A Chinese Vacation

My paw pal Jesse's human went on vacation. She went to an ancient Chinese city called Xi'an to see the terracotta army. Mary told me that a long, long time ago, a Chinese emperor didn't want to be buried alone when he died, so he had his artists make an army out of clay to be buried with him. The soldiers and horses were all life size and all in different poses and with different faces! A farmer working in his field dug up the first of these things and then some really smart humans came from something called a university and dug up the rest. They've found over 35,ooo figures and they think there are thousands more still buried! Lily says Xi'an is a very beautiful city and very different from other big cities in China. She's been to other cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong and says they look the same with big tall buildings, the same style parks and things. And worst, she says, you can't feel it's China coz you can rarely see a Chinese-style building. It's modernized now. The only way you know it's China are the people, their culture and their language. But Xi'an is different. The buildings are Chinese-style (preserved) and you can see much of the Chinese heritage there. She says it's lovely and she'd like to go back again. That's her wearing the Chinese armor! I wonder if it itches?