Six Girls and One Boy

XI'AN, CHINA

When we arrived in Xi'an, we departed the train and joined the masses of people flowing to the station to meet our guide. Doug and I got separated from the group and were a little worried for a few minutes that we would never see them again.

Trains are the most popular method of travel. We were shoulder to shoulder with masses of people.

Our second "Henry" was there to meet us. Again, another great guide. He even taught the kids a Chinese rap.

Taylor in front of our Xi'an Hotel.

Henry at the Terracotta Factory

Doug, a soldier without a neck!

Factory employee showing us how the miniature soldiers are made out of clay.

Pressing the clay in molds

They sell a lot of miniatures!

The kids had fun making their own soldier.

Large jade soldier and horses with clay horses

Lacquer artisans

TERRACOTTA WARRIORS MUSEUM

The "army" was buried with the first Emperor of Qin in 210-209 BC, so the soldiers are over 2,000 years old. The Life-size terracotta figures of warriors (no figure has a twin) and horses are arranged in battle formations to protect the emperor after his death in the next world. A simple farmer accidentally discovered this unknown world in 1974 while digging his well. Altogether, over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots and even weapons have been unearthed from these pits so far. The warriors and horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th Century.

Walking along the path to the museum
This is someplace I've dreamed of visiting ever since I read about the discovery in the "National Geographic" in 1974.

This is Pit 1. There are columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back.

Close up picture of columns of soldiers.

This section of Pit 1 shows that recovery has been put on hold. The soldiers were all brightly painted when discovered, but only after a short time the color was gone due to oxidation. They will continue when they have that figured out.

A charioteer with his horses

Shows the color

Kneeling archer (1/160 kneeling archers found)--only soldier not broken, except for right foot.

Example of how warriors were found

Life-size horse--hole is there for firing

Example of bronze sword, which was coated with chrome oxidation technology (way ahead of its time)

Details of pottery figures

One of two bronze half-size chariots consisting of 3000 parts

Hill in the far distance is the unopened tomb of the emperor, which will be opened when they figure out how to preserve the artifacts.

Our flight on Shanghai Airlines from Xi'an to Shanghai

SHANGHAI, CHINA

We spent four days and nights in Shanghai, which is China's financial center with a population over 20 million people (California has 25 million). There are 4,500 skyscrapers over 22 stories. John and Alison Wilde have lived here for over 2-1/2 years where John works for Deloitte & Touche.

Pearl Tower

Pearl Tower (World's third tallest TV and radio tower at 1,536 feet).
We went up to the observation tower and saw a few of the skyscrapers.
The tallest building in this picture was used in the film Mission Impossible III
This was the tallest building until the Dubai building was built (and another one), but to the right, Shanghai is building a new one that will be the highest!
Looking down on the Huangpu River that is a branch of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
I took a picture of the excitement the little girls created while we were on the Pearl's observation tower.

Shanghai Municipal History Museum

Located in the tower's pedestal. The museum told the history of Shanghai (about 100 years worth) using dioramas, wax figures, models of classic avenues and famous buildings and a vehicle collection, which took us about one hour of walking through and not stopping for much.
Carved wedding sedan chair

Austin Rigby and Conner Copeland with wax figure in museum
Miniature Chinese opera

Everyday and modern day Shanghai

All apartment buildings (including highrises) hang out their clothes on their patios along with their air conditioning units (for more room inside)

Extremely modern building with a mall with Prada, Gucci, etc. stores--reminded us of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills

Zhouzhang Water Village (Venice of the Orient)

This was our favorite excursion from Shanghai, which was about a two-hour drive away through the countryside. We felt like we were time travelers and went back in time! In ancient times, the town served as an important distribution center for silk, porcelain, crafts and grain. We explored picturesque narrow canals, little streets with crafts (being made right there by the Chinese) and commodities like silk and porcelain being sold, stone bridges (some date back to the 14th century--the oldest was built in 1355) and overhanging traditional houses. We visited well-preserved old residences with good displays and boarded man-powered (woman-powered) "gondola-type" boats that took us through all the major secenic spots in town.

Flowering trees and stone bridges

Chinese lady embroidering children's shoes

Another grinding combs

Walking down the narrow streets with shops on either sides

See the overhanging houses with shops underneath. This is one of the favorite Chinese tourists spots in the provence.

Quiet scene with rows of gondolas

George, Laura & group in the gondolas

Our gondolier

Touring the city by boat

This was so much fun!

Pig's legs--very popular here. However, our guide told us we were eating in another town because the locals wash their clothes and dishes in the murky river water (who knows what else)!!!

Old City of Shanghai

Yenny, our Shanghai guide, leading us to YuYuan Garden through bustling bazaar. Notice how bamboo is used for scaffolding, even on highrises!

Yenny, our guide!

Street cleaner--they made their brooms out of some kind of branch with leaves that remained intact!

Twins--a rare sight!

Beautiful old town Chinese architecture!

YU YUAN GARDENS

This beautiful five-acre classical Chinese garden was finished in 1577 during the Ming Dynasty by a government official to please his parents in their old age. We wandered through courtyards viewing pagodas, rock formations, large trees, beautiful flowers and across bridges over ponds.

Alison and Lauren (the two girls that caused all of the commotion wherever we went) in front of a large rock at the entrance of the gardens that acts as a screen so that people passing by cannot look in.

Pagodas, ponds, etc.

Beautiful flowering plants

Rock formations

Jade Buddha Temple
Built in 1882, this temple has two valuable white jade Budhas (one seated and one reclining), which were brought to China by a Burmese Monk. The seated Buddha is 6 feet tall, carved out of a single piece of white jade and wears a robe inlaid with precious jewels. We saw this but were not allowed to take pictures.

This is a typical gold Buddha--notice how large in size compared to man standing at lower left in picture!

Two other large Buddhas--one on right scares evil spirits away!

Gold is favorite Buddha color

Worshipper burned incense first and then knelt

Reclining white jade Buddha

Fabric Market

Practically everyone ordered tailor-made suits, coat & jackets

Alison and John's house

Alison and her baby Preston outside their home

Opposite front entrance

Formal living room

Formal dining room--One evening we all met at the house and had a delicious home-cooked Western meal!!

Laura and George saying goodbye to Alison and her family was hard!!!

Departing China!

Beautiful Shanghai Airport with roof shaped like a bird--With the expression on Doug's face, I guess I had him pose for one too many pictures.

We saw this Chinese Pavilion being constructed for the World Expo in 2010.

Doug thanking and hugging Yenny for being such a wonderful guide.

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WELL, THERE YOU HAVE IT! WE HAD SUCH A WONDERFUL TIME BECAUSE OF THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRAVEL WITH FAMILY, SEE SUCH AMAZING SITES, HAVE BEAUTIFUL SPRING-LIKE WEATHER AND SEE WHERE ALISON LIVED! WE ALL SAID WE COULD HAVE STAYED LONGER. LAURA, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVITING US AND PLANNING SUCH A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME TRIP. WE WILL NEVER FORGET IT!!!