We are in Xian, about to leave tonight for Chengdu to see the pandas! Yesterday we went to see the Terracotta army, which is a series of pit sthat was uncov ered in the mid 70s. There are literally thousands of life-size warriors that are guarding an Emperor's tomb. None of the statues that they uncovered were in one piece so it was a huge undertaking to get them back into tip-top shape. The sheer number of statues was impressive enough but to know that they all had to be pieced together by hand made it even more impressive! We spent quite a few hours there. Since we had taken public tr asport out instead of a guided tour, it gave us a lot more freedom to take our time. Xian is a nice city--clean, modern, lots to keep us busy. We spent the first day wandering around and found our way to the Muslim part of town. There were tons of street vendors selling cheap food. Most of it wa smeat-based, which made Joel happy! The typical food in that par t of town is a small pita stuffed with beef covered in cumin. It smelled quite good and Joel was pleased with it. Especially since it only cost 4 yuan about 55 cents). Get this, we even found a guy who could carve a name stamp for us on a chunk of 'jade', and they could do our name! You can buy anything in China, I swear... We found a great restaurant in this town that has canteen-style meals. It's great for the vegetarian who doesn't speak CHinese. I can see every option laid out in front of me and just point. The prices are great too. We've eaten there a few times and we'll probably do our last meal in Xian there, just before the night train trek to Chengdu. We have to be out of China by December 1st, so it looks like we'll hit Hong Kong on the day before just to make sure that they let us out of China. Let's hope that all goes well! Our next update will probably be post-pandas and post-boat ride through the Yangtze River. We're going to get to see the 3 Gorges before they disappear under the water from the ginormous dam that's being built. We'll le tyou know what it's like... :) M.