XIAN MEANS DELICIOUS

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Xian in Mandarin means delicious and there weren't kidding. we have had some fantastic food here today - although at one restaurant they gave me a knife and a fork (how embarrasing) which I refused to use of course. Xian is another busy city with more older architecture than beijing which gives it a bit more soul I feel. The traffic is just as insane, the polution is ever present *apparently there has not been a day of blue sky this year ! - This Year !!! - It's Semptember.

We met a friend of Jacks Today - Liu, and she showed us around which was awesome. she is really nice and laughed at me pulling some pranks on Jack. We Visited the Goose Pagoda a 1400 year old tower that is the birthplace of Buddhism in China. Apparently this is where the master of Buddhism got back from his trip to India and translated it into Chinese. This is the story of the Monkey King, Journey into the west, Monkey magic that i used to watch as a kid. It seems so important to the development of hina and it's present day identity, I saw a large sign that said "this is the backnbone of China" and I believe it.

Something I have noticed is parents out somewhere with their child (I did see twin girls today) seeing historical places, going out together. I think this is really great as they are not just young kids but teenagers and in their twenties. there is a very strong family connection that I have seen and it's really cool. Oh today we were in our Hotel and there was a really loud long sound of a siren sounding. It went for ages then stopped and started again. This happened several times which i thought was strange. i later found out that today is the anniversary of when the Japanese invaded China in 1932. They sound the sirens every year on this day as a reminder of all the people that were killed in that occupation/war. hmm

The funniest thing today was this Taxi driver. We jumped in a taxi and jJcks door wouldn't shut, and the guy started being agressive and rude, eventually he came around to the door and flipped the catch and it was fine but he gave me the biggest greasy and then kept mouthing off at Jack so we all jumped out of the car and I was ready to punch on if he tried anything. I have never seen Jack look so mad and we flipped him off and got another taxi - it was weird, and funny ... afterwards.

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Photos

GOOSE PAGODA
this building has a noticable lean on it from the earthquake last year

PAPARAZZI
Jack and his new frickin camera

Comments

[Victor]

Hey Pranksta!
Hey man! Looks pretty rad! Did you get some new clothes? So is Jack happy with the new camera that he bought? Have you found him a wife yet? Looks like a new tshirt. Jack is a funny lad, it would've been awesome to see him that angry.