July 4 in China

 We made it to Xi'an! I didn't know much about this city except that the Terra Cotta warriors are here. I THOUGHT it would be a little quaint village/town in China....wrong! It's just "an average city, a normal size for China" according to Effee. Yep, as normal as 8 million+ people can be! We've also heard it was 9 million... Is there a city in the USA that large?

We didn't get into Xi'an until about 8:30 am...we met our city guide -Qui - (pronounced 'Chew')... And Our new coach driver...and off we went to our hotel for a great breakfast. Fortunately, our rooms were ready early, so we were able to come and shower after eating.  (In this photo above, you can see what greeted us in the hotel dining room when we went in for breakfast!)

 

Before we made it to the gate, we had a little fender-bender in the coach.  Even though the coach wasn't that damaged, we had to wait for a new bus.  I watched this man trying to pull his wife (?) through traffic while we waited!

  At 10:30, we loaded the bus to go for our official welcome to the city at the city gate. Xi'an is a walled city...completely walled...8 + miles of wall. It's amazing! There are two towers...the bell tower and the drum tower. The bell rings every morning at 6 am... Can't remember about the drum. The ceremony...oh my! We walked up to people in full regalia (I guess that's what you'd call it)...there were men in a type of armor with spears...a beautiful lady also in regalia... Drums started to beat...the massive doors opened to more men in armor and ladies in dress... We were ushered in through the gate as we were each given a key to the city around our neck and a passport to Xi'an.

There was an area inside the gates where the emperor and empress sat on a throne. We were standing in front of them a ways. Performances began...some by men in armor carrying flags...some by the MPEG with spears...some by a man balancing a huge vase on his forehead as he threw it in the air, catching it perfectly balanced on his head...it was all so totally amazing. The told us how this ceremony was done for Bill Clinton when he came here as President...and I recently was performed for Michelle O'bama.

We took a group photo with all the officials/performers and the city gate in the background. (I don't have a copy of this on here...it's a photo I bought.  Many of us bought a copy.)

 This was taken up on the wall with the gate in the background.

 From there, we walked up on the wall and had about a half hour to walk around and explore. Wow!

 Here you can see the base of the wall which is 50-60 feet thick.  The top is 40-46 feet wide...and the wall is about 40 feet high.  You can see the battlements where soldiers would shoot at the enemy.

 That's Deana!

 Remember....Xi'an is an average size city...only about 8 million people!  You see these high-rises all over the country...in just about every city we went to.  That's where many of the people live.

 These wires were everywhere...it reminded me of Bangkok, Thailand.

 It was time for lunch...yum! We were back at the hotel for that. I think all of us are great with chop sticks now. We only use chopsticks and that's for 3 meals a day!

After lunch...we headed to a middle school...a boarding school. We met a lot if Chinese students...they did some small performances for us...we did some for them. 5 of our girls sang our National Anthem in honor of it being July 4. They were amazing! A couple of our boys did a break dance. Karaoke is hogue here...and so the Chinese students also 'sang' some songs. The students taught each other some things to say in their language. After that, the students were given time to pair up...an American and a Chinese ... And 'communicate'. It was great...and you could hear lots of laughter...see lots of big smiles!

 Our girls sang the National Anthem...they were amazing!

 They did a lot of karaoke, very popular in China.

 Sports was next...they have a beautiful soccer field...so some were playing soccer, some basketball, some ping pong...having a great time. Dinner was in their dining hall...and it was delicious. The students had little gifts for their new American friend...and vice versa. So many hugs, pictures, hugs, and pictures when it was time for us to go. What a special time!!!

Back on the bus, and here we are back at the hotel. Tomorrow we see the terra cotta warriors,s including meeting with one of the farmers who discovered them! Plus there is so much more for tomorrow...a jam-packed day!

I figured out how to access Facebook, too!!! It can be super slow sometimes, but that's ok. I'll try to post more on there too.

Your kids are amazing..and I think I can safely say, they're all having the time of their life...as are the leaders! I was walking around again today saying to myself, "I'm in China!" I'M in China!" "I'M IN CHINA!!!"

Judy