Monday¸ Sept 14th

Greetings! I hadn’t planned to write again so quickly but we had a couple adventures today so I thought I’d jot them down while they are still fresh in my mind!

We visited the Terracotta Warriors today which is really a spectacular sight. They were placed there over 2000 years ago to guard an emperor’s grave from invaders. They and the many tombs were hidden for centuries until some farmers discovered the site while digging a well in 1974. Only a small bit has yet been excavated and restored, while the main tombs still lie untouched. I continue to fascinate and scare small children as a baby was grabbing my hair with fascination until I turned and he realized that the funny yellow stuff was attached to a very odd looking person! Then his eyes just opened wide and he couldn’t stop staring at me!

Following the warriors, we headed toward the massive wall surrounding the town of Xi’an. They are about 50 feet high and goes for over eight miles. We had planned to ride bikes, but the surface was still too wet and slippery. So I began walking with another woman in my group, Ula from Finland. We ended up finding a shop of very nice antiques and other items and after much debate and haggling, I ended up buying a beautiful globe and an authentic (or so I hope!) Ching dyanasty vase in the traditional blue and white ceramic. The price thankfully included the shipping! Of course, I was a bit afraid that I would hear later from our Chinese trip leader Millie (Ming) that they were all cheap knockoffs and I had been totally scammed, but oh well!

Following our shopping, we started to walk assuming we’d finish after a third or so. After an hour or two, we were enjoying a great walk but the sun was starting to get low in the sky and we were looking for stairs down before sunset. We had no idea what time the wall closed to the public but we were entirely alone on our section. A night on top of the wall did not sound very appealing to us!

We had been told there were stairs by the train station, so finally we arrived there and found the stairs just as the sun was starting to set. There were a couple of men watching us walk down and they were laughing for some reason. We didn’t know why until we got to the bottom and through the opening only to find that these stairs as well were blocked by a gate about 12 feet high.

We considered heading back up and looking for another open stairs, but weren’t sure there were any to be had and it was starting to get dark. So we looked at each other and decided – well, we can climb that gate! So sure enough, we picked the section with at least some cross bars and one at a time, pulled ourselves up and over the 12 foot structure….much to the amusement of the many locals lined up to watch the crazy western women climbing gates! Not bad for a couple of 40 year olds! Thank goodness I decided to wear pants today instead of a skirt!

We found Millie back at the hotel and she got a kick out of our adventure! And even better, she knew the shop that I bought my items and thought that I had actually bargained a great deal! Her exact quote was “Did they cry?” So I guess I did ok.

And Ula and I quite happily celebrated our victory with Chinese beers over dinner. J