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Whaaaa… falling behind here with the blog.  Seems we’re busier than usual these days…  and/or just totally engrossed in life here.  It’s all good and I have many updates to do.  Will try this week to get totally caught up..

In any event, here is the final set of Hong Kong pix…

Leaving Tai O, we took a public bus to the ferry dock where we boarded a (very) high speed ferry back to Hong Kong...

It was a dark and misty afternoon in Hong Kong harbor...

These high speed boats fly through the harbor with seemingly no attention to traffic patterns...

Freight in the harbor...

On our last day in Hong Kong we were back on a public bus (double decker) heading to Stanley via Repulse Bay (a gorgeous beach community we will return to one day)...

Stanley Market is an area full of shopping stalls... lots to look at but we bought nothing (save dog purses for the girls)...

Lunch... outside along the bay... what can I say...

Stanley Market shop...

Stanley Bay fisherwoman...

Entrance to Stanley Market...

Another misty shot of Repulse Bay...

Sweet golf course below...

Just a reminder for me...

After Stanley we took the famous Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to Kowloon...

The Star Ferry started in 1898 and today has 9 green and white ferries continuously crossing the harbor...

A sweet and gentle ride...

Star Ferry...

Sailor girl...

In Kowloon we checked out the famous jade market...

Jade man...

Girlies got their bling...

Personally, I preferred the outdoor markets...

Sweet potatoes are very popular in China... and listen up: they are totally healthy! We should all eat more of these...

Wonderful fruits...

Delish!

Outside market, Kowloon...

Planes, trains, ferries, shuttles, taxis, trams, mile long escalators. A trip to Hong Kong = constant motion, and the girls were great travelers through it all...

At the airport: bye bye Hong Kong. We'll be back...

Free internet kiosks! And the guy on the left is surfing facebook. Only in Hong Kong (unheard of in mainland China)...

One last note about Hong Kong… I took very few pictures of the skyscrapers (and there are plenty) or the fancy schmancy sections of town.  There’s plenty of that too, but I think we’ve grown weary of rows of Gucci, Prada and Ermenegildo Zegna stores (who IS that guy anyway?  He’s all over every city in China.) so I guess we intentionally avoided all of that.  Proof that you really can have a blast in Hong Kong without shopping…

I love what’s a little off the beaten path.  In Shanghai it was the Blue Nankeen backyard. In Hong Kong it was the fishing village of Tai O.

Just off the local bus and arriving in Tai O...

Tai O residents live in "stilt houses" above the water. Most of these houses are wrapped in sheet metal to keep out the elements...

At the market stalls...

This town is calling to my brother Neil...

Close up...

Dinner...

Apothecary...

Sheet metal house number 17...

A block or two back from the water are these old narrow streets...

There was a huge fire on Tai O about 10 years ago. Many areas have been abandoned...

Flower pots and steps...

Sheet metal house 114. Love the blue paint...

One of the first little altars we spotted...

Tai O bicycle...

Low tide...

One of two temples on the island; this one is the Yeung Hau Temple...

Quilt image 16 (temple floor)...

I'd like to replicate this in our backyard...

I barely noticed her...

We walked to this very quiet side of the island... and found this (see red on left side)...

Red fence protecting two altars from the sea...

Smaller one...

And this larger one...

Offerings inside the larger altar. Great conversation with Cece about altars...

Peaceful inlet as we walked back to the town...

Another Tai O altar...

We found them tucked in - and tacked on - everywhere...

Prayers for the fishermen...

Blue door...

One more...

The girls inside the Kwan Tai Temple...

From the bus window: leaving Tai O...

All OK in China, though it’s taken me a full week since our return to get to this first post about Hong Kong.  A busier and/or slower week than usual plus our internet connection has slowed to a crawl.  Again.  And is really getting on.  my.  last.  nerve.

Hong Kong.  Wow.

I was in Hong Kong 26 years ago as a college student (ouch) and loved it.  Now I remember why.  Hard to sum up, but I think it’s San Francisco squared.  And it’s China. And it’s London.  A great combination of Chinese and Western.  It’s even a bit of Hawaii (same latitude).  For Art and me, it’s everything we want in a “perfect city” and our time there was way too short.

