Monday morning in Xian
It's a beautiful Monday morning in Xian. Yesterday we travelled about 45 minutes out of town to see the 2000-year-old Terra Cotta warriors. They are quite an impressive sight: over 6,000 individual (no two alike) life-sized figures in one 'pit' alone, all standing in formation guarding the late Qin emperor in the after-life. When they were found in 1974, they were broken in many, many pieces ... and in what must have been the world's largest jigsaw puzzle, archeologists have been able to reconstruct many of them (and the reconstruction continues). We also received a fascinating history of how China got it's name, how China was unified by the first Qin emperor, and how the warriors were constructed and then later severely damaged in a farmer revolt following the death of the emperor. Very interesting!We then visited the factory where high-quality replicas of the warriors are made, and of course we had the opportunity to purchase them as well. I believe most of the group did just that!
Last night we attended a "Tang Dynasty" dinner show, featuring dancers and musicians performing acts from the Tang dynasty. The show came first, followed by a delicious dumpling dinner. They served every type of dumpling imaginable: chicken, scallops, shrimp, pineapple, walnut ... mmmmmmm!
According to our original itinerary, today we were supposed to visit Xian Jiaotong University ... Well, it's a long story, but because of language and other difficulties that visit fell through. (We're going to try it again next year!) So we're taking the morning off, and then we will visit the "Wild Goose Pagoda" and Xian History Museum this afternoon. So we should learn even more about Chinese history!
Our time in China is rapidly coming to an end. Tomorrow morning we plan to ride bicycles on top of the ancient wall surrounding the city. Then tomorrow afternoon we will fly to Beijing, where we will stay in a hotel near the airport -- our flight to Tokyo is early Wednesday morning. We will then be in Japan from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, at which point we will pack up for our return voyage across the pacific to home. That said, we will have a lot to do and see when we're in Japan -- so it's not over yet!
I will try to post another message when we get to Beijing, but if I can't, you should hear from us in Japan!
Zai jian!
posted by Dr. William Spangler @ 10:37 AM
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