Xian

Today, after lunch we flew to Xian, home of the Terra cotta warriors. As we landed, and found our local guide and bus we noticed how brown the city was. The air that is...... Cough, cough!! We were staying at the Shangri-La Golden Flower Hotel. I loved the name.

Emperor Qing, pronounced Ching, was the first feudal emperor of unified China, and he wanted to be buried along with his army of soldiers and their horses and carriages etc. I assume it was for safety in the afterlife. For centuries no one knew where this was until 1974.

In March of 1974 three local farmers were digging a well in the area, and came upon some broken pieces of pottery figures without knowing what they were. No one could guess at that time what an artistic treasurehouse lay beneath them. To protect this historic relic the Terra-cotta Army Museum was founded in 1979, and today it is a very huge modern museum with many buildings consisting of the Pits 1, 2, 3, and 4 still being worked upon by archeologists.

If you could look closely you could see that the warriors have different hairstyles and uniforms. This is what distinguishes their rank. Just imagine 8,000 of these figures and their horses have been found. Many in disrepair, but are slowly but surely being put back in shape very carefully by archeologists. Visitors can walk all around the outer walkway, and this is just one of the buildings.

This is a closer look at the warriors.

Here is Sue outside of just one of the three buildings making up the complex.

We had heard about this sign,"No photos or video without permission" and had been assured that even with the guards present there would be no problem taking photos. And there wasn't.

Before you enter the area where the warriors and horses are displayed they have a lovely museum where they display almost life sized replicas of the warriors and horse and carraiges. I particularly liked this one.

And here is one of the farmers who was digging the well, and discovered the pieces of terra cotta that led to the warriors. He is signing a book about the discovery. There was a large photogaph above his head showing him shaking hands with President Clinton at the museum.

And here I am happy as can be that he signed it for me. I don't think that he made anything from his discovery, or the sale of the book. Many people while left some money in his drawer that you see him leaning on.

I saw this little boy when we were leaving, and thought he was so cute. He became one of our Tootsiepop kids. Those Tootsiepops were a big hit every place we went in China.

When we returned to the hotel I decided I needed to have a shampoo and set to be presentable for tonight's festivities. We are going to the Tang Dynasty Theater for a show followed by a delicious "Dumpling Dinner".

This is the red jacket that Sue picked out at the Friendship store in Beijing when I bought the black and gold jacket.

This is one of the acts at the Tang Dynasty Theater. These beautiful dancers with the lovely costumes carried long sticks in their hands that are covered with the fabric from the extra long sleeves of their garments in order for them to be able to twirl them so gracefully.

This is the all girl orchestra that provided the music for the show. Their instruments look just like the ones the children were learning to play when we visited the Children's Palace in Shanghai.

Here are Norm, Cheng, and Joe enjoying their dumplings. There wee many different kinds of dumplings brought to our table in wicker baskets, and placed over steaming water in the brass container. It was a very good dinner.

We were surprised to find that in China most meals serve the soup toward the end of the meal. Here it was served in this beautiful brass container. We were pretty full from the dumplings so many of passed up having soup.

Watermelon, cool and delicious usually was served at the end of the meal.

This is the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian. It is a very beautiful Buddhist Shrine where I said a prayer for a very sick young friend.

The candles were about 10 yuan each, a little over $1, and were really too big for the holders. They had to be jammed into the containers.

Everywhere we went we saw this globe in all sizes. At one store we stopped at Sue thought she might like to buy this for her Dad, in a smaller size. I finally convinced her that he would not really like it in any size at all, and she decided not to buy it. Well, as we were getting on the bus to leave the store the salespeople weren't that convinced, and brought the globe she had been looking at right to the bus door, and tried to sell it to her there. She still resisted I am happy to report. George would have killed me if I had let her buy it. Whew!! That was close!

Sue had brought her laptop with her to keep us with business E Mail, and stay in touch with George at home. Most of the time we ended up using the Business Center since they had very fast connections, but she did use her own computer from the room a number of times.

This photo was taken as we left the Tang Dynasty Theater. I assume he is one of the heirs... to the theater, not the Tang Dynasty,