Terracotta Soldiers

A day to never forget being here ~

More photos to come...have about 20 more to add here~

The Terracotta Army was discovered in 1974 buried in a field in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province by local farmers drilling a water well. The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art buried with the First Emperor of Qin in 210-209 BC

The Army is estimated to be some 8000 soldiers are there in the three pits, 100 chariots with 400 horses and 300 cavalry ... The site is still under excavation, however, it is totally amazing to see what is already unearthed at this point. My heart raced at the sight.

Xian, China ~

Lobby of the Hotel in Xian ~ BEAUTIFUL

We so enjoyed our big meals together ~

Will add only 1 photo per blog and come back to add other photos as am printing them for my book on our trip~

and missing so much I would like to Blog of today's news.

Xian ~ First Day

We stepped off the train into the first and last rainy day of the trip.

We are in Xian~ The rain brought into our experience ~more good ideas of the Chinese. Umbrellas were all different brights colors of the rainbow.

Certainly brightened a rainy day.

Ladies sold them along the street~ I bought one, it turned out to be pink and a treasure. Cost? $3 ~

First stop, of course, another temple~

Prayer candles smoke in the soft rain~
Carved steps, a thing of beauty and seemingly commanded respect as you climb.

This is a quite morning for the Temple ~

I am beginning to wonder why we don't get our Gold out of Fort Knox for the world to enjoy.

Why keep it buried?



From the top, in the distance we see the city~

We see the polution which is said to be from cars

of the 11 million people living here.

A big issue the Chinese are working on is to make cars enviromentally safer.

We go from here to the large Wall around part of the city~

Overnight Train from Beijing to Xian

Before dinner, we explore and enjoy a shopping mall ~

Boats on the lake seem peaceful catch the camera's eye.


Interesting to see store windows ~

Styles, hairstyles on mannequins catch my eye.


Outdoor dinning is appealing ~We walked by many that were indoor with large windows which show tables elaborately set in tasteful colors ~ too much to share here~
We end this interesting day with dinner at a local restaurant

before our transfer to the railroad station

where we board the train that takes us from Beijing to Xian.

Our train~

Each of our compartments slept four. We partied from compartment to compartment until the train started moving ~ then we realized we had a full day ahead in Xian. The guys bunked on top and we girls took the bottom ~ We slept in our travel clothes that we would wear the following day. Fell asleep immediately while the train shot through the night at speeds well exceeding 100 mph. Coffee was available upon waking, however, we had little time as we had arrived in Xian.

Beijing Hutong Area ~ Ordinary Chinese Life

Here, we have a glimpse into ordinary Chinese life. These old residential neighborhoods, called hutongs, consist of acres of low, flat-roofed buildings crisscrossed by narrow lanes. On a walking tour, we put aside from our minds the grandiose palaces and monuments. We shift our focus to today's China's humanity. We walked the narrow lanes to intermingle and see their everyday life ~ proceeding unconcerned with the great events of nations.

Children Playing...the sounds and smells of food being perpared...construction...

older people sitting outside.

With this shift in focus ~

we soon realize we are beyond the experiences of most tourists.

This is how street names are posted.


My camera wants to photograph only the most beautiful ~


We didn't see toys for the children, however, they are clean, healthy, nicely dressed and obviously well cared for as well as seemingly happy.

Our tour included lunch

in one of the homes...

photo on left,

I am standing in the doorway of the home of our host for lunch on this day.

We are welcomed by the hostess.



Entrance way~

Their kitchen~

Hostess demonstrates how to make dumplings.

Daughter is a painter ~ her craft is painting inside

tiny bottles~ Small, small brushes

create beautiful scenes.

We got to try our dumpling making skills~

Before we went on our way, we sat with our hostess and she talked about her life. Click on play button. Michael interpreted for her.

Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China

Most of the 14,000,000 people in Beijing live in high rises ~ They seem to take to the Parks for outings when possible.

They encourage me, a foreigner, to fly ribbons.

We see women dancing in the Pavilion. Men playing domino's ~They are happy people.

We meet and see all ages throughout China~

"Dog ears" for little ones are universal and darling.




He told me he is two ~ no words needed.

We see two worlds meet ~ learning about others.

This little guy was my favorite of the morning, however, I chased him all over the place (as did his Dad) and never could capture his appeal on camera. Felt as if I were home, chasing my own little ones. TOTALLY DARLING BOY.

We see stylish young ~probably singles~

We see older people ~

This photos is looking down from "The Temple of Heaven to see the entrance gate~and close up of the beautiful tile on roofs.
Now to see the Temple of Heaven

Larger than it looks from the entrance.

Silhouette of our Group looking up to the Temple of Heaven.

Silhouette of our group looking up to the Temple.

From here ~ we are off to the Hotungs.

Next : The Hotungs are an area of private dwellings.