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We've been a bit slack at keeping our blog up to date. Seems like we have done loads since our last entry, we are now in Kunming, southern china. Our last few days have been spent in Xi'an, pronounced Shi-an, where we saw the terra cota warriors which were great. The warriors were built to protect Emporer Shi Huang Di in the afterlife, however upon the emporors death, the peasants rose up to defeat the ruling classes and subsequently ransacked the tombs. They were set alight which caused the cielings to colapse burrying the warriors until 1974 when they were rediscovered by some farmers. (Yes I know, a very brief history lesson, there is much more to it but I don't want to bore you)
The scale of the tombs was suprising, the area they cover is huge, presently there are three excavated pits but they believe there are many more warriors waiting to be found. The museum was well organised and definatly worth the visit, another one ticked off the list!! Helen thinks that when they are all found they will come to life and take over the world.
Our last days in Bejing were spent at Tiananman
square and the forbidden city. the square is HUGE but thats about it, on either side are two parliment buildings, south is Mao's tomb where his body lies embalmed - nice!! and to the north is the forbidden city. A monument stands at the square's centre and a lone CPC flag stands opposite the forbidden city, although steeped in political history, the square itself is not that interesting, atleast thats what I thought, it was the forbidden city that I found most impressive.
We paid for a guide when we visited the forbidden city on Wednesday morning and it was welll worth it. Not only did he keep us well infomed but also gave us an insight into modern chinese life I found it interesting that when he was talking about Chairman Mao he mentioned how the older generation still honours him like a god but the new generation 'don't really care'. (This will probably get censored now). He also talked about the one child policy and how it only affects the Han people of China, which make up 90% of the population, other ethnic groups do not have the same ruling. He said that he had a sister
and that his parents had had to pay a huge fine, I think he said it was equivalant to 3 years salary!!! It was now paid after much borrowing from family. Kevin (his English name) was very nice and good at his job, he had lots to say but my time and patience is running out with this computer so I'll leave you with this final interesting but also quite alaming fact. It is estimated that Beijing alone puts 1000 new cars on the roads everyday. And you wonder why fuel is so expensive.
The forbidden city was very beautiful but I think i have gone on enough now so I'll let the pictures do the talking.
-A message to my 'english teacher', if you can tell me where the spell checker is in Chinese then I'll use it xxx
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jim and sue
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still envious
fantastic. not sure which is the dummy steve! warriors must have been awe inspiring.