Xian....& the Terracotta Warriors

After our exhausting day in Beijing, we flew the next day to Xian.  We had another "mystery Chinese lunch for the tourists"....this time at an airport restaurant...with not a western toilet in sight.  Thank goodness for the toilets on the airplanes....can't do a hole in the floor when you're in the air!

The airport is quite a way outside the city limits.  We visited the local museum, which had a good exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors and their discovery and excavation.  Next we drove to the City Wall of Xian ( a big wall but not the Great Wall, but it is the only complete city wall in China); we had reached the end of another long day and were happy to check into our hotel and eat at a restaurant there (Japanese....no mystery food....my tempura shrimp were tempura shrimp!)

                                                     Xian's City Wall & sights there

The next morning we headed out to the archaelogical site and museum of the Terracotta Warriors.  They were discovered just slightly more than 25 years ago by some peasant farmers digging a well.  More than 10,000 life-sized figures of foot soldiers, archers, horses and chariots have been discovered and many have been painstakingly reassembled. They were originally part of an emperor's tomb....he wanted to have his army with him in the afterlife.  It is called an "8th wonder of the world."  Bill and I had seen a traveling exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta a few years ago and seeing the real thing was one of the highlights of the trip for us!  You can't imagine the immensity of the museum and archaelogical site.....the enormity of the life-size army and the acres left to be excavated.  I hope the pictures begin to express some of it.

Terracotta Warrior Museum

  Resassembled army - amazingly each figure is individually created with unique characteristics.

Partially assembled warriors - like putting together a life-size jigsaw puzzle.  Not one figure was found intact.

Waiting for excavation.

                                                            

After our morning here, we went off to a restaurant famous for its dumplings - now here was Chinese food that I could recognize & enjoy (but the fillings were still a mystery - pork & shrimp? - what kind of combo is that?  And is it really pork and shrimp or what part of the pig is it?  I was hungry and put my Chinese mystery food anxiety to rest.)  The waitresses brought an amazing number of dumplings to the table....every combination of meat you can imagine.  We all stuffed ourselves.  Then onto the airport for our flight to Beijing.  Another long day...thank goodness for the bus & airplane rides that I could nap on!

Next....the Great Wall!