Xi'an

Today we had a full, full day in Xi’an (She-on) Home of the Terracotta Warriors.  We stopped by a large park where there were thousands of people doing exercize and activities.  We stopped at groups and participated in their activities. 

First  we joined young adults doing some exercises to popular Chinese music.  Then Hacky sacks, then fan/umbrella dancing.  They had a “drum major” or traffic officer kind of conducting the traffic of the dancers.  Each group had at least 25 people, some groups had hundreds.  We also participated in general exercises, ballroom dancing and Chinese country line dancing.  We passed by a bunch of men… in a storytelling group and a co-ed singalong group. It was invigorating and the locals loved us being there, taking pictures of us participating. 

We went to a lacquer shop (I guess the best lacquer is here and comes naturally from trees). We didn’t buy a thing.
Then  we stopped at the Terracotta warriors.  They  were amazing… We spent almost 3 hours there. Pretty much blown away.

We had a dumpling dinner and finished our day in the Muslim marketplace.  Haggling.  

  In the market place I noticed a young adult taking a picture of herself behind us so I put my arm around her so we could get her a real picture of foreigners.  She loved it.
We wanted to take the bus back… #12 for 1 Yuan each which is about 17 cents.  We waited a while and finally a bus came but it was so full, and people still kept getting on.  We took a motorcycle cab which ended up being quite the colorful back-roads experience.  That cost 20 Yuan but was worth the extra $2.
We are winding down in Beijing tomorrow.

Trying pigs feet

Shibao Zhai Pagoda

Today is our last day on the ship, it is amazing the stuff the dam lost.  I am really glad we saw the old China... the small boat ride to go up the river to see the hanging coffins, the trackers tracks, the human coal workers... all lost.  1300 archaeological sites.  Gone forever. There are still beautiful farms up the hills, but not like before with the cute homes/buildings and the farmers who had been there for generations.

The cities that are relocation cities have no history. 1997 apartment buildings that look like they are 50 years old is all.  Many are empty because the young have relocated themselves to bigger cities for more opportunities

Janell and Lauren are working on music video.  Janell chose a song and she made up a dance. the dance was recorded and broken into 28 segments. they transferred this to an ipod.  We go to a site, Janell gets the ipod out and looks at the segment, plugs the music into her ear and does that segment.  Then they get back and render it, putting it together.  One song, one dance, many Chinese locations.  Kind of fun quest.  We are always looking for scenery... fish markets (ben wanted her to jump on a small fishing boat..... no) temples, interesting backgrounds.  People stop to watch and it has been fun.

We stopped at Shibao Zhai city. There was a pagoda built in the 1600's on a hill, making steps so they could get to the temple on top of the hill.  After the dam, the water came up to it so they built a suspension bridge to it from the heightened city.  Now it is not so high.  We climbed the pagoda.

 Lauren bought some drawings from a local artist for 3/100 Yuan about 17 dollars.

Janell at the locks

Janell dancing

Climbing the pagoda

At the pagoda

At the pagoda

Lauren buying art

3 Gorges Dam

Janell and I did some Tai Chi this morning with the ship's doctor.   We had our first shore excursion, the Three Gorges Dam which  is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.  We came to the Yangtze river about 15 years ago before it was finished and now it it complete.  I feel lucky to have seen it before. (1300 archaeological sites have  been submerged) Now it is incredible what they have done to try to tame the Yangtze (btw the Chinese call it the Long river, just a small section is the Yangtzee and they don't know it by that name.  I can vouch for that as I have said it several times and no one knows what I am talking about.)
We toured the huge dam and have the Panama Canal to compare it to and this is massive with a two way lock.  One for going up and one for going down and a huge elevator will be working next year for smaller vessels. it has not lived up to it's promises and has displaced 1.5 million people.

More China Pictures

Small boat trip

Passing through the Qutang Gorge -
The picture on the Chinese 10 yuan

Fengjie City

Chinese toilet training

Dam

Shanghai

Jade Budda

Janell, Lauren, Ben and I are in China.  Kay doesn't like to do things twice. We met our group
and went to the Bund (financial district), saw the jade Buddha and it was a lucky day.  the first day of the month they are to go and offer incense offerings to the Buddha.  You buy different incenses depending on the blessing you wanted.  Light the incense, do several kowtows and throw your incense into the large fire.  Lots of people were there and no extra fires (I was worried about people's hair as they didn't seem to worry about how far away they were from others)  then we went to and went to the Yu Gardens.

Sunday I hired a guide to take us to church and then take us to some lesser known Shanghai sites.

We met Sunny and she escorted us to the church but had to leave us at the door because our church has a policy of honoring the government and agreed to not have an active presence in China.  There is a ward for ex-patriots but the locals are not welcome.

We had a great time and Ben actually met  his best friend's sister who invited us to dinner.

Church

Our guide came back and took us to the Marriage market in People's square.  Mothers and grandmothers who are worried about the marriage of their family have advertisements for them on umbrellas.  No pictures on their advertisements of the future brides or grooms.

Tianzifang art area was a fun place to walk.  We ate a twisted potato cut and cooked on a stick, Chinese pizza and steamed buns.

The vegetable market was our next stop.

The silk museum blew our minds how a

Marriage Market

strand of silk that is thinner than a piece of hair is made by putting 8 cocoons with their strands of silk together. they had two ladies there showing how strong the silk is. a small piece the size of a winter knit hat is stretched to be the size of a queen sized bed.

our tour ended with Sunny with a walk through the antique market and pet market.

We were dropped off at Taylor and Jen Price's home.  We ate with them.They have been here 6 years and doing well. The ward was well suited for them and they are happy in Shanghai.  It was fun meeting them and Ben catching up!

Tiangzifang

We got a cab home. To get the cab, one of Taylor's friends took us in his van and chased down a cab and got us in.  40 min later we were back. Ready for our 4 day Yangtzee Cruise.

Vegetable Market

Silk Cocoons

Making 1 thread with 8 threads together

Janell pulling the silk

Lauren buying a steamer at a restaurant supply store

Sunny negotiating

buns

The pet market where we saw crickets used for fighting

Taylor and Jen Price Home