Cool! The actual site in Xi'an is one of those things that I didn't expect to be more stunning than the photos I'd seen, but in person, it was just overwhelming, vast, and indelible. And yes, frissons of, I don't know, both mono no aware and a kind of jolting, startlingly personal connection to a different age.

The Forbidden City was a bit of a letdown because it's so empty. I guess all the goodies are over at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan (which is pretty great). The scale model might be more interesting at that rate. If I'm ever in Houston...