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.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
After the haircut it was off to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. By the way, it’s amazing what a bit of a snoop around the internet can reveal. Evidently the Wild Goose thing relates to a story that describes the origins of the Ci’en temple complex. At the time (early Tang) there were some sects of Buddhist monks who ate meat and others who didn’t. A bunch of the carnivorous ones were feeling a bit peckish and wondered whether or not the divine powers were going to provide them with a snack. At the time a flock of wild geese just happened by. Just at the point when the monks were praying for some divine intervention in the way of a bite to eat, the lead goose suddenly fell from the sky with its wings broken. The monks saw this as a sign that it was time to get a bit more seriously pious and give up eating their flesh eating ways. The pagoda was built and has carried the name “Wild Goose Pagoda” ever since. When the small one was built later on, it was given the name “Small Wild Goose Pagoda” to link but also distinguish it from the other one.
A short bus trip and I was at the temple complex where the pagoda stands. It has an interesting history. It was split down the middle but not destroyed by an earthquake several hundred years ago, creating a crack from top to bottom. A subsequent earthquake pushed the cracked bits back together, leaving a scar. Another major earthquake caused the top three levels to collapse and they have never been replaced. The pagoda itself sits on a semi-spherical dome, which spreads the shock when earthquakes hit, Xi’an being in an eartquake prone region. Obviously it hasn’t worked perfectly but it is this construction technique that is credited with saving it from destruction in the many earthquakes it has endured.
Unfortunately the pagoda itself was closed - a shame as you can normally climb right up and it gets really narrow at the top. The temple area had quite a bit of activity going on though, with performers playing music and wandering about. There’s also the new Xi’an Museum, which had a hologram theatre (no photos allowed) and various exhibits of Xi’an’s history, with a lot on the Tang era and on the design of the city itself. That was worth the entry charge itself. The building itself is also quite cool, with a big circular atrium and the displays in wings leadin off and curving around it. The same pattern is repeated for the basement display area, where the centre is filled with scale models of the old city.
From there it’s a short walk back to the South Gate of the city wall, the Ming rebuilt circuit that still completely encloses the old city. The Ming were very energetic builders in their early period (from about 1368 on I think). That’s great if you want to see stuff built by the Ming and to be fair to them, it’s possibly the only reason some stuff still exists at all, but it did mean that a lot of older stuff was covered over or replaced. The wall is a case in point. The Ming wall replaced the Tang wall that had stood for about 800 years already. Another point I suppose is that if they hadn’t rebuilt the wall, Xi’an might not exist . . .
Having said that, the wall itself is a pretty awesome piece of engineering, and really gives a unique character to the city. I climbed onto it at about 5 in the evening and was there as the sun went down (I caught my first hazy glimpse of the Xi’an sun this afternoon – it’s been heavily overcast since I arrived) and the New Year light show went on. The wall and all its towers are all lit up and there are all kinds of wire and fabric displays on the wall too, lit from inside. There’s quite a festive atmosphere with people bringing their kids to play sideshow games and just walk along it, looking at all the displays. It’s quite likely that the wall has always been used like this in peacetime. I wanted to walk right around but had been walking all day already and hadn’t really eaten since being sick the night before so I’ll try and make that a mission for another day. Tomorrow I’m off on another all day trip out of town, to visit some other notable places. There’s still so much to do and only 12 days left to do it all, including the day I leave.
A short bus trip and I was at the temple complex where the pagoda stands. It has an interesting history. It was split down the middle but not destroyed by an earthquake several hundred years ago, creating a crack from top to bottom. A subsequent earthquake pushed the cracked bits back together, leaving a scar. Another major earthquake caused the top three levels to collapse and they have never been replaced. The pagoda itself sits on a semi-spherical dome, which spreads the shock when earthquakes hit, Xi’an being in an eartquake prone region. Obviously it hasn’t worked perfectly but it is this construction technique that is credited with saving it from destruction in the many earthquakes it has endured.
Unfortunately the pagoda itself was closed - a shame as you can normally climb right up and it gets really narrow at the top. The temple area had quite a bit of activity going on though, with performers playing music and wandering about. There’s also the new Xi’an Museum, which had a hologram theatre (no photos allowed) and various exhibits of Xi’an’s history, with a lot on the Tang era and on the design of the city itself. That was worth the entry charge itself. The building itself is also quite cool, with a big circular atrium and the displays in wings leadin off and curving around it. The same pattern is repeated for the basement display area, where the centre is filled with scale models of the old city.
