Day 6 - Sunday 8 April 2007 - In the Army Now
Last day in Xi’an and our learning of the Chinese language is coming along nicely. Aided by a new purchase at the hotel, Alec has learned 7 of the 214 basic characters, so we're nearly there then. This is the morning we had especially been waiting for, as we planned to journey out to the World Heritage Site of the Terracotta Warriors - the eternal guard of the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
Our guide explained (at length) that this site was busier in the morning and proposed to swap the schedule and make first for the beautifully preserved Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This is not only architecturally delightful but also the most significant Buddhist site in the province. And we were not going to get away without the detail. The guide rattled on about Sakyamuni and the elephant gods and the seven steps which grew into lotus flowers and goodness what else – initially it was relief to move off Tang-this and Tang-that but we rapidly became all Buddah’d out and switched off again. We were going to need to find a way of turning the auto-prompt off for this one!
Finally we set off for the Warriors but en-route we stopped at workshop to view the production of Terracotta figurines by local craftsmen and saw how they were made over 2000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty.
Educational note from our guide: The Qin Dynasty (Chinese: 秦朝; pinyin: Qín Cháo) (221 BC- 206 BC). The unification of China 221 BC under the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (or Shih Huang Ti) marked the beginning of imperial China, a period that lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. The Qin Dynasty left a legacy of a centralized and bureaucratic state that would be carried onto successive dynasties.
We finally arrived at the site starving and went straight to lunch. We had a chance to sample the Xi'an speciality of hand-pulled noodles and watch these being made. After lunch we marched into battle.
Our guide explained (at length) that this site was busier in the morning and proposed to swap the schedule and make first for the beautifully preserved Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This is not only architecturally delightful but also the most significant Buddhist site in the province. And we were not going to get away without the detail. The guide rattled on about Sakyamuni and the elephant gods and the seven steps which grew into lotus flowers and goodness what else – initially it was relief to move off Tang-this and Tang-that but we rapidly became all Buddah’d out and switched off again. We were going to need to find a way of turning the auto-prompt off for this one!
Finally we set off for the Warriors but en-route we stopped at workshop to view the production of Terracotta figurines by local craftsmen and saw how they were made over 2000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty.
Educational note from our guide: The Qin Dynasty (Chinese: 秦朝; pinyin: Qín Cháo) (221 BC- 206 BC). The unification of China 221 BC under the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (or Shih Huang Ti) marked the beginning of imperial China, a period that lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. The Qin Dynasty left a legacy of a centralized and bureaucratic state that would be carried onto successive dynasties.
We finally arrived at the site starving and went straight to lunch. We had a chance to sample the Xi'an speciality of hand-pulled noodles and watch these being made. After lunch we marched into battle.
The scale of the excavations is staggering as is the quality of repaired warriors – almost all were found broken in to pieces. The whole complex has been protected by large hanger-like buildings to make a very professional tourist attraction.
It's an astonishing place, quite mesmerizing and beautiful to see.
In order to stall the on-going diatribe about the formations of the second legion of the third wing under the command or First Warrior Custer, Alec started kidding the guide that clearly they had been bringing new statues in from the factory each night. She was not amused, nor did she realize he was joking. At the point that Alec said the faulty castings from the local factory had also been cleverly shipped in under cover of dark, and scattered convincingly, our guide had heard enough and we had our first experience of Chinese fireworks. Alec is still looking up in his new book the characters for the words she used, but we don’t think they were Classical Chinese in the "Tang" sense of the word.
In order to stall the on-going diatribe about the formations of the second legion of the third wing under the command or First Warrior Custer, Alec started kidding the guide that clearly they had been bringing new statues in from the factory each night. She was not amused, nor did she realize he was joking. At the point that Alec said the faulty castings from the local factory had also been cleverly shipped in under cover of dark, and scattered convincingly, our guide had heard enough and we had our first experience of Chinese fireworks. Alec is still looking up in his new book the characters for the words she used, but we don’t think they were Classical Chinese in the "Tang" sense of the word.
(We have since developed thoughts about this idea -watch out for the next best seller - the Terracotta Conspiracy - eat your heart out Dan Brown.)
We found the evening ‘Dumpling Banquet’ at De Fa Chang busy and average, with reasonable food and price but in an ordinary environment, despite it being renowned in Xi’an.
We did have great fun afterwards though walking down Bei Yuan Men street (two of the characters of which we can now read) and watching Chinese life go on into the night.
We found the evening ‘Dumpling Banquet’ at De Fa Chang busy and average, with reasonable food and price but in an ordinary environment, despite it being renowned in Xi’an.
We did have great fun afterwards though walking down Bei Yuan Men street (two of the characters of which we can now read) and watching Chinese life go on into the night.
posted by SmileySonia @ 09:17
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