Thursday May 24 - Xian, China - HIGHLIGHT DAY

We were up at 6, ate breakfast in the Executive Lounge at the buffet and met our travel companions at 8 for the ride out to see the Terra Cotta Army.  Today was a much anticipated HIGHLIGHT day for this entire trip.  The trip to the Terra Cotta Soldiers Museum took 50 minutes.  Upon arrival, we had VIP treatment for this entire experience - one differentiating factor with the R Crusoe and Sons Tour.  Ling gave us a commentary on the history.  Emperor Qin was the first emperor of the Xing Dynasty from 259 - 210 BC.  He died suddenly at age 49.  He had his mausoleum built over several decades using up to 750,000 people.  They made terra cotta figures with different characteristics to guard Qin in the afterlife.  Qin searched for ways to become immortal but obviously failed.  They estimate that there are 6000-8000 terra cotta soldiers - all buried.  Almost 1,000 of them have been put back together since they were found in pieces in 1974.  They consider this site the Eight Wonder of the World and we can see why. 

Qin's successor (conqueror) had the terra cotta soldiers destroyed so all were found in broken condition - such a shame.  They have done an absolutely marvelous job of putting the soldiers back together.  Ling also showed us the 2 brass chariots pulled by 4 horses each that were discovered - all brass.  They also had all kinds of animals and weapons buried but most of the weapons were taken by the conquerors.  As VIP visitors, we had access to a special viewing platfrm right above the army.  After that, they took us to another area in the excavation area whre we were RIGHT THERE with many of the soldiers.  We took lots of pictures and the other tourists - especially the French - were quite jealous of our up close access.  Tim had to lift Sally up so her head showed at the top of one of the soldiers so I could take a picture of her and Jack together - they were cute.

This was rally special and Tim was like a child at Christmas time.  We then went to the gift shop where Tim immediately bough 3 soldiers (not sure how much bargaining he did as he just wanted them, and we know how he gets when he feels that way!).  He bought 3 soldiers - an infantryman, a general, and a kneeling archer - and a horse (with saddle).  He was ecstatic and will use these at the new condo in DE. 

We then went to the coffee ship and hada box lunch with bing TsingTao beer (bing = cold).  After lunch we loaded on the bus and headed back to the hotel.  Ling gave me a piece of paper that I could use to get a taxi to take us to the East Gate of the ancient wall surrounding the city.  While this wall is nothing like the Great Wall that we will visit in Beijing, it was GREAT!.  To make it extra special, we rented bicycles and pedaled our way around the ENTIRE wall.  Tim estimates that it was 12 miles long and it took us 1 1/2 hours of constant peddling on the bumpy stones.  This was so much fun.

After turning in the bikes we went in one of the massive structures at the east gate - most likely used by the eperior when Xian was the capital of China.  We discovered here that the wall had a moat outside too that we didn't even know was there.  So this was quite a fortress.  We returned down from the wall, I hailed a taxi and showed him the card that the hotel had given me so he would know in Chinese where we wanted to go.  Taxis (along with most other services in China) are very, very cheap.  This ride was only ~$1.50.

Tim went to the gym and I tried to get my stomach settled down.  This is the first stomace distress I've had on the entire trip and hpefully it won't be that bad.  We had cocktails in the lounge at 5:30 with the group and then left at 6:30 for dinner and a Chinese show - more about that later.  While Tim and I were biking on the wall, everyone else went on the bus to a craft and jade center - we have seen enough of that so we enjoyed the wall ride.

A little politics - China has a strnog focus on education for its people.  It had developed to a point where the Chinese are masters at copying things.   We laughed because they have "genuine fake" markets that they advertise.  On the new tonight, they reported that the government has a goal of turning China into an "innovative country" through specific strategies they are implementing withing the next 15 years.

On the environment, Xian is so dusty, smoggy, and dirty.  There are so many people in China (1.3B) and they have traditionally gotten power from coal burning plants.  They are trying to switch to nuclear and hydroelectric.  Tim says that a lot of the smoke in Xian is from the dust blowing in from the Gobe Desert - northwest of here.

There are tons of bicycles and scooters on the streets of Xian.  David explained that it looks like chaos to us, but it is very orderly to them and just the way it works in China.  People set out in front of traffice to cross the street anywhere and weave their way through traffic - no need to find a cross walk.  Also if you are making a right turn, in China you can ignore the red light always and just keep on going even though there is heavy traffic in the street you are turning on to.  They just merge.  It all works but is a bit disconcerting at time.

We loaded on a bus at 6:30 after several cocktails in the lounge and went to the Tang Dynasty Theatre.  It was a large Las Vegas style, glitsy dinner theatre.  We sat at a long table with Paul, Belinda, Jack, Sally, and David.  Paul bought a bottle of champagne for our table which was a great treat.  We had several toasts.  The dinner was several courses as usual and very good.

Chinese musicians - all women - played Chinese instruments while we ate and a woman sang a few Chinese songs.  After dinner, the one hour show was beautiful with very colorful costumes, beautiful lighting, dancing, and singing.  The highlight for many was the man who played a 3,000 year old instrument that was built to sound like a bird.  It was invented by order of the emperor.  It was a bit screechy for me!

The finale had the entire dance troope and the emperor with his wife/wives and concubines entered the theatre from the back.  It was beautiful.  It was a fun evening.

This day certainly lived up to our expectations with the Terra Cotta Warriors, the bike ride on the city wall, and the dinner show.  We went to bed exhausted ready to get rested for another exciting day in Xian, China.

Larry