Soft light hits a Terracotta Warrior outside Xi'an, Shaanci Province, China.

Greetings: The last post on my former blog was on April 12, 2010. Although that was only two weeks ago — a lot has happened. Its been a very busy month for me, full of travel, photographs, interesting places and very interesting people. During April my path went: Beijing —> Xi’an, Shaanxi Province —> Haoshan, Shaanxi Province —> Xi’an, Shaanxi Province —> Beijing — > Shanghai —> Beijing —> Shanghai —> Beijing —> Shenyang, Liaoning Province —> Kailu, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region —> Beijing —> Shanghai —> Beijing. Or Say that 10 times fast …

This is also the equivalent of:

• 10 plane rides (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 3 days, for 30 days)
• 15 car voyages (or the equivalent of 1 voyage every other day, for 30 days)
• 1 train excursion (or the equivalent of 1 voyage every 30 days)
• 3 bus rides (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 10 days)
• 2 donkey rides (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 15 days)
• 1 horse ride (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 30 days)
• 1 tractor ride (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 30 days)
• 1 joy ride in a police car sitting in the front seat — not the back (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 30 days)
• 10 tuktuk rides (or the equivalent of 1 ride every 3 days for 30 days)

Xi’an: Central China

All of the travel this month was work related, mostly to do with the Shanghai Expo, except this trip to Xi’an was on a whim. Xi’an is in central China an is known foremost of its geographic proximity to the Terracotta Warriors 兵马俑 . The shot at the top of this post made it into my China portfolio on the site — just a small bit of light at the end of the day hitting one of the statues. This was a little different than most of the standard stuff you see like in the slideshow directly above.

Like most Chinese tourist attractions, its always fun to see ancient things, surrounded by thousands of your closest friends. I’ve been in the Forbidden City at points where its similar to being at a rock concert. While I would go to the dig site if I were in Xi’an, I probably wouldn’t fly there just to do that. Also, like most things in China — one has to wonder about the validity of the statues and how much work has been done to them, to make it a viable tourist attraction.

Wikipedia says on the site:

The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. (Chinese: 秦始皇陵; pinyin: Qín Shǐhuáng di). The figures vary in height (183–195 cm – 6 ft–6 ft 5in), according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.[1] Many archeologists believe that there are many pits still waiting to be discovered.

While I was at the dig site, there were actually (what looked like) archeologists with brushes out and small tools digging away at the ground. This was pretty interesting to see in person, but beyond that — I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time in this area. On a positive note: the police are very friendly and like Western drinking partners. If your nice enough, they will even let you drive their cars …