Xian

                                                        A very serious warrior!


After the colorful music production that I wrote about in my last blog, I realized that this post will be all one color. But it is still one of the most impressive sites in all of China - the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. The construction of this army was begun when Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of China at age 13, and the construction continued until his death at age 34, around 210 b.c. An army of 700,00 workers are estimated to have been needed for this work. Qin wanted these warriors to accompany him into the afterlife to protect him. Many of his concubines were buried alive with him in his mausoleum.
The statues are life-sized and each one is unique. They estimate that there are ~8,000 statues, but many are still buried under mounds of dirt. Once unearthed, the air caused the paint to fade and peel within 4 minutes. They are experimenting with ways to protect more recent excavations. So here they are:

I bought a book about the warriors, and actually had it signed by the man who discovered the site on his farm in 1974, while digging a well. He is quite old now. It was all so fascinating! So amazing to actually be there and see it!

Xi'an - Our last city on the tour. Sometimes we see a sign that is too good to pass up.

                                                            Some fun street musicians!

That night we we enjoyed a multi-flavored dumpling dinner and a music extravaganza in a very ornate old theater. The costuming and dancing were wonderful!

 

I saw this dance on YouTube and wished I would have a chance to see it in China. It's spectacular!  I think it's called The Thousand Dancing Hands, if you want to look it up and watch.

Village Tour

Selling raisins and nuts

Colorful bedrooms

 We took a bus ride out to a little village by Tarpan. Can't even remember it's name, but I loved it. Parts of it looked like the ancient city ruins that we'd explored, but people still lived here. We were allowed to walk the dusty roads, poke our heads into their homes, and wonder at the simplicity of their lives. These families grow grapes and dry most of them into raisins. It is extremely hot in the summer, so often their beds are on the roof to take advantage of any passing breeze. Hey, we did that too, but on our deck!

Grandma watching the kids while the parents are working.

Learning to drive.

Hey! Somebody is home!

Some beautiful doors

These buildings were for drying grapes and were all over the hills.

A peek into a couple more doorways.

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Two car garage

 On the way to the ancient ruins of Gaochang. This picture's for my girls!
This is our donkey ride out to the ruins.

There was no tour guide, so I can't tell you much of the history of this place. It was fascinating to see and try to imagine the lives of the people who carved a living out of the desert.

Lots of yummy Chinese food on this trip. Here's a couple of the more interesting ones:
This one was cooked with very hot rocks tossed into the food. Sizzlingly delicious!

 See that stack of wooden dishes? Each table gets a stack.  They're filled with different stuffing and molded into the shape of the filling type - duck, or walnut, or frog, etc! Yummy, and quite a talent to make!

We traveled by bus to Turpan where we met a man who was the mayor of the town and the main Communist leader there. He invited our group to his house for some refreshments. He's the man on the right. We sat out on a patio with grape vines over and around us.

While we were eating he invited his daughters to dance for us. And then they invited us to join them - which many of us did. It was great fun!

 

In the front of his house.