In addition to too short a time, Art wasn’t feeling 100% and so we were not on our usual high-impact “adsventure” track of sight seeing.  He’s in the middle of a “polymyalgia rheumatica” bout (maybe, who knows, but this is what was diagnosed after 4 visits to the ER, lots of bloodwork, and a rheumatologist consult), and is slower than usual, but back on steroids this week and feeling much better.  Of course, this blows his chance to ride in the Tour in July…

In spite of a slower pace (which we all needed anyway) we saw a ton and I was surprised how today’s Hong Kong is pretty much the same Hong Kong I saw all those years ago. Surprising since the Brits gave Hong Kong back to China 14 years ago… and I wondered what would happen.  Luckily, in one of its wiser moves, China basically left Hong Kong alone, creating one country (China) with two governments (mainland versus HK).  It’s treated as a separate country, so our flight was an international flight, and we had to pass through immigration and customs both coming and going.  The language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, not Mandarin, but everyone speaks some measure of English so it’s super easy to get around.  Once there you can actually access the internet with no restrictions.  You can turn on the TV and watch the BBC or Nat Geo or major sports.  Imagine that.  We’re not a “big on TV” family, but we’d had no English-speaking TV or news for 12 weeks and Art is totally jonesing for his sports.  TV aside, the Chinese who live in HK live way differently than mainland Chinese, but that is another story for another day.  For us, HK was mostly just an awesome city.

We had two rooms at the Bishop Lei International House, a sweet hotel in the “mid-levels.”  Hong Kong sits on a steep hillside overlooking the sea and the “mid-levels” is the area literally halfway up… mostly fancy apartment buildings and private homes, but also the hopping Soho area where there are infinite great restaurants and hip shops and galleries (side note: and after the Bishop Lei, the kids know what to expect in Paris one day when we tell them the hotel rooms will be small but the neighborhood awesome). We took the 120 year old Peak Tram up to to Victoria’s Peak, used the world’s longest covered escalator (daily), took a glass bottom cable car ride from Lantau Island up to Ngong Ping and the Tian Tan Buddha, ate at a monastery, explored the fishing village of Tai O, took several ferry rides and several double decker bus rides, went to Stanley and Kowloon and the Jade Market.  And ate.  A lot.  Mexican, Italian, New Zealand burgers, and Bubba Gump’s… because as good as Chinese food is, we’re all craving variety*.  And yes, we even watched the royal wedding on TV since it was on at 6pm and the girls were totally intrigued. [*to be fair: you can get variety in Beijing, just not close to where we live]

The weather was warm and mostly misty/drizzly, plus a little humid… and really felt like Hawaii.  Especially on the outer islands which are hilly and dense with tropical vegetation… not to mention resorts… and amazing homes.  It’s one of the wealthiest cities in the world… and there is much in it to knock your socks off.

There was so much that we wanted to do, but didn’t get to (more of the islands, Soho and the mid-levels, the zoological gardens, swimming at the beaches, Ocean Park Amusement Park with a roller coaster that hangs off the side of a cliff, a “junk” ride, high tea at the Pennisula, etc.) that we’ll give ourselves at least a week next time.  You know… if we ever recover enough from the Spring of 2011 to actually come back to Asia one day…

Here are the first of the misty/foggy pictures.

Great airport with spankin' new high speed trains that zip you to central HK...

Fat Angelo's...

The Peak Tram is a great way to get a look at the city...

Great (albeit misty) views from Victoria's Peak...

Lush hillsides with high end living...

Something about great cities surrounded by water that just make them that much more special...

Me and Elle Bean...

Art catching the view...

 Hong Kong was a British colony for 150 years, and it shows… 

Spidergirl climbing walls again...

I was here 26 years ago and it's just exactly the same...

This was not here 26 years ago, but the ceasar salad (actually anything with romaine, arugula or spinach) was calling to me...

Hello gelato...

Exploring Soho...

Great hood...

The original Anthropologie shop?

Looking down same street...

These skinny side streets with great eats remind me so much of San Francisco...

That's the mid-levels escalator on the left... all told it's about a mile long... a series of covered, moving stairs, plus pedestrian bridges crossing over the streets. In HK it's considered a form of public transportation, and moves 55,000 people a day...

Walking back to the Bishop Lei...

I think my kids are enjoying being "city kids" but maybe that's just wishful thinking...

Took the train to Lantau Island where we boarded the "crystal cabin" (glass floor) cable car to Ngong Ping. Art is slow, but happy on this day...

