Xian 2

We really enjoyed our trip to Xian (She Ahn). We went on a guided tour with 10 other families. Our tour coordinator is awesome. She has lived in China for about 8 years. She sets up the trips to be completely kid friendly and has plenty of snacks and activities for the kids to do. We will definitely go with her again. So the first day we flew to Xian and then went and ate a big Chinese meal. It was raining so we changed from going to see the city wall to going to an art museum that showcased traditional Chinese art. The kids got to try their hand at calligraphy while we heard about the history. Then we went to our hotel which was very nice and checked in and then off to the Bell Tower. From the bell tower you could see down the avenues at both modern and historic buildings (and lots of cars and people). Then we went to a 40 course dumpling dinner and stuffed ourselves silly. On Saturday we went to the site of the Terracotta Warriors. This was really neat to see all the different facial expressions. When I get all the way thru the pictures I'll post some more. We ate another big lunch where the kids got a chance to make dumplings with the chief and then headed back to the city wall to take a bike ride or a golf cart tour (that is what we did) around the wall that is about 10 miles. The next day we went to a really old mosque that dates back to the silk road days of China and it was amazing. We even got to witness some of the praying. Not quite like you see in the middle eastern mosques. We also went to another site with more artifacts. It was interesting but not as much as the warrior site. The day was so pretty that we rushed thru and then let the kids play outside. Then we got on a plane and came home. All the Chinese food that we ate over the weekend was not the spicy kind that we are used to. So when we got home we had to hit the Indian food restaurant for some spice. That is our new form of a Mexican food outing. Anyway, it was a good weekend but we are happy to be home. It was funny listening to the kids begging to back home to Shanghai instead of back home to the US.