Jim's Trip to China

Here I am in Xian, China at the archeology site where they found the terra cotta armies buried by Emperor Qin, circa 200 BC. The Chinese believe he created these and had them buried near his tomb so that he would have armies to lead in the next life. These life-size soldiers, horses, wagons, etc. were not written about in any Chinese history books. They were found by a farmer who was trying to dig a well about 20 years ago. His drill hit one of the pieces of terra cotta. He took the piece to a university to figure out what it was. The site has been under excavation since then. I actually got to meet the farmer who started it all. Instead of farming now, he signs autographs for a fee. He seemed to be about my age.

Emperor Qin was an interesting and powerful guy. He was crowned emperor of part of China at age 13. By age 21 he had united most of present day China into one country. This was the first time such a feat had been accomplished. He lived to the age of 52 and ruled as emperor all that time. He was also somewhat famous in that he was reputed to have approximately 3000 concubines. There is no record of how many children he had. They apparently only tracked the official royal children from his official wife. The picture below shows the size of the recovered horses. When they find most of these horses and warriors, which are still being uncovered, they are usually broken into pieces. The archaeologists have to rebuild them one piece at a time. Some speculate that the locals destroyed the armies after the emperor died because they did not like him.

A friendly group of high school students allowed me to have my picture taken with them.

The front door of a restaurant. They really eat Chinese food at nearly every restaurant and meal in China. I did not see a single pizza place the whole time I was there.

After Xian, which is in the People's Republic of China, I went to Taipei, Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China. This photo below was the view out my window from the Westin Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.

This is a shot of Taipei 101, the tallest office building in the world. It is known as Taipei 101 because it has 101 stories. It has an observation deck that is accessible by the world's fastest elevator. We went up to the observation deck. It is pretty amazing. There is one level that is inside and a higher level that is outside, sort of like the Empire State Building observation deck. I highly recommend checking out this building if you are in Taipei.

In Taipei, millions of people ride scooters as their primary form of transportation. Scooters are everywhere and are used for many transportation purposes.

A typical street scene at dusk in Taipei. Taipei really comes alive at night. People work till 6 or 7 o'clock at night, sometimes a lot later. They go shopping, to the dentist, run errands, etc. from 8 to midnight. It seems like all the consumer oriented businesses were open till quite late. They are a very industrious and enterprising bunch.

This is a food stall or street restaurant. They were everywhere in the older shopping areas. The food looked great and smelled very good, but I stuck to the more formal restaurants. The food I ate in Taiwan was simply outstanding. They had lots of fresh vegetables and fruit.

This photo shows an interesting juxtaposition of the Westin Hotel with some typical housing units right next door. In the foreground are the ever-present scooters. I thought it really captures the essence of Taipei all in one shot.

Here is the Watsons drug store where I went for cold medicine before my return flight home. I had a nasty cold the whole time I was in China and Taiwan. the 14 hour flight there and 12.5 hour flight back were a little uncomfortable due to my cold. Buying decongestant and antihistamine when you cannot read anything at all on the package was bit intimidating. No one in the store spoke English. Finding the Vicks cough drops and Kleenex was pretty easy, though.

This was a set of apartment buildings right behind my hotel. I thought the arches at the top were an interesting architectural flourish.

This was a cool looking building I saw on the way to the airport. I have no idea what it is. I was trying to take a picture of it from the taxi window. All of a sudden, we ran into a traffic jam and had to stop on the freeway on an overpass directly in front of the building, so I was able to get a decent shot of the building.

Taipei was lots of fun. I really liked going there in early March. The temperatures were quite moderate and the food was simply outstanding. The Westin was as nice as any hotel I have ever stayed in. My business meetings were OK, but we have much work to do there. Next time, I will hope that I do not have a cold when I go.