China, Part 4

Our next stop is Xi’an. We know our hotel is located right inside the south gate of the old city walls and we imagine a quaint, small city like Lijiang. We were shocked by the traffic and construction on our prolonged journey here from the airport. This is a big, Chinese city, of over 4 million people. We were driving in the cab in the city for a solid 40 minutes before reaching our hotel. The city walls are about all that is left of the former capital of China and the terminus of the Silk Road.

Our first exploration of Xi’an is of the city walls.

The walls have largely been restored, allowing pedestrians, bicycles and golf carts, for the lazy, to circumnavigate the original city. It takes us almost an hour and a half, with only brief stops to admire the occasional view, to complete the circuit. The perimeter is over 12 miles in length, and it is a workout, despite the flat contour and our use of tandem bikes.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is a relatively easy one. This is one of the most incredible archeological finds ever, and it happened recently. In the mid 1970s, five farmers were attempting to dig a new well. Unfortunately, after digging over 12 meters down, their buckets brought up ancient shards of pottery instead of water. Little did they know what they were standing on top of! Upon further excavation, there was discovered on this site, over 6000 larger than life-sized figures. When Xi’an was the capital of China, during the Qin and Han dynasties, the emperors were buried in the surrounding countryside. The first Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang, united all of China for the first time. He accomplished a number of tremendous works during his brief reign: he commenced building the Great Wall, he unified currency, measurement and written language, and he built an amazing mausoleum for himself. Over 720,000 slaves and former warriors worked to complete the tomb. The figures were arranged in army formations, with rows facing east, towards the lands the emperor had conquered. Each figure is unique, with different hair, facial expression, weapons, position, and even the tread of their shoes. This is the Terra-Cotta Army.

It should be noted, that just after the completion and burial of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the local farmers got angry at the high taxes imposed on them to build said Wall and mausoleum, and revolted. They broke down the walls of the newly sealed tomb, plundered everything of value, damaged all but one warrior, and set fire to the place. Interestingly enough, even more recently, in the late 1990s, while digging for the new expressway to the airport, they found another burial site, of a Han Dynasty emperor. This emperor was less consumed by war than Qin Hi Huang, and his tomb reflects this, with figures of court life, and animals instead. Excavations of both sites are still underway.

Our time is not only spent on the ancient. One night, we visit the Big Goose Pagoda, where every night, the city puts on a sound, light and water show. We are told it is the largest one in the world. The fountains are open to the public, and Ethan and Siena, along with many Chinese, have fun romping through the various waterspouts. The fountains are synchronized to match wonderful music. While most is classical Chinese, the Grande Finale is Ein Kleine Nachte Musik (sp?). We arrive back at our hotel soaking but happy.

The food in Xi’an is wonderful. We try the local specialty. It arrives in the form of two round heavy rolls, each about 3” in diameter and 1” thick. We mimic the other diners and break the rolls into small pieces. A woman at the table next to us took half an hour breaking her rolls into miniscule pieces. We weren’t nearly as diligent, or perhaps, we were just hungrier. Next, the waitress took our bowl on a numbered tray so as not to confuse ours with others, and filled it with lamb broth, vermicelli noodles and meat. Yum. Good enough for us to have it again before leaving town. One restaurant had as the specialty, 3.8 meter long noodles they served folded up in a bowl. Such long noodles are hard to serve and to eat, especially with chopsticks, and it turned out to be a messy, and bland dish. The same place, though, had a shredded pork, served with pancakes, scallions and cucumber slices, like Peking Duck. And, as the total bill came to less than $7 for all the dishes and the drinks, who can complain about a little mess? The local beer, Han, is brewed by Tsing-Tao, and, other than having a very high alcohol content, didn’t have much else to recommend it. Our hostel provided a free beer for us (not to Ethan and Siena, though) for each night we stayed. It is interesting to note that sport’s bars are different here. Sometimes, they show NBA basketball on the TVs, but more often, we’ve watched fencing, women’s volleyball, and badminton.

Gun Bai!

The Beatties