Cannon Fall Family Trip Installment #2

Here's installment #2 of the Cannon Fall Family Trip. After our rather full trip to Beijing, we enjoyed a little slower pace in Xi'an. Upon landing, we found that the lovely weather we had in Beijing was to be enjoyed no more. We exited the small airport in a light, constant drizzle. In Beijing we were met at the airport by our tour guide and all 7 of us were escorted to a 10 passenger van, which took us all around to the sights. We expected the same reception in Xi'an and were surprised when our guide led us through the foggy, dark and damp parking lot to a 20-25 passenger bus! The kids thought they were in Disney Land! They ran up and down and all around. After we got on our way, again to our surprise, the guide pulled out a microphone and began to tell us all about Xi'an and what we would be doing in our next 2 days. Again, the kids were thrilled. (The tour guide actually let the kids play with the microphone the next day, much to the adults great discomfort and annoyance!)

Our first stop was an ancient village which had been discovered and excavated, and I believe is about 3000 years old. The adults were impressed but the kids didn't see what all the fuss was about. We saw some old home sights and old grave sights.

An ancient grave site.

At that point it was about 11:30 am and the tour guide informed us that our next stop would be the Terracotta Warriors factory, which was just 45 minutes away and that we would be there for an hour and then on to lunch. I took one look at my kids and in laws, thought about my hungry tummy and how I knew the kids wouldn't last that long, and informed the guide that we would have to eat before the factory. She didn't really understand why the 8, 7 and 4 year olds wouldn't last until 1:30 pm. (Of course, everyone who knows me knows there's no way I would last that long either!). So she took us to a Chinese food tourist trap with horrid buffet food that everyone tried our best to muddle through.

The Terracotta Warriors factory was interesting enough, but mostly just a place to sell tourists expensive Chinese crap... OK, stuff. Lee and I have been waiting to invest in just the right "China" memento, so we fell victim to the factory and purchased a great warrior that stands about 4 feet high. He's pretty cool! The only other interesting thing to include here are the kids posing as warriors.

Each child chose a small warrior to purchase. Eve was very, very careful in her selection!

Aren't they all so CUTE???!!!

On to, in reality, the only reason to visit Xi'an... the Terracotta Warriors. Lee was sooooo excited to see this amazing exhibit. We were amazed when we learned that all the warriors on exhibit were found in broken and crushed and painstakingly reconstructed piece by piece. Each warrior takes between 2-3 MONTHS to put back together. Can you imagine the patience required to restore this amazing find? Rather than list what might be false information, I went to Wikopedia and this is what I found about the Terracotta Army:

"The Terra Cotta Army (simplified Chinese: 兵马俑; traditional Chinese: 兵馬俑; pinyin: bīngmǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues") are the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China near the Mausouleum of the second Ming Emperor. (Chinese: 秦始皇陵; pinyin: Qín Shǐhuáng Líng). The figures vary in height (183–195 cm - 6ft–6ft 5in), according to their role, the tallest being the generals. The figures include strong warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 100 chariots with 400 horses and 300 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.[1]"

Here's the first pit we saw. Really amazing!

Close up of part of the pit.

Here's the farmer that discovered the warriors.

If you are interested, you can read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army. I really enjoyed everything I learned while I was there. The kids remained interested for longer than I expected. We were there for about 2 hours and they did pretty well. Actually, us womenfolk were totally over it and ready to move on after about an hour!

That night our tour guide graciously informed us that our dinner would be a buffet of steamed dumplings filled with lots of lovely kinds of meat like fish and who knows what. She was really excited to share that all the dumplings were shaped to look like different things, like little pigs and such. As delicious as that sounded, we politely informed her that we would prefer to eat at Pizza Hut. She was surprised and amazed that we would turn down such a delightful feast. We assured her that as disappointed as we were, we would manage quite well at Pizza Hut, thank you very much.

Some examples of dumplings... can be tasty in small doses, but a whole buffet worth???

In Shanghai, we are blessed with many many English speaking Chinese in the service industry. Usually, if I can't get by in Mandarin, there is someone who can muddle through it in about equally limited English. Xi'an, however, is much smaller than Shanghai. There were no English speakers to be found in Pizza Hut! I was very nervous, as the entire group was relying on me to order the meal and get every one's special "with this, but without that" and "half cheese, half meat lovers" properly ordered. To my relief, our meal miraculously arrived as ordered and more importantly (because who knows if what I am saying is what I intend to communicate) as desired by all members of the group! Yeah! Whew!

The next morning we fought the fog and wished for better weather. We toured the city wall of Xi'an, which is quite old and has been reconstructed. We spent a brief time on the wall, then headed to the mall to buy some warm clothes for the kids and Grandma. After that we were off to the airport for another scintillating meal of crappy Chinese food. We have really come to appreciate Ying's cooking! We came home and told her how happy we were that she was cooking again!

Here we are on the City Wall of Xi'an with our tour guide.

Stay tuned for the third and final chapter of the Cannon's Fall Family Trip!

Beijing in the Fall

We are so thrilled that Lee's parents could come visit us last month! Dave and Ginna arrived the last week of September and stayed until the end of October. We really enjoyed having them here. We took a fantastic family trip and toured China for 9 days. First, we hit Beijing, touring the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananman Square and the Forbidden City. Whew, what a trip! We were in Beijing for 3 days and two nights and we filled all of our time touring around and seeing the sights. The Great Wall was so fantastic, but so crowded. Here's a great display of just how crowded it was.

We had beautiful weather in Beijing with clear skies that we rarely enjoy in Shanghai. We ate lots of traditional Chinese meals, actually too many for our tastes. After a few not so great meals, we opted for McDonald's! The kids were thankful. One thing we love about China is that McDonald's soft serve ice cream cones are about $.35, so we always get ice cream when we go!

Here we are at a Chinese Dinner - which totally sucked, by the way!

We had a really tough time getting a good family picture on the Great Wall. There were so many people because we went during a national holiday. We knew it would be crowded, but it was our chance to go. We took a cable car up the mountain, which was a harrowing experience for me. I am fearless in many respects, but I HATE heights! Here's a view from inside our car as we are ascending the mountain.

Beijing was so great and there is so much to tell and so many pictures to show. We went to the Forbidden City, which was totally huge! If any of you have seen Disney's Mulan, the Forbidden City is in the scene with the Emperor, when Mulan comes to warn them that the Huns are still alive. It was really fun to stand there with the children and have them recognize where we were!

The Forbidden City

I loved these guards - having to be so serious!

I could show a million pictures of our trip, but I think I'll have to end here. We did so many fun things that it is hard to cover it all. I think I will do a few more separate postings on our Fall trip, so stayed tuned for more amazing travel reports from the Cannon Family in China!