Sept 28.- Terra-Cotta Soldiers and Leaving Xi'an

Our wake up call came at 7:30 am. The phone was on my side of the room but I thought I was dreaming that it was ringing so Selina had to reach across and answer it. It was funny because the night before she was happy because I was supposed to answer it :) We got out of bed very slowly, got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. We had toast with strawberry jelly and peanut butter, so so so good, with cantelope and watermelon. Overall it was a very western breakfast. After breakfast we boarded the bus to see the Terra-Cotta soldiers and other sites. It was still raining and cold outside so people pulled out their umbrellas when we arrived at our destination. Selina forgot her umbrella so we both squeezed under mine. I was missing our golf umbrellas which I can comfortably fit 4 people under without any special maneuvering.

The walk to pit #1 took about 15 minutes and by the time we got there the legs of my jeans were soaked up to my calves and my shoes were squishing on the inside. The state of my feet were quickly forgotten once I gazed upon the soldiers. There are over 6,000 soldiers, not all unearthed, and none of them are alike. They all have different eyes, hands, clothing detail and body language. It was incredible to see them all standing there knowing they've been underground for centuries. From the soldiers we went outside to pit #2 which hasn't been completely excavated yet and then we went to the bronze sculpture museum. At this point the water mark on my jeans had risen up to my knees and my toes were beginning to numb. We ate lunch at the Terra-Cotta site and then got on the bus to head over to the Muslim District.

Muslim Asians are the smallest minority in China and when you visit the places where they live you shouldn't mention pork in any capacity. They made sure we understood this when they told a story about a man who took a pork rice dish into the Muslim District and they beat him to death for disrespecting their culture. No charges were pressed because everyone in the district understood why it was done. It's safe to say we all got the message. Before they let us wander on our own we went to the Xi'an Great Mosque which was very old and absolutely beautiful. Men were coming in to prey but I didn't see any women. The tour guide said that women are not allowed in that mosque except on certain days. After walking around the mosque area for about half an hour Selina and headed off to shop and find some local food. I bought a really cool painting of a bunch of small birds sitting on a tree limb with the sun setting in the background. It reminded me of the PIXAR cartoon with all the small birds and the big bird on the wire, I know I know, I'm 5 years old. After my purchase Selina and I went to find street food for dinner. We ate one jello/rice thingy on a stick that was rolled in peanuts and some kind of sweet sauce, rice cakes with red bean sauce, and some dumplings. Overall the food was very good. Next we went in search of nuts, she wanted cashews and I wanted peanuts. While walking a man came from behind us on a bike. Apparently I was in his way because he pushed me from the side and yelled something that sounded like "ahhh!" and I almost fell over. After I righted myself I noticed that the man had white chalky stuff in the back of his cart and looked at my arm and sure enough there was a white hand print on my black hoodie. It took a couple days to come off but I viewed it as a battle wound :)

After our adventures in the Muslim district we boarded the bus to head to the Big Goose Pagoda and a water fountain show. The pagoda was huge and there were several rows of fountains in front of it. It if had been during the summer we all would have run through the water when the show began but it's a little too cold for that at this time of year. The water show was pretty cool and it had classical western music playing in the background but we couldn't stay for the whole thing because our train left at 10:46 pm. This time we were in a hard sleeper car which is open to the hallway and has 6 beds in each compartment. I was with Bill and 4 other random Chinese people. I had the middle bunk which is a little hard to maneuver on. This train ride was 19 hours and took us to Jiayuguan.