Day Twelve

Today, once again, was primarily a travel day - but we still managed to have some fun. We began our morning in Guilin with a a tour of the "Reed Flute Caves" - a gorgeous series of underground caves in the hills of the city. The caves featured several fantastic sights - and the lighting was both eerie and incredible. The caves themselves, while now only a tourist attraction, had been used by the residents of Guilin during World War II to escape Japanese bombing raids on the city.

After touring the caves we were able to make a quick stop in a local Guilin market before getting lunch and heading out of town. The market was bustling and vibrant - unlike any farmers market you could imagine in America. Stacks of fresh vegetables lined the tables, various Chinese herbs piled high, freshly cut meat hung off of hooks, dozens of varieties of eggs were available, we saw cages of chickens and ducks waiting to be purchased, and we found dozens of containers of seafood that was also still alive. Check out this vat of eels that we spotted. The market redefined fresh food as we know it!
Having left Guilin we arrived later that day in Xian - a small Chinese city of only seven million - and I'm sure you've never heard of it either. Xian is home to the world renowned Terracotta Warriors (more on that tomorrow), but our adventures in Xian took a surprisingly different turn today. Upon arriving in Xian we found out that the Iraqi President (hes like the U.S. Vice President, aka second in command) Jalal Talabani was staying at our hotel (The Shangrila Golden Flower), as part of his visit to China. Unfortunately for us, that meant a ridiculous amount of security at the hotel. Not only were we forced to go through metal detectors and have all our baggage get X-rayed, but the entire hotel was crawling with police and security officials - they even hassled us on our way to our room. Check out the picture I took of the "security apparatus" from our hotel window. One last tidbit before I sign out for the evening - we got our very own security clearance badges once we were okayed by the various police and security officials at the hotel - you can see me sporting my badge in secret agent fashion below.