Thousands of terracotta warriors were made and buried over two thousand years ago, but they were only discovered in 1974 when some farmers were digging a well. They are buried 2-3 meters deep. They were arranged in a classic large army formation, with the lowest rank soldiers in front, backed by archers and chariots, with the generals in the rear. This is a unique human creation in the world.
Chilean wines of world class quality tend to be less expensive than similar European wines due to Chile’s lower labor costs.
In my long life, I’ve witnessed several major technological revolutions. In my early music years of the early 1960’s, all musical instruments were acoustic. Then in the late sixties, Jimi Hendrix led the way to an electric guitar revolution, and music was changed forever. The Hammond B3 . . .
We began our China tour in the capital city of Beijing. Though Beijing is a city of 21 million people, it is very clean and efficient...much above my expectations which were colored by my experience of the crowded cities in India. We toured the famous Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square on our first day, and on the second day we toured a section of the Great Wall of China.
As Susan and I conclude our sixth and final week in Mumbai, India, I will attempt to relate the cultural impressions rather than just recounting the events. Readers of my previous blogs will know I’ve been visiting India for many years, playing music in various settings.
Flying from Beijing to Shanghai, Susan and I boarded the Viking cruise ship Yi-Dun. We had the pleasure of a Shanghai city tour in which we viewed an ancient garden containing ornate buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The skyline of Shanghai is impressive, containing the world's third tallest building, the Shanghai Tower with 128 floors, at 2073 feet high. (The world's tallest building is Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 2722 feet high. The second highest is the Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 2227 feet.)--source Wikipedia
Following our first port of Cabo San Lucas and three days at sea, our second port of call on the Viking world cruise was the famous tourist city Puerto Vallarta. Puerto Vallarta is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, a state which is approximately the size of South Carolina. Tourism is its main “industry.” Susan and I joined a city tour with a local guide who spoke perfect English. We toured the downtown area including the cathedral, followed by a half-hour drive out of the city to tour a tequila factory...
Ha Long Bay Vietnam is a unique location, famous for its thousands of scenic islands in the bay. Our tour took us to a magnificent cave inside one of the islands. The photos from this area will tell the story better than my words.