xi'an.

our last few days in beijing were more than enjoyable.. boosted our egos by being in dozens of photo shoots with couples, friends, families (sometimes voluntarily).. while walking down the streets, us foreigners are quite the attraction. watched the flag ceremony in tien'amen square at sundown.. soldiers perform this ceremony at precisely the same time every morning at sunrise and every evening at sundown to raise and take down the chinese flag. they looked almost robotic marching across the street and into the square, not even slightly out of step.

that same morning we viewed the body of mao zedong, preserved in a glass coffin in a memorial hall.. he was responsible for the communist movement here in china. people would walk into the building and bow to his picture as though he were a god.. i felt a little unsettled afterward.. could have been that he's been dead for over 30 years?

checked out the forbidden city and the summer palace.. both extremely impressive. amazing gardens, ponds and architecture over a massive amount of space permitted only for the emperor, staff, and elite guests.. the guy was a little excessive, but had equisitite taste none-the-less.. found a secret little side street which sold unimaginable things on sticks.. scorpions, starfish, sea horses, chicken hearts, huge beatles.. (we opted for the candied apples with walnuts).

will miss the repetitive loogies being horked on subways.. streets.. hell, even building hallways.. not to mention snot rockets, sometimes aimed at garbage cans.. (and unsuspecting enemies i'm sure..) also the method of potty training infants which is composed of slitting pant seams from front to back and letting them go wherever, whenever. oh china, how i will miss you..

we took a 10 hour train down to xi'an and have spent a few wonderful days here exploring the little markets and dining in back streets.. today we went to see the terra cotta soldiers. 8th wonder of the world.. absolutely phenomenal the lengths this tainted emperor took to protect himself in the afterlife.. karma's a bitch! (for those of you who do not know the story of the terra cotta soldiers, i urge you to check into it..) basically, this guy killed tons of people, and then started getting nervous about the afterlife. so he forced thousands of people to carve thousands upon thousands of individually faced warriors (archers, sword carriers, horses and chariots..) to be his protective army after he died. then he killed everyone who aided in the construction because he didn't want anyone to know the whereabouts of his tomb. people found it anyway, and destroyed the warriors leaving him vulnerable. it was discovered in the 70's by some farmers digging a well, and they have been excavating and slowly piecing everything together since then.. heavy.

today we found out that stacy and christine ate what we thought was some type of seafood.. but was, in fact, worms. not tentacles after all, just little bundles of wriggly delight. they said it tasted good anyways, but are glad to get the info after-the-fact. tomorrow, 20 hour train ride to hangzhou for a reunion/wedding/party of sorts!