Early to bed early to rise…4:45 am wake up call, 5:45 am departure for the airport.  Our time in Beijing came to an end and we are off now Xi’an.  This is the city of the Terra Cotta Warriors.  No luggage to worry about as they took it the night before…we get to the lobby and we are handed a boxed breakfast, but remember you must drink the coffee and juice before you get to security.  I passed on the boxed breakfast, the vultures in our group were happy to have it.  We board the bus and we are off….all 32 accounted for….Charlie stays with us…so we must continue to “Follow the Flag”.  We get to the airport and some people don’t have boarding passes…Charlie quickly fixes this…

We arrive in Xi’an and have a local tour guide join us, her name is Sarah….She is very cute and she too has a “Follow the Flag” flag.  Our first stop is the place where they actually make the warriors, we learn about the whole process from start to finish, we also learn the history behind the creation of the warriors.  Ok – so now we are at 9 out of 32 people that have fallen….no its not Sharon or I…

We leave and have a drive to get to the Museum site….we disembark from the bus and walk to where we pay 5 Yuen for an electric car….Only 10 people in a car….we lucked out – we got the crazy New York driver…we get in the car and he decides to pass the others, he guns it and those of us on the outside seats are holding on for dear life, he turns we all scream….we get to our destination and all have a good laugh…funny the others didn’t experience this roller coaster event.

Sarah takes us to lunch where the specialty is noodles….we have already learned how they make them…..take a large rectangular piece of dough, stand over a boiling pot and then use your vegetable peeler to slice and throw into the pot at the same time….

Now for the most interesting part of the trip.  There are 3 pits…..we start at Pit number 3.  It is the smalles of all the pits and where the warrior headquarters is.  We go in and look into the pit and see these amazing warriors.  Did I tell you that only 100,000 of our Chinese friends joined us on this part of the trip…We still need to use elbows and be firm or you will lose your spot.

Pit number 2 is bigger and here they have 4 of the warriors outside the pit on display.  Again quite amazing, Pit number 3 is huge – over 6000 warriors buried here – they have only dug up about 1600 of them….you stand in awe.  We then move to the cinema area and here we get to meet the Chinese man who actually found the warriors in 1974.  He was a farmer and in the process of digging the well discovered them.  The governemnt took the land and he now receives his pension and his role is to come to the Museum and sign books and meet the people.  You cannot take his picture, and he does not speak to you.  He is 77.

We depart – check into the hotel and quickly convene for our trip to dinner and an authentic show of music and dance.  We get outside and our friend May gets hit by the bus….ok not really – the driver opened the door and she got hit in the arm….its our new way of getting hurt.  We arrive at our destination and have to cross the road – no easy task, we are told don’t make eye contact – just cross – they will have to stop – if you look at them then you have to stop….we make it across escaping a near collision with a bus…

The specialty at this dinner theater is the dumplings.  We got to experience 16 different kinds, they just kept coming and coming and coming and coming…..Ok I know what you are thinking, did Sharon and Lorrie eat all 16…..NO….of course we didn’t I would say I ate about 4 kinds and Sharon maybe a few more.  Guess what we got for dessert – yup – you’ve got it now – Watermelon.  I have decided when I get home that our family should have watermelon every night after dinner..

During the show Sharon nudges me, we look to our right and Sharon and Elizabeth (our tour leaders) are fast asleep, as are two other ladies in our party….the only reason Sharon nudged me to look is that she herself was almost there.  One lady was nodding so much we thought she was going to fall off her chair.  Did I also tell you we still have the one drink rule  – One glass of water, or one glass of beer…..The show was spectacular….it ended and then our chinese friends immediately tried to sell us the DVD. 

We board the bus again and we arrive at the hotel….another day gone….