Xian and The TerraCotta Soldiers

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The TerraCotta Army (12th Sept)

221BC. Emperor Qin conquered 6 other kingdoms and became the first to unified the then China. He used 37 years and 100,000+ men to create an army so he could continue his conquer in the underworld. He ended up leaving the world one of the biggest treasure of archeology.

The burial site is about 40 miles from Xi'an. A half day trip is good enough for discovering a big piece of history.	Hi ho, hi ho .. ..	2 most recently excavated soldiers on display. The big bulb of flash in the middle demonstrates Kam's poor photographic technique.	Don't forget these bronze chariots. They are also part of Qin's treasure.
			All soldiers are in battle formation. Qin was DEAD serious.
Only a small portion of the tomb is unearthed. It happened that some soldiers with vivid coloration were unearthed but then a week later, all the color faded. Still waiting for the technology to preserve the soldiers.			Part of the burial is believed to be burned by later emperors. That's part of history too.

While at the burial site, the tour guide tells me "the US had an accident". "How could 'the US' has an accident?" And then he tells me the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. My gosh, that's crazy. It disturbs me a lot in the coming few days as I don't like the idea that bad guys can win. There should be a Bruce Willis on the scene to stop these terrorists. I know, reality is reality. Let's hope that such inhumanity won't ever happen again.

In the past couple of years, as part of the big economical plan to stimulate internal spending, the Chinese government is putting a lot of effort into encouraging the development of tourism. During long holidays, like this coming national day on 1st of Oct. (3 day holiday from 1st-3rd, Mon-Wed, Oct), the government officially make the Saturday and Sunday before workdays and then everyone has the 2 days back on the 4th and the 5th. Connecting with Sat. and Sun. on the 6th and 7th, it's a 7 day holiday!

What would you do if you get 7 days off? Travel.

However, as a result of the surge in travelling demand, bad things happen. Besides the main tourist attractions, local tour usually offer other sites packaged a one day trip. Sad to say, some of these other sites are just sites that are put together recently for the sake of charging entrance fees.

I am tricked into a "museum" next to the TerraCotta burial where I find the wall painting (probably 1 year old) on the right. Nice, but when I only got a day to spend, I very much would like to skip this one. So when you travel in mainland China, try to be a smart tourist.

Lunch at a nearby restaurant. Lots of fun.
ShaoZi Noodle - Noodle ok and the meat sauce is heavenly. 3 yummies.	Lu Shan GeGe Noodle - Looks plain but the noodle has a raw natural taste. Very different from spaghetti's refined taste. 4 yummies.	Local people have big appetite. This big bowl of fish is just one of their 4 dishes. Give Kam a bowl like that and a refrigerator, he can stay alive in a desert for a month.	No look water pouring - this fella is adding water to a tea cup with this super long spout kettle. This kind of water pouring is used with BaBao [Eight_Treasure ] Tea originated from the SiChuan province. The tea is sweet and the serving is cool.

During day 2 in Xi'an, I keep speaking Mandarin to Carla, English to Man and Wu, and Cantonese to the front desk lady (about dialects

). My language switching fuse is totally burned.

	A few more shots of Xi'an before I leave for Mountain Hua.
		Mahjongg on the street. Unbelievable. In GuangZhou, you can get arrested for gambling if you play mahjongg on the street!	Knit and chat the night away.