From there it’s a short walk back to the South Gate of the city wall, the Ming rebuilt circuit that still completely encloses the old city. The Ming were very energetic builders in their early period (from about 1368 on I think). That’s great if you want to see stuff built by the Ming and to be fair to them, it’s possibly the only reason some stuff still exists at all, but it did mean that a lot of older stuff was covered over or replaced. The wall is a case in point. The Ming wall replaced the Tang wall that had stood for about 800 years already. Another point I suppose is that if they hadn’t rebuilt the wall, Xi’an might not exist . . .
Having said that, the wall itself is a pretty awesome piece of engineering, and really gives a unique character to the city. I climbed onto it at about 5 in the evening and was there as the sun went down (I caught my first hazy glimpse of the Xi’an sun this afternoon – it’s been heavily overcast since I arrived) and the New Year light show went on. The wall and all its towers are all lit up and there are all kinds of wire and fabric displays on the wall too, lit from inside. There’s quite a festive atmosphere with people bringing their kids to play sideshow games and just walk along it, looking at all the displays. It’s quite likely that the wall has always been used like this in peacetime. I wanted to walk right around but had been walking all day already and hadn’t really eaten since being sick the night before so I’ll try and make that a mission for another day. Tomorrow I’m off on another all day trip out of town, to visit some other notable places. There’s still so much to do and only 12 days left to do it all, including the day I leave.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Buddha's finger and other exotica
Actually it doesn't really come much more exotic than that I suppose, unless you rate various officially fake Buddha's fingers up there as well.
On the 5th I went on another organised tour, but without engaging the services of an English speaking guide. I decided after last time that I was better to just muddle along. it turned out for the best as an 18 year old student and her father stepped up and offered to help me out. They were fantastic. She had a really good overall knowledge of the history and of the places we were visiting; in fact one - the tomb of one of the Han emperors - was her primary reason for wanting to visit Xi'an. One of his generals, who's remembered there too is her hero sort of. Her father is a practicing Budhist so was able to fill me in on lots of the specifically Buddhist history, tradition etc.
So we started out with a visit to a museum of Han stuff, including hundreds of terracotta figures. The Han ones aren't life sized like the Qin ones; they're about 30cm high and not as individualised. There were three basic faces to represent the different regional origins of the people. They still retain lots of colour too, unlike the Qin ones, where it mostly faded when exposed to the environment. From there we went on the Han tomb that my guide was so keen on. That included a small museum as well - this country is coming down with museums - as well as stone carvings and the tombs themselves - huge artificial hills that surround you as you walk around. With the weather as it was it was a bit of a case of "Fog on the Barrow Downs" for the Tolkein fans.
On the minibus again and we were off to visit a sort of reconstruction of an ancient village, with donkeys grinding meal and ancient looking women weaving on ancient looking looms. It was a strange kind of a hybrid of a place, with dioramas of prehistoric (neolithic and earlier) mannekins and reconstructed houses, through to a tunnel complex with exhibits of Chinese 'folk culture' I suppose you'd call it; dioramas of villagers celebrating a wedding, eating moon cakes at the Autumn Festival etc. Why a tunnel complex I hear you ask? Because in this part of Shaanxi province, people have traditionally lived in caves. Up north of here some people still do, but there are certainly lots of caves cut into the sides of banks and cliffs in this region. Oh, and they had a bear in a cage. Apparently they used to raise bears there in large numbers - I'll leave it to your imagination why they might have done that. The government of the PRC have deemed it cruel (or been convinced it's in their interests to) and banned it. Now they've only got one unfortunate beast so I suppose the cruelty has been reduced by several degrees of magnitude.
From there, it was off to the tomb of Wu Zetian, the only ruling Empress in Chinese history. (Cixi doesn't really count as there were nominally Emperors in charge, even if she had them under house arrest!) She was an interesting character, hitched very young to the aging Emperor, in an unconsumated marriage, becoming a Buddhist nun to avoid death when he heard a rumour that his line would be replaced by another named Wu, then given a reprieve after he died when one of the new Emperor's two wives conspired to get her in as a third wife in a power struggle with the other wife! I bet she regretted that decision... She ended up surviving the Emperor and ruling in her own right. When she was preparing for her own death, she began her tomb construction but whereas the tradition was to have a memorial erected covered in script extolling the virtues of the late Emperor, Wu Zetian instructed the craftsmen to leave hers blank, declaring that it was for those who survived her to write their opinions when she wasn't around to vet them. Quite remarkable really. There are a few inscriptions on there now, all of them flattering . . . Oh well, nice try. There's a monument there that she had erected for her late husband number two, the completely forgettable and forgotten (no one in the room can even remember his name) Emperor. However when the Qing Emperor put up a memorial there it was only to him. The new government has put up another recognising them both.
