China Adventure- Part 2 Xian

Our second city was Xian- home of the Terracotta Warriors!

Before I get to that, I wanted to share some of the things we learned while in China.

1. Hardly anyone speaks English.. even the hotel and airport workers are not nearly fluent. That is why we were so thankful for our awesome tour guide, David (pictured bottom left). Things are getting better and they are teaching English early in school now. One school girl came up to me and said "Hi" and wanted to practice. :)

2. Breakfasts in China are no different than their lunches or suppers. Pictured aside is a typical breakfast for us in China... rice/noodles and veggies all day long. Also pictured is the cool Jade factory too.

3. China was extremely safe and everyone was very friendly. In parts of China people never see foreigners and we were asked to be in their photos at some of the destinations. :) Josh was very popular being blond with blue eyes and over 6 feet tall. (See the top right picture)

More facts to come.. Now to Xian.

Pictured below is the city walls of Xian dating back to the Ming Dynasty. In the evening we saw the Tang Dynasty dancing show. It was so beautifully done. We also had a wonderful assortment of dumplings at the show that is pictured in the next collage. All of the food was so good! The last picture is of the lacquer furniture exhibit. Artifacts from 6,000 years ago show China's advanced lacquer wood preservation techniques. Again.. China is so amazing!

The Terracotta Warriors were the following day. Crafted over 2,000 years ago under orders of China's first emperor to protect him from neighboring kingdoms in the afterlife. There are expected to be more valuable warrior as archaeologist continue to explore nearer is tomb. The warriors were only discovered in 1974 by a farmer trying to dig a well. The farmer was forgotten about until Bill Clinton visited China during his presidency and asked to meet him and had him sign his book about it. Now he is respected all across China and still signs books there. You will also see a picture of a boy making homemade noodles and a picture of me and my warrior below. :)