We've lost track of how many cable cars we've ridden...

View as we leave Lantau...

Takes about a half hour to get up to where the big Buddha is, and it's not a straight shot. This ride has a sharp left turn in it... then climbs so high that visibility is reduced to zero.

Meditative path below the cable car spotted as we began decent... maybe reserved for the monks; we saw no one on it...

Raining when we reached the top... you can see the Tian Tan Buddha up on the hill behind Art's shoulder...

You wind through this quaint little "village" to get to the Buddha and the monastery (reminded us of Solvang, Calif)...

Singing in...

270 steps to the top (which is about the same as taking the steps to our 17th floor apartment)...

Cece and Tian Tan...

Made of Bronze... and over 100 feet high...

Right hand raised means a blessing/removing affliction (and note the ear lobes that symbolize perception)...

Surrounding the Tian Tan Buddha are these bronze statues making offerings...

There are 6 or 8 of these, each with a different offering...

Also at Ngong Ping are the Po Lin Temple and Monastery...

Little altar at the entrance to the temple...

The vegetarian lunch (prepared by the monks) we ate at the monastery...

Obligatory incense lighting...

Corn we passed on our way to the bus...

From Ngong Ping we hopped local bus #21 to get to Tai O.  This little fishing village was my favorite surprise of our Hong Kong trip.  To be continued…

Miscellaneous = 其它

This was one of the words on a recent vocabulary list from Cece’s Chinese class.  An odd word to teach a beginning Chinese student.  I can think of hundreds of words that would be a lot more useful to her right now.  Anyway.  A good word for me tonight.  I have so much stuff flying around the desktop on this computer… and no time to organize it for posting.  And so, in no special order and with no particular significance (and in some cases, no significance at all) here’s some recent 其它

• Most recently on my kindle have been: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum (good), The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (super), and The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (fabulous; I could not put it down.  A contender for my best book in 2011, though the year is young.).  I keep thinking I should be reading more about China, but I’ve shied away from my China books.  Maybe being fully immersed in it all is enough for now?  I am, however, clipping through: When a Billion Chinese Jump by Jon Watts.  A good read for insight into current China (which is different than the China of 10 or 5 or even 3 years ago), and one that leaves me worried for all of us (the environment) and sad for China… losing so much of itself to things western…
• There are many wonderful things about our time in China.  One of them is the girls trying to help Art and me in our efforts to figure out (fill in the blank) where we are, how to get to the next place, how to find/buy something, how to fix, etc, etc…  We do a lot of problem solving here and mostly they’re a part of that.  At home (I realize now) most of life is seamless to them…
• The girls went on their first Beijing sleepover on Friday night with two Chinese sisters.  Had a blast.  Some things are the same everywhere…
• The tooth fairy has been to our apartment three times (Elle: 2 and Cece: 1).  And we may see her one more time before we get out of here.  The Easter Bunny also made it; he left modified baskets with no jelly beans, and no peeps, but lots of sugar and fun girl things.  Apparently, the EB outsources to IKEA here….
• Homesick?  Not really.  The girls miss their friends, but neither has been homesick and we’ve not had a single teary “I want to go home” episode.  I think we’re just too busy for any homesickness to surface.  We also have a reasonable end date.  It’s not like we moved here permanently.
• Fluorescent lights are BIG in China.  In our apartment, for example, we have glaring flourecent tube lighting in the bedrooms, the living room and the office. The kitchen and bath, on the other hand (you know, the places where you might actually want task lighting), have scrawny 40 watt bulbs.  Weird.
• Of course, our kitchen has no stove so we don’t task ourselves too much in there. We eat out or carry in dinner most nights.  Tonight we ate at our favorite restaurant on campus: the Angel.   It’s one of the schmancier places at Renmin, and the menu is about 174 pages long… the food is delicious and one of the hostesses gives us “come back and save” coupons.  So we do.

Now, the misc/random pics:

Steve Jobs and Facebook are on the covers of best selling books here...

The nicer malls have all kinds of these "Learn English" centers. This one is Disney branded...

Chinese homework...

Elle showing Papa the art show entry her class did. American girl living in China learning about Aboriginal artwork...

A local mall...

We let the girls do indoor climbing at this mall...

When in Rome?

High...

Fearless...

New shoes...

Pink bunny...

