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Shavua Tov
We have found ourselves in t Xian (pronounced shee-ann), a city surrounded by an extensive wall and full of friendly smiling people.
It's relatively small as towns go but there are people everywhere. According to the stats, 3.2 million people live here. Oh my God...
Xian is most famous for being the home of the Terracotta Warriors, 6000 life size soldier statutes buried around the tomb of the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi.
The bus deposited us at the site entrance together with a steady stream of other buses offloading an unending number of Chinese tourists. Despite the human flow, we anchored ourselves at the entrance gate and managed to recruit other lone Westerners to join us in hiring an English speaking guide. This was a good move, and our tour kicked off, fighting its way among the crowds.
I was trying to focus on the guide's Chinese accented English when a commotion could be heard going on down in the excavations. Green uniformed guards were racing down to the pits, and it was all quite frightening. There must have been 1,000 Chinese tourists there, so us English speakers were swamped. I was just glad it had nothing to do with me.
We have found ourselves in t Xian (pronounced shee-ann), a city surrounded by an extensive wall and full of friendly smiling people.
It's relatively small as towns go but there are people everywhere. According to the stats, 3.2 million people live here. Oh my God...
Xian is most famous for being the home of the Terracotta Warriors, 6000 life size soldier statutes buried around the tomb of the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi.
The bus deposited us at the site entrance together with a steady stream of other buses offloading an unending number of Chinese tourists. Despite the human flow, we anchored ourselves at the entrance gate and managed to recruit other lone Westerners to join us in hiring an English speaking guide. This was a good move, and our tour kicked off, fighting its way among the crowds.
I was trying to focus on the guide's Chinese accented English when a commotion could be heard going on down in the excavations. Green uniformed guards were racing down to the pits, and it was all quite frightening. There must have been 1,000 Chinese tourists there, so us English speakers were swamped. I was just glad it had nothing to do with me.
I looked over to Penelope and realised...she had gone!
A cold sweat ran over me as I looked back at the burgeoning crowd around us. And then the awful truth bore out; in her excitement, the little animal had jumped down into the pits and started play acting excitedly on these ancient, priceless statutes.
I was beside myself.
It took just over 45 minutes to push my way through the multitude, (together with my guide, who wanted to first negotiate a cash deposit for these new services as my 'representative'), to get hold of her. Of course we had to go back to the local Peoples' Committee Security Room where we were grilled for 2 hours. (It was especially complicated because P had entered the country on my visa).
Attached is a photo taken by the security cameras.
A cold sweat ran over me as I looked back at the burgeoning crowd around us. And then the awful truth bore out; in her excitement, the little animal had jumped down into the pits and started play acting excitedly on these ancient, priceless statutes.
I was beside myself.
It took just over 45 minutes to push my way through the multitude, (together with my guide, who wanted to first negotiate a cash deposit for these new services as my 'representative'), to get hold of her. Of course we had to go back to the local Peoples' Committee Security Room where we were grilled for 2 hours. (It was especially complicated because P had entered the country on my visa).
Attached is a photo taken by the security cameras.
We filled out dozens of forms which I didn't understand and made it back to the hotel by early evening, exhausted.
Of course we had another row about her irresponsible behaviour and I ended up telling her to get stuffed, which is quite unfair really, because she is just so full of beans.
Wish us luck.
Alan
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