Xi’an (she-ahn) was the next – and a special – stop on our China journey.  Last summer, we had some students from Guangzhou, China, stay with us.  One of the girls, Anita, and her family (Tim and Cathy) were going to meet us in Xi’an.  Instead of the upscale Western-style hotel, we went for a youth hostel this time.  Yes, that’s right.  Youth hostel.  My sister wouldn’t be allowed in the door, but I can still manage these things…  Our rooms did have their own bathrooms and shower, although there was no separate shower.  Just a showerhead mounted on the wall in the bathroom.  The hostel itself was very nice.  The place was quiet, the people running the place were welcoming, good food in the restaurant downstairs, and their beer was cold.  After that, the rest is gravy…

Pollution permeates the air across China.  It wasn’t too bad in Shanghai for most of my stay, we dodged a bullet in Beijing, but not initially so lucky in Xi’an.  When the train pulled in, visibility was maybe a quarter mile.  We had brought masks with us in the event that pollution was too much to bear, but we didn’t notice that anyone was wearing them.  Lots of people in Japan wear masks, but that’s mostly because they are hypochondriacs and they wear them to prevent the spread of germs & viruses.  I guess ‘lots’ might be a bit steep of a word, but there are enough that it is very noticeable.  So, we kept the masks in the room.  During that first night, it started to rain and kept raining for the next two days.  Not enough to give us blue skies when it finished, but it was enough to get visibility back up to a bad Shanghai day of 2 miles because the rain pulled the pollution out of the air.

Of every place we went to, the Terracotta Warriors completed my China bucket list.  Petra (a trip here would also have to include biblically significant sites), Luxor (and yes, this would also include the rest of Egypt’s treasures), Machu Picchu, and Angkor Wat round out the rest of my top 5.  But this is about China…  One of the things that having Anita’s family with us was the extra blurbs we would get from them that colored our experience from their perspective.  Take the air pollution, for example.  It’s something that actually gives them hope.  Yes, hope.  For so long those that have been in power in China and those that had money could always buy better food, have clean water delivered.  But the air is an equalizer – it doesn’t matter how much money you personally have, you can’t really buy better air for just yourself.  If those in power want better air, they’re going to have to fix it for everyone.

The bit of Chinese that I have learned while in China has been very useful, although at times it sets an expectation that I understand more than I really do.  When I would say “liang mi ling ba” for 2 meters 8 to answer the looks of “How tall are you?” I would usually get a landslide of Chinese that would follow and I had absolutely no idea what was said.  That would typically be followed with laughs and a presentation of a camera with either a shrug of the shoulders or raised eyebrows – international sign language for “Can I have a picture?”  Ketti and Noah both tried to pick up on some Chinese, saying Xie Xie (SHE-ah SHE-ah) for “thank you” and they both remembered how to order a bottle of water – Wo you yi ping bing shwei, xie xie.  Water had to be ordered “bing”, or cold.  Otherwise it would come out hot.  Chinese medicine teaches that cold is not good for the body, which is why the preference to hot…

Culture, of course, remained front and center during our stay in Xi’an.  Anita’s family viewed themselves as our hosts, and as the hosts it was their responsibility to pay for everything.  We wanted to split as much as we could, so it was a constant race to try and get to a waiter before Tim did, but since his Mandarin was a shade better than mine, he had usually taken care of it before I had a chance to even try.  In addition to finding the hotel and making those arrangements, they also made arrangements for a car and driver for the duration during Xi’an – there really was no other way.  For some of the places we went, cabs wouldn’t really get us there and one-off arrangements would have ended up being too expensive and complicated to manage.  I think I let them win enough to feel like they were good hosts, but we won enough to not feel like complete mooches.

With my now shorter bucket list in tow, it was time to head back to Shanghai for the last few days.  We were also going to have a dinner with the primary folks I have been working with and to also put in front of Noah and Ketti some of the more interesting foods that China has to offer.  But I’ll save that for the next one.  I think I’m going to write two more now that I can see the end.  One to cover the last few days and the trip home, then I have been taking a series of themed pictures that haven’t been posted yet (well, one did leak) and that will be the grand finale.

So, being as we’re at the end of the text portion of this post, click the first picture to start the gallery.  Zai jian!

This is our host family in Xi’an, standing in the entry of our hostel. Cathy and Tracey have been talking on Skype and exchanging emails since last summer and it was good to finally meet them. It was also invaluable to have native speakers with us all the time, too.
This painting was on the wall in the restaurant/bar in our hostel. I had assumed the artist had put a woman in the warrior outfit until I took a closer look one night and noticed that “Marilyn” was mustachioed.
Day one started at Huaqing Hot Springs. This was one part of a larger complex surrounding hot springs and structures that have a history of nearly 6,000 years. The springs are still there and if you want, you can go for a dip, but it’s a bit on the expensive side and we were also anxious to get to the Terracotta Warriors.
Working our way into some of the structures in the garden, there were pathways and stairways that made for an Escher-ish experience at times. Here, Ketti and Anita had worked their way up to a higher level.
We were also able to listen to stories told by our hosts about the 4 great beauties of ancient China. Each of them were Disney-esque in their peaks, but Game of Thrones in the outcome. This fountain complex is dedicated to one of them, Yang Guifei.
And yes! The warriors! Still standing at attention. They don’t know how many total figures there are at the site. They think there are about 5,000 total. They are painted very vividly, but as soon as they are exposed to air, the color in the paint fades away. They have decided to leave the rest buried until they can figure out how to unearth them and preserve the color.
This is Pit #1. As you can see from the size of the people you can barely make out at the very far end of this building, it is a massive site. I was very interested to notice that there are no air controls in the building. Nothing for temperature, nothing to maintain humidity, nothing at all save a roof to protect from sun and rain…
Not all the warriors are in prime condition – this one is in process of being repaired. Using computers, they have been able to piece together a sizeable number of additional warriors by puzzling together bits and pieces. The top half of the warriors is hollow, but the legs are solid, giving each of them a very solid base that ensures they stay upright.
Apparently, Anita is the only one who paid attention to my suggestion to pose like the warrior you were standing next to…
I created this one by stitching together about 10 other pictures. The original is about 40MB, compressed here to a bit smaller. The detail in these guys is amazing. I’m also cheating a bit here – the next few pictures of warriors are from a museum in Xi’an. At the actual site, the ones you could get this close to were all behind glass. Below and to the right is a link that says ‘View Full Size’. Click that to see more of the detail.
After seeing how this picture came out, I’m irritated that I used the flash to create the detailed stitching. The color of the warriors comes out much better and doesn’t wash out. I didn’t have my tripod, though, so it was difficult to hold still enough for clarity.
Of the ones they have uncovered so far, each one has a different face. Of course, I kept trying to find the repeat, but I couldn’t do it. The next 4 pictures are closeups of some of the different faces.
I thought about putting this collection into a collage to show them all together, but decided not to because it took too much away from the detail…
This one has a slight resemblance to one of the guys I played basketball with and supports Office 365 in Shanghai…
Each of the different faces weren’t just different in the fact that maybe they had a different expression on the same face, but they were completely different and reflective of the 54 different tribes that make up the whole of China.
So, not all the warriors are actually warriors at attention. This guy was apparently doing some yoga. The sign reads ‘sitting on his heels’, but anatomically, that translation seems to be a bit off.
Or maybe don’t go away, rain – you’re improving the visibility… This was Famen Temple – a massive Buddhist complex, which covers over 200 acres.
It wasn’t immediately apparent, but each of these lions is different and as you progress further down the line, they also got smaller…
This collection of six statues is about average size along the avenue outside that leads up to the main temple. With the rain, there weren’t that many people here, so scale was difficult to get, but you can see the tent in front, which is completely dwarfed. I think each statue is about 30′.
You know the guy playing with a Tiger was going to get added…
I have some pictures of these statues from a distance which help to set scale, but there was just something about this ‘animal’ that I liked. It was just comic-bookish and whimsical.
This Buddha has the right idea – staying under a roof….
At 485 feet, this is the largest of all the structures and it spent most of the day shrouded in mist – this is the most complete view we had of it all day. Even when we were climbing the steps, it had hidden in the clouds again and we couldn’t see the top.
In the previous picture, you can see a small black square at the base. This is from inside that square, looking out in the other direction.
As you can also see from the drips in the puddles behind her, it rained fairly hard. We all had turned our backpacks around, too. We found that the rain would drip off the back of the umbrellas right into them…
This is the entrance to the original temple grounds, first constructed about 600 AD.
No, the tower isn’t leaning, just the photographer…
The old temple grounds has a small museum and you can get to an elevated position and look back to the new section… Here, you can see the trees against the statues that line the avenue and get a better idea of perspective and just how big those things are.
Ketti really got into the traditional lions and pointing out the differences between the pairs.
For a small donation, you could get a combination pack of a candle and some incense to light. Noah and Ketti had been after us at every temple to light some incense and I finally caved.
So, yes, I had to light a candle, too…
The incense was made with something that apparently had some fire retardant on it – it was almost impossible to get them going…
This is a small courtyard between the main plaza and the tower. There was a lot of the area that was being refinished and was just more evidence of the stains from pollution as the difference between the restored parts and those yet to be started was very stark. In this picture, you can see the building on the right has been refinished and the one on the left is just getting started.
This is a 5×5 relief on the back of one of the temple walls. It is one of a pair and the detail in the work was simply amazing. Again, click the full image link below and to the left – this is a stitched image and you can see the detail in the full picture.
Yes, even the monks had to get in on the picture taking. Actually, I think this is on that Tracey requested to have. They still had the “How tall are you?” conversation – at least as best they could. We were temporarily separated from our hosts and didn’t have anyone to translate, so it was a short conversation…
Somehow or another, I ended up being the only adult that “wanted” to climb the stairs to the top of the tower with all three kids.
It actually wasn’t that bad a climb. I kept the kids moving so there wouldn’t be an opportunity for anyone to think about being tired.
And the climb to the top wore someone out…
Tracey had run off somewhere with Tim and Cathy, so me and the kids found a place to sit for a few minutes while we waited for them to come back to the meeting place. Noah had the only comfortable place to sit, which didn’t really help Ketti’s mood much. Time to change locations..
Xi’an was the starting point of the Silk Road, taking silks and other Chinese goods to the Middle East and returning with spices and – based on the local population – Islam. We were told that a major portion of the population in Xi’an is Muslim. This demonstration of neon is in the