Day 6 May 13th: Terracotta Warriors

I woke up at 5 AM pretty pleased with myself.  Art woke up at 6 AM, and I was jealous of his extra hour.

With his extra energy Art managed to do some laundry before we went for our fancy breakfast at 7:00.

By 8:30 we were in the bus heading out to see the Wild Goose Pagoda at Temple Park.  There were a lot of Xian senior citizens doing Tai chi (they call it Taiji) or Senior Disco which looked a lot like our Zumba Gold. 

We saw pretty birds in cages.  By this time we weren't very paranoid about the bird life, not much anyway.

I spotted what looked like a magpie.  There were a lot of different birds in China.

We saw an older gentleman writing calligraphy on the walkway with a water paintbrush.  We were sorry to walk over it.

Another building had folk paintings done by farmers so of course, we had to buy one.

I imagine the frame will cost more than what we paid for the painting... again.

Our Xian city tour guide, Catherine told us a lot about her wonderful city and Chinese life.

The one child policy is still pretty strictly enforced.  However if you're a farmer with a daughter, you can try again for a son. If you're a member of a minority group, you're also allowed to have another child.  Hospitals are not allowed to disclose the sex of an unborn child.

Education is compulsory for 9 years:  6 years elementary, 3 years of Junior High

Cost of High School is about $800 a year.

DINK stands for Double Income No Kids

Our next stop was a Terracotta factory store.

We bought one of those round flutes called Xun for our granddaughter, KC. It was discovered here and thought to be 6,000 years old.  I have a feeling her dad will have to help her with it.  It's rather difficult to play although the fellow playing Scarborough Fair on it made it look easy.

These snuff bottles were pretty, but gosh...

What would I do with it?

In 1974, in the village of Lintong, east of Xian some farmers were trying to dig a well to get water.  Instead what they found were shards of pottery and frightening human bones.  They thought it was bad luck.

What they'd found was one of the most important archeological finds of the century, the terracotta soldiers.

However, before we started our tour through the huge buildings, Charlie wanted us to have a hearty lunch at the Terracotta Museum restaurant.

We had stretch and shaved noodles with vegetables and fruits.

Charlie reminded us to go to the bathroom.  His code was to tell us, "Don't forget to sing a song."

It was an awesome sight.  Catherine said the first building holding the terracotta warriors was the size of four football fields.

Each terracotta warrior is fashioned after an individual warrior and are all different.

Another building held some of the warriors that were found still in tact.  The details on each warrior were impressive.

After Emperor Qin died at 50 years of age, his dynasty fell apart.  Later enemies came in and tried to destroy all of his funerary artifacts.

Emperor Qin's remains are probably still in his tomb but technology is not yet available to safely investigate and preserve them.

Our evening meal was a Hot Pot dinner.

Charlie had to first show us how to mix the dipping sauce for our hot pot ingredients.  It was amazing to see how many different things we'd be putting into our bowls.

We then went back to our tables where a hot pot of broth was waiting.  We dropped in vegetables and meat, cooked it and dipped it into the sauce to eat.

It was a different and fun experience.

By now our group had gelled into a family and we were constantly laughing together and caring for each other throughout the day and night.

There was a standing joke going with Charlie calling Guy his father, and Allwyn his grandfather. 

That's what I've loved most about tours.  You get to really know and love the people you're with.  It's also fabulous to not have to worry about anything.  Charlie was doing all the worrying without letting us know if he was.

And you know what?  I'm missing my tour family now.