down my street today

My street 001

I had a really nice walk home from the restaurant where i met friends for lunch. It is so nice to a have a couple of extra days off and just pootle about doing not very much. i have already watched 4 DVDs, although that's hardly surprising as I was suffering from a huge hangover on Thursday.

anyhow, I just wanted to show you how my street looks, now that the weather has improved, and the trees are coming out in the French Concession area. It's beautiful. I'm now waiting for the much talked of mosquitoes and roaches to appear, but as of yet (touch wood) I have not suffered from either. I have had a few mysterious bites, and yesterday I found a funny worm/silverfish thing in the dust under the bed (that'll teach me to be such a lazy cleaner) It's a good job I'm not too squeemish. I do however have a strong memory of reaching blindly into my washbag in Madagascar last year, and having a huge cockroach run up my arm as I disturbed him in his little hidy place ( my wash bag! ) I don't fancy a repeat of that this summer.

I definitely need to get a cleaner. this place is so DUSTY. it just gets everywhere.

The roof

They are building a roof on the old blocks next door to my apartment. They start at 6.30 am everyday, and work till sundown. It has been a bit quieter over this national holiday weekend, but i thought i would show you a picture anyhow.! The weather today is hot and hazy, around 24 degrees. it's wonderful, but a bit too hot for walking around or sitting in the sun ( unless you are very close to a pool!)

Terracotta warriors

Xi'an

Last Month, after a brief visit to the Olympic City, I went with TLE and JVP to an ancient city in the West. "Xi' (pronounced 'shi') means 'west'. T and I arrived first, and upgraded ourselves to an executive room at the Hyatt, while J followed arriving to find us drinking gin in the dodgy sports bar on offer within the hotel.

Saturday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we made our way to the bus station. I had read that a trip to the warriors museum was easily done buy bus, rather than joining a 'tour' and risking exposure to many tourist traps, such as museums that you never wanted to see in the first place, housing disproportionate shops, and 'furniture workshops' mostly selling lacquerware. I know all this because of my experiences last year, in the same city. The public bus turned out to be easy and very well organised. we stopped at a natural spring 'palace' on the way , which was quite nice, but we hurried ourselves on to the main event. It was, after all, what we had come to see.

Even for the second time around (I never thought would find myself returning to this amazing place!) It was an awesome experience, and i took as many pictures as the first time, much to my own surprise.
THE STORY OF THE WARRIORS
The warriors were created as a personal army to the emperor Qin (chin) between 247 and 208BC. their purpose was to protect the emperor in his death. The mausoleum is 35 km outside the city, in an auspicious site between Mount Li and the river Wei. Pits containing warriors and tombs have been discovered in a surrounding area of 56 km.
Emperor Qin was the first Emperor to unite the 6 states that formed Ancient China at the time of his reign. Qin declared himself the first Emperor of China. and also ordered the formation of a single unified Wall to protect the Chinese from invading armies.

What I find so awe inspiring about the warriors are their faces, each is an individual, and one can only imagine that you are looking into the face of a man who lived 2000 years ago. Each body is an individual, every warrior is different. How else would these faces have been formed that by the observation of a real face? It is truly fascinating and far more exciting than looking at a computer generated image of a man who may have lived 2000 years ago, from some boggy remains.