Sunday and monday July 8 &9

Sunday July 8 & Monday July 9th
Xi'an and Dunghuang

Sunday started with an early morning stop at a Han tomb. We saw the tomb of Emperor Wudi. His tomb is massive like those of the ancient Egyptians, filled with various goods, animals and sculptures of different people to help him live the good life or good afterlife. Thank goodness that the Qin dynasty made the leap that sculptures were just as good as burying real people. Legend has it that the town people breathed a sigh of relief that caused a windstorm. Since it's so dark, go figure, we don't have any pictures. What was most wild about this experience was when you realized you were walking through an actual grave. We couldn't help but think of the song "Ganster Paradise". "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."

Hopped on a plane and found ourselves in Dunghuang, an oasis town which was pivatol along the Silk Road. We do have pictures of our camel ride in the Singing Sands of Dunghuang. We have officially made it to our second stop along the silk road. The camel behind Ms. Bisconti got quite friendly and began go lay his head in her lap and drool all over her leg. Ms. Becker's camel was indifferent to the whole experience. The scenery was incredible. You know those deserts you always see in the movies? Those sweeping epics with giant sanddunes? Well that's exactly what we were traveling through on a camel just like they would on the silk road all those years ago. We were caravaning in groups of five and poor Adam, another individual in our group, was stuck on a camel between the two of us. We kept squeeling with excitement like little kids and yelling back and forth to each other. Like we said, poor Adam. Oh and Ms. Bisconti's camel kept teetering on the edge of the dune. Check out the pictures below.












I Know just does not look real! These are also called "the singing sands" which is so cool!


Too cute for words!!




No comment!








Gives a whole new meaning to someone drooling all over you!! And for me that of course has only happened with a camel! Go figure.









Too cute.




Heavenly temple and lake (below) in the middle of the desert!!



The next day we spent a few hours learning about and wandering in and out of the Mogao Grotto caves. We reveled in the beauty and peacefulness of the space. As the wind whispered through the trees we thought of the song "The Wind" by Cat Stevens. You need to listen to that song if you don't know it.

The caves were dwellings for various Buddhist monks and hold spectacular images of Buddhist art some of which date as far back as 366 CE and as early as the 14th Century. Wealthy families and donors contributed to the caves and artists created some pretty spectacular pieces like the 37 meter Buddha inside one cave. What was really fascinating about the caves is the fact that you could see first hand the different time periods and interaction/culture diffusion that took place from simply looking at the art. some figures were dressed in Roman togas while later caves would show distinctly mor Chinese style clothing and art techniques. We also saw a handful of these amazing caves but there are hundreds that exist. Ms. Bisconti got her geek on as she wrote notes during our lecture in the caves. Well I thought it was excited that I was taking notes, it felt like I was in class but at the actual sight. That's why I always said my ideal classroom would be to have a jet plane called the "Bisconti khan history express" that would take my students and me all around to the actual places. The world would be our classroom. Oh, what a dream!
*We were sadly not allowed to take picture inside the caves.
- Ms. Becker and Ms. Bisconti

The caves: