Sunday/Monday, October 25, 26

On Sunday morning, we had a good breakfast and headed to the airport for an early afternoon flight to Xian, home of the terra cotta soldiers. We arrived in Xian late in the afternoon and, after such a hectic schedule in Beijing, we decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing by the hotel pool. Kendall and Veronica went swimming and the adults enjoyed a few cocktails. We played cards and some ping pong and had a light dinner.

The next morning after a complimentary breakfast that was beyond our expectations (Veronica even got her bacon!), we met our driver and tour guide and set off for siteseeing. The tour guide, Helen (not her Chinese name), proved to be an excellent choice. Of course, credit goes to Holli, who insisted that we get a really good one. We stopped first for a tour of Xian's city wall which was constructed in 1420 and also saw the feng shui museum. We received a brief lesson on feng shui from one of the museum tour guides. We learned that Eileen's house is in perfect harmony with the feng shui principles, water in front and mountain behind it.

The next part of our journey took us to the workshops where the local people make the replicas of the terra cotta soldiers using the same methods employed by the artisans of Emperor Qin's reign. In a separate part of the workshop, we observed the handcrafting of the Chinese lacquer furniture. We watched the artisans as they applied the lacquer, created the designs, cut the jade and mother of pearl inlays and applied the final steps to finish the product. Thirty coats of lacquer are applied and polished after each coat dries. The final pieces were beautiful. We all walked away with a tremendous appreciation of the work and artistry involved in this process.

Next stop, the Museum of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses with our very knowledgeable guide. We start our visit by meeting one of the three farmers, Mr. Yang, who discovered the clay warriors while digging for a well. We get an autographed book about the site and have our pictures taken with him. We took a shuttle to the museum which consists of four buildings, Pit No. 1, 2 and 3 and the separate museum that holds the small bronze chariots and horses found near the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin. While we had all seen pictures of the terra-cotta warriors, they cannot compare with seeing them in full battle formation. It is truly one of the great wonders of the world. Our tour guide provides us with a running history of the site as well as an explanation of the purpose each figure served in the battle formation. We moved from the largest pit, #1, to the two smaller ones. Each of these is explained in detail. You just can't get enough of it.

After our visit, we head for the airport and our return trip to Shanghai.