When Phil and I get our lovely 3 week PAID vacation for the Chinese New Year in late January and early February, Xi’an will probably be one of our destinations of choice. We are trying to organize a trip that takes us in a slow, northen direction until we reach the artic cold of Harbin to see the annual Ice festival. We haven’t mapped out everything yet, and can’t until we know where we will be next semester. I will post about that problem soon, but I first want to show you something funny that made the news not too long ago.

For those of you who don’t know, Xi’an is a very popular tourist destination because of the Terra Cotta Warriors you can find there. Apparently, each warrior is an individual(so far as I have heard) and none of their faces are repeated. For the longest time, I thought the Terra-Cotta Warrior were the size of She-Ra action figures or maybe as tall as a Barbie doll. I don’t think I ever thought they were life size. Maybe I thought this because every picture I have ever seen has been an aerial view of the pit they all stand in or a super up close one like the picture above. So, I was quiet surprised to come across this article a few weeks ago. When I started reading it, I thought maybe it was a joke. I kept thinking, “How in the world could someone not see this guy? He could step on one for crying out loud!” Slowly I understood it, and felt really, really dumb. I can’t help that I am slow! But at least now I won’t show up in Xi’an looking for Terra Cotta Warriors who’s heads might have come up to my ankle. I can imagine what my face would have looked like when I actually got there and saw 5 feet tall creatures. Pablo(Ma Lin) must have been authentic looking as hell to blend in the way he did. I’m quiet surprised he got off only with a stern talking to and didn’t get carted off to a Chinese prison.