Trip to Xi'an Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008

After two days of orientation, my apartment buddies and I took a 1.5 hour plane ride to the city of Xi'an. The city is southwest of Beijing. As soon as we landed, but secured a van and driver for the day. Our driver, Jack, drove us to see the warriors and the city wall. Afterwards we ate at a legendary dumpling restaurant that some of our fellow volunteers had recommended.

Emperor Qin Shhuang's Mausoleum is located in Lintong County, 35km east of the city of Xi'an. It took about an hour to get there. The roads were fantastic. They are two lanes in each direction and remind me of an expressway. They were smooth and with very little traffic. We passed through the countryside where we saw orchards. It's really green. The air quality was very poor in the morning and cleared up by the afternoon.

It is estimated that 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses will be unearthed for the three large burial pits located east of the mausoleum. The museum was built to protect these treasures. Our guide, Anne, told us that many of the warriors are still under a layer of terracotta because they have not figured out a way to preserve the color. They were originally painted red and blue, but once exposed to the air the color disappeared.

Each warrior is said to represent a different warrior in the emperor's army. They are all unique. It took 38 years to complete the army. The ones that appear to be in one piece, were actually found in pieces because the roof which was protecting them caught on fire or was set on fire (I can't remember which) and then collasped on the terracotta warriors. I have other pictures that show the repair station. There were only a handful of warriors unearthened in one piece.

The pits were several football fields in size. The museum building is beautiful.

One of the pictures I posted was of the Jaida Mountains. Inside the mountains a large quantity of Jade can be found. I purchased a circular jade pendent with the Chinese characters for good luck and good health written in gold in the center. I love it!

Afterwards our driver took us to the city wall which was built over 600 years ago. It's quite impressive. I can only imagine how enormous The Great Wall is. Here we learned more about Feng Shui. The sun was really intense. It's been hot and humid. Because of the heat, we really didn't walk too much of the wall. There were places for people to rent bikes. Thank goodness for air conditioning in my workplace and apartment.

At the end of the day, we were taken to the big city market place where I bargained for a thimble and Christmas ornament. We also strolled down a street teeming with food vendors and people. I saw crickets in cages just like the kind in the movie Mulan. They were very noisy, but I guess if I was stuck in such a confined space I'd complain too.

Finally we ended up at an amazing dumpling restaurant who's name escapes me, but I have in my pictures. For $20 USD we had 18 different dishes. We were stuffed and the driver took home 3 to go boxes for his family. The dumplings were delicious. Some of the ingredients were: shrimp, pork, lamb, chicken, fish, and mushroms. We also had beef soup as well as a chicken and dumpling soup at the end. I'd recommend it to anyone.

We arrived back in Beijing at midnight.