Zaoshang hao may ge jeun! Good Morning Everybody!

I am the travelling interpreter. I asked for the wheelchairs and the salt and pepper. It was pretty cool. I really enjoyed it. I'd do it again. Wish I could speak Chinese fluently though.

Anyway the day started a little bad but after the 1.5 hour flight to Xi'an, (the City of Everlasting Peace), everyone's anger towards each other had diminished a bit. I know mine did, but thats another story, not to be posted here.

Our tour guide, Joe, was pretty cool. Talked a bit slow. I don't know if he knew we could speak English at 1st. The ride from the airport was the highlight of our first day here.

When we first neared the city, we were greeted with the blowing dust. I tell you, it was like something out of an old western with a Chinatown. It was so dusty here, we were all coughing on the bus. Everything was dusty, the cars, the buildings, the streets and even the people. The streetsweepers used these huge brooms to sweep the dust. There is very little machinery, no streetcleaning equipment. Joe told us that this keeps people employed.

The drive thorugh the city was very interesting as I said. There were maybe two traffic lights, maybe just one. People were turning left, right, crossing every which way. People on bikes, walking, riding electric scooters, carrying babies, were also moving in this same traffic. I could not believe my eyes. No one was hit by any vehicles though. Amazing! There seemed to be hundreds pf people everywhere. As I said this was the highlight of the day. Our driver's name was Mr. Ho. I'm telling you, if he looked like a young Jackie Chan. Always nicely dressed and very neat. Always wore dark sunglasses. Bernice keep saying he looked like mafia.

Anyway, Joe and Mr. Ho, got us safely to the hotel. Another Shangri-La. This hotel was also very beautiful, but much older than the Shangri-La in Beijing. These hotels are entirely too nice to be in with a woman. Everyone settled in their rooms for a bit to freshen up for dinner.

Marcella and I, the adventurers, took a walk down and around the corner. We walked a long way. By this time, I was really sort of tired of the gawking, so I just looked in the storefronts, down the street, wherever. I was just tired of looking at these people gawking. So, just not to feel uncomfortable, I just stop looking at the people. We walked about three blocks down one side of the street, crossed over and headed back towards the hotel. We stopped in a shopping mall just to look around. Gawkers. We decided to head back and freshen up for dinner.

Dinner was at a beautiful restaurant in a hotel not far from our hotel. Everything was pink. The tablecloths, the chair covers, etc. As we exited the bus, we were the center of attention again. People just stopping in the middle of the street to stare. Dinner was okay. It's always family-style. By now, I'm a little tired of Chinese food. Joe, herded us back to the bus and on to our hotel.

We had the regular wake-up call for 6 A.M. Breakfast was okay in this hotel, but the spread did not compare to the one in Beijing. But it was good.

We met Joe at the bus to begin our day. We travelled through the countryside. Gorgeous. We started at Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb and his magnificent Terra Cotta Army. This is actually the 8th wonder of the world. This is unbelievable. These are life-sized soldiers, horses and chariots that were entombed with the emperor. This was part of his project to rebuild his empire for the afterlife. I have great pictures. There are over 6,000 hand-molded infantry in battle formation. We walked on through to have lunch at the museum. Again, Chinese food. A bit different though. There were many European people here today. We watched one of the cooks making homemade noodles. Pretty interesting, but I didn't care for them. I think it's the texture. People were snapping pictures as he rolled and slammed the dough onto a table.

After this we headed on to the Big Goose Pagoda. This was originally built as a Buddhist Library. It still houses monks, who were outside replanting trees. They didn't seem to mind us taking pictures. We walked on to see the Big Buddah. No pictures were allowed, nor could we rub his belly. People came to worship, light incense and candles. We then headed over to a giftshop located on the grounds. People in our group purchased jewelry. Looked like fake gold. I don't know real jade from fake, but if the gold is fake, chances are the jade is fake. Martha, I found out that I am born in year of the rat also.

After the tour of the museum and lots of picture taking (there were signs posted everywhere "no flash photography"), Marcella and I headed over to purchase some tea. This was something I did want to purchase for myself. I was happy with what I found. After this we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and dressed for the Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show. Today's touring wasn't bad. We still had the gawkers but no one came up to see what I was writing in my notebook. On the way to the hotel, I pointed out a truck carrying slaughtered pigs on the back. There had to be about 40 pigs on it and they weren't even covered up, just tied down I wondered where they were taking those.

Now, you all know I don't care for live fan dance type shows, but this was spectacular. The colors were beautigul just as the women performing in the show were beautiful. This was a show almost comparable to Cirque De Soleil. The colors were just beautiful. I could have sworn I saw one of the dancers' pocketbook (for those of you who know what this is, cool. For those of you who don't. Well!) The dinner was okay. I could tolerate the rice wine served. Ive had it several places but the wine at this restaurant was delicious. Maybe because it's in China. We also had some kind of beef dish. I just couldn't eat it, as the beef was white. We were served a 7 course meal here. Some people in my group fell asleep in the show, but I thought it was quite exciting.

We headed back to the hotel for another night of packing. Yuck! Tomorrow we're off to Shanghai.