Xi'an to Chengdu

Our last day in Xi'an we only had the morning to sightsee because we needed to catch a noon flight to Chengdu. We went to the Han Yang Lin Underground Mausoleum.

Model of Mausoleum - the lower right is the only portion that has been excavated

It is a tomb that was created for a Han Dynasty emperor, Jiu Qi and the empress. It is another example of how time, money, and effort was spent honoring the emperors. There are 81 tunnels but they have only excavated about a tenth of it so far. Over these tunnels, they built buildings to help preserve and have enclosed them all in glass. The floors are glass as well and so you can look down into the tunnels as you are walking over them. Very neat!

One of the excavated tunnels with earthen pots for storing grain or wine

Concubines to keep the emperor company in the afterlife

It is just amazing at how many resources were spent to create these tombs. In one tunnel alone, there are over 1300 animal figurines. The other tunnels contain such things as figurines of eunuchs, concubines, cooks, more livestock, jars of grain, jars of wine, etc. This was just the portion of the tomb that was meant to feed and entertain the emperor in the after-life. The other unexcavated tunnels probably contain his guards (much like the Terracotta warriors), executives, other "necessities" of an emperor's life.

Dogs and sheep to feed the emperor

Bird on a turtle (in case you couldn't tell)

Massive meal

After visiting this mausoleum, we caught our flight to Chengdu where we met up with Bernard's sister, Bridie. We haggled with a couple of driver's before catching a ride to the hotel. The hotel was a Holiday Inn Express and it was definitely a step above a Holiday Inn in the US.

Bernard's Mom lived in Chengdu for about 6 months studying art about 10 years ago. She kept in touch with her teachers and we all went out to eat with them later that night. It was a typical raucous Chinese dinner with a ton of food.

Some of the dishes included turtle, sea cucumber, red wine with Coke(!), corn milk, really spicy abalone, durian soup, and a bunch of other stuff. It was fun even though Annemarie didn't understand a lick of the conversations that were flying around.