Hi Family~

Sorry, I was unable to reply to your previous post comments, because Billy and I have been away on an adventure to Xi'an for the past four days. :) Xi'an is home of the graves of many of China's earliest (and cruelist) emperors'. Xi'an was actually the capital of China for a long time. It has the grandest city wall in China and also is home to the terracotta soldiers (a grave of a famous emperor).

We took a night train to get there (16 hours). Since it was the eve of the Chinese New Year, there were less passangers than at other times. We had to come back early because they had sold out all the train tickets. During the Chinese New Year around 180 million people in China all make the migration back to their hometowns. It is the biggest mass movement of humanity on earth! It is INCREDIBLY crazy! Lines are out of control and the train station is a scary place!

We spent one day at the tomb of two different emperors, and at a famous hot spring site where they claim Mao himself used to dip (who knows really?!). Then we took a day to go to a nearby mountain called Hua Shan which was really nice... but freezing cold. We also checked out the famous Muslim Quarters in Xi'an. Xi'an has a very high muslim population (actually, according to Lonely Planet, muslims are the largest identifiable religious group in China still active-- a fascinating fact!). In fact, the muslims in northwest China have been fighting for autonomy for decades... which, of course, has resulted in a high amount of political persecution... imprisonment and execution. But they sure make yummy food!! We ate delicious muslim food the whole time! Yummy bread and lots of lamb!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

These are pictures from the Muslim Quarter.

It was SOO smoky from all the yummy food being cooked on the side of the road.



And these are the terracotta soldiers in the largest grave. There are 6,000 warriors in this grave. They were unearthed in 1974 by some peasants building a well. Each of the warriors has a different facial expression!! Also, when unearthed, each was bearing some sort of real weapon (which have since been removed and are in storage). But when they excavated the tomb, the weapons were still sharp... even after being buried for over 2,000 years!! Incredible. This picture kind of gives you a feel for how big it is. I would say maybe 10 airplanes could fit in this large tomb area.... at least.
You can sort of see the facial expressions here. The soldiers are life size. They are in a rectangular battle formation facing east.

And this is to prove we were there.

I hope everyone is well! And I hope Dave is recovering from his wounds. I'd say the craisans really ought to have helped. I will leave you with a quote by Edna Ferber: "Living in the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles..." :)

And so our adventure continues...... :)

Love to all!!