After spending the morning in Beijing (yesterday) at the Palace of Heaven, we boarded a plane to Xian. Our tour leader said that you should go to Beijing to learn about China in the last 1000 years, Xian for 2000 years, and Shanghai for the last 100. Xian was the capital of the Qin dynasty which was the first to rule a united China. It is famous for its Terracota Warriors... a clay army created by the first emperor to serve him in the afterlife. So far that has not worked out well for him. It also has an interesting city wall (independent of the Great Wall). They the wall up at night and it is beautiful... kind of reminds me of Xmas with the red lanterns hanging from much of the wall as well.
Tomorrow we head for Hangzhou... not far from Shanghai.
A couple of interesting observations... one of the gentlemen in my group is black. Everywhere we go, people on the street ask him if he is a basketball player and if he knows Yao Ming. He is a funny guy and takes it in stride. The other thing that has really struck me is the poverty of China. Travelling more in the country side today and away from Beijing, it is remarkable the number of people with so little. I knew this before, but to see it... is something else. All rural farmers are coming to cities to find jobs and there are not many for them... especially well paying ones. This mirrors some of what we have in the US, but neither to the scale or disparity of wealth. This is a powder keg and given the precedent in Chinese history for sparks, I can understand the government growing concern.
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