Jumping, Climbing, Admiring, Waiting...

The acrobat show in Beijing was another incredible display we're happy we didn't miss. Unfortunately though, Marc had been hit with a bout of stomach failure so he was a little off for one and a half days. Thankfully it fell at the perfect time as it didn't overlap with any sightseeing or train rides...

Big news. I am now a man. Or so I'm told. Apparently climbing the Great Wall of China makes a true man. Maybe 'man' was used in the generic sense, as in 'person'... Let's hope so! We took a 3+ hour bus ride to a remote section of the Great Wall and spent a long, exhausting four hours trekking along the wall. We scaled some really treacherous, crumbling terrain that would never pass safety standards in any western country! We were essentially on our own for most of it as this section is not frequented by many tourists. Brilliant. We did have some informal local guides - Mongolian farmers from nearby villages. Of course their assistance ended with them guilting us all into buying some souvenirs! Amidst hanging on for dear life, clutching at our hearts due to our lack of fitness and tearing open our water bottles out of dire thirst, we reminded ourselves to stop and enjoy the view. Wow. We climbed the Great Wall of China. And it was incredible. We have the pics to prove it and will share upon our return!

Yesterday we went to see the Terracotta Warriors - an army of approximately 7,000 'men', created around 200 B.C. to protect the Emporer Qin in his mausoleum. Each figure has unique features as each represented a real warrior. They were discovered in 1974 by some farmers digging a well. Only some of them have been excavated to date. What an incredible archaeological discovery.

The warriors are located about an hour outside Xi'an, a city of almost 8 million. We were expecting a small city with clean air... instead, we found a massive city with more pollution than Beijing! It's so smoggy you can't see the sun *cough, cough* It's a beautiful city though and we're really enjoying it here. Last night we went out for a dumpling feast - the dumplings were in the shape of what was inside, i.e., walnut, chicken, pork, etc. Afterwards we hit Bar Street for a while, then were off to 'The Best Karaoke Bar in China'. We had the greatest time - in our own room with leather couches... You select your drinks and snacks from the adjacent store and the staff walks through with you filling a basket up with your goods! We closed the place down and got back to our hotel at about 3 a.m...

We're off to eat lunch in the Muslim Quarter, check out the mosque, walk along the city wall (Xi'an is an ancient city with its wall still intact), and then do some more shopping in the market - and hit the Jade Market as well!

This evening we're off on another train ride, to Shanghai... It's expected to be 16 hours, although our expectations for timeliness have all but disappeared. Our train to Xi'an from Beijing was to be 14 hours, but once we were on, we learned it was a newer and faster train so we would arrive in 11-12 hrs. That would have happened, had we not stopped at 5:30 a.m. due to a train derailment ahead of us... We began moving again at about 3 p.m., arriving at 5:30 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. For a country that can apparently construct a hospital in 14 days, we have no idea what caused the delay. Sitting on a train for 20 hours (we had sleepers so at least we could stretch out and nap) isn't the worst of it when you're dealing with squatting toilets that hadn't been cleaned for the entire duration. The staff kept getting additional stock of noodle bowls to feed us... Yummy!

Wish us luck tonight!