Itchy Feet

My feet were itchy. It was time to get out of town for a while, have an adventure, see what China has to offer. What better place to go than Xi'an?

If you look at a map of the provinces in China, you'll see that our province, Gansu, is long and skinny with a small peninsula that juts out to the east. Our friends, John and Erin, live right in the middle of the peninsula in a city called Xifeng. They live close to the very popular city of Xi'an in Shaanxi province. We decided to meet there to see what all the brouhaha was about and found some pretty impressive and fun things to do while we were there.

We started out by taking the standard 2 1/2 hour bus ride to civilization (better known as the booming metropolis of Tianshui) from there we hopped on the train and it was only 5 hours to Xi'an. We met up with another friend, Niffy, who joined us on our trip.

Xi'an is one of the ten largest cities in China and it was the largest city in the world, way back in 582 A.D. It was the capital of the country for 700 years, off and on. The city is over 3,100 years old. By comparison, St. Augustine, FL (the oldest continually occupied city in America) is 441 years old. Xi'an is over 2,600 years older than any city in America. This means, of course, that the possibility of seeing some amazingly old and fascinating historic relics is very high.

Translation: I was giddy.

We stayed in a hostel in the middle of town, right next to the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower were used by government officials to sound warnings, change guard, provide information and a host of other things. They are large structures with a series of bells and drums used to relay the information across the city. When we arrived in town we found the hostel, had some dinner and then went to bed as it was late. The next day we went out to see the world-famous Terracotta Army.

The story is a good one and it has two parts. It goes something like this:

First, way back in 246 BC, the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (we'll call him Qin, okay?) became one of the "founding fathers" of modern China by unifying the country's many fighting warlords. If you've ever seen the movie "Hero"(you should, its quite amazing,) Qin is the king in the story. Given the volatility of the time, he was very paranoid and was constantly under the watch of bodyguards. Qin felt that he must have guards in the afterlife as well, so he ordered 700,000 workers to build his mausoleum and an army of warriors to protect him after his death. Once completed, he was to be buried with the army. He ended up dying of mercury poisoning after his physicians gave it to him to help him become immortal (whoops!) and, according to plan, he was buried with the army. Qin's mausoleum was spoken of in Chinese history texts as being gilded with gold and copper and having a replica of the earth and the universe, with a sky inlaid with pearls representing the stars, and rivers of running mercury to symbolize the bodies of water. Nobody really believed such stories about it until the army was discovered. Once the army was discovered, a renewed search for the burial chamber began. They found it a few miles away after doing a magnetic scan of a nearby hillside and discovered an alarmingly high amount of mercury in the ground along with many copper coins. Some people think he was buried with his money. China has chosen not to open the tomb yet, partially out of respect for the founding father and partially because they want to be sure not to cause any damage to the tomb when they open it. They are taking their time. It is pretty impressive that they are taking such painstaking care to preserve the relics.

Part two takes place in 1974. two men were drilling for water in a field and they started pulling all of these pottery pieces from the ground. Sensibly, they brought their discovery to the government's attention. They had accidentally discovered one of the most amazing archaeological finds in the world! Fast forward to today and there are now 8,099 pieces unearthed and there is much more to go yet. Quite a story!

After spending the day immersed in Chinese history, we went back to town and had dinner and then wandered around the Muslim quarter for a while. This is a touristy area where merchants sell pretty much anything Chinese to the various foreigners who come by. Many of them were impressed that I spoke Chinese to them and I had some fun bargaining too.

The next day brought an end to our short trip. We tried to get a train back but couldn't find a seat and had to get on a bus. Not nearly as comfortable but, it worked and we came home. We stopped by my favorite restaurant in town when we got back to Cheng Xian and I ended up with food poisoning to boot. Oh well, at least it didn't happen before the trip!

Travelling in China takes way more energy than travelling in the States does, I have discovered. But when you are able to see some of the amazing sites in this mysterious and ancient country and be with good friends to boot, it makes it all worth it.

Photos: Okay. They are all up now...take that Blogger!

Pic 1: This is in a western food restaurant in Xi'an. When you live 2 1/2 hours from the nearest American food, you get it when you can. Erin is on the left and Michelle is on the right. This picture turned out much better than I thought it would.

Pic 2: Menu in another restaurant. We weren't exactly sure what "Crackling Puberty Dove" was, and more importantly, we didn't want to know what made it crackle. There's also "Breathtaking Fresh Sleeve-fish," and "Fried Crisp Prairie Oyster." All of your American favorites!

Pic 3: The Drum Tower in downtown Xi'an. You can see one of the drums on the left of the tower. For a few kuai, you can bang on a replica drum and have it heard for miles around. Everyone's gotta make a buck somehow I guess.

Pic 4: This is the signature wall of the Bell Tower Hostel in Xi'an. People from all over the world have signed it. One of the goals of hostels is to help bring cultures together in an inexpensive and friendly environment. We decided that it was a great place to stay and that Australians are loud. This was one of the best too. We put a Peace Corps sticker on the wall for our signature.

Pic 5: These are some of the hand-crafted puppets that are made for shadow puppet performances that are a popular art form in china. The puppets are placed behind and illuminated white screen. The puppets are translucent and the colors can be seen in the shadows.

Pic 6: Some of the stuff being sold at the Muslim quarter in Xi'an. I bought some Chairman Mao poker cards and a Mao alarm clock too. It is fun to bargain with the merchants (well some of them anyway.)

Pic 7: Close up of one of the warriors (This pic turned out great!) at the museum. You can tell the rank of the soldier by the armor they wear, the height of the statue, and the knot in the hair. Each knot symbolizes a different rank. This one was a mid-level officer if I remember correctly.

Pic 8: A small portion of the unearthed warriors. You can see where the wooden crossbeams were on the walls beside them before they rotted away. Their arms are extended out because they were each holding a real weapon of some type that has since rotted away. They had bows, crossbows, swords and halberd-type axes.