XIAN

Xian: 10/8/2007-10/10/2007

Looking at the map, you can see we started our journey in Beijing, flew to Wuhan, bussed to Yichang, river cruised up the Yangtze (to Chongqing), and from there flew to Xian.

"Xian" means "west peace" (xi=west, an=peace): Two thousand years ago Xian was the political center of China, when Emperor Qin became the first emperor to rule over a unified China, joining the area east of Xian with the area west (after destroying his rivals!).

In 1974, farmers digging a well happened upon what is considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century, over 8,000 terra cotta soldiers buried in Emperor Qin’s tomb to protect him in the afterlife. This is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The soldiers are life-sized with individual features and all are in different positions. They are arranged and ready for a real-life battle according to rank and job, with infantrymen, archers, cavalrymen, charioteers, etc.

So far, about 1,000 of the soldiers have been pieced together, others are in various stages of being excavated and restored. We were overwhelmed with the size and breadth of this army and the attention to detail.

We had a fantastic dumpling lunch in Xian, every kind of dumpling imaginable, and snapped the cute ducks before they all disappeared. And the colorful mops were at the Xian City Wall.

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