Nov 15- China Day 1- Xian

Just wanted to let you all know that we've made it safely to Xi'an-
you'll be interested to know that facebook is blocked from here, as is
Twitter- supposedly due to the unrest in July among the minority
peoples in the west of China. We can text to twitter but I didn't set
up my facebook to pass the Twitter updates on, so if I seem quiet
that's why. :) Blogger is blocked from here too- again I suspect due
to the unrest. It feels weird to be cut off from the outside world,
but at least there's still gmail. :) It's well known that emails are
monitored in China as well though, which as some of you know is why
people often use abbreviations if they are talking about certain
subjects.

Our flight went really smoothly, and Xi'an (shee-ahn) is a cool city
so far- Asian cities can seem a bit crazy to Westerners, but I'm
feeling very at home (Zephyr I know you will not be surprised!) and
things feel comfortable here despite the massive traffic issues, 9
million people in a small space, and other exciting things. It snowed
here just before we landed in Xi'an so the countryside looked really
beautiful from the air. Our tour guide brought us to our hotel, which
is centrally located in the heart of Xi'an near to the famous sights
that we'll be seeing over the next 2 days- the terracota soldiers, the
Bell Tower, and some other interesting historical sights. Shops are
open here until 10pm on weekdays, 9pm Sundays, and as it's almost 9pm
now I think we'll stay in and chill and go in search of the night
market tomorrow (I hear there's a good one near the big mosque in
town.) George is feeling more awake than I am, but my goal is just to
make it to 9pm without falling asleep! :)

We're heading back to Shanghai Tuesday night, and George's conference
runs Wed-Thu after which we'll be on to Guilin. I'll keep you posted
whenever we happen to have email access. :)

By the way, I thought you might be interested to see some of the
options on our hotel's room service menu:

Boiled seafood into pumpkin
Boiled almond and pig lung soup
Boiled ginseng and black chicken soup
Pan-fried fishhead
Fried duck tongue with meggic sauce
Boiled partridges soup
Roasted baby pigeon
Assorted brine beef and goose wing
Braised forg and pig kidney with rice

Any of the above tasty foods can be had for approximately 4 pounds
($6.50)! Sounds like I bargain I hear you say! ;)

Love from China!