Xian

We arrived in Xian this morning. We took an overnight train from Beijing. We we're with Anne and she just got us a great deal to go see the Terracotta Warriors. Internet access here is free, so I will write more later. Gotta Run!

--Update--

In order to get to Xian, we took an overnight train on Friday and arrived early on Saturday morning. We were lucky to get the "hard sleepers" (which means that the beds are out in the open and there are 3 bunk beds on each side of an aisle). On the way back, we will have "soft sleepers" where we essentially have our own room. That will be nice because we will hopefully not get as much cigarette smoke in our room. People here smoke like chimneys. It's mostly the older generation, but it's pretty bad. I've had a hard time breathing with all the pollution and cigarette smoke.

It's now Sunday morning and we're in Xian. We were able to see the Terracotta Warriors yesterday. It was very impressive. There were about 6,000 soldiers made when they buried the emperor. He must have been a very vain man. The soldiers were intended to help defend him in the afterlife. The most amazing thing is that each soldier is supposed to be unique. Aside from the different uniforms and hairstyles indicating their rank in the army, their individual faces are different as well! I just can't imagine the number of hours that went into the whole process.

We also went to the Big Goose Pagoda. That place was so cool--well, the surrounding park was a lot more interesting than the actual pagoda attraction that you had to pay to see. The surrounding area is a park where they have fountains coordinated to music just like the Bellagio--although the scale of these fountains was even more impressive. There were children running through the fountains playing and huge crowds gathered to watch.

We are quite the novelties in Xian. In Beijing and Shanghai, I guess it's no big deal to see a foreigner anymore. When I was here 8 years ago, people would stare and stare and stare. Now that we're in Xian, where there are fewer tourists, people will not only stare, but I even overheard one old lady, as she was pointing to Andy, tell her grandson to look at the "foreign uncle". I had to laugh.

Today we are going to explore Xian a little more and then we'll go back to Beijing tonight. Our plan is to go back to silk alley (where you can get stuff for really cheap), buy the pearls for those who have given me orders and we will attend Anne's English class and help her conduct job interviews. Her students are going to flip out to see two actual foreigners in their class. Incidentally, Andy is really good at bargaining. I have decided that it's because he really doesn't care if someone sells him something or not. He's fully prepared to walk away if they don't give him the price he wants to pay. Me, on the other hand, by the time I start bargaining, I have decided that I really really want the item. So it's been fun to watch him bargain and make the sales people angry by the time he walks away.

Well. I need to run. We're about to start our day. ZaiJian!