It was the first time we could see the stars in China. They twinkled lightly above the granite outcroppings that loomed above us in the midnight sky. During the day, we had been sweating on the streets of Xian, but, here at Huashan, the night air was cool and got chillier as we worked our …
Here’s a video Galen put together of our hitchhiking failure:
The Terra-cotta Warriors are Xian’s biggest attraction, but the Han Emperor Jingdi’s smaller tomb on the outskirts of Xian is as impressive, if not as grand. Hundred foot tall tomb-mounds dapple the burial site just across the Wei River from Xian. Beneath these hills lie the tombs of the Emperor, his wife and others. Inside …
So, our first hitchhiking attempt was an epic fail. We knew we had to get out of the city, so, looking at a map, I figured that we could take the subway line to the northernmost station and walk to a bridge that would take us where we wanted to go. From there, I figured, …
Here are some additional photos from Xian. There is no particular order or theme:
Created around 215 B.C., the Terra-cotta Warriors are Xian’s best-known attractions. At the time they were created, they were one of the most impressive technological wonders of the period. Thousands of soldiers with individual faces stare back at us across the millennia, each face painstakingly formed into an individual with what was then cutting-edge technology. …
Continue reading ‘Terra-cotta Warriors and Technological Failures’ »
Here’s the Video Galen put together of our time in Xian. Check it out:
Xian is best-known as the fount of Chinese Civilization. It is the home of the Qin Dynasty, the dynasty that unified China in 221 B.C. It was here that the Qin Emperor was buried, along with thousands of his Terra-cotta Warriors. The Tang Dynasty was the height of Chinese Civilization and they made Xian into …
Just a short vignette: after we got off the bullet train in Xian, we made our way to the subway. For some reason, the Chinese will often dedicate two or three of the five ticket machines as coin-only machines, despite the fact that the coins are rarely used in China and that each of the …
City Lights, one of Charlie Chaplin’s most famous films, played on both the screens at the front of the car. Above it the speedometer flirted back and forth with three hundred kilometers per hour, about one hundred and eighty miles per hour. The numbers on the screen crept as high as three hundred and seven …