More Catching up!

The pace of our tour went from busy to hectic as we exited the cruise boat in Chongqing.  Our only visit in Chongqing was to the zoo to see the giant pandas.  On our walk to the giant panda compound, we passed the enclosure with red pandas.  They are VERY cute.  When we got to the giant panda compound there were NO pandas..... 
      Our kind tour guide went over to the zoo keeper and asked him release the pandas to their outside compartment.  You have to realize that giant pandas do two things really well being sleeping and eating.  They slowly left their sleeping quarters and walked out to their feeding station.  We got to see four ginat pandas.  One young female was in a single enclosure.  She climbed up onto a large rack covered in fresh bamboo and started to eat.  A male and female giant panda were in the next enclosure.  One of the pandas (male I think), was very slow to come out but he did come and join the other panda that was madly munching.  The fourth panda was another female who stayed close to her sleeping quarters munching on bamboo.   
     All of the pandas were big and round.  Our tour guide remarked that many of the pandas in zoos get too fat because they don't exercise much. I could understand this since we had been eating very well on the cruise boat and hadn't much chance to walk about.  THIS was all about to change.
       After seeing the pandas, we were back on the bus to the airport.  We were flying to Xian.  The flight was only an hour but it seemed much longer between the time we had to spend making sure our luggage arrived and our trip to the hotel on yet another bus.  We were glad to get to our room and have a good nights sleep before off again in the morning.
       Early in the morning we were off to special museum about an hour and half north of Xian.  This museum is for the terracotta army of the first emperor of all of China being Emperor Chin.  Yes, this is the army of soldier that can NEVER die.  Both Dr. Novak and I agreed that this was the most impressive thing that we saw on our WHOLE trip to China.
       I promise to download the pictures tomorrow.  I have a huge number of them to go through since we were both so impressed and took way too many photos.  NO two soldiers look the same.  It was fascinating to zoom down with our cameras taking pictures of the faces of the soldiers realizing that these 'faces' were well over two thousand years old.
       While at the book store, I purchased a book and DVD about the terracotta soldiers.  I was very lucky and had the book signed by the man that discovered the terra cotta soldier in 1974. 
        I kind of felt sorry for this old man in 80's who spends part of every day he feels well enough signing books for the thousands of vistors that come to the museum.  Even President Clinto has visited with him. He looked very sad and tired.  I realized even IF I come back to China again, he may not be at the museum.  I feel very lucky that this kind man signed my book. Please feel free to ask more questions about the terra cotta army.
       After what seemed a very short time at the museum, we were back on the bus to the Xian airport for our flight to Beijing. Our flight was delayed and what was suppose to be short trip of less than two hours turned into a trip of almost five hours.  All of the people on the tour were very tired,  hungry and tad grumpy when we got to Beijing.  We had to be up VERY early the next morning for our bus ride to the Great Wall.  More about Beijing and the Great Wall in another post.  Yours, Mrs. Novak