Brita showing off a painting she bought at the
Shaanxi Provincial Museum special art show

Kaia loved the hotels, especially the bank of switches at the beds, the robes and slippers and the doorbells! We stayed in hotels catering to business clientele.

Xi'an was very grey...even on a "clear" day. The pollution is incredible from the coal burning, the autos and (according to "Sophia" our local guide) from dust blowing off the Gobi desert.

Every street is a challenge to cross!

Terra cotta warriors at Qin's tomb
Emperor Qinshi Huangdi's mausoleum including his eternal imperial guard. The site was discovered by local farmers in 1979, one of which greeted visitors in the gift shop. 6,000 soldiers are here in Pit 1 and 7,000 have been discovered so far. This emperor united the 7 kingdoms of China in 221 B.C. and started the building of the Great Wall. He had all his concubines killed and buried with him.

Notice that our fellow Michigan alumni also visited the terra cotta warriors!

All the figures were found broken from attacks by troops in other dynasties or looters. They have to be painstakingly reassembled.

This guy looked interesting. His head fit before his shoulder was found.

Each face is unique, based on the actual army members.

The artisans of the warriors were killed and buried at the order of the emperor. He didn't want them to tell about the terra cotta warriors or to create works of art for anyone else.

We watched a very dramatic 360 degree movie about the first emperor and his tomb.

Chards as they were found

Making Chinese noodles for our lunch

These were found in one of the tombs.

A beautiful wall-sized display of artifacts

Peter, Bob and Kaia

Entrance to the Terra Cotta Museum

The Chinese call the Terra Cotta warriors the Eighth Wonder of the World. Apparently they all wanted to understand what the first seven wonders were so outside the museum is a tacky display featuring, among other things, a sphinx head attached to a pyramid.