Saturday
17 Sep 16 High Speed Train
to Xian
Today we are leaving Beijing for Xian, the home of
the Terra Cotta Warriors. We spent the
morning doing our last sightseeing in Beijing.
Our first stop was to the Drum and Bell Towers. In the courtyard between the two buildings
were lots of people playing ping pong, jinzu (a form of our hacky-sack except
that they use a shuttle cock, and doing dance exercises.
At the Bell Tower we went to the Bell Tower Tea Room
for an authentic tea ceremony. The woman
at the Tea Room showed us how to hold a tea cup (different for men and women –
women hold out the two bottom fingers while the holding the tea cup with their
first three fingers, while the men curve the two bottom fingers into the palm
of their hands. We each had two small
cups – a tall one for smelling the tea and a round one for tasting. She
explained the different types of tea – black tea (fully fermented green tea
(unfermented), and oolong (somewhere between the two). We then sampled 5 different types of tea –
each tea supposedly is good for different aliments.
The first tea we tasted was oolong tea with
gingseng. You are supposed to drink this
particular tea in 3 sips: the first for
Happiness, the second for Fortune, and the third for Long Life. The second tea was Jasmine, which is supposed
to be good for your eyes. We then tasted
Pure Black Tea; it is caffeine-free and aged at least five years before
using. This tea is not to be confused
with what we call Black Tea is the US. The Chinese call our black tea “red”
tea. The Pure Black Tea has a very
earthly taste and is the most healthy tea in China. It supposedly helps with high cholesterol,
diabetes, and blood pressure, but it must be drunk daily to have any
benefits. The next tea was Lychee Black
Tea mixed with Rose Tea. Our last tea
was a fruited tea that is good served cold.
However you must make it with boiling water (as with all the other teas)
and allowed to cool. At the end she
showed us a clay figure of a little boy.
He is used to make sure the water is hot enough to make the tea. You pour some water over his head and if the
water is hot enough, the little boy sends out a stream of water (“pee”). If the water is too cold, he does nothing. The Chinese call him “pee-pee boy.” Of course we had to have him so we bought a
tea mug that changes pictures when hot tea is poured into the cup. Our cup will change from a dragon to a panda
bear.
After the tea ceremony, we climbed to the top of the
Bell Tower – 75 very steep and high steps.
Unfortunately, the day was overcast and we did not have a very good view
of Beijing. After the Bell Tower, we
walked through a nearby hutong and part-way around the Hui Hai Lake. Hutongs are small, old neighborhoods with
narrow alley ways. The homes are built
around courtyards. The name hutongs come
from ancient Mongolia meaning homes built around a well. The one we walked through was very colorful
with tiny shops intermingled with the homes.
We then went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. It was okay, but not as good as some of our
other meals. Again we had about 8 dishes
to choose from, but fortunately they were not very spicy. We then headed for the Beijing Train Station
where we took the high-speed train to Xian.
Xian is about 1200 Kilometers from Beijing and the train took 4 ½ hours
to arrive there. Our train speeds reach
307 Kilometers/hour for part of the trip.
The ride was exceptionally smooth.
We received a box dinner that contained rice and six small beef and
vegetable dishes. Not the best meal, but
certainly not the worst. When we arrived
at the Xian Train Station, we were met by Susan, our local guide and driven to
our hotel, the Ramada Xian Bell Tower Hotel. It is a lovely hotel located very
close to the center of the old city of Xian.
The smog today has been terrible – visibility is really down and you can
smell the particles in the air.
18
Sep Small Wild
Goose Pagoda
This morning the smog was the worst we had seen –
Bill even resorted to wearing a mask. On
the outside, the hotel seemed lovely.
But the rooms left much to be desired.
The temperature is controlled centrally by the hotel and our room was
quite hot. Lena talked to the staff and
they will try and lower the temperature a few degrees. It s the lighting system that is weird. It is very difficult to determine which
switch works what light, and there is a master switch that turns off all the
lights (and the air conditioning too).