Which brings me to the finger of destiny. At Famensi, the Famen temple, they allegedly have one slightly crusty digit from the man himself. Actually it's only one bone, a falange. The temple itself is pretty impressive with a pagoda about twelve floors high and an underground museum. In the depths of the museum, although due to be relocated to an almost finished new building, resides the finger bone, along with three fakes. How they can possibly prove the veracity of the other one I can't possibly guess. But there it is.
Oh, and somewhere along there we also saw the underground tomb of a Tang prince, long since looted but still worth a wee look if you're in the neighbourhood.
Back to Xi'an and I got to eat the local specialty, a noodle. Actually two, but they're about 50cm long, like eating a long strip of lasagne in a yummy sauce - chilli, corriander etc. Yippee.
On the 5th I went on another organised tour, but without engaging the services of an English speaking guide. I decided after last time that I was better to just muddle along. it turned out for the best as an 18 year old student and her father stepped up and offered to help me out. They were fantastic. She had a really good overall knowledge of the history and of the places we were visiting; in fact one - the tomb of one of the Han emperors - was her primary reason for wanting to visit Xi'an. One of his generals, who's remembered there too is her hero sort of. Her father is a practicing Budhist so was able to fill me in on lots of the specifically Buddhist history, tradition etc.
So we started out with a visit to a museum of Han stuff, including hundreds of terracotta figures. The Han ones aren't life sized like the Qin ones; they're about 30cm high and not as individualised. There were three basic faces to represent the different regional origins of the people. They still retain lots of colour too, unlike the Qin ones, where it mostly faded when exposed to the environment. From there we went on the Han tomb that my guide was so keen on. That included a small museum as well - this country is coming down with museums - as well as stone carvings and the tombs themselves - huge artificial hills that surround you as you walk around. With the weather as it was it was a bit of a case of "Fog on the Barrow Downs" for the Tolkein fans.
On the minibus again and we were off to visit a sort of reconstruction of an ancient village, with donkeys grinding meal and ancient looking women weaving on ancient looking looms. It was a strange kind of a hybrid of a place, with dioramas of prehistoric (neolithic and earlier) mannekins and reconstructed houses, through to a tunnel complex with exhibits of Chinese 'folk culture' I suppose you'd call it; dioramas of villagers celebrating a wedding, eating moon cakes at the Autumn Festival etc. Why a tunnel complex I hear you ask? Because in this part of Shaanxi province, people have traditionally lived in caves. Up north of here some people still do, but there are certainly lots of caves cut into the sides of banks and cliffs in this region. Oh, and they had a bear in a cage. Apparently they used to raise bears there in large numbers - I'll leave it to your imagination why they might have done that. The government of the PRC have deemed it cruel (or been convinced it's in their interests to) and banned it. Now they've only got one unfortunate beast so I suppose the cruelty has been reduced by several degrees of magnitude.
From there, it was off to the tomb of Wu Zetian, the only ruling Empress in Chinese history. (Cixi doesn't really count as there were nominally Emperors in charge, even if she had them under house arrest!) She was an interesting character, hitched very young to the aging Emperor, in an unconsumated marriage, becoming a Buddhist nun to avoid death when he heard a rumour that his line would be replaced by another named Wu, then given a reprieve after he died when one of the new Emperor's two wives conspired to get her in as a third wife in a power struggle with the other wife! I bet she regretted that decision... She ended up surviving the Emperor and ruling in her own right. When she was preparing for her own death, she began her tomb construction but whereas the tradition was to have a memorial erected covered in script extolling the virtues of the late Emperor, Wu Zetian instructed the craftsmen to leave hers blank, declaring that it was for those who survived her to write their opinions when she wasn't around to vet them. Quite remarkable really. There are a few inscriptions on there now, all of them flattering . . . Oh well, nice try. There's a monument there that she had erected for her late husband number two, the completely forgettable and forgotten (no one in the room can even remember his name) Emperor. However when the Qing Emperor put up a memorial there it was only to him. The new government has put up another recognising them both.
