Trip to Xi'an and Hua Shan (Shaanxi province), 4-6 September

We took the train from Beijing. I hated that Beijing West train station because it was so big and confusing (biggest in Asia). Our cabin was really comfortable, it reminded me of the second class rooms on the Titanic. My mommy and I were on the bottom bunks, but I told her next time I want to be on the top. When we arrived in Xi'an, we had to hurry to get our stuff together. When we got all the way out of the station to the taxis, mommy discovered we forgot my Star Wars library book in the train. We went to platform 1 and there were two ladies that we asked and told them we left our book, they went in the train and gave the book back and just as we were leaving the train pulled out.

Hua Shan mountain
At the bottom, we got tickets, then took a cable car halfway up the mountain. It was really scary for me and I was really angry with my mom because she kept putting the camera out the window to take pictures and I was afraid it would fall down 3000 miles. When we got out of the cable car, we went up millions and millions and trillions of steps. When we got to the top of the whole mountain, we looked at the view, I was so scared of the view tht I couldn't look. I got a gold medal and mom got a silver medal. The medals are in my house right now. We bought a lock in the beginning before we walked up, we came to a shop with two women and they offered a lock, we got one, they engraved our Chinese names into it, we went about 120 ft up and put our little lock there, so that when we come back we can see and remember. I have the key at home. Then we went down the steps to the bottom of the mountain, which took a long time. My mommy bought some mountain mushrooms the people were selling.

We also went to the Terracotta warriors. It was really great but most of it was destroyed by bad guys that didn't like the emperor so they stole the weapons the warriors were carrying (you can see they are missing by the holes in their hands). Those bad guys were going to use them because they were real weapons. Some were bronze.

Then we met the person who actually discovered it all one day while he was farming. We asked him what he thought it was when he found it ? (He said he thought it was some kind of temple). He is now about 78 years old. He smiles a lot and we took a picture. There was a picture of Bill Clinton meeting that same man.

The general terracotta warriors had a special hand sign and officers had one hand curved and one hand on side, and plain soldiers just both hands in a straight position like the Sanlitun compound guards. Also the kneeling archers and the standing archer. The two knot on the head was the general. I got a photo with myself as an archer.

They even had color about 3000 years ago but when they dug up the statutes, 3 days later the color disappears. There is still a lot to discover at that place.