Xi'an

When we first got to Xi'an we were met with a challenge. Convincing out tour guide that we did not want "chicken hamburgers" from KFC, but beef hamburgers from McDonald's. She did not understand why we wanted anything else when we could have KFC. Apparently Xi'an loves KFC. We lost that battle and ended up at KFC.

We all ended up getting ice cream sundaes. Yummy. They use that nice hot fudge syrup that gets thick when it gets cold. My favorite. Love it.

Anyway, then we saw the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The story goes that monks were fasting about a question and a wild goose dropped dead on this spot, in an old monastery. They decided that meant they weren't supposed to eat animals, and they built this large pagoda. Doesn't make sense to me. If a bird dropped dead when I was hungry, I would have taken that as a sign to eat meat.

In front of the pagoda was a square probably 300 yards long, one three levels, about 100 feet wide. It had fountains that were choreographed to music. Puts the Bellagio to shame. Windows wants to put my video upside down, but as soon as I figure it out, I'll post it here. It was Strauss. I loved it.

The pagoda was built in the year 652. It's old. There is a nice monastery there as well as an art school. They did calligraphy for us and some of the girls got their names written out in Chinese. Caitlin got one of for her friend.

This was my favorite piece of art. I was sorely tempted to buy it.

Do you see how smooth, dark and shiny his belly is? I guess rubbing a happy Buddha's belly is good luck.

The whole gang.

Then we went to the stone steeles museum. I'll post that in another post.