Oct. 12th - Seeing more of Xian and the terra cotta soldiers

This was the nicest hotel room of the 4, even though they were all very nice.  And more expensive than where we will stay when we travel on our own!

Marble-tiled bathroom, marble tub and shower with glass doors.        

All the hotels provided robes and slippers.  We never used them.  No time to lounge around at night or in the mornings!  This morning our wakeup call was at 6:30 so we would have time for the "slow" service in the restaurant - actually it was pretty good.  On the bus at 8:00.

Hotel's breakfast buffet area.  All 4 had nice dining rooms like this.

    Each city we visited has these old neighborhoods with tiny stores.  Some were smaller than a small American bedroom. 

There were countless car repair shops in little buildings like this in the cities.   About the size of a single car garage.

       We see more KFCs and Annie tells us the Chinese call it "Big chicken".  More McDonalds and then we pass the American Embassy.

     Annie tells us this was the original capital of China (for 1100 years) and was nicknamed "peach of the west".  It was one of the wealthiest cities in the world when China dominated the silk trade.  It was the first Chinese city with a population of one million.  Now it is the political and economic center of northwestern China and has 50 colleges.  71 Emperor's mausoleums are located there.  The area is too dry to grow rice.  Crops include cotton, corn, apples, pomegranites, and persimmons.  She tells us to drink more water, eat more watermelon and use moisturizer.

     She tells us that the people here are very slow and that we may find the service in restaurants terrible, even at the hotel, so we need to allow extra time.  Tourism is relatively new to this area.  She said traffic is wild here compared to Beijing.  We think oh, my gosh.  Next thing we know we are on a two-lane street and 2 big trucks pass the cars ahead of us, even though there are cars are coming at them!

     There are countless new skyscrapers and tall condo complexes.  She points out the old city wall which was built in the 14th century.  There was a moat outside it.  Next we see bell and drum towers.  Before clocks were everywhere, the bells were rung in the morning and drums beat at night, telling the time.

     As we sit in traffic Annie tells us China means middle kingdom and America means beautiful country.  In ancient times the Chinese thought they lived in the middle of the world.  I saw a sign for a "child welfare lottery" and asked her what that was.  Funds are used for children's education, etc.  There are no casinos.  Mahjong is gambling, but it is the only kind allowed, every other kind is illegal.  We drove through a computer area, she called it.  Saw offices for Microsoft and other companies.

    She tells us that 30 years ago only the government had cars.  It was during Mao's reign and most people were poor.  Now the gap between the rich and poor is great.

    We are headed for the large Dayan (Wild Goose) Pagoda which was built in 652 A.D.and is still used as a temple.  It is 7 stories high and no tall buildings are allowed near it. The monks are not allowed to have sex, use alcohol or eat meat.  (Japanese monks have those privileges, she thinks.)  Many monks' ashes are buried here.  This pagoda houses Buddhist scriptures that were translated by a monk.  Buddhism came to China from India. 

    This morning we toured a lacquer furniture store.  There were beautiful pieces inlaid with shells and painted many coats. 

The adjacent store sold calligraphy paintings and had a brief explanation for us on that procedure.  We bought two prints.

      More time on the bus.  Traffic is terrible.  We were on streets like this is all four cities. We watched street cleaners working.  They carry a moplike thing that they use to swirl in the dirt around trees.  It picks up paper etc.  Then they move to the street, sweeping all along the curbs.  Xian, too, is very clean.  We counted 17 cranes on the skyline from one spot.  Later we saw 8 near the Buddha.

     Annie tells us that 1500 pandas live on a mountain near the site of the soldiers.  She says "they actually don't like each other, so if they won't mate, they are shown dirty panda movies.  If that doesn't work, she says, they are given little blue pills.  You know what those are, right?  Viagra."  She smiles her cute smile and says "I'm telling you the truth."
     The terra cotta soldiers.  In 1974 the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, was accidentally discovered by local farmers.  "Warriors" have been guarding the burial site for 2000 years.  One farmer is really credited with the discovery.  In the visitor's center a man sits, autographing the book about the soldiers.  It is published in many languages for the tourists.  We decided he was probably "the farmer of the day", though today it was quite an elderly man.  We were really looking forward to this part of the trip and weren't disappointed.  We spent about 1-1/2 hours at the site, having plenty of time to walk around the huge areas and to take pictures of the life-size soldiers.  Nearly 8000 warriors are housed in 3 pits and it is believed that each facial expression is different.  They don't know if there are more pits still covered up.  There are also life-sized horses and wagons.  It has been painstaking work to repair them.  The area is covered by covers like a playing field in America might have.  The statues were painted, but exposure to air and light has made it almost disappear on the figures.
     This Emperor was very cruel.  He required many peasants' families to share on butcher knife, feeling that would eliminate their ability to revolt.  It is a Chinese joke that he contributed greatly to Chinese tourism since he is the one who ordered the Wall to be built and the soldiers that would flank his tomb at his death.  He was Emperor from age 13 until his death at 50.  The next year peasants staged a rebellion, pillaging the tombs, knocking over and breaking the statues.  We saw a movie depicting all of this.  It has been painstaking work to restore the ones that are completed.

Pieces of statues that have not been repaired

Note the life size horses behind the front soldiers

This picture shows what the faces looked like before air and light hit them

     We were going to an optional variety show - acrobatics, juggling etc.  Many things are included in the tour and then you can do extra things in your spare time.  I was standing with some of our guys who were waiting for the bus, too, and Tom wanted to run an extra lens back to the room.  On his way to the hotel door, a woman came up behind him and said "Sex?"   After the show those guys walked around outside and were solicited.

    We got such a kick out of the littlest acrobat - a boy about 9.  Once he was climbing on top of several guys and he slipped off.  But they had guys standing on 2 sides so one caught him.  Then he did a solo act, with him being attached to the ceiling with a wire on his back.  They set a table up, then piled 8 chairs on top and then a small table over the top one's legs.  He did hand stands on that top table - jumping back and forth from one hand to the other.

    For the last act had a huge ball was placed on the stage and 3 motorcycles drove out and entered the ball, driving around inside it.  One by one more drove out until there were 8 driving inside the ball!  I told Tom they probably practice driving on the streets of Shanghai!

    Another late night and the bed was very welcome by the time we got back to the hotel!