Xi'an & the Presidential Suite

Today we left Beijing and flew to Xi'an, famous for the Terracotta Warriors. We'll see those tomorrow, today we visited the Yangling Mausoleum which includes an excavation of the tomb of a Han-dynasty emperor who followed the dynasty that created the full size terracotta warriors. This emperor made miniature terracotta figurines representing servants, domesticated animals, eunuchs, and other aspects of ordinary life instead of focusing on the military aspect.

The biggest (and most pleasant) surprise was our getting upgraded to the presidential suite in the hotel:

The person in charge of the tour here is Dutch and immediately asked about Stephanie's name (Bergsma). She had been told that the presidential suite was available to the tour group and so she needed a party of four (there are two bedrooms in the suite) so the fact that there are four of us and Steph having a name of Dutch origin clinched the deal. This is a huge place, the pictures here only show a part of it.