It has been quite a while since I have updated my blog. There are many things that I have missed out writing on. I would like to start from the most significant ones that I have not written about and the 9th APNG Camp  in Xi'an certainly qualifies as one of them. I have been attending the APNG Camps for several years now and the event brings together people working on different aspects of the Internet from through out the Asia Pacific. This time too, as before I had received a fellowship to attend the camp which sponsored my airfare and the stay there at Xi'an. Besides being a great opportunity for me to learn different stuff and meet lots of people, the venue itself was of great significance for me.
Xi'an, a place I have heard a lot about, read about in magazines and Wikipedia, and watched a lot of documentaries on, was a place I had always wanted to go to. The 9th Camp gave me an excellent opportunity to fulfill one of my dreams. The thing that I wanted to see the most in Xi'an, and with which the place has become synonymous, was the Terracotta Army of the First Qin Emperor, the person who unified China. The place holds immense historical and cultural importance, and the story behind the army sounds almost like a fairytale. The Qin emperor Qin Shi Huang after having unified China, wanted to take his glorious army into the afterlife, perhaps because he wanted to win more wars there. So he built a life-sized terracotta army, complete with archers, lancers and the lot, including horses, chariots, officers, generals and even a command center. The remarkable thing is that each statue's face is different from the other leading to the belief they were real life sized replicas of his army. He placed this terracotta army in front of his own tomb, which still under a hill and yet to be excavated. The tomb is believed to contain a replica of the world, with liquid mercury representing the seas and rivers. There is supposed to be immense wealth inside. Chinese scientists are using some microwave remote sensing techniques to figure out exactly what is inside. I think I could go on writing about this, but then it would not quite become a blog.
There were several other interesting places, including the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, which was built by the monk Hsüan-tsang after his return from India. I remember reading somewhere in our school history books that this monk had also visited Nepal and has written about life in Kathmandu in those times. Anyways the pagoda that he built, looked more like a tower to me. Climbing to the top of this structure, one step at a time and completely out of breath when i reached there, I realized that it was not much different from our own Dharahara, just much older and a lot fatter.
Besides the historical highlights, Xi'an was also famed for one of the culinary delights of China, delicious dumplings. Being Nepali, and a lover of momos, it was a great gastronomical pleasure for me to taste around 20 different types of dumplings, filled with chicken, duck, pork, different kids of vegetables and nuts and things whose names I don't remember but the taste I still do.
From Xi'an, I went back to Nepal. One the way, I had to change flight at Chengdu and the next flight that I took stopped over at Lhasa, both places I regret not stopping over for a couple  of days. Chengdu, I realized later, is the heart of Sichuan Province, famous for its spicy food which I found much similar in taste to Newari food, and for its Panda Research Centers. I really should have stopped over and taken some pictures with a Panda and stopped over at Lhasa to visit the Potala. Well .... maybe next time. I just hope life is not too short, of both time and money.