..11.. xi'an

mom's birthday!
a bike ride around this cute town's walls got our stay off to a nice start. the next day, we headed to the burial site of the Terracotta Warriors (said to be the 8th wonder of the world), buried for a crazy emporer who had killed both of his brothers by age 14 to assure his ascendency to the throne. he immediately started planning for his death: for the next 37 years, he commissioned an entire porcelain army of statues with real weapons, standing in war formation. he actually wanted to bury the living army to protect him, but the people wouldn't stand for this. there was a sword that was still sharp enough to cut cleanly through 20 sheets of paper - it was a bronze sword coated with chromium - a process not developed until the mid 1900s, but apparently known to these people of 300-200 bc. this was a truly amazing place that made me want to take an intensive archaelogy course.