Which brings me to the finger of destiny. At Famensi, the Famen temple, they allegedly have one slightly crusty digit from the man himself. Actually it's only one bone, a falange. The temple itself is pretty impressive with a pagoda about twelve floors high and an underground museum. In the depths of the museum, although due to be relocated to an almost finished new building, resides the finger bone, along with three fakes. How they can possibly prove the veracity of the other one I can't possibly guess. But there it is.
Oh, and somewhere along there we also saw the underground tomb of a Tang prince, long since looted but still worth a wee look if you're in the neighbourhood.
Back to Xi'an and I got to eat the local specialty, a noodle. Actually two, but they're about 50cm long, like eating a long strip of lasagne in a yummy sauce - chilli, corriander etc. Yippee.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
It must have been something I ate . . .
I suppose it had to happen but I thought that after lasting this long - over three weeks now - I might have avoided the dreaded Chinese equivalent to Delhi Belly. I presume there is a name for it but I don't know what it is. Anyway, I was invited to dinner with some of Laura's father's friends at this really flash hotel restaurant - he has friends who are business people, on the state Chamber of Commerce etc - and when I got home it was all on. I don't actually think it was something at the restaurant; that would not have had time to affect me. It's more likely something from earlier. Still, I can't complain. I slept OK and feel alright so far today.
I didn't do too much on the 2nd. I went and bought a pair of jeans and a shirt, and had dinner at the home of a different one of Laura's father's friends. He has lots of friends and being new year, it's the visiting season. One of the other people there was an 18 year old (actually it was her 18th birthday) who's studying Chinese Traditional dancing. We didn't get a demo though. Another was a young guy who's studying classical double bass in Malaysia of all places!
Yesterday I went to see the Drum and Bell Towers. The Bell Tower is right in the centre of the old city and it took me just under an hour to walk to it from Laura's place. I was lucky enough to time my visit to coincide with a performance of traditional instruments, including a reconstruction of a Qin dynasty (200s BC) array of bells. That was cool, although a bit tacky when they finished with Auld Lang Syne. Then over to the Drum Tower where they also have a display of old furniture. They used to beat the drum at about 9pm to signal the closing of the gates, again at about 11pm to inform everyone that all was well, and finally at about 7am to indicate the reopening of the gates. Daytime signalling was from the Bell Tower about 200m away.
Right behind the Drum Tower is Beiyuan Men, a Muslim street close to the Xi'an Grand Mosque. You can get all sorts of food there. Actually it's possible that that was the source of my subsequent sickness although I've been being pretty adventurous (read reckless I suppose but what's the point of going to a place with a 5000 year history of food and not trying some of it?) with food generally so it could have been something else. The oddest looking thing so far would have to be the food (I'm not sure what) that comes stuffed inside a sheep's skull. I took a useless photo so I'll try to get a better one on another day.
I had an oil-fried chilli stuffed pancake thing (the culprit?) which was pretty yummy, then went to look at the mosque. It dates back to the 7th Century (Tang) but has been added to progressively ever since. It's the biggest and most significant, as well as, I think, oldest mosque in China. It's a blend of traditional Islamic and Chinese architectural styles, so it has carved dragons and the small animals that you see on the roofs of Chinese buildings, even though it's a mosque, which wouldn't usually depict animals - maybe because they're mythical animals it's OK. I don't know.
From there, I went to see the "Forest of Stone Stelae", really a museum of engraved standing stones. They're all indoors now or at least under shelter, but they started being assembled there in the Song Dynasty (began 907AD) and include stuff from the Han pariod (220BC to 220AD or something) onwards. All the classical Confucian texts are written on these stones. While I can't read the writing, it was worth a visit because I could get some sense of the changing styles over the centuries.
After this pretty full day, I headed back into the city centre where I lurked around just watching people go by while I waited for Laura to meet me. She'd spent the day with friends. I've indicated that I'm more than happy for her to go and do her own thing rather than feel she needs to keep me company. Of course the fact that I then got sick only made her feel bad . . .