For about 80 cents (on campus) you can buy a large wedge of hot street dough: plain or spicy with scallions and peppers... it's quite good!

I will do an entire post on Renmin soon. It's a huge campus with lots of new and lots of old...

Here's Cece (several weeks ago) at the front door of our apartment building. Using these big heavy canvas pads as "doors" (instead of simply using the actual doors) is a very popular thing to do here. On that cold, early morning in February when we first arrived, I assumed this was the loading dock and that we were coming in this way because of our suitcases... Ha.

Here's Elle in front of the same doors two days ago. The big heavy canvas pads are down, and up instead are thick plastic strips. I don't know, exactly, why they're opposed to using the regular doors...

Floors 1 through 16 of our building house female graduate students. In their apartments, they have no shower or bath facilities (and no hair dryers allowed) and no kitchens (and no electric kettles allowed). So every day they get their hot water (for tea, and presumably noodles) in these thermoses. There are always a bunch of them on the stoop...

Cheesecake...

My traveling screen team...

A while back... we gathered with some of the Fulbright and Embassy gang at Pure Lotus for the best Thai food in Beijing. Totally.

Corner market near BISS...

The noodleman...

The noodles...

Tiananmen Square apple boy...

Tiananmen Square cadets..

Cadets posing...

The avenue at Tiananmen Square...

Italian Red Meat Flavored Chips...

Cece and her teacher: the wonderful Miss O.

Elle again (on the day we were at the Great Wall)

The view from our bedroom... radically different now that it's Spring!

Last Saturday evening from our office window...

Heading to Hong Kong in the morning.  Will post again soon…

Another “catch up” post.  There’s so much happening here so quickly and so constantly that I think the blog will never be 100% up to date…

So last weekend we finally took the girls to the Great Wall.  We were lucky to do this with our neighbors Jack and Cherie who’ve been living in China with their two little boys for several years.  They’ve been critical to our adjustment here and are always around to help us figure out the latest glitch in our lives and in apartment 1705.  It helps that Jack is Chinese and speaks Mandarin, but mostly it helps that they are super friendly, thoughtful, good people.  They’re also a fun family, and their own boys had never been to the Wall, so this was an equally exciting adventure for them.

A private van picked us up at 7am, and the 9 of us (Jack’s aunt came along too) took off for the Badaling section of the Wall which is a little more than an hour from our apartment.  Badaling is a popular tourist spot, just a little further along, and higher up, than the spot we visited 6 years ago.  And it starts with… a cable car ride to the top.  I swear there are more cable cars in China than…

What you don’t realize and/or what you forget, is that most of the wall is not flat on top.  It never really levels out anywhere.  Instead it’s a steep climb either up or down, walking on either uneven stone steps or a steep stone ramp… with an occasional pass through a lookout tower.  It’s quite a workout.  And it is SO amazing.  And it is SO inspiring.  And such a glorious piece of Chinese history that you can’t help but feel humbled by it all.  It’s over 5,500 miles long and of course we saw only a mere snippet of it.  But I think the girls were impressed.  Jack also told them the famous Chinese folktale of Meng Jiangnv and her missing husband who died while building the wall… and ended up being buried inside of it.  Only no one knew exactly where he was buried…. so she cried in sorrow, endless tears, for three days and nights until part of the wall collapsed and his body was found.  I’m not sure what impressed Elle more, the wall itself or the story.  She keeps asking about how this man died and how they buried him in the wall…

I could have stayed longer, but with four kids and a decent crowd on the wall, a couple of hours was just about right.

We took the cable car back down, though for the record, there are other options.  One being a hike down the mountain, the other being a sort of toboggan slide ride (maybe next time).

We stopped for lunch and then a quick visit to the Ming Tombs where we threw money at the emperor’s throne and let the kids run around the park-like grounds…

A great day in China…

As we approached Badaling, our driver called out the wall ahead... which you can kind of see at 11:00 through the windshield...

Here's our gang...

My favorite thing to do in China...

But so worth it when you get to the top...

History...

Cece and Papa...

We made it...

Detail...

Can you see what I mean by steep...

Ever the fashionista...

How's the view?

So very fine. Even in the morning haze...

Red thread sisters...

And up...

Warming up in the sun and the crowd is growing thicker... a glorious day on the wall...

Elle and her buds...

Magnificent...

Inside one of the lookout towers...

