By Larry and Joan Dolinski
[Xian (pronounced "She-on"] This city is the location of the World Heritage Site containing what many archeologists consider to be the major archeological discovery of the 20th Century...the Army of Terra-cotta Warriors. The discovery was made in 1974 when three farmers were digging a well. The Terra-cotta Warriors constituted a military force in battle array (infantry, archers, and charioteers) guarding the tomb of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Over 10,000 pieces have been sorted to date, many of which held real weapons. It is believed that the warriors are part of an even larger terra cotta army still buried around the tomb. While we were there we observed a number of workers/archeologists carefully digging out other pieces. The entire spectacle (involving two huge pits and one smaller pit) all enclosed under giant roofs was awesome to behold. All of us were very much moved.
We actually got to meet one of the three farmers who made the discovery, and had him put his signature in a small souvenir book which we purchased at the site. We also got to take some picture of us with him.
On a lesser plateau but nevertheless interesting to us was a visit to the Winter Palace (a.k.a. Hot Springs). While the site was nice as a resort, our real interest was aroused by an historical footnote, referred to as "The Xian Incident." In a cabin on the hillside, during his two week visit in 1936, Chiang Kai-Shek was actually captured and taken prisoner by one of his own generals. He was released shortly thereafter because of the Japanese threat and his potential ability to deal militarily with the threat.
[Guilin, pronounced Gway-Lin]The main feature here was a four-hour cruise on the Li River. This is a very long river flowing 437 km from the mountains to the north, through Guilin, and then 83 km from Guilin to Yangshuo. Beyond Yangshuo the river flows south to join the Pearl River which reaches the Ocean at Hong Kong. We did the 83 km route and were served lunch on the boat. The food was cooked in a large wok on the stern of the vessel. Along the banks one sees rocks, caves, deep pools, springs, waterfalls, reflections of the limestone karst peaks in clear water, and of course lots of interesting river traffic. It was a rainy day and the mist hanging over the mountains made a very exotic experience for us and brought to mind those subtle oriental paintings one sees from time to time.
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