Day 6- Terracotta Warriors

Our second day in Xi'an (Dad- that's pronounced She-Ann hehe) we went to see the 2000 year Terracotta Warriors. They are an army of Terracotta soldiers that were built and buried underground in battle formation to protect the Emperor. There are about 6000 of them. What's neat is that they are life size, and every one of them is different. There are also horses, weapons, and chariots. They were found in 1974 when some farmers came across them while they were digging a well. One of the farmers is still at the scene on display signing books. It's a little sad though because he doesn't talk and he looks really unhappy. I guess I would be too if I was made to sit there for 30 years while others displayed my amazing find. I imagine that he didn't receive much of a reward for that. The location of the Warriors was quite beautiful at the base of mountains about an hour away from central Xi'an but it was disgustingly hot! By far it was the hottest day of our trip I think.

On the way back from the Terracotta Warriors we stopped at a school for the disabled called Hueling School. Most of the students had some form of autism or down syndrome. The school made us lunch and talked to us about their projects. The volunteers take the students to stores, parks etc and teach them how to shop and just interact in social settings. We got to see the students perform some songs and dances and one of them played the drums. The song was "If You're Happy and you Know it" in Chinese. We all joined the students and danced around and sang. I was really excited to see the students that excited about the arts. Of course they wanted us to donate money or potentially sponsor one of the students, but they didn't really push that and we could take what we wanted from the experience. I bought a cell phone dangly thing that the students made and donated some Yuan. It was a change of pace from our usual trip events and a little reality check.

After our trip to Hueling School we boarded Train #2!