Again...

The happy couple...

One more...

From the cable car on the way down...

Hills behind the Ming Tombs... where many of the 13 tombs are actually buried...

Friends...

Throwing money at one of the emperor's thrones...

It was Cece who noted that people were throwing a lot less money at the empress's throne. (time for the glass ceiling chat...)

This particular empress did, however, have a killer headpiece...

Camera battery failing as we wrap up a great day...

One morning last week when the girls were in school, Art and I found ourselves with a rare few hours with no classes to teach, no office hours, no meetings, and no skype calls with my office… so we did what any loving couple would do: we went to see Mao’s dead body.  I didn’t really want to go, but Art promised it would be fun.  He’s like that.

For the sake of time, we taxied over to Tiananmen Square and got there right at 9am.  And for the first time ever since we landed here in February, so did 65,000 other tourists.  Sorry, babe.  Neil Young.  OK.  But I am not standing in line for three hours to see a dead body.  And then…

Either Art was channelling Steven Spielberg on this morning and looking quasi-famous (seriously, this has happened before) or else we looked totally pathetic (equally plausible) because as we stood there debating what to do, a short older Chinese guard grabbed my arm, grabbed Art’s arm, started shouting and barking at us, then hustled us away from the line (running two steps ahead of us, waving one arm in the air, pushing through the crowds, and glancing behind every three feet to make sure we were keeping up with him).  We ran two blocks up and away from Mao’s mausoleum, across a wide avenue, up another block, and into a building where he kept shouting and grunting and pointing until we realized we needed to check our bags.  We did this (leaving all of our worldly goods behind) and ran back outside with this strange little man… down the block, then down stairs to an underground tunnel and back up again, then several blocks down to where the line was now even longer.  And he just kept on barking loud and mean while he marched us right up to the front of the line, winking at the dozen or so guards we passed by.  Then he lifted the rope, pushed our heads down, ducked us under and put us in line less than a 10 minute wait from the entrance.  He took 50 yuan from Art (about $7.50) and disappeared.  I don’t normally cut in line… but it’s not like we went looking for it.

So.  Mao died in 1976.  Immediately upon his death and against his wishes, he was embalmed, stuffed and dressed for exhibit.  They put him “on ice” in this great big ugly square communist building where people have been lining up to pay their respects for 35 years.  The Russians did the same thing to Lenin in 1924 (note: Art has seen Lenin’s dead body in Moscow.  Twice.)  Anyway.  I can only imagine the emotion that Chinese people (anyone between the ages of say 40 and 80) must feel for Mao.  He was great, I suppose.  He won the civil war and unified China (“Long live the People!”).  But mostly he was a mess.  In his effort to eradicate everything western, he forced all progress and all progressive thought to a grinding dead stop.  Thousands of people – mostly educated people – mysteriously disappeared under Mao.  Millions more starved, and 30 million starved to death.  Food production ceased, his steel industry was a disaster, and his economics even worse.  A complete mess which left China wrecked.

The crowds are moved through the mausoleum at a regular clip.  We had just a passing moment to get a look at him, and really all we saw was his puffy chest and the side of his face.  There’s an odd gold lightbulb shining on him.  Sure enough, he’s dead.

Afterward we walked around T Square for a while then down the avenue, past that spot where “Tank Man” had his brave standoff in 1989… then over to Wangfujing Street for spicy hot Chinese noodles and beer.

Tonight the girls are going to a slumber party so we’re having another date.  A Night of Puccini at the National Grand Theater…

We’ve been in China for 10 weeks now and have met a bunch of amazing, smart and kind people.  Kirsty – one of the teachers at the girls’ school – is one of them.  She’s been in Beijing for 15 years, has a beautiful Chinese daughter, and is one of those super smart confident women who make everything sound so matter-of-fact and easy (like, for example, speaking Chinese).  We went to her house for a dinner party tonight and met even more great people: a couple from New York City traveling through China for a few weeks with their 9-year-old Chinese daughter, and an American woman from Florida who last fall moved herself and her three Chinese daughters to a small town in Henan Province to run the foster home program of an orphanage there.  Our stories are all so different.  But so similar.  We had a great time with these folks tonight… wonderful food, great company… not to mention the fact that Kirsty lives in a real live hutong in a to-die-for neighborhood, in the best apartment I’ve seen so far… with a French deli a block away.  Hello.  I told Art I know exactly where we are living the next time he moves us to China.