Well, I just went and got a haircut this morning at the local, old style, barber. The woman who cut my hair had never had a Western customer before so that was cause for great hilarity, especially when she gave me a shave with a cut throat razor. I know, you can get all kinds of nasty diseases (like Hep B or C) from cuts from these things, but I only thought of that later. Anyway, she did a good job and didn't cut my skin at all, so I should live to see another day. It also turned out that she wasn't a Chinese Sweeney Todd, although I felt pretty vulnerable with my head tilted right back and the chair tilted too so that I was more or less horizontal. Anyway, all good, and I'm off to visit another pagoda with a good museum attached, and then I hope to walk the 13.8km of the city wall. More on that next time.
I didn't do too much on the 2nd. I went and bought a pair of jeans and a shirt, and had dinner at the home of a different one of Laura's father's friends. He has lots of friends and being new year, it's the visiting season. One of the other people there was an 18 year old (actually it was her 18th birthday) who's studying Chinese Traditional dancing. We didn't get a demo though. Another was a young guy who's studying classical double bass in Malaysia of all places!
Yesterday I went to see the Drum and Bell Towers. The Bell Tower is right in the centre of the old city and it took me just under an hour to walk to it from Laura's place. I was lucky enough to time my visit to coincide with a performance of traditional instruments, including a reconstruction of a Qin dynasty (200s BC) array of bells. That was cool, although a bit tacky when they finished with Auld Lang Syne. Then over to the Drum Tower where they also have a display of old furniture. They used to beat the drum at about 9pm to signal the closing of the gates, again at about 11pm to inform everyone that all was well, and finally at about 7am to indicate the reopening of the gates. Daytime signalling was from the Bell Tower about 200m away.
Right behind the Drum Tower is Beiyuan Men, a Muslim street close to the Xi'an Grand Mosque. You can get all sorts of food there. Actually it's possible that that was the source of my subsequent sickness although I've been being pretty adventurous (read reckless I suppose but what's the point of going to a place with a 5000 year history of food and not trying some of it?) with food generally so it could have been something else. The oddest looking thing so far would have to be the food (I'm not sure what) that comes stuffed inside a sheep's skull. I took a useless photo so I'll try to get a better one on another day.
I had an oil-fried chilli stuffed pancake thing (the culprit?) which was pretty yummy, then went to look at the mosque. It dates back to the 7th Century (Tang) but has been added to progressively ever since. It's the biggest and most significant, as well as, I think, oldest mosque in China. It's a blend of traditional Islamic and Chinese architectural styles, so it has carved dragons and the small animals that you see on the roofs of Chinese buildings, even though it's a mosque, which wouldn't usually depict animals - maybe because they're mythical animals it's OK. I don't know.
From there, I went to see the "Forest of Stone Stelae", really a museum of engraved standing stones. They're all indoors now or at least under shelter, but they started being assembled there in the Song Dynasty (began 907AD) and include stuff from the Han pariod (220BC to 220AD or something) onwards. All the classical Confucian texts are written on these stones. While I can't read the writing, it was worth a visit because I could get some sense of the changing styles over the centuries.
After this pretty full day, I headed back into the city centre where I lurked around just watching people go by while I waited for Laura to meet me. She'd spent the day with friends. I've indicated that I'm more than happy for her to go and do her own thing rather than feel she needs to keep me company. Of course the fact that I then got sick only made her feel bad . . .
Well, I just went and got a haircut this morning at the local, old style, barber. The woman who cut my hair had never had a Western customer before so that was cause for great hilarity, especially when she gave me a shave with a cut throat razor. I know, you can get all kinds of nasty diseases (like Hep B or C) from cuts from these things, but I only thought of that later. Anyway, she did a good job and didn't cut my skin at all, so I should live to see another day. It also turned out that she wasn't a Chinese Sweeney Todd, although I felt pretty vulnerable with my head tilted right back and the chair tilted too so that I was more or less horizontal. Anyway, all good, and I'm off to visit another pagoda with a good museum attached, and then I hope to walk the 13.8km of the city wall. More on that next time.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Well I've arrived in Xi'an safe and sound. On the night I arrived we went to have dinner with an ‘uncle’ of Laura's; in China it's standard for people to use terms like uncle, aunt, grandmother etc to refer to close friends of the family. These people were friends who run a restaurant so that's where we went. As usual the food was amazing, with heaps of different dishes. From there we went back to Laura’s place and got sorted out there. Laura spent quite a while trying to apologise for the apartment but I managed to convince her that there was no need. I've never judged anyone yet for not having a “good enough” or “big enough” place.
