China 2009 Xi'an

China Day 22 – Friday July 17, 2009

A free day as several members of the group were leaving for the U.S., and the some of us went shopping—again! Well that seems to be the No. 1 sport here. There were bus loads of tourists at the Silk Market when we got there by taxi. Our favorite scarf shop remembered us from two days ago, so we could get a good price without bargaining too much. Then I bought some Chinese style jackets that seemed like good prices as well.

Pizza dinner of all things, but without cheese and tomato sauce, although it was round with a nice crust and just veggies and chicken. Delicious.

China Day 23 – Saturday July 18, 2009

Travel day to Xian, and an 8:30 departure by taxi for the airport, only four of us going on and we met our guide named Hilary there at the Xi’an airport at 12:30pm with a six-seater van. After an hour we stopped for lunch, a more meager lunch than the former banquets every day, but since it was very very hot, that was just fine.

Next we stopped at a Chinese folk art museum, with a very nice guided tour, although it was quite small, only four rooms. The last room was a class room and display area of folk art paintings to purchase and I bought one small one of a snow scene in the mountains as it reminded me of Vermont or Denver, and also looked very cooling on a very hot day. They rolled it up and put in in a nice small box. We then had a calligraphy demonstration, and learned to write one sign, which I promptly forgot. It looks easy but complicated. After that we stopped at the pagoda temple, seven stories high, but only 100 people can go in each day, due to some earthquake damage last year. One large hall with the Buddha statue fell down in the earthquake last year, but it was entirely rebuilt very quickly for the Olympic visitors.

It was getting hot hot hot and we finally got to our hotel around 5pm, for an hour’s rest, then on to a dumpling dinner (with far too many dumplings, but all differently filled and shaped) and then a show as it was a dinner theater. The show was largely singing and dancing, with almost Las Vegas style costumes; it was supposed to be on the silk route from the 14th century Ming dynasty. Very loud and bright meant to show the splendor of the court, which it did! And we were very very tired after this long day.

Tomorrow the terracotta warriors at last!!


China Day 24 – Sunday July 19, 2009

Today is The Day – for the terracotta warriors – and they are as fantastic as represented, in fact more so, as just to see the huge array of them in an airplane hangar size building was awesome.
This is said to be the burial mounds of the first Qin (pronounced Chin) dynasty emperor who unified China after many years of warring states, in 221 BCE. The Han dynasty which followed is much more famous and long lived. Xi’an was the first capital of this unified China.

The place was hugely crowded being Sunday, but you could squeeze in to the railing to get a closer look, although the statues were still a bit far away, sort of across a small street. I suppose the humidity is good for them somehow, although the heat couldn’t be. We heard the same story again, about the farmer drilling for a well in a drought year, 1974, who found some fragments by accident and that led to finding more and more and more. The shed was built in 1979 for tourists, although there weren’t many tourists the first few years. We saw a photo of Bill Clinton, Hillary and Chelsea standing among the soldiers, but of course not many people get to do that. It is strange though to see so many rows and rows of stiffly standing figures.

On the way there, we stopped at a clay workshop where they make some of the small reproductions to sell, and I bought a small horse, not having room for a larger one. I think the people making them this way by hand was just for show as they must have factories somewhere to produce a lot more. Workers were putting the finishing touches on some of them here though, so perhaps the basic figure is mass produced. (I’m such a skeptic)

The Warriors Complex actually had three museums, the first hangar one, a second big hanger, although not so big as the first, but built much later and air conditioned, and kept climate controlled, for Pit No. 2, which had much paint on the figures, which has since disappeared. There were some in cases as well so you could get up close to them. The last building had the bronze chariots that were found, and they think there should have been 81 of them, as that’s a sacred number. (Latest news has 100 more warriors found as well as one more general, as so far there were only 8 generals). The two bronze chariots were nearly life size with charioteers and four horses, and were put back together from thousands of pieces. All of the warriors had been broken and fallen down in a destruction attack according to the experts, most likely from the next dynasty since the first Qin dynasty didn’t last very long.

We stopped for lunch in a restaurant in the museum complex, a huge one for bus loads, with a buffet, so we could choose what we wanted. Good but not as great as some other lunches.

Then back to Xi’an city for their history museum, which was wonderful, and a recently built one in pagoda shape. The entire history of Chinese civilization was laid out in several big rooms, with very nice displays and good labels and some videos to watch. Here the display was chronological, from the Peking man to the last emperor, unlike the Shanghai Museum which was arranged thematically, bronzes, ceramics, etc. Both methods are good for different reasons.

After that it was extremely hot out, so we went for a tea ceremony, very interesting with demonstrations and samples of seven different teas in tiny little cups. The wooden stools were very hard though, and the table was made out of a huge root, with many leveled off spots to set down your teacup.

After that we went to the Confucious temple where they have the stone tablets characteristic of these temples, although the architecture was the same as Buddhist temples, with pagoda buildings and courtyards between them.

Then finally to our hotel, the Bell Tower Hotel, right on the Bell Tower square. But the hotel is government run, and not up to our usual standards. The rooms were not that nice, in fact one person had changed their room as it had wine stains on the carpet. The next day we all changed rooms, as some tour groups were leaving, so I finally got a really great room, just facing the bell tower and square, which was all lit up a night.

Dinner out was back to the same lunch restaurant, so nothing special. Too tired after this so we just enjoyed our nice new rooms.


China Day 25 – Monday July 20, 2009

Another very busy day, but it was not nearly as hot as yesterday, so first we went to the city wall, which is amazingly preserved all around, since Xi’an was not very popular until after 1974 when the terracotta army was found. We walked to the top, not very high, from one gate, and there are many towers so we walked just a short way down and back. It would take four hours to walk around the entire wall, and they rent bikes to go around, which would take one hour by bike. Well we did not do either one.

Next we went to see the great mosque, with the students in a classroom learning the Koran. Many pavilions with same architecture from courtyards to pagoda style buildings. We then could walk around in the Muslim quarter of tiny streets and alleys, but we stayed on a main street so as not to get lost.

Then lunch in a restaurant there, at 11am, as we had to get to the airport early for some reason. But the food was not very unlike other Chinese food, when we had expected something different. Well on to the bus for the hour ride to the airport, and we were hours early for the 2pm flight to Beijing.

Arrived here on time, and checked in again to the Marriott Courtyard. I even had to change my room as the AC didn’t work, so the new room is really really cold.

We met our former guide and friend Jun Zhou for dinner, and we walked to a nearby vegetarian restaurant, for vegetarian chicken, veggie beef, veggie scallops, etc. etc. It was all tofu it seems, but tasted delicious and all different. The Chinese are amazingly creative with food. We hardly ever had any rice dishes.

Back to enjoy my new cool room, and repack suitcases. At least Continental will check in two bags no charge for international flights. We don’t leave until noon tomorrow for the 3:45pm flight, so we’ll have a nice leisurely morning for a change!!


China Day 26 – Tuesday July 21, 2009

The Sad End of a Great Trip, and Continental flight to Newark 14 hours long. Watched THREE movies and hardly slept from the excitement of it all.