So last night when I had to go to the bathroom, none of the light
switches would work (we had apparently turned off the master switch), so I had
to prop open the door to the hallway so I could get some light to see into the
bathroom. After two days of trial and
error, I think we have figured it out.
If I use one of the switches by my bed, it gives off enough light to
move around in, but not enough to wake Bill up.
This morning our first stop was to the Small Wild
Goose Pagoda. It was built in the 7th
century (Tang Dynasty) to house Buddhist scriptures. It is located in a beautiful park. It got its name from a Buddhist monastery in
India. In this monastery were two sects
of monks – one vegetarian and the other meat eaters. As the legend goes, one day the meat eaters
had no meat so they went outside to pray to Buddha to get them some meat. Right after they finished praying, a wild
goose fell out of the sky, dead at their feet.
The vegetarians were so impressed that they started to eat meat
also. A visiting monk from China was
studying at this monastery, and when he returned back to China, he asked the
emperor to build him a pagoda to store his books and named the pagoda Large
Wild Goose Pagoda. Several years later
he needed another pagoda to store more books, and as it was smaller than the
first, he named it Small Wild Goose Pagoda.
It originally had 15 stories, but an earthquake in 1556, destroyed the
top two stories.
We walked around the park and saw the Bell
Tower. For 5 yuan (about 50 cents) you
could ring the bell three times to ward off catastrophes and bring long life
and good fortune. So we both rang the
bell. In the park were people doing tai
chi, a form of Chinese martial art, practiced for both its defense-training and
its health benefits. We had a master tai
chi instructor and she showed us the 13 basic steps. She was so graceful and flexible. Then she had us try it – talk about bulls in
a china store – we were all about as clumsy and ungraceful as it gets. And most of us were unable to bend our legs
as low as she could. It must be all that
squatting they do when they go to the bathroom!
After our tai chi demonstration, we had a Chinese
calligraphy class. Our instructor told
us a little about the Chinese characters that make up their language. There are 214 main characters, and thousands
more that are iterations of the main characters. Each character stands for a word. She showed us how to hold the calligraphy
brush and then had us follow her instructions in painting the Chinese character
for Happiness. Ours will not win any
prizes, but we all graduated from her class and got a red stamp on our work.
After lunch we went to the Shaanxi History Museum,
considered one of China’s most exceptional museum. Our local guide, Susan, took us on a walking
tour of what she considers the four main dynasties in China – Zhou, Qin, Han,
and Tang. We saw beautiful bronze work
from the Zhou dynasty, pieces of the first paper ever made and relics from the
only woman emperor from the Han dynasty.
There were also several of the Terra Cotta soldiers on display from the
Qin dynasty. The Tang dynasty was noted
for its advance of culture, especially in painting and in clothing.
After the Museum, we went to Xian’s City Wall, one
of the most complete structures of its kind in China. Constructed during the Ming Dynasty (14th
Century), the City Wall is one of the largest ancient military defensive
systems in the world. It encircles the
old part of Xian and there are four gates through which you can enter the old
city – North Gate, South Gate, East Gate, and West Gate. The West Gate was the beginning of the Silk
Road which originated in Xian. Today
trees have grown up around the wall so you do not get very good city views (and
the smog didn’t help the visibility). An
interesting fact is that the base of the wall is made of a mixture of earth,
quick lime, and glutinous rice extract, tamped together. A moat ran around the outside of the city
wall, with a drawbridge (since destroyed) that when raised cut off access the
city.
We then drive to the Drum Tower (most China cities
have both Bell and Drum Towers that kept time during the dynastic reigns). From the Drum Tower we walked down a street
in the Muslim Quarter of the city. What
an adventure! The smells, sights, sounds
and hoards of people were overwhelming.
