Xian, China

A presentation at the Ancient City wall of Xian. 

Every Terra Cotta Warrior has a different face.  Recognize this one?

Everyone was very tired at our 6:30am wakeup call and our 8 am departure for our day in Xian. This morning I ate my fill of Dragon fruit! It was delicious! We have two nights at this hotel. Today we started our day with a visit to the Ancient City Wall. There was a show with ancient soldiers, drums and marching. It was very good. We have a new guide here called Rose. Then we stopped at one of the government mandated places; a ceramic art factory. We had lunch at a great noodle restaurant and watched them make several different kinds of noodles. Then we saw the highlight of the day, and my second favorite place in all of China besides the Great Wall; Terra Cotta Warriors Museum. The first Emperor of China thought that after this life he would be living underground, so he staffed his underground tomb with over 6,000 life-sized warriors, horses, and chariots and vast amounts of treasures for his use after death. It was just discovered in the late 70’s by a farmer who was digging a well. The tomb and all of the soldiers had been destroyed and buried thousands of years ago, but archeologists are painstakingly putting the pieces slowly back together. It will take years and years because the place is so huge! They only have about a 1/3 of the soldiers back together again. The Terra Cotta Warriors were recently named the 8th Wonder of the World! That is exciting! As with the wall, I find it difficult to put into words how over whelming seeing such an amazing site is. It’s just very moving to the very core of my soul!

Only a fraction of the 6,000 warriors have been put together again. 

Recently named as the 8th Wonder of the World!

We ate a very special local Imperial Dumpling banquet dinner and attended a traditional Tang Dynasty Singing and Dancing Show. It was another late night and we got back to our hotel at almost 10pm. We have another morning in Xian before we fly to Shanghai tomorrow at 2pm.

Our group in front of the Wild Goose Pagoda.

Before our flight to Shanghai today, April 7th, we stopped at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian. Some of the group lit incense and offered prayers at the big burning pot at the top of the stairs near the very big Golden Buddha.

We flew to Shanghai at 2:30, arriving in the evening. We have a new tour guide now, Michael. He sings us songs. He is a bit stricter on our time table, but he is very funny. We have one night at the Minya Hotel in Shanghai before leaving by bus for Suzhou in the morning.