Terracotta Warriors

Trip Start May 29, 2008
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Trip End Dec 19, 2008


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Flag of China  , Shaanxi,
Friday, October 10, 2008

We flew off to Xi'an to see what's labeled as the 8th Wonder of the World - Terracotta Soldiers. This was one of the more freaky sights as there were thousands of terracotta soldiers just in organized little rows that looked like they would just transform into real soldiers and attack us. It was really a sight and must have taken forever to build and setup. Apparently, these were stumbled upon as they were lost and never talked about but the soldiers were guarding, at least symbolically, a king's tomb. Every one of them had a bronze sword in their hands when originally built although they had all been removed to be used as props at Medieval Times in Los Angeles. Not really but that'd be a pretty cool prop. Anyway, many of these soldiers were demolished or broken in some way and the curators were attempting at putting them back together. This area was huge. It felt like a huge football stadium that these soldiers were in and they had probably only uncovered a quarter of the soldiers. Truth be told, it was really impressive but I would think something like the "sporknive" we used in a swanky Hong Kong hotel would be more appropriate as the 8th Wonder of the World.

Later on, we went to the Xi'an City Wall which is the biggest, best preserved ancient site in China. It lived up to its billing as we were able to go up it and see the city from the top of it. It circulated the city and was used as protection back in the day. They also had bikes you could rent to take around the top of the wall. Rachel and I had to take the two-seater bike because we had always wanted to ride one of those dorky bikes. The bike was stylish and practical and we showed it off throughout our ride. I wanted to put a baseball card or credit card on the back of the tire so that people knew I was coming down the road but Rachel wouldn't let me so I had to use the bike bell to make people notice us. It was a cool trip and I scared Rachel a little bit by riding with no hands. She was not happy because I have a bad habit of falling off the bike when I do that. The bike experience was a great one.

Rachel had to try the ancient art of cupping while in Xi'an. Cupping is a detox procedure where they use cups to, literally, suck the toxins from your system by lighting the interior in flames and immediately therafter plopping them onto your back. The cups proceed to extract toxins from your skin. We thought it was a long shot to find it because we would have to try and find a massage spa and try and request cupping. Luckily, I was able to explain to the manager of the spa through acting it out. Our years of charade experience came in handy in China as Rachel too had to act out bicycling when we looked for a bike on the Xi'an wall. Not to digress, Rachel was all prepped for the cupping procedure. It was the freakiest thing as the cups were lit and then sucked a few inches of skin into the cup. You could see the skin being vacuumed into the cup right before your eyes. It looked like an alien starting to pop out of Sigourney Weaver. Rachel said it was the weirdest feeling and almost hurt at times. Eventually, the lady took off the cups to leave a huge inverse crater on Rachel's back - it looked like a massive pimple the size of 2 grapefruits. The lady had to flatten them out like they were bloated pancakes. There were still big red circles on her back. Maybe aliens were really changing their earthly encounters from crop circles to cupping circles? Hmmmm.....there's a theory.
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