On the way to Kirstys...

Yes.

See how lovely... tucked away sweetness in one of the worlds biggest cities...

Loft style...

A popular look everywhere...

Here we all are, minus Steve the other dad, and plus a couple of French kids from next door.

We came back from our Spring Break trip exhausted, but we were up early that Sunday, tempted by sunshine and blue skies in Beijing.  So off we went to the Summer Palace.  This is the Summer Palace.  Originally the “Garden of Clear Ripples” (I like that name) but destroyed and rebuilt over the ages… this is the place where the Empress Dowager Cixi built her fabulous summer retreat.  It’s way up here in the northwest quadrant of Beijing, and so only a short taxi ride from our apartment.

We toured Beijing in 2005 just before we adopted Elle, and stopped at the Summer Palace with the Winslows, the Klassens, the Gaines…  I remember walking the long covered corridor with Cece running the entire length in front of us (she was a little more than two and a half, and a very active toddler), and I remember the marble boat, but I don’t remember a lot of detail from that Beijing tour.  Too busy with Cece and way too excited to get to Wuhan for Elle.  Six years.  Hard to believe…

Anyway.  A gorgeous park to hang out in on a Sunday.  We rented a pedal boat and tooled around the lake (Lake Kunming).  Then went home and totally crashed… the way you do at the end of Spring Break.

Summer Palace entrance...

A huge park, actually. It got crowded during the 3 hours we were there... but was quiet and peaceful in the morning...

Lake Kunming...

Sister love...

Love this teapot at the "snack bar"...

Another one of those dragon dogs with antlers...

Spring chicks...

The long covered corridor...

Paint...

Detail...

Glazed roof tile...

Climbing up and up...

Spring arrives in Beijing...

Love these...

Our captain...

Sailors... (note the keeper of the Pringles...)

She took over my pedals... and had a lot more fun...

Empress Cece... always happy around water...

For me, the best part of Xi’an was our Friday morning bike ride on top of the Xi’an city wall.  A perfect, sunny morning and an easy 9 mile ride (the top of the wall is flat).  Plus we got such a kick out of the tandem bikes…

So many of China’s ancient city walls were torn down over the years.  Even in Beijing, aside from a small, symbolic section left in Tiananmen Square, the actual city wall is gone, so I’m glad we got to see (and drive through and ride on top of) this one.  It’s enormous and daunting… cold, dark stone that has been rebuilt a number of times since the original was built in the Tang dynasty about 1500 years ago.  The outer side of the wall is higher (to keep out the enemy of course) with lookouts every 20 or 30 feet, and fancy towers at every corner.  The Xi’an marathon is held each November with a full, half, and 5k on top of the wall.  A nice way to market Xi’an, and while I can see how running this wall would be fun… the pollution might keep some runners away…

City walls: the precursor to the gated community…

One of the gates through the Xian wall. Now THAT is a door...

Map girl...

Looks like fun...

Art shows off his cruiser style... the girls are still young enough to forgive him for this...

My riding partner for the first half...

Great place to ride a bike...

We stopped along the way for peeks...

This is what you see when you peer outside the wall....

Peering inside you see the original Xian...

All around the wall are archways like this for traffic to pass through...

Some areas are quite charming...

Should you run the Xian marathon and find yourself in need of a Belgian beer...

Another view "outside" the wall...

The scenery inside the wall ("old" Xian) changes throughout the ride...

The girls were smiles all morning...

Pit stop for ice cream at the halfway mark...

...and a lecture from Professor Svenson.

He could go all day...

Still life of mop leaning on door...

One last shot of the wall ride. Thats Art and Cece up ahead; see what I mean about having it all to ourselves...

After the bike ride, we spent the afternoon at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Da Ci’en (“mercy and kindness”) Buddhist Temple.  This was my favorite temple to date… quiet, austere, clean, meditative… all of those things you want in a temple, plus lovely gardens all around…

Cheap, fast lunch at McDonalds on the way to the pagoda. At this point, its day 6 or 7 on the road and we need to keep them hanging in there with us... so we bribe them as necessary, though mostly they are very agreeable travelers...

The Big Goose Pagoda... (it really is leaning to the left...)

Greeting Buddha...

