Morning in Xian

I am now sitting in The Hyatt, Xian, the city where the Terra-cotta armies are located(well, a few miles outside to be true), it's now 4:44 am and as I've not written anything in a few days, awoke with all these thoughts flying through the 'brain box'. 

This land is a land of complete and utter opposing contrasts; if there is such a thing. On one hand you have the most amazing new construction and right at their base, sit the oldest, crumbling homes and businesses, you have the pleasure of being able to still see. Take for example the pictures of the restaurant we went to, situated in the Hutong, or old section of the city. 

This area is where you walk, go through on a bike or in our case a Rickshaw as the streets are so narrow, cars cannot pass. The restaurant was a (slightly)remodeled home, where we sat in the courtyard and had an absolute feast, of Yunnan foods. In their original form the courtyard, is where the family would gather; there are normally 2-3 generations of family living together. We had the pleasure of visiting with a gentleman(Mr. Wu), who had opened his home to the tourist trade in order to supplement his income, to pay for his Grand Daughters education. The Courtyard picture you see, is also where, would you believe, Henry Kissinger sat(he had the pictures to prove) during his trip, to the Olympic Games. There were 9 tiny rooms, which were separated into 3-3 room 'suites', each suite had a kitchen, living room and bedroom.....guess what, only ONE bathroom in the entire place; glad to say this family doesn't live there, as we'd never be able to co-ordinate life, if you know what I mean!!! 

Mr. Wu is a retired Archeologist, who in the 1950's, worked as the carbon dating expert on the Terra-cotta Army 'Pit 1' site, talk about a small world, seeing as though here we are, going to visit the 'Pit 3' site today, where they just discovered some new statues. So far, as we were told last night, the 'Gov.' has as yet, not passed the 'do not show law', so we're hoping to be able to get ourselves dirty, literally. What a treat, to be able to see a 3 day old excavation, where new things are being uncovered, as I write!!!

.....back to the food, the fixed price menu consisted of 'Tofu Skin w/ Mint, Smoked Pork Ribs, Dried Beef w/ Crispy Wild Mushrooms, Chinese Cheese(think Feta without the taste), Asparagus w/ Goji Berries, Wild Mushrooms 'n' Peppers, Potato Spring Rolls, Pressed Minted Beef(mouth-numbing, literally, but I'll get to that later), Blackened 'Lo Fei Yu(a Yunnan freshwater fish), Soy Chicken w/ Chinese Beans(think giant Fava beans), Spicy Rice Noodle and Rice.....phew!!! All this to be washed down with once again, pots and pots of the freshest(in our case), Jasmine Tea; and did I mention 180RMB per person, which equates to $25 each, unbelievable!!!

Well, it's now 7:00(yes I've been doing other things in between writing) and I need to get it together to visit 'The Dig'.

Hope all's well with y'all. I'll do my best to catch up completely, as I have a few more restaurants to tempt you with and I haven't even begun to regale you with any of the sights(seen) and places we've been. Speaking of which, we(Tayler and I) tobogganed down 'The Great Wall'!!!

Ades