We arrived during the lantern festival. Lanterns were everywhere. As you can see there is great diversity in lantern design.

We toured several gardens. This particular garden was built by a wealthy government official for his parents. The Chinese clearly love gardens and dragons. You will notice this dragon has only three tallons. Only the Emperor’s dragon could have four.

A worker is weaving a silk rug. One of these can take months to complete.

We had lunch with several local families. Here is Cathy with one of our hosts.

Local food markets had an extremely wide variety of meat, vegetables, and fish. Here are a few different types of eels.

We visited the silk factory. Here a worker is examining silk cocoons prior to processing. The cocoons are woven in one long strand by the silk worm. Workers place the cocoon in hot water, find the end of the strand and then unwind several cocoons at once making a long thread of silk. The ancient Chinese fiercely protected silk making technology of many years.

We were able to ride the Maglev high speed train. We reached a speed of 423 km/hour or 263 mi/hour. The ride was very smooth with no sensation of speed.

Here is Cathy atop the ancient city wall of Xian. You could easily drive two or more cars abreast along the top.

The wall was also quite tall. Our tour bus provides some idea of the height.

We also toured the terracotta warriors, a huge tourist attraction. Two farmers discovered the burial site back in the seventies and were rewarded with the equivalent of $20. One of the farmers is still alive and autographed a book for us.

Each warrior is different. The hair style indicates rank. They estimate there are 8000 warriors. Most were broken and are being restored. These soldiers were to protect the Emperor in the afterlife.

We had lunch with a farming family of middle income means. This is their new kitchen built for their son who is getting married in the near future. The family simply adds on to their home when the son is married.

Here is Cathy and our farming host. Cathy made the necklace our host is wearing.

We also visited an elementary school in the farming community. You can see all of the children in heavy coats. The only heat in the class room was a small stove, about the size of a gallon jug.

One of our tour group brought balloons for the kids. She is waving in the back and her mother is on the right. This photo was taken just before the kids started going crazy playing with their balloons.

We attended a Tang dynasty show. It was much more interesting than the Chinese opera. If you haven’t heard a Chinese opera before you haven’t missed much.

Here is a close-up of an actresses headdress taken from the same place in the audience as the photo above. It’s amazing what the newer digital cameras with image stabilization and low light level performance improvements can do.

Here is Cathy standing near Tiananmen Square. Notice Mao’s photo in the background. While almost anyone you talked with had horrifying personal stories of the Cultural Revolution they still have great reverence for Mao. Forgiveness is definitely a Chinese trait although only around 10% believe in God.

Here’s Cathy in the Forbidden City, residence of the Emperor. The city housed more than 100,000 just to serve and protect the Emperor .

Only the Emperor could walk up the middle of the ramp. All others had to walk up on the side or face instant death.

This was a typical day in China. That’s pollution, not fog. We had two days when we could see blue sky.

This was typical traffic for Beijing. Although only a small percentage of Chinese can afford cars, when you have 20 million people in the city you still have huge traffic jams.

Here we are enjoying a rickshaw ride.

These small bottles were hand painted on the inside with a very small brush with bristles that pointed to the side. These were painted by an elderly retired woman. She learned the skill in her youth but had to hide her skills during the Cultural Revolution. At one time her family had been very wealthy and owned several blocks in her neighborhood. The family’s property was confiscated and now she lives in a one room apartment. She has to step down the street to take a shower or use the restroom.

We visited several different factories while we were there. This is typical of most. Workers typically wear heavy coats because there is no heat. Here an elderly man polishes a vase. I’m not sure this facility meets OSHA standards.

Here we are standing on the Great Wall. No one knows how many died in its construction. You can see the blue sky since we were some distance from Beijing.

This elderly lady was collecting used plastic water bottles to turn in at a recycling station for money. She was standing about 30 feet in front of our parked bus. I took this photo through the bus windshield from about midway back in the bus. I used a high zoom and image stabilization to get this shot.

Here we are at the Summer Palace. This 600 acre lake was had dug. The hill in the background is the dirt removed to make the lake. The Empress wanted a place to relax in the summer. I wonder how many died to make this lake?

This is the longest covered walk in the world. It was built so the Empress could walk in the shade while at the Summer Palace. Notice that the ceiling has murals painted along the entire length. The Chinese are currently having problems renovation the facility because no one seems to have the necessary skills to duplicate the original work.