On Friday we just went to visit another ‘uncle’ for lunch. He's a guy from Laura's father’s home province. The food just kept coming . . . On interesting thing tat Laura explained to me is that because the words for remaining and fish are similar, it's traditional to serve a fish dish at new year, but to then take it away uneaten. It will then be eaten at a later time, when the new year celebration is complete. That's what happened in this case. It was a pretty impressive looking dish too, with whole fish cooked with whole spices including chilli and aniseed. The rest of the food was more than enough without that though.
Saturday saw me on a small tour bus going to see the terracotta warriors and other related (and unrelated) sites, as Laura has been to see them lots of times, including only last month with her boyfriend. The site is about an hour's drive out of Xi'an so we decided getting on a tour bus might be the best way for me to go. It probably was, and was a great day, but not without its problems. The English speaking guide that they sent along had OK English; probably about pre-intermediate level in terms of how they assess people for teaching purposes. That means maybe about the level Laura had in 2004 when she first arrived in New Zealand. He promptly announced that this was his first time working as a guide. He's a student at university in Xi'an. I asked him what he was studying, expecting to hear that he was doing history or archaeology or some other related subject. “Japanese”, he announced, without the slightest indication that he might think I was expecting anything else. He didn't really know much, and his English was not good enough to translate more than a fraction of what the Chinese guide, who clearly did know her stuff, was saying. Still, it was good to have someone there who spoke some English just as someone to talk to and to help fend off the hawkers. He was a very nice guy too and apologetic about his inability to do a better job.
The first stop was Lishan, one of the great scenic mountains in China. I was told we would be waiting a while there and I assumes we were picking up some other people. Later I discovered that some of the group had gone up a gondola and were walking back down the mountain – like I wouldn't have been really keen to go for a walk on one of China’s most scenic mountains!!! So that experience was pretty weird.
From there it was on to a small museum of mostly Tang dynasty artifacts. While Xi'an is now most famous for the terracotta warriors, which date from the Qin dynasty (3rd Century BC), the height of Xi'an's power, when it was possibly the most populous city in the world, and of great strategic importance at the start of the Silk Road, was in the Tang dynasty, which was during the 8th and 9th centuries AD.
Next was what they call the Undeground Palace, which is actually the mauseleum of the first Qin Emperor. The display is a bit garish in places but nevertheless does give a good sense of what the place must have looked like when it was built.
After that it was on to the warriors’ museum itself. Each of the three opened pits is covered by a huge building and the warriors are mostly still there in situ. You can see some restored ones in their original formations and bits of other broken ones as well. The whole thing is really quite amazing, considering that it was all created over two thousand years ago. I took some photos . . .
On the way back, we visited a hot spring where Chian Kai Shek hid out to avoid having to fight the Japanese. It's the site of “The Xi'an Incident” where a couple of his generals apparently mutinied against him (there are bullet holes in the walls) in order to “persuade” him to do the decent thing and actually use his army to oppose the Japanese. All in all a good day, despite a few odd things that occurred along the way.
Yesterday we went into the city to visit the mysteriously named “Big Goose Pagoda”. While Laura did point out a few pictures of wild geese on one wall, she didn’t know and we couldn't find out why it is called the Big Goose Pagoda. And yes, there is also a “Small Wild Goose Pagoda” too, so maybe the answer will yet be revealed. It's more than just the pagoda, but a whole Buddhist temple complex where people still go and pray. I climbed the seven levels of the pagoda but the weather was a bit misty so the view wasn't great. In fact it rained overnight – the first time I've been in a place when it has rained since I arrived in China. It rained again last night. Laura tells me the newspaper had reported that they fired 12 rockets into the sky to trigger the rain.
The other main event of the day was a visit to the province's main museum, where we had to queue for ages to get in! Actually Laura had never experienced that either in the many visits she has made, but it was a strange thing for me to witness. The museum covers human culture and civilisation in Shaanxi province from the earliest neolithic discoveries through to the end of the Ming dynasty with a bit of Qing stuff as well, but the main focus is on the earlier periods before the capital was relocated away from Xi'an, so mostly Qin, Han, Sui and Tang stuff can be found there, including some things I've seen before in books. A great place to visit, and entry was free!
Laura's family have been really good, offering to help me with anything I need to do. They're really making this trip great.
I'm at the internet cafe now and I can confirm that the Carpenters are still big in China; 'Yesterday Once More' is playing as I post this.