Click to enlarge and notice the swastika on Buddhas chest: an ancient religious symbol. In Asia and India, the swastika is a positive symbol meaning goodness and well-being; weve seen it repeated in decorations in temples all over China.

The grounds of the pagoda and temple are among the prettiest weve seen in China...

White stone...

Impromptu tea...

Sunshine and springtime air add to the appeal...

Here, a statue of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang...

Quiet...

Austere...

Peaceful...

Best kids in the world...

Again...

"Artie, get the pagoda in the shot..."

Inside the Big Wild Goose Pagoda are stairs that wind up to the 7th level. We climbed em all.

On the way up was this man doing red ink rubbings of Buhddas feet... (more swastikas on Buddhas toes...)

View of Xian from the pagoda (note cranes in the distance; the number one thing happening in Xian right now...)

From a higher floor...

And one more view. A big city. Over 4 million and growing...

So long Xi’an…

(ps: apostrophes are still disappearing from the photo captions… I know this, but can’t seem to fix it…)

The father of one of Art’s students is a travel agent, and thanks to him we hooked up with a great driver (John; a really nice guy) for days 2 and 3 in Xi’an.  He picked us up bright and early from the Hyatt to beat any crowds out to the warriors… and the first thing we saw as we headed east out of town was the Xi’an nuclear reactor plant.  Sites like this are a little more intimidating these days…

Xian nuclear power. An overcast morning making this gritty side of town even more glum...

We spent a lot of time at the Warrior’s site.  There’s the museum… a bunch of restaurants, more shops than necessary, an old, grainy in-the-round historical film… and of course, the three pits.  The Chinese have done a lot to continually develop this tourist attraction over the years…  and are still getting quite a bang out of it…

The Warriors Museum...

Personally, I suspect the museum was added solely for crowd control, but we took a quick pass through...

Nicely curated exhibits. Cant forget the clay horses and chariots buried along with the soldiers...

View of the Xian hills behind them. This really was rural farm land at one time. Now... a lot of development creeping in with condos along the road leading here...

Our tour guide welcomes us to Pit #3 (we did the pits in reverse order as recommended by Lonely Planet...)

Inside pit 3...

OK. So we went for the cheesy tourist picture. Cute though...

Pits #3 and #2 have many displays like this... here, Elle shows us the archer...

Pit #1, displayed inside a large airplane hangar, is the big kahuna: the site that makes everyone gasp... especially when you realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Only about 2,000 of the estimated 6,000 statues in Pit #1 have actually been unearthed. You can walk around the entire pit, and we were lucky again... no crowds...

Each soldier is a little different...

Work in progress...

Closer...

Back of pit #1...

Us...

As you can imagine, there are 2,381,675 warriors statues for sale in the souvenir booths...

They choose black pottery flutes instead...

After the warriors we headed over to the beautiful grounds of Huaqing Hot Springs… a small lake, lots of pagodas and fabulous old stone walls and buildings that you can weave around for hours.  This is where Emperor Xuanzong carried on with his concubines.. and where in 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was arrested and held.  All of the grounds have been spruced up lately with sweet paths and super paint work.  Also here is the Forest of Steles: a series of large stone tablets with famous Chinese poems engraved in many styles of calligraphy.  The sun came out for a lovely afternoon stop…

Huaqing Hot Springs...

Trying to read a few characters... (she says Chinese is SO HARD and her teacher is SO MEAN... but I can tell how proud she is of all she is learning...)

Its art to me...

Awesome paint. Love the orange...

Peach...

Elle in one of the dozens of fancy pagodas...

Forest of Steles...

Each is different... I am trying to track down the exact poems carved on these tablets....

Cece's favorite...

She likes the bolder strokes...

Lots of fab old stone walls and steps for climbing...

Lovely, lively paint amidst all the grey stone and roof tiles...

My family is getting tired of my picture taking, but Elle hangs in there as my model...

Goodness...

Cece seizes the camera...

Another "photo by Cece" (shes good!)

Have to post at least one "kiss" picture. We've done this for years, in different places around the world... funny now to have our own kids snapping the picture...

For those of you wondering what split pants are. Chinese babies wear these until they are potty trained...

She promised it would be OK...

Eastern side of Xi'an...

Peaches, again...

Random wall with that chalky red/orange paint that rubs off on your clothes (how do I know this...)...

Bike against the wall...

To be continued…