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I first went to China in 1987 as part of an exchange program between my college and a Chinese university. As part of the agreement, our hosts arranged for our group to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers.
In order to see the soldiers we had to take an overnight train from Beijing to Xian, the old imperial capitol of China. We arrived in Xian in the late morning, so we were given a tour of the city before going to see the soldiers the ext day.
One of the landmarks of the city is the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (pictured above). We were able to go into the pagoda and get a bird’s-eye view of the city.
We also visited the Stone Forest, which is a museum of steele’s going back to the imperial era. We couldn’t read the inscriptions, but they were still very interesting to see.
Later in the afternoon we visited the old city wall of Xian and walked along it.
While walking along the wall we saw a drum that was used to sound an alarm when needed. The drum was in a watch tower along the wall.
Since we were in Xian on July 4, our hosts took us, after dark, to a hotel that served foreign tourists. That hotel had a sidewalk fireworks display in honor of the Fourth of July. I’ve never been so close to a fireworks display in my like.
If you would like to see more pictures of Xian, click HERE.
Senior Moments 
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