China 2017

No pictures on this one – will follow when I get better wi-fi

After a restless night we make our way down to the breakfast room. There are large crowds around, many in groups rushing to eat before their coaches leave. There is a lot of pushing and shoving going on, in the queues for food and coffee. We marvel at the array of foods available at the breakfast buffet. The locals seem to have a hearty breakfast, with rice, noodles and lots of savoury dishes, followed by bakery items and fruit. What they can put away at this time of day is remarkable.

We return to the room and gather our bags and down to reception again to meet Tony the guide. He is having a coffee at the bar a little early. We leave straight away and head for the north gate of the city. We climb a steep set of stone steps onto the top of the wall. 

There is a roadway here on top of the wall itself, wide enough for two way traffic, paved with stone. Although there is evidence of restoration, it does seem as though a lot of original material has been used. Below the wall we can see people taking their morning excercise. Back to the car we head off again, our destination the museum of the Terracotta Army. We make a brief scheduled stop at a workshop where they make the reproduction statues and souvenirs. They also provide a customisation service. Photographs are taken of the individual and a soldiers head is carved by the artisans. Famous individuals who have had their statue made include David Beckham, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin amongst others. Not sure about the Beckham haircut on the statue though. We are guided through the pottery making process and see some ladies carving the statues. A little further on there are other workers lacquering furniture, mostly for export. There are some luxury items here very colourful and highly polished. There are thirty layers of lacquer. To prove the durability the man tries to set fire to one piece with his cigarettte lighter, there is not evidence of damage at all.

Returning to the car we are off again, a short ride now to the museum car park for the warriors. Tony tells us about the discovery, in 1974, when a farmer digging a well found the first terracotta soldier. He kept the secret, but told his wife, who then proceeded to tell neighbours and then the story spread. The farmer aged 82 is still alive, and is introduced to visiting dignatories. He did not receive any payment for his discovery. To think that there are over two million visitors here every year what an opportunity he missed.

Although busy the crowds are not too bad. Through the large ticket hall we enter the museum complex. At a guess the museum area is about the size of Alton Towers. There are three main archeological dig sites, the first is about the size of a football pitch, covered by a steel supported roof. There is a smell of earth and clay dust inside. This is the site where they have so far discovered six thousand terracotta soldiers. There are a variety of men, foot soldiers, archers, kneeling archers, cavalry men, officers and generals all having specific hairstyles, but every individual statue has a unique face. The sight that opens up before us is awe inspiring and a little spooky. They look like they could take life and start walking toward you. After a long while in this hall, we move on the hall three. Smaller than hall 1 this is the most recent dig site and home of the army of the flank. More officers and cavalry, about two thousand have been found here so far but digging continues. At the back of the hall we see the staff work area with chunks of soldiers here and there ready to be reassembled. There is scientific equipment, microscopes and even a hospital bed.
Leaving the hall we head off for lunch. A pleasant stop with good choice, including noodles of two varieties being made to order by hand. One sort is made by the cook shaving slices of dough off a block into boiling water. These are ribbon noodles. Traditional noodles are being made by his companion a little further along. He has a piece of dough which he stretches, folds over and flours, then swings up and down between his hands until it stretches again. He continues this process over and over until his strands of dough are the thickness of string. These are the boiled and served with a soup. The staff are undertaking their duties with a sense of theatre, and many customers are videoing and taking pictures.

We meet Tony again and enter hall two. This is the hall where the famous bronze chariots were found. Although ther are some soldiers in evidence in the pit, a number of specimens reside in glass cages. On some the remnants of the original colours they were painted with remain. It is amazing to think that these statues and the whole complex was built over two thousand years ago as protection for the emperor in the afterlife. The location of his tomb has been found, but no excavation work has been done there yet. Everybody in Xi’an is anticipating interesting discoveries of treasures when it is eventually explored.

An humbling, awesome and moving once in a lifetime experience.

Back on the road to the city now, we head for the Large Wild Goose Pagoda. This is an important Buddhist site, the place where the scriptures were brought to from India at the time when the Silk Road was established. The Indian documents were then translated into Chinese here and stored in the pagoda before being copied and later distributed around the country to temples in other cities. There is also a working temple here housing about sixty monks. At the entrance is an incense cauldron burning sacrificial incense sticks. The air is heavy with the scent and the smoke of the offerings. Inside the temple people are gathering. There is a large gold Buddha in the centre of the temple hall. A bell rings and slowly at first the assembled monks begin chanting. It is a moving experience. We spend some time here feeling calmed and chastened by the experience, especially as Tony tells us what happened to the monks and the temples at the time of the Cultural Revolution. The monks were sent away to all parts of China and the temples closed. We wander around the grounds where there are statues to other deities. Tony makes his offerings here. He too seems to be calmed by the visit. Out in the gardens now there is a spectacular display of tree paeonies and blossoming trees. Large numbers of people are taking pictures of the display, including the young ladies that got me into trouble I mentioned earlier. We walk back to the exit via the temple where the worship continues and a larger crowd has gathered. One monk struggles to move people away from the railings. Guess there are people who did not have the courtesy to turn their flash off.

We move on to our final stop of the day now. The Muslim area and the mosque just to the north west of the Bell Tower. Getting out of the car Tony tells us to watch for pickpockets. Proceeding along through the “souq’ we arrive at the mosque. This is the first one to be built in China, again at the time of the Silk Road when muslims first arrived. We are here when the muezzin begins his call to prayer. The site is nothing like any other Islamic site i have seen. The buildings are Chinese in style but with fancy Arabic calligraphy where Chinese script is normally placed. There are good number of men praying here, and only men. This is in stark contrast to the Buddhist temple earlier where there were male and female worshippers. Tony is now preparing to leave us gives us the instructions to get back to the hotel. He repeats them a few times making sure we turn “at the yellow rubber chickens” and walk straight on. We believe he is concerned for our well being being left alone here. We walk back to the main market road, and things have come to life. There is charcoal smoke in the air, and vendors are cooking all manner of comestibles. In contrast to Beijing, the strangest thing on view here is the grilled cuttlefish, and stewed lambs trotters. The smell of the lamb kebabs and chops is enticing, but as we are flying soon we decide against introducing any risks. Along the road there are cooks on the pavement with roaring fires and woks preparing dishes to order. A number of fit young men wrestle with large lumps of hot toffee which they put over a hook on the wall and then walk backwards into the path of passing pedestrians pulling and stretching the sugar confection with some force until it is only millimetres off the road surface and then, with panache, throwing the loop of sugar back over the hook. This stretching manoeuvre is repeated until the toffee is ready for consumption. The busiest stalls in the market appear to be selling a kind of downer kebab. Served in a round flat bread, the chopped “meat” and some sauce and spring onions are wrapped up and handed over. Large numbers of people queue for these snacks.

Leaving the colourful market we see the Bell Tower ahead, Tony’s directions proving correct. We turn left to the east and head toward the hotel. We cross the very busy road by subway emerging on the other side to take some pictures of the Bell Tower lit up beautifully in the fading light. As I stand there composing my picture a young boy standing next to me exclaims as he sees the lens of the camera shoot out as I switch on. The next thing I hear, in perfectly pronounced English is “Hello, how do you like China?”. We have a conversation for a few minutes, he is seven years old, learns English in school and is standing outside with a lady, not related to him, while his mother is busy shopping inside the mall.

We walk on now toward the hotel, hoping for a better nights sleep feeling exhausted, and as the hotel comes into view a light drizzle begins to fall. Tony and the driver are due to pick us up at nine fifteen tomorrow for the next leg of the journey to Guilin.