There were men making Biang noodles by taking pieces of the dough and
stretching them and then banging them on the counter making a loud sound. The noodles are then dropped in a pot of boiling water to cook. Other men were pounding a taffy like desert
that when down is mixed with nuts much like our peanut brittle. And the meats that were for sale – you saw
men cutting up the lamb and cooking the small pieces of meat on a
shisk-kebob. I’m pretty sure that I
can’t wear this shirt tomorrow because it has absorbed all the different smells
and smoke from the street. But it was
one of the most fascinating streets we have ever walked.
Dinner tonight was a Mongolian hot pot. This traditional group meal originated in the
Mongolian city of Hothot and is prepared with a variety of savory ingredients,
including beef, chicken, tofu, and vegetables.
The traditional manner of cooking is a large hot pot, with boiling
broth, place in the center of the table.
Everyone then cooks what they want, much like out fondue. They usually have two broths – one mild and
one hot. At this restaurant we each had
a small hot pot where we cooked our meat and vegetables. We also had a chance to make our own sauce,
with a variety of condiments – green onions, garlic, sesame paste, sesame oil,
and a variety of hot peppers and pastes.
The dinner was okay, but it was a lot of work for little reward. It is very difficult to take spinach or thin
noodles out the pot using chopsticks.
Monday
19 September 2016 The Terra
Cotta Warriors
Today it is raining, the first real rain we have
had. It is also the day we visit the
Terra Cotta Warriors, located just outside
Xian. Considered one of the
foremost archaeological discoveries of the 20th century (China calls
them the 8th wonder of the world), these 2,000 year old pottery
soldiers were discovered by accident on March 28, 1974 by four farmers digging
a well on their land. There are over
6,000 discovered in three separate pits, but only about 2,000 are on
display. They were made during the reign
of Emperor Qin Shihaung (of the Qin Dynasty from which China gets its name) sometime
between 246-206 BC. It was Emperor Qin
Shihaung that first united China (before it was just a place of 6 Warring
States). Emperor Qin, who became emperor
at age 13, but didn’t assume control until he was 23, ordered that these
soldiers be built and buried with him:
(1) as a show of his glory; (2) to remember the army that triumphed over
the other Warring States to unite China; and (3) because it was believed that
objects like statues can be animated in the afterlife, and Qin Shihaung
required an after-death army. The
Chinese, especially back then, believed in an after-life, and as such, the
emperors were buried in massive tombs and contained all the things that a
person might need in the after-life – tools, food, treasures, and even
concubines, who were buried alive with the emperor.
Four years after Emperor Qin Shiahaung died at the
age of 50, fighting broke out among the different warring states, and enemy
soldiers broke into Qin’s tomb and destroyed most, if not all, of the terra
cotta soldiers (or at least knocked off the heads). Since their discovery in 1974, archaeologists
have been putting together the broken pieces of the soldiers and horses. Talk about a big jigsaw puzzle!!!
Today you see that some terra cotta figures are
without heads, but their bodies are complete.
Studies of their portions have revealed that the heads, arms, and torsos
of the figures were created separately and then assembled. It is believed that most warriors' heads and
arms were produced in molds as separate modules. After assembly, clay was
applied to the surface of the sculptures so that artists could model the faces
and hairdos individually. Then, the
figures were fired in kilns to make the clay hard and durable. Afterwards, they
were painted with bright colors. As a
result, every figure looks different and unique, just like real people do. After 2,000 years of erosion and humidity,
most figures have lost their original vivid color.
These soldiers were found in three pits that
encircled Qin’s tomb. Today Qin’s tomb
lies in a hill about 1 kilometer from the pits, but it has never been
opened. It is believed that it was
booby-trapped with arrows that would be released if someone opened the tomb. Chinese authorities are reluctant to open the
tomb for fear that the treasures inside would be destroyed with exposure to the
elements. So there are no immediate
plans to excavate the tomb.