On Friday we just went to visit another ‘uncle’ for lunch. He's a guy from Laura's father’s home province. The food just kept coming . . . On interesting thing tat Laura explained to me is that because the words for remaining and fish are similar, it's traditional to serve a fish dish at new year, but to then take it away uneaten. It will then be eaten at a later time, when the new year celebration is complete. That's what happened in this case. It was a pretty impressive looking dish too, with whole fish cooked with whole spices including chilli and aniseed. The rest of the food was more than enough without that though.
Saturday saw me on a small tour bus going to see the terracotta warriors and other related (and unrelated) sites, as Laura has been to see them lots of times, including only last month with her boyfriend. The site is about an hour's drive out of Xi'an so we decided getting on a tour bus might be the best way for me to go. It probably was, and was a great day, but not without its problems. The English speaking guide that they sent along had OK English; probably about pre-intermediate level in terms of how they assess people for teaching purposes. That means maybe about the level Laura had in 2004 when she first arrived in New Zealand. He promptly announced that this was his first time working as a guide. He's a student at university in Xi'an. I asked him what he was studying, expecting to hear that he was doing history or archaeology or some other related subject. “Japanese”, he announced, without the slightest indication that he might think I was expecting anything else. He didn't really know much, and his English was not good enough to translate more than a fraction of what the Chinese guide, who clearly did know her stuff, was saying. Still, it was good to have someone there who spoke some English just as someone to talk to and to help fend off the hawkers. He was a very nice guy too and apologetic about his inability to do a better job.
The first stop was Lishan, one of the great scenic mountains in China. I was told we would be waiting a while there and I assumes we were picking up some other people. Later I discovered that some of the group had gone up a gondola and were walking back down the mountain – like I wouldn't have been really keen to go for a walk on one of China’s most scenic mountains!!! So that experience was pretty weird.
From there it was on to a small museum of mostly Tang dynasty artifacts. While Xi'an is now most famous for the terracotta warriors, which date from the Qin dynasty (3rd Century BC), the height of Xi'an's power, when it was possibly the most populous city in the world, and of great strategic importance at the start of the Silk Road, was in the Tang dynasty, which was during the 8th and 9th centuries AD.
Next was what they call the Undeground Palace, which is actually the mauseleum of the first Qin Emperor. The display is a bit garish in places but nevertheless does give a good sense of what the place must have looked like when it was built.
After that it was on to the warriors’ museum itself. Each of the three opened pits is covered by a huge building and the warriors are mostly still there in situ. You can see some restored ones in their original formations and bits of other broken ones as well. The whole thing is really quite amazing, considering that it was all created over two thousand years ago. I took some photos . . .
On the way back, we visited a hot spring where Chian Kai Shek hid out to avoid having to fight the Japanese. It's the site of “The Xi'an Incident” where a couple of his generals apparently mutinied against him (there are bullet holes in the walls) in order to “persuade” him to do the decent thing and actually use his army to oppose the Japanese. All in all a good day, despite a few odd things that occurred along the way.
Yesterday we went into the city to visit the mysteriously named “Big Goose Pagoda”. While Laura did point out a few pictures of wild geese on one wall, she didn’t know and we couldn't find out why it is called the Big Goose Pagoda. And yes, there is also a “Small Wild Goose Pagoda” too, so maybe the answer will yet be revealed. It's more than just the pagoda, but a whole Buddhist temple complex where people still go and pray. I climbed the seven levels of the pagoda but the weather was a bit misty so the view wasn't great. In fact it rained overnight – the first time I've been in a place when it has rained since I arrived in China. It rained again last night. Laura tells me the newspaper had reported that they fired 12 rockets into the sky to trigger the rain.
The other main event of the day was a visit to the province's main museum, where we had to queue for ages to get in! Actually Laura had never experienced that either in the many visits she has made, but it was a strange thing for me to witness. The museum covers human culture and civilisation in Shaanxi province from the earliest neolithic discoveries through to the end of the Ming dynasty with a bit of Qing stuff as well, but the main focus is on the earlier periods before the capital was relocated away from Xi'an, so mostly Qin, Han, Sui and Tang stuff can be found there, including some things I've seen before in books. A great place to visit, and entry was free!
Laura's family have been really good, offering to help me with anything I need to do. They're really making this trip great.
I'm at the internet cafe now and I can confirm that the Carpenters are still big in China; 'Yesterday Once More' is playing as I post this.
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