Xi’an is the home of the Terra-Cotta Warriors. This is one of the two or three biggest reasons that people visit China. The most amazing thing about the warriors is that they were discovered as recently as 1974 by a couple of farmers who were digging a well.
I have had a lot of trouble pronouncing Chinese names. “Xi” is pronounced “she”, so the Chinese president Xi is referred to as “Mr. she” and Xi’an is pronounced “she aahn”.
Grand Circle Cruises always arranges school visits and encourages travelers to contribute financial support to these schools. The school that we visited is in a rural area that is losing population because of China’s goal of urbanization. The parents worry that if the population becomes too small, the government may close the school and force students to travel to other schools farther from home. Notice the number of two-fingered peace symbols. They are not trying to photo bomb.
We also did a home visit in the neighborhood, this time with lunch prepared by the hostess. Here is the front of the rather large house. The red banners display new year’s greetings.
While still in Beijing, we had attended a Chinese opera and we were in no mood for more of the same. Our tour director insisted that the Tang Dynasty Dinner Show was a show not to miss. In contrast to what had sounded painful and horribly out of tune, this time the music was wonderful and the dancing spectacular. There was one reed instrument called a sheng that pretty much just blew me away.
Xi’an is one of the few cities in the world that still boasts of an intact city wall. The wall forms a rectangle of perimeter 8.5 miles, stands 40 feet tall, and 50 feet thick at the base. Joggers can run the entire length of the wall.
You may have noticed the coils of wire in the upper right corner of the picture of the wall. In spite of their super highways, bullet trains, and sky scrapers, just below the surface linger reminders of their third world heritage. Here is another view of some of the electrical infrastructure in China.
I was surprised by the relatively large number of American cars in China. It turns out that Chinese cars just cannot compete in quality with American, Japanese, or German cars. Costs associated with owning a car, particularly parking fees, make owning a car very expensive. Large cities such as Beijing also have license plate restrictions that reduce the number of days that a car can be driven.
Next stop: Guilin and the Li River.