this first shot is of cynthia and i....she was my traveling partner for the china and tibet trip....this is the train we took to get from beijing to xian....it was a very swanky train and we brought some beer for the ride...gambey - or cheers, in chinese....i am sure my spelling is wrong....
this is cynthia and i and our wonderful guide andy....we was one smart cookie and got everyone a shot of chinese fire water...so they would fall asleep better on the train ride....this is us toasting and prepping for the overnight ahead of us....this train was so much nicer than the train i took from perm to ulan bataar....it was mind boggling....
this is the hotel we stayed at in xian...it was beautiful....and it had peacocks roaming around on the grounds...it rained a good deal of the time we were here...so their feathers were constantly wet...we didn't have the best view though as we were put into the corner room on the ground floor facing a wall.....i guess no one puts baby in a corner...but as for dani and cynthia...no one gives a damn :)
the building above is the drum tower along the city wall of xian...the city wall goes around the inner part of the city and is nine miles long....it is surrounded by a moat...and if you choose, you can walk the entire length of it....we went and visited it, but it was raining again, so we didn't walk the nine miles....
one of the places we visited was the chinese herbal market in xian....we found many interesting and strange choices for medicine there...the one above, pictured with margaret, is deer penis....it is used for arthritis ands rheumatism....i'll try it after you do :)
in this picture there are lizards, i am not sure what they cure....a huge piece of fungus...and some turtle shells....no, i have no idea if these are endangered species...i didn't ask...i didn't want to get in trouble....but i didn't buy any either :)
what you see above is human placenta....and yes, you eat it or make tea with it for what it cures...at this point i can't remember what that would be...but when they were explaining what this was i was a bit intrigued and had to take the picture.....very interesting....
this is our awesome guide andy and his parents...he actually took us all to meet them and wanted to show is his apartment....it was very nice....and they even gave us snacks...such a lovely time and it was cool to see how the chinese live....ones like andy anyway....
xian is known for hot pot cooking and one of the nights we were there we had this....this is a hot pot and you cook your own food in it....its boiling water....you throw in what you want to eat - including the amazing noodles - another thing xikan is known for...let it all cook and then pull it all out with chopsticks...create your own sauce and eat....i loved this style of eating....and there were tons of veggies...plus, i could make it as spicy as i wanted....a big plus for me :)
after dinner we took a walk around the muslim part of the city...and went to the muslim market...if you look at the sign closely, you'll see arabic above the artwork....we had some amazing walnut candy, peanut candy and i had candied carrots....yummy!!!! it was fun even if it was pouring rain that night....it was the land of food on a stick...anything you wanted, you could've gotten kebab style....it was cool....
this is the majority of our group at our hotel with a tai chi master...this man was incredible...his face radiated with peace...it was fun taking a quick class with him and then getting our picture with him....
now you have come to one of the most amazing places i have ever been in my life - the terra cotta warriors...first off, did you know they were created by the same emperor who built the great wall...he had so much labor at his fingertips, it's mind blowing....and each of these warriors that you see was modeled after a real person, and made by a true artisan....in the picture above, this is one of the archers that was found in the third pit - not the main one which you will see below....the most amazing thing in my opinion is that you can still see the color on the bottom part of his chain mail piece....they all had color!!!!!!
this is a section from the first pit that was discovered....about three years after this entire work was finished and sealed in the ground, a nation that was at war with china found it...and they broke in and smashed everything to bits....in this picture this is after the archeologists have out this warrior and the horses back together...in other words, its a HUGE jigsaw puzzle that people are literally piecing back together....incredible if you ask me.....
in this shot you can see how each is different from the others...and there are thousands of them...they were created to protect the emperor in death...even though his tomb is about a mile away and no one has been inside of it, as it has many boobie-traps set up for would be tomb raiders....you can still see the hill of the tomb....but many wonder if there are more warriors guarding him all the way to his grave...they have yet to be found if so....
here i am with the warriors...you can see many of them in the background and that raised section is where they are piecing them all together...the sheer size of this is wild and really is something you should see....the pictures just don't do it justice.....
this picture and the next i have put here so you can appreciate the size of this one pit....they have now uncovered three in total...although one is about a fourth of the size of this one...the third found pit is the SAME size as this one...and is said to hold archers and jugglers and courtisans and others....
this again is for size...and is the first pit, looking across the front row of warriors...you can see some are missing their heads, as they were not found or have not been put back together...plus all of the weapons are gone, as they were stolen by the people who destroyed what was in these pits...and much of the handles and such were made of wood, which has fallen apart over time....i loved this place and could have spent even more time here....but i am hoping that i will return someday and explore it even more.....it just is HUGE and overwhelming...go here!!!!!!!
i decided to include the "chingrish" sign from the exit portion of the terra cotta warriors, because it cracked me up....you see signs like these all over the place...and sometimes you can figure them out....and other times....who knows what they are saying....any guesses here????
the last night at the hotel in xian we had dumplings, which xian and shanghai are known for, and we had a performance that was a show that had been shown to the emperor and empress of the time...so i guess in other words we were treated like royalty.....i loved this shot for her sleeves alone...it was a fun show and the dumplings were tasty!!!!!
from xian we went outside of the town to a painting village - also known as a farming village....although these days most folks work at the computer factory located here...we did a home stay with a family....four of us...the wong's...and mrs. wong and her mother-in-law, taught us how to make noodles...it took a lot of work and its something they do on a daily basis....these noodles were my finished product....not bad for a non-chinese, italian american, if i do say so myself :)
this is our crew having dinner....the only member of the family who ate with us was mrs. wong...although in this picture you see jack - their older son - who loves american basketball....his room was filled with posters....and he is learning english in school and is a wicked good mah-jong player :) the mother-in-law and mrs. wong....we also have maxine, regina and cynthia...the women i was in the home stay with....it was a wonderful night and i am sooooooo glad i brought my mandarin dictionary...it was REALLY helpful here....althought their english on the whole was excellent :)
here i am with mrs. wong and her two sons....some of you may wonder why they have two sons, with the one child rule in china...but if you come from a farmer town or a minority group of china - meaning you are not han chinese - you are allowed to have more than one child - farmers so they can work their farms and have labor from within their families...and the minorities, so they don't disappear among the billion or so people there.....
the painiting village is so named for the painting that happens there.....it is quite amazing....and this woman is the most famous painter there....she did this painting in under five minutes...just incredible....
my last shot in this set is me with a potato like thing that we ate on the bus we took to get to the yangtze river cruise...to me they looked like evil mustaches...and therefore i just had to take a picture like this.....or something like i am saying "elementary my dear watson"....too funny, at least in my mind.....