Pit number 1 is the largest and most impressive –
the size of an airplane hanger. It is
believed to contain over 6,000 soldiers and horses, but only 2000 have been
uncovered. The rest are entombed under
the weight of the collapsed roof that once sheltered them from the weather (the
roof collapsed after being set on fire by the invading armies after Qin’s
death). All the soldiers and horses face
east, placed in columns with dirt partitions between the columns. Each soldier was armed with a weapon, but
today the weapons have been removed. The
vanguard appears to be three rows of infantry who stand at the easternmost end
of the army. Close behind is the main force of armored soldiers holding
weapons, accompanied by 38 horse-driven chariots. Every figure differs in facial features and
expression, clothing, hairstyle, and gestures, providing abundant and detailed
artifacts for the study of the military, cultural, and economic history of that
period.
Pit Two was uncovered in 1976 and provides a good
insight into the ancient army array. .
It consists of four units, measuring 94 meters east to west and 84 meters south
to north and 5 meters deep, forming a 6000 sq. meter built-up area. The first unit contains rows of kneeling and
standing archers; the second one is a chariot war array; the third unit
consists of mixed forces with infantry, chariot and trooper standing in
rectangular array; and the last one includes numerous troopers holding weapons.
Pit Three is the smallest of the three and contains
only 68 figures. Archaeologists believe
that this represents the army’s headquarters or command unit. Although most of the figures are headless,
these figures would have been the generals and high-ranking officers.
To tell the difference between the different ranks,
you need to look at their heads. Figures
that have a bun on the top of their head are enlisted soldiers. Officers have a flat top on their heads,
while general officers have what looks like a butterfly on their head. Although you can see the outline of the
chariots on the ground in the pits, the wood has since rotted away.
In another building at the site are two bronze
carriages (1/2 the regular size of a carriage) that were discovered 20 meters
from the west of Qin’s tomb. They were
discovered in 1980 and have since been restored. These carriages each had about 3400 parts and
were pulled by four horses.
They were mainly made of bronze, but there were
1,720 pieces of golden and silver ornaments.
The carriages were so well-made, and so vivid, that they boast being the
best-preserved and having the highest rank among the earliest known bronze
relics in China. These chariots are the
biggest pieces of ancient bronzeware ever found in the world.
Despite the rain (and an attack of Montezuma’s
revenge most likely from last night’s hot pot dinner), it was an exceptional
morning. It is hard to fathom all these
soldiers were made I such a short period of time. The Qin dynasty only lasted for 15
years. And the workmanship it must have
taken. All the faces are unique – it is
believed that they were modeled after real soldiers of that period. Even each ear is unique. Although the color has since faded, I am
quite sure they were magnificent when first made.
Leaving the Terra Cotta Warriors site, we walked
(still raining) through the little town
just outside the entrance. It is
just a collection of restaurants (to include Burger King, McDonald’s, and
Starbucks) and souvenir shops. Once on
the bus, we drove to our next stop – lunch and a laquer furniture making
talk. Along the way, we saw many fruit
trees with each individual fruit wrapped in s little plastic bag. This keeps the heat in while they ripen and
the bugs and birds out. But the time
spent wrapping each piece of fruit is mind-boggling.
Lunch was nothing special – a buffet with mostly
oriental dishes. But the bathroom was a delight. Western-style toilets complete with toilet
paper (a rarity in this country) and sinks that had both soap and paper
towels. We thought we had all died and
gone to heaven. After lunch we were
treated to a talk on how the Chinese produce lacquer furniture. The wood used (it can be any kind) is allowed
to dry to make it harder and then assembled using on tungue-in-groove (no
nails). The lacquer is made from the sap
of the lacquer tree. It is harvested
during the summer and is clear when first harvested. It then changes to milky white, red, and then
black, all in a matter of a few hours.
In ancient times, the Chinese did not know how to stop this
color-changing process, so all the furniture was painted black. Today they are able to stop the changing, so
pieces are painted many colors. However
no chemicals are used in this process, the tinting agents are all natural. The lacquer is applied, allowed to dry, and
then sanded with a very fine sandpaper.
This process can be down up to 300 times per piece. The last three times, women’s hair, wrapped
around the hand is used to produce a high gloss finish. The pieces are beautiful, many with gold,
silver, or abalone inlays.
After this demonstration, we went to the Guang Ming
Primary School, which is one of the schools supported by the Grand Circle
Foundation. They have provided desks, a
computer room, improved toilets, and a large LED display board to the school. We visited the 6th grade and were
met by the students as we entered the school yard. My student was a girl (could not begin to
know how to spell her name) – she was a little shy, but I finally got her to
talk a little. She would like to become
a nurse. Students in China must attend
school for 9 years – 6 years in the elementary grades (up to 6th
grade) and three years in middle school.
After that they have the option of going to High School for 3 years,
going to a trade school, or entering the work force. After high school graduation, those wanting
to go to college must take an entrance exam.
It is the same test for all colleges and universities and is given on
the same date and time all throughout China.
Students in China begin learning English in the 3rd grade so
our students did have some knowledge of our language. They had their English books out for us to
look at. The one we looked at was a
little story about two children going to an Italian restaurant for pizza. However, to me, it was a little
confusing. The children in the story ask
for directions to the restaurant and are told it is near the London Eye. When they ask where is the London Eye, they
are told it is by the Thames. However,
I’m sure thee students had no idea was the London Eye is or even what the
Thames is. And they learn by just
repeating the sentences that their English teacher reads. Before we left, we sang one of the songs that
was in the back of their book – “If You’re Happy Clap Your Hands” and then had
them sing it with us. They really seemed
to enjoy that.
Back at the hotel, we were supposed to go to a
dumpling dinner and a show portraying the songs, dance and stories from the
Tang Dynasty. However, Bill and I were
extremely tired, and I was not feeling all that well, so we opted out and spent
a relaxing evening in our hotel room.
Tuesday,
20 September A Day in
the Life of
Today was a Day in the Life of a village of Donghan,
a place where the colorful "peasant" painting style originated in the
1950s.. On every OAT trip you spend a
day getting to know local people – usually meeting with village elders,
visiting schools, or sharing a meal with a local family. I still was not completely over my
Montezuma’s Revenge, so I opted to stay back in the hotel, but Bill went.
First we went to a local “farmer’s market”, which is
the local food store for the community.
Our guide gave each group of three 5 Yuan and told us to buy a certain
vegetable speaking Chinese. We all
succeeded!!! We then wandered around the
market. Near the end of our visit we saw
a man on a tuk-tuk with a drum on the back.
The drum was mounted sideways with a cap on top and a large spout
sticking out at about the 10 o’clock position.
I asked what it was so our guide bought some. The driver turned the drum so that the spout
pointed down and poured out some liquid into a bowl. It turned out to be soup. It was ok.
Next we went to the village where we were to have
lunch. We were met by a few people
dressed in local dance costumes playing symbols and a drum. The dancers got some of the ladies to dance
with them (sort of). Next we went to the
home of a woman who grinds up hot peppers to sell at the local market. They use a 300 lb. concrete roller for
grinding. They now have an electric motor to drive the roller, but previously
turned it by hand. I tried to turn it
but couldn’t. Obviously, at that time
they had an arm out from the roller to aid in turning it.
Then we went to the home for lunch. All the villagers used to live down a dirt
road that flooded frequently. The government
subsidized their move to the present location.
The home we were in was about 2400 sq. ft., almost as big as our home in
CO. It had 5 bedrooms and 2 baths. The wife showed us one of the “peasant”
paintings that she had on her wall. It
was very beautiful. The kitchen was
outside the home in a shed-like building so heat from the kitchen doesn’t
overheat the house. We all helped with
preparing the lunch. I helped roll out
and cut the noodles. The meal, as usual,
was huge. I wonder what they do with
leftovers.
Tonight we opted out of the Muslim dinner and ate in
the hotel. I ordered a dish from the
Italian Pasta page of the menu – it turned out to Chinese fried noodles with
peppers (the red ones were really hot) and strips of beef. Not very Italian! Bill had a steak that wasn’t too bad. Tomorrow morning bright and early we fly to
Chengdu to visit with the pandas.
