Xian

Our other day in Xian, we spent in the city. It is (relatively) green and has a city wall that is completely in tact. It is the best preserved city wall in China and was built in the Tang dynasty somewhere around 700-800 AD. This wall is impressive but causes traffic chaos since there are only a few points for traffic to get in and out of the city itself and the city has since grown significantly so sprawls around the outside as well as inside of the walls. It is about 12 metres tall (40 feet) and is about the same width at the top. You can walk or even cycle the whole way around it, about 9 miles.
We also visited every other attraction in the city including the fabulous museum (Olivia was keen to get inside all the exhibits rather than look at them!), Drum and Bell tower, monastery, fountain and light show and the garden of stone tablets. Again, it was great having a guide and driver since we just hopped in and out of the car and had everything translated for us.
Xian was the start of the silk road - basically the trading route between China and the Middle East. It was a route for goods, knowledge and ideas between East and West around 200 BC! It is truly unbelievable when you see all the incredible things that China created and invented when the rest of the world was still in loin cloths! Some of these things, modern scientists still haven't figured out how they did them and the knowledge has been lost. Carl and I felt we had a little more insight into China's long history after our Xian trip. Not so sure Olivia felt the same.

Terracotta Warriors

Another place on our 'must-see' list was Xian and the Terracotta Warriors. There are a surprising number of expats living in Beijing who have never been even though it is only a 1 hour flight away. Olivia by this point is getting an expert in planes and has her own frequent flyer number (at the time of me writing this she has in fact been on 39 flights in her short life!).
Anyway, Xian isn't the most exciting of towns; there isn't much reason for going other than the Warriors which are a 1 hour trip outside the city. Again, we hired a driver, guide and minibus (Chinese public transportation isn't for the faint hearted or non-Mandarin speaker).
The warriors were buried around 210 BC (that's OLD!) but weren't discovered until 1974. The figures are were designed to guard the first Qin Emporer's tomb, and it is estimated that there are over 8000 soldiers, plus cavalrymen, generals, horsemen and musicians. They are buried in three pits and mostly the figures and horses are excavated and repaired but left in situ. This means you are viewing them under giant aircraft hanger type buildings.
The scale is astonishing and it is incredible that most of the warriors are still buried. Apparently when the figures were originally dug up, they were covered in bright coloured paint, but this oxidised immediately and now the all appear brown/grey. Archaeologists are leaving many warriors buried until technology advances enough for them to be excavated and then the bring paint preserved.
It was great having a guide with us as she explained all the details about the figures. They all have mustaches, each one is different, the hairstyles of each one tell you what rank and role they held etc. It is one of those places that i can't really describe and photos don't do it justice. You'll just have to go and see it. Unfortunately I don't think that Olivia will remember, so she'll have to go back too!

Washing bunny

Olivia's favourite toy, creatively named 'Bunny', has been all around the world. Because he (or she, we are not quite sure) is white he tends to get a little grubby. So mummy washes him.
Olivia is surprisingly unconcerned about this and doesn't seem to mind him smelling of washing powder rather than drool, dirt and general grub. Here she is in our apartment watching and waiting.

Zhouzhuang locals

As much as Zhouzhuang was a tourist center, it was also residential. Chinese had been living there for centuries and were still fishing and carrying on with daily life. I took some photos of old ladies just hanging out and mending fishing nets pretending that the tourists weren't there.

China's venice

One of the things that I had wanted to do was visit one of the water towns near Shanghai (remember Carl wanted Barbie World, I wanted water town!). We hired a tour guide, Jessica, and a minivan for the 1.5 hour drive east of Shanghai. Unfortunately we were visiting on a long weekend so we knew that it would be full of tourists. It is hard to escape tourists and people in China, and this water town was no exception. One of the things that was surprising to me is just how many Chinese tourists there were everywhere; we barely saw any Westerners and we weren't exactly off the beaten track.
Anyway, we visited Zhouzhuang. It is a small village that has been well preserved (or restored) and mostly built around 1500-1600. Zhouzhuang is surrounded and divided by lakes and rivers so the houses are on canals, hence the name 'The Venice of the East'. It has one very famous bridge called the Twin Bridges (I guess therefore it has 2 famous bridges!) which are shaped somehow like a key. Couldn't see it myself but that could have been because there were about 200 people on this tiny bridge at the time and I was trying to navigate it with a stroller!
We took a trip in a boat, our goldolier offered to sing for us, we paid him to shut up. Jeez, it was worse than Carl's singing; however it did put Olivia to sleep which was a bonus.
Definitely worth going to see but would have been nicer with fewer tourists.

Barbie World

While we were in Shanghai, we had to visit Barbie World. Apparently it is the latest thing in retail space, and since Apple is looking at Shanghai too, Carl insisted that we go (honestly, Olivia and I weren't that keen). It was a little bit like a Barbie museum with many of the old Barbie dolls on display (Astronaut Barbie from 40 years ago, Olympic Barbie from the US Summer Olympics etc). Olivia managed to find the one Barbie she did like: poop-a-scoop Barbie! One with a dog and dog poop and a little scooper. Nice! I have to say that the toilets in the store were fab though. Apple retail could learn from that.
Up on the top floor was a runway where little girls (and boys presumably if they wanted) could get all dressed up in Barbie clothes, prance down a runway, and then get their pictures taken. Olivia snuck under the barrier and sat down to view the antics (she's the one at the back in boy clothes and red trousers); she was a little bemused but sat quietly. I have to say that the Chinese girls on the runway all looked miserable, I thought that this was meant to be fun!
On leaving the store, Olivia said, "OK now, can we go to Puppy World now?"; the whole time that we had been telling her we were going to "Barbie World", she had thought we were saying "Puppy World". She was very disappointed and we had to go get treats for some additional excitement.

Shanghai

Once we had confirmation of our exact departure from Beijing (May 15th) we went on a couple of long weekends to see some more of China. One of the destinations was Shanghai; Carl had already visited but I had not. It's official population is in fact more than Beijing (somewhere around 19 million) but it feels older. Beijing has been bulldozed and rebuilt but Shanghai has retained far more buildings from over the last 2oo years. It was still a big city, polluted, cold, and basically a giant building site as the World Expo is going to be held in Shanghai in 2010. There are cranes and machinery operating 24 hours a day.
Anyway, it was fun to go and visit. Right downtown is the Yu Yuan Gardens built around 1580. Very tranquil except for 1 million Chinese tourists. Olivia was particularly fascinated with the fish (and why not?).

Chinese acrobats

One of the things that we were told that we had to do whilst in China was visit the acrobats. Now it wasn't quite Cirque de Soleil but by now we are used to a Chinese version of everything western and that just about summed it up. Quite impressive gymnastic skills and a good spectacle. Worth going to see once, even though we could see that the plates were actually stuck to the end of the poles. No idea how they got 20 girls on one bike, I feel sorry for the one actually pedalling; how would you like 19 friends to be sitting on you?

Finally

So I actually got round to clearing out my computer and downloading photos (all 308 of them!). I wasn't really planning on continuing writing on this blog since our adventures in California aren't exactly as scintillating as those in Asia. But, since all our family is at least a 5 hour flight away, I'll post occasional antics and photos plus post the remaining photos of the interesting China stuff too.

Here goes...