Faux Tang

There's a place in Xi'an called the Tang Paradise garden. It's actually worth a look as it's a pretty garden even though none of it is actually Tang era. It's an entire reconstructed Tang era garden based on what they know from the written record, archaeology etc, a kind of Tang Dynasty theme park. The entry fee is meant to be 68Y but the guy at the desk kept asking me something I couldn't understand and eventually charged me 34 instead. I think maybe he thought I was a student studying here. It must be that dashing new haircut that's taken years off me!!! I spent a long time yesterday just wandering around the park looking at stuff and thinking about how they'd done the whole thing. They have life sized bronze statues at various points, even bronze Western-looking tourists with camera and drink bottle! They're looking up an artificial crag which is covered in Tang era poetry; did I mention how obvious it is how much the Chinese respect poetry? There are famous poets from the Tang period (618-907 if memory serves me) who kids are learning to recite before they even get to school. In fact there's a whole genre of poetry (I'm not sure which periods it dates from) which is a collection of 4 characters each. I was at dinner yesterday (again - it really is the dining out season) and a one year old was completing the 4th part of a whole heap of them when her mother gave her the first three - this is no Hickory dickory dock. Even the children's playground has bronze sculptures of the poets playing and learning as children themselves.

Today I went to a place near there called Qu Jiang park. It's sort of similar in that it has recreated Tang buildings or modern things inspired by the Tang descriptions etc. The Chinese really revere the Tang period as a high point of Chinese culture, international influence and contact, Xi'an even moreso because it (as Chang an) was the Tang capital. Qu Jiang is built around a lake that's been recreated to match as closely as possible the artificial lake the Tang created in the same place. Again, it's actually a nice place to just walk around, although yesterday was officially the first day of spring so we got spring showers today - just drizzle and it didn't feel cold, but not exactly 30 degrees like Christchurch - I think I picked the wrong summer to be away...

One minor irritation - my cellphone ran out of money about three days ago, and not only could I not send messages, I couldn't even receive them. And because I bought my simcard in Changchun, I couldn't even get a normal top up; I had to go into a proper China Mobile branch and get them to do it. Hardly the end of the world but a bit weird I thought. Anyway, I think that brings me right up to date. I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow - quite possibly my planned circumnavigation of the city wall. Then on Monday the plan is to go to, and climb up Huashan, one of the five famous mountains in China that you're supposed to see. Apparently it is well worth the visit.