Layover

Last night walking off the plane and through the Wuhan International Airport Terminal 2 towards baggage claim, I had a rattling flashback. Nine weeks ago in that same place I was such a volcano of emotions and exhaustion, I simply could have crumbled with a wayward glance. Walking with my husband and kids by my side, I exhaled this time with intention. There was such a difference. I felt a sense of dauntless assurance that I was, in fact, back to a place I call home.

There is not much time to relax though. It is necessary for us to go to Hong Kong tomorrow morning to reset our visas. Flight leaves at 8 a.m. giving us (well, let us be honest, me) about 36 hours to wash, line dry, and repack our luggage for our next excursion. It will be a trip that will require a couple days stay and we are adding onto it a couple days vacation. Yes, yes, tragic life I am leading this month with back to back sightseeing adventures.

Don't envy me too much. As I was telling my mama this morning, everything in China comes with a special China filter; almost like everything deserves an asterisk just to let you know that it should be accompanied with a special understanding. "Was that restaurant clean or China* clean?" "Was that a bathroom or a China* bathroom?" "Did you have beef or China* beef?" You get it?

Because I don't have much time, I will just shut up and say that in this quick layover of my life, I had to clean off the camera cards and so I felt you all might want to see some pictures of what I will happily tell you is one lovely gem: the ancient city of Xi'an. (If you are sitting there wondering how the heck you pronounce that word, it is like SHEE-ahn.) The weekend itself deserves an additional blog just about the food, so that will come later, but here is my very brief overview.

Xi'an was protected from the Japanese bombers of WWII because of its
sufficiently interior location. This city wall, a complete square, was magnificent.

 We spent Saturday at the Xi'an city wall.  Then went to into the heart of the city to the Muslim Street area, a fabulous walking street of food and goods, where we visited a mosque. The people were naturally fascinated with our boys, but people were very respectful and patient.

Gorgeous dried fruits and nuts.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda and to places of Buddist worship. It was very interesting the questions that Hudson asked. I was glad to have the opportunity to talk about how worthless it actually is to worship money and objects. It was unsettling to seeing people praying fervently at the feet of this golden statue (and his 1,000 little buddies).

Hudson has been nothing short of an art enthusiast since we came to China, so the opportunity to do some calligraphy was very exciting for him. He painted a "snake on a tree."

That night we walked to dinner at about 6 p.m. My littlest man was exhausted from our day and became very snuggly in the body wrap I brought. We decided to attack the city without a stroller since Chinese sidewalks are not made for little wheels. He slept through dinner and most of the way back to the hotel. This might be my favorite picture of myself in China. I like how I feel it captures the sense of the city and my life as mama.

Sunday morning we were up early with the other 30,000 daily guests to the Terracotta Soldiers and Horses site. It was beyond words. Very surreal. Very impressive. Dig more of those babies up, I say!

This is pit #1 which is the size of two football fields.

Oh Tucker. You silly goose.

I love this picture. Marked pieces still embedded in the ground.

Our tour guide and driver was an extremely knowledgeable young man who shared so much of Chinese history with us. This sculpture, seen here from our car, was something we were able to appreciate later from below. I think I like the lighting here the best. This is the first emperor of China with his favorite concubine. If I had a quarter for how many times I heard the words "favorite concubine" on Sunday, I could retire. Each time I cringed wondering how long until Hudson quipped, "What's that?"

Okay, I will show you one picture of food. The noodles in Xi'an are different than our hot and dry noodles of Wuhan. This was our lunch Sunday. Jerry took us to a place off the beaten path that was clean (read: China* clean).

Our tour guide, Jerry, and Hudson washing their hands in the hot springs at Winter Palace with the rest of China.

One interesting fruit growing all over, including on both sides of the highway to the Terracotta Soldier,s was pomegranates. About 2,000 people were selling them alongside the road.

Pomegranate tree in foreground.

We finished our day at the Winter Palace and Hot Springs. It was a really great afternoon with more Chinese culture and history.

Hudson was mesmerized by the dancers of the traditional folk art show. He was very grumpy with his father when he was told it was time to leave. I admit that I am so pleased that we had the chance to see those aspects of culture that we did this weekend. It was very different, very educational, and very tiring! But I also feel our trip to China would be remiss without such exposure.