discovery in the 1950s of the 'terra-cotta warriors', dating from the first emperor of China in the 3rd century BC.







This emperor Qin was also responsible for the initial creation of a Great Wall, unifying smaller sections into a continuous whole, and other major military works. He also standardised weights, measures and political thought, meaning book burning on a massive scale.

However he also reputedly spent a long time planning and building his tomb (a largish hill), where he would be buried together with the empress, concubines, servants etc.

Choose your own reason why.

The story goes that he also planned that a mass of soldiery would be buried with him around the mausoleum, but some forward thinking official persuaded him to have terra cotta replicas built instead, including of chariots and horses, archers and spearmen.




A sort of underground fort was built, with the officers gathered together in one room, while there were large areas roofed over for the mass of soldiery. Then everything was covered over and lost to memory, apart from wanton destruction in the revolt of the peasant army against emperor's successor.




One large chamber was discovered in the 1950s by farmers digging a well, giving said farmer a lifetime occupation signing his book at the souvenir shop. No photo: you have to pay...

Although some soldiers were still standing on guard when uncovered, many have broken, and restoration is a major task.




The skills of the artisans who produced individual portraits of so many soldiers remains obvious after 2200 years, even though the brilliance of the colored paints disappears as they are unearthed -- so for the moment many still remain below ground.











- Posted from our sickbed as we await recovery from gastro