We flew to Xi'an and left that airport at 11:00 and boarded our bus. Anna provided some duck tape time for some of the girls. Lol. The oldest girl in this photo is 9 and is from Anna's province. The youngest girl is 5. She is the youngest on the trip and certainly the tiniest. 
Such interesting vehicles and modes of transportation. And they literally come at you from all directions. Traffic signs aren't really necessary be said they are not followed. Every man and woman for themselves. You can also park pretty much anywhere you wish. Sidewalks, middle of street. Anywhere seems acceptable. You just go over the curb if you like and park right there. 
We met Susan, who is our local guide in Xi'an at the airport as we got in the bus. She was born here in this city and her English is very very good.
Susan explained that in the southern part of province there are cave homes about the size of a tour bus. Many homes are right next to each other with arched doors. They each have a bed made of clay and mud at the front of the homes. These can be heated in the winter with fire/coals with a small chimney to vent the smoke.
There is a lot of construction going on around the highway between the airport and the terra cotta warriors. Huge apartment complexes going up in various stages of completion.
Lots of fruits and vegetables are grown in this province. The province is known for both pomegranate and persimmon. We saw pomegranate trees along the way.
We stopped at a restaurant and had a buffet and shopped a little there. Outside the restaurant were these warriors we posed as for fun.
Grace and Anna as the two headed warrior.
Then we headed to the Terra Cotta Warrior area. Very warm day!
There are currently three pits being excavated at the site. Pit 1 is the most famous and has been worked the longest. This is where you can see the "rebuilt" warriors in rows. Pit 1 is very bright and stifling hot. They average 10,000 visitors a day and I would swear two-thirds of them were in there at the same time. Wall to wall sweating bodies at times.
Pit 2 is more environmentally controlled and was cooler. While they have made significant progress there is much more to do there. In both Pit 1 & 2 we were able to see archeologists at work.
We also saw the famous bronze chariots at one of the buildings. There are two of them which have been greatly restored and preserved. They are not full sized representations, but still very large and detailed.
We are currently on the bus and school was letting out in Xi'an at 5pm. School goes from 8am-12 here and then the kids go home for lunch. They return at 2 and then go to school until 5pm.
Like I said...no road rules here. You can go any direction basically at any time. Lanes seems to mean nothing. If it is 3 lane road, it really is a 4.5 lane road. Lol
We went to a dumpling dinner and show. They feed us constantly here. Lol it was a Tang Dynasty Palace show. It was delicious and fascinating.
Each dumpling was a different shape depending on what was in it.
We will be at the hotel around 10pm so I am glad I am updating via phone pics and journaling as we go along.
Our hotel for a whole 10 hours
Nighty nite from the province of Shaanxi and capital city of Xi'an.
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