Sunday, April 16, 2006

a whole lot of holes

kneeling archer
kneeling archer
Originally uploaded by vfowler.
The price of the Eastern Tour jumped faster than Jim Beam could update his brochures. 285 yuan is today's price for a bus load of tourists wanting to see thousands of statues. Ask yourself, why take a tour?

Tang dynasty architectureold hot springsong and danceElen, our tour guide, cut loose with her immense knowledge in a spiel that lasted all the way to... the first of the morning attractions. Some museum place inside an old Tang dynasty? architecture building with a pair of stone lions - that look more like dogs with fleas; - patting various parts brings love, wealth, beauty, etcetera. The Huaqing pools once were working hot springs. Nowadays they're just a whole lot of holes! Some crappy jade factory was next, followed by a stop at a tomb where we watched a song and dance. Then lunch in the rather bad service restaurant.

frame from Hero movie - go see itterracotta dudes - the front linersFinally we arrived at the excavation pits of the army of terracotta warriors. If you paid attention in history class, watched the Hero movie or did any research on UNESCO world heritage sites, you'd find the first emporer of a unified China is the one and only Qin Shi Huang. Uniting the states, standardising the currency and the written script, and linking city walls (starting The Great Wall), road and canal networks are some of the impressive feats acheived during the brief Qin dynasty.

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