Well I've arrived in Xi'an safe and sound. On the night I arrived we went to have dinner with an ‘uncle’ of Laura's; in China it's standard for people to use terms like uncle, aunt, grandmother etc to refer to close friends of the family. These people were friends who run a restaurant so that's where we went. As usual the food was amazing, with heaps of different dishes. From there we went back to Laura’s place and got sorted out there. Laura spent quite a while trying to apologise for the apartment but I managed to convince her that there was no need. I've never judged anyone yet for not having a “good enough” or “big enough” place.

On Friday we just went to visit another ‘uncle’ for lunch. He's a guy from Laura's father’s home province. The food just kept coming . . . On interesting thing tat Laura explained to me is that because the words for remaining and fish are similar, it's traditional to serve a fish dish at new year, but to then take it away uneaten. It will then be eaten at a later time, when the new year celebration is complete. That's what happened in this case. It was a pretty impressive looking dish too, with whole fish cooked with whole spices including chilli and aniseed. The rest of the food was more than enough without that though.

Saturday saw me on a small tour bus going to see the terracotta warriors and other related (and unrelated) sites, as Laura has been to see them lots of times, including only last month with her boyfriend. The site is about an hour's drive out of Xi'an so we decided getting on a tour bus might be the best way for me to go. It probably was, and was a great day, but not without its problems. The English speaking guide that they sent along had OK English; probably about pre-intermediate level in terms of how they assess people for teaching purposes. That means maybe about the level Laura had in 2004 when she first arrived in New Zealand. He promptly announced that this was his first time working as a guide. He's a student at university in Xi'an. I asked him what he was studying, expecting to hear that he was doing history or archaeology or some other related subject. “Japanese”, he announced, without the slightest indication that he might think I was expecting anything else. He didn't really know much, and his English was not good enough to translate more than a fraction of what the Chinese guide, who clearly did know her stuff, was saying. Still, it was good to have someone there who spoke some English just as someone to talk to and to help fend off the hawkers. He was a very nice guy too and apologetic about his inability to do a better job.

The first stop was Lishan, one of the great scenic mountains in China. I was told we would be waiting a while there and I assumes we were picking up some other people. Later I discovered that some of the group had gone up a gondola and were walking back down the mountain – like I wouldn't have been really keen to go for a walk on one of China’s most scenic mountains!!! So that experience was pretty weird.

From there it was on to a small museum of mostly Tang dynasty artifacts. While Xi'an is now most famous for the terracotta warriors, which date from the Qin dynasty (3rd Century BC), the height of Xi'an's power, when it was possibly the most populous city in the world, and of great strategic importance at the start of the Silk Road, was in the Tang dynasty, which was during the 8th and 9th centuries AD.

Next was what they call the Undeground Palace, which is actually the mauseleum of the first Qin Emperor. The display is a bit garish in places but nevertheless does give a good sense of what the place must have looked like when it was built.

After that it was on to the warriors’ museum itself. Each of the three opened pits is covered by a huge building and the warriors are mostly still there in situ. You can see some restored ones in their original formations and bits of other broken ones as well. The whole thing is really quite amazing, considering that it was all created over two thousand years ago. I took some photos . . .
On the way back, we visited a hot spring where Chian Kai Shek hid out to avoid having to fight the Japanese. It's the site of “The Xi'an Incident” where a couple of his generals apparently mutinied against him (there are bullet holes in the walls) in order to “persuade” him to do the decent thing and actually use his army to oppose the Japanese. All in all a good day, despite a few odd things that occurred along the way.

Yesterday we went into the city to visit the mysteriously named “Big Goose Pagoda”. While Laura did point out a few pictures of wild geese on one wall, she didn’t know and we couldn't find out why it is called the Big Goose Pagoda. And yes, there is also a “Small Wild Goose Pagoda” too, so maybe the answer will yet be revealed. It's more than just the pagoda, but a whole Buddhist temple complex where people still go and pray. I climbed the seven levels of the pagoda but the weather was a bit misty so the view wasn't great. In fact it rained overnight – the first time I've been in a place when it has rained since I arrived in China. It rained again last night. Laura tells me the newspaper had reported that they fired 12 rockets into the sky to trigger the rain.

The other main event of the day was a visit to the province's main museum, where we had to queue for ages to get in! Actually Laura had never experienced that either in the many visits she has made, but it was a strange thing for me to witness. The museum covers human culture and civilisation in Shaanxi province from the earliest neolithic discoveries through to the end of the Ming dynasty with a bit of Qing stuff as well, but the main focus is on the earlier periods before the capital was relocated away from Xi'an, so mostly Qin, Han, Sui and Tang stuff can be found there, including some things I've seen before in books. A great place to visit, and entry was free!
Laura's family have been really good, offering to help me with anything I need to do. They're really making this trip great.

I'm at the internet cafe now and I can confirm that the Carpenters are still big in China; 'Yesterday Once More' is playing as I post this.