China 2 -- Xi'an

A few early anecdotes...

We took an overnight train to Xi'an and were greeted at the station by our new tour guide, Robin. I really liked Robin and had a chance to ask him over the course of our stay about his wife and her pregnancy as well as how the naming process takes place in China. Apparently it is seen as disrespectful to name your child after someone like your parents. I can understand the logic, although considering I'm named after my grandmother ... Well, what he explained was that it would be seen as calling your father your son, for example. What is more common is for the grandparents to name the child themselves.

It was interesting to see how the personality differences between my Danish professor and the Chinese tour guides meshed. The Danish are much more direct people, blunt and not afraid to speak their minds. This is not necessarily what you will find in a typical Chinese person, especially not one working for the government. One good example was during the day of our big mountain climb Line had decided that we would take one of the last cable cars down and that the half hour window between meeting with the whole group and the last car would be enough time. Robin didn't agree but went so far as to make up a story that one of the conductors had told him that it may not be enough time to get down and that it was likely we would miss the last car (first hand account). He was so indirect that he when she disagreed he just decided to go along with her and not put up much more of a fight.


Back to what happened along the way!

Our first stop after checking into our hotel (which was right in the city center & shopping district ... think Chanel and Prada) was to bike around the old city wall. I found Xi'an to be very manageable and the city layout makes it nearly impossible to be lost within the old wall limits. This is in stark comparison to Beijing in which I felt as if I could walk around for miles and not know where I was.

The bike ride was a great way to be out in the fresh air and beautiful sunshine as well as to feel out the city with a bird's eye view. I took my time and took lots of pictures of the development and the neighborhoods which are working to keep up with the rapid industrialization.





























Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly... One-third of the world's cranes are currently in China. The majority of which are in Beijing and Shanghai but there is new development everywhere.












It is hard to make out from this picture but one of the things that I enjoyed most about the bike ride was looking over the ledge onto community parks and events taking place. You can see that the tradition and collectivism do exist and will continue to shape the future generations in China... even as big business knocks on it's door (skyscrapers in the background).
















The following day we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda Buddhist temple & monastery (say that 5 times fast). During this visit I couldn't get my head wrapped around the fact that this working monastery had become such a tourist stop. To me the idea of finding everlasting nirvana would seem to be disrupted by the teenage westerner snapping photos of your prayer rituals. I suppose that they need a way to support the temple and monastery and have found a way to supply that need... oh, business.


















This sign reads: "PROTECT THE RELICS"
A bit of a paradox? Sounds like China.































































Outside the temple there were dozens of families outside flying kites. Kite flying is huge in China as is the selling of kites to tourists. I didn't come back with any kits, but this cute picture of these boys (trying to get close to Brittany, the blonde in our group) was more than enough : )


















Every night in Xi'an there is a fountain light show that happens twice for twenty minutes. It was really impressive and amazing to see how many people were there to watch the show! A few thousand people, and mostly locals! The one thing that kept going through my mind was whether or not this was a particularly good way to use the fresh water resources in China ...
































A delicious meal of dumplings : ) yummm.
During this meal we were supposed to have sat on one of the higher floors which would have meant "VIP" treatment. Which probably doesn't mean much difference besides not sitting alongside locals and eating what would be typically served. Line made sure that we got onto the first floor and although we had some fancy looking dumplings we were able to do lots of people watching and PLENTY of eating!














Making our soup!!














Huashan Mountain (one of the five Taoists mountains in China) was quite an experience. Our tour guide hadn't taken other groups before and claimed that it was dangerous. Well, there were steps and it wasn't particularly dangerous. There were a few really narrow steps but to put it into perspective there were Chinese tourists hiking around in three piece suits and high-heeled shoes on the women! I probably looked more ridiculous wearing clothes that were suitable for hiking than I would have had I worn jeans and a cute top.

My favorite part of this mountain was that there is a tradition for people to come up to the top of the mountain, put a lock along one of the chain hand rails and throw the key over the side of the mountain. Ok, I agree ... the lead poison flowing downstream from the ravene at the bottom of this mountain is less than ideal (totally made that up ... but possible). The act of locking and throwing away the key is to wish for good luck, health and fortune and is most often done with couples and newleyweds.



















Steep steps!



















Some of the sillier signs we saw in China ... "No Striding" ... off the cliff?































Slippery when wet

















The cable car lines ... I most definitely did not look down! The highest peak is about 2,200 meters high and this cable car took us to around 1,400 meters in seven minutes which is basically just straight up. Yikes.


















An evening out in the Muslim quarter was nice, having had a reflexogical body massage after our mountain trek was nicer.

We ate a lot of food off the street while we were in China. It is perfectly safe and usually incredibly delicious. Once or twice I got food on my own and it usually involved pointing and using of fingers but it always worked out and there were always smiles

: )













Another academic visit, this time to Xian Jiansen Pharamaceuticals. A less than stellar presentation, especially after the experience I had with Bayer Schering in Berlin but it was interesting to sit and have lunch with the employees and take a walk around the premises.














Market shopping around our hotel. This is two blocks from the Louis Vutton & Chanel shops. These open air shopping stalls had a lot more to offer, especially to a backpackers budget!


















Terracotta museum -- the Qin dynasty

The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by several local farmers near the Mausoleum of the First Emperor. Isn't that just absolutely crazy? Over 2000 years passed before one day a few farmers were trying to build a well and they stumble upon these amazing historic relics. What was really amazing was that at the museum gift shop one of the farmers was there signing books that were written about the history and discovery. Of course considering the government seized his land ... ... I guess signing books for tourists is a nice alternative.

Emperor Qin believed in the afterlife and put to work 700,000 men to construct his army for eternal protection. Current estimates put the number of soldiers at 7,000 along with hundreds of horses and chariots. Each one of the soldiers is different, and the distinctive ranks are realized with the dress and hairstyle.

Early after the burial of the soldiers there was a raid on the pits and this caused destruction to many of the soldiers and since the finding it has been determined that the soldiers were at one time colorful! There are very few still preserved in their entirety and those are not on display to the general public.

I most definitely cannot do this history justice ... Wikipedia has more : )

















The museum is basically laid out around four different pits. Each varying in size (this, pit 1, being the largest) and construction. It turns out that it is still a "working" museum but that there is not enough money to fund further excavation. I enjoyed learning about the history and how amazing a discovery this was for Chinese history, but I felt that the museum did not do a very good job portraying the soldiers very well at all. A classmate had seen 20 soldiers on display at the British Museum in London and could tell me more about them than we could have read at the museum in Xi'an. It seemed a bit silly to have such poor exhibits but after having also visited the Shanghai museum I think it is maybe something that China just doesn't do very well (of course two museums isn't a very fair sample size).















































Going out in Xi'an was quite the experience ... We saw what a club is like in China and the next picture can basically sum it up ... over stimulating.