niniane

Anyway, the whole plan was to spend one jet lagged day in Beijing then return later. So today was off to Xi'An! Anyway, we got to Beijing West to pick up our tickets to Xi'An. Unfortunately the lady at the ticket counter couldn't find our tickets and spoke no English. I freaked out a bit, as previously all I'd needed to do to claim my tickets was to present our passports and pick up tickets...so it seemed weird that she was having so much trouble. She told me to follow her, so I did to a fluent English speaking desk worker...who had no problem whatsoever in locating our tickets without even taking to us. So...?

Anyway, with that minor crisis solved, we got loaded onto the bullet train. (Always a destination in and of itself!)

We got to Xi'An without incident and made it to our hotel, which was quite nice, dropped off stuff, then wandered around a bit. We were right by the Bell Tower, so checked out that, the Drum Tower, and the Muslim quarter. Because of the holiday, the streets were overwhelmingly packed.

The Bell Tower, lit up at night. All of Xi'An is lit up like a Christmas tree in the evening, WHICH IS FREAKING AWESOME.

The drum tower, which is also really amazing.

We also went to a “famous” (read well advertised) dumpling place, which was frustrating in that it was mentioned in Dad's guidebook without the Chinese characters, which meant that it was near impossible to find. (Since, you know, the signs are in Chinese, not pinyin. Interestingly enough, in almost all of Xi'An, even when they used the pinyin, it wasn't a translation, just pinyin. So the bell tower was “zhong lou”, the Big Wild Goose Temple “da yan ta”, which I can see being confusing as heck to foreigners.) Anyway, after a long frustrating search, we found it. Then the waitress kept trying to direct us upstairs to where there was an English menu, but no amount of searching could find it, so eventually I just ordered beers and dumplings from the little take out stand in Mandarin. (Kind of like I'd wanted to, because dumplings are not the kind of food that requires a full service restaurant.)

We went to bed tired but fed!

The next day, we took a tour, which was nice in that I didn't have to plan quite so much. The tour guide wisely woke us up super early to see the Terracotta Warriors, which are magnificent, as always. There are just so many of them, and they're so exquisite, and we've learned so much from them. I was rather disappointed in that the museum is exactly as it was 10 years ago – a dig site with a few of the warriors pulled out to look at. They didn't even mention the additional excavated pis (the acrobats, menagerie, bird area, etc.) which is rather sad seeing as they know SO much more than they did a decade ago. Oh well...

The warriors in their dig site.

The command tent. I love that it seriously looks like they're all having oh so serious conversations. Like, "Hey, General Li, you really need to re-take the Eastern Fortress, or we're going to have to demote you." "I know."

Mom claimed that the whole process looked a bit Westworld...which it does. (Well...more than a little.) Then again, I kind of feel like that was the point! The Emperor gets to live in Westworld for eternity!

In case you were wondering, it is a real, actual, ongoing archaeological site. Most of it is still not yet uncovered, which is pretty freaking cool. I can't wait to see what else is figured out in my lifetime!

Around the pit were several of the warriors in glass cases. Which was cool, but would have been cooler had I not gotten to see (with far fewer crowds!) almost the same warriors in Seattle!

Around the warriors, of course, were the obligatory picture taking places, food stalls, etc. Always fun. :) Then we took off to the North City Wall, which as quite lovely and picturesque, but maybe not that exciting in and of itself. (In large part because we had a half hour to walk a short distance, then walk back.) Finally we made it to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

Along with the interesting things around the warriors is the guy who discovered them, who is this guy standing in the middle of my family. I find it kind of awesome (because he has a steady and (hopefully) well paid job), kind of depressing (since it seems like a kind of boring job) that the farmer who discovered the warriors now is paid to stand for photo ops with tourists. Either way, I really am in awe of him, because, rather than loot the tomb, he turned it over to proper authorities, who properly excavated it, which is why it's an amazingly important archaeological dig. So super kudos to this guy!

Also, in Chinese tradition, there must be costume photos. (From what I gather, this is a longer tradition than one would expect. Regardless, there is not a tourist spot in China that does not include the possibility of getting your costume taken in whatever "typical" garb one would expect in the region. It's kind of hilarious.) In Xi'An, it was, of course, all pseudo-Tang dynasty stuff. What I loved, here, was that the girl got to be photographed with two mannequin (and costumed) attendants, seeing as no proper Empress would be pictured alone!

Anyway, next made it off to Little Goose Pagoda!

A bit of history. Long, long ago in the Tang dynasty, a Buddhist monk went against the Emperor's orders to travel to India and bring back sutras (the Lotus sutra, among others) so that he could translate them and ensure that the Buddhism practiced in China as correct. He spent years traveling, then additional years translating. When he returned, the Emperor had changed his mind and was so overwhelmingly pleased with him that he built him the Big Wild Goose pagoda to store his original sutras and translations. (In large part as, since the pagoda was built of brick, it was immune to fire, the scourge of all.) These sutras, amazingly, still exist beneath the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

A few years (decades, I think) later, another monk did the same thing, bringing back still more sutras and forming a different form of Buddhism that made a schism with the first. To honor him (and store his manuscripts, even though these are now with the others at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda), the Little Wild Goose Pagoda was built. In pictures, the little one is a bit more picturesque, seeing as it has more floors, even though it is shorter and slightly less historically valuable.

This would be Little Goose Pagoda.

Anyway, we went in and got a lesson in calligraphy that I think was mostly to convince us to buy calligraphy. Then we wandered around the pagoda, which was fun and lovely. There was a bell there you could pay 5 rmb to ring for good luck, so of course I did so, getting cheers from the crowd. (Which I think found it hilarious that I'd rung the bell. But why not? Good luck! Also, it's a replica of one from the 9^th century, which I find pretty darned cool.)

I shall never pass up luck!

The Pagoda also had a bunch of trees with their ages marked on them. This one is 1300 years old, which seems quite impressive!

We were dropped off at the Muslim market, and wandered around a bit more before going elsewhere for dinner. I'm trying to remember the food. It was good, more or less what I'd expect from Xi'An – spicy meats, greasy (but delicious) noodles and veggies. I also bought some lovely calligraphy and paintings from Helen, a woman who mostly did Bible versus in calligraphy, which I found cool. (Probably her most interesting piece had the names for the 56 ethnic groups in China arranged in a cross with the character for “love” in the center. I would have bought it, but wasn't sure what I'd do with it. Still I found it striking!) Onto the next adventure!

A pagoda in the mosque, which was quite serene and pretty.

The mosque proper. Since we were there on a Friday, there were a lot of Hui gathered about, most of the men talking animatedly in their little white hats. It was rather cute and picturesque, I guess?

This woman was wandering about the mosque and having her (I'm assuming wedding) pictures taken. What's interesting is that, to me, she looks Hui...yet her costume looks more Uigher. (Although I could be wrong on either/both.) So it's hard to tell whether this is her actual ethnic garb (so she was having her pictures taken at her mosque because this is the normal thing) or whether it was more or less fancy cosplay essentially appropriated from another group. Regardless, she looked FANTASTIC and I was super grateful that she consented to letting me take her picture. (Not that it's hard in China....they really like pictures, but still...)

Once done with the mosque, we entered the night market DURING GOLDEN WEEK. It was pretty crazy. The food was good, though. Note the sheep carcasses and the delicious meat on stick. I didn't know this then, but this was some of the last good meat I'd be getting....