Xi'an

Today was the first day that, for a time at least, we probably heard as much English as Mandarin. In short, we were American gringo tourists visiting the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum, which was about a half-hour crazy van ride from our hotel.

The experience lived up to the hype. There are three open pits where the excavation of these life-size clay figures from the Qin Dynasty is ongoing. So far only a fraction of what archeologists believe is there has been uncovered. The scope of what was done during the period—more than 700,000 people helped to build this separate underground world—is truly impressive.

For dinner, we attended another event that caters to the tourist—a seven-course meal of Chinese food followed by a musical show about the Great Tang Dynasty in an ornate theater. “April,” our Xi’an guide, managed to get Leah on stage afterward to have her picture taken with the performers. (Leah is the one without the headgear.)

One footnote to the day. In between the dinner and the show I was walking to the back of the theater when I heard someone call my name. Turns out that a student of mine is touring with a group of musicians from Pennsylvania. In a country of 1.3 billion, what are the odds of that encounter? Lugnuts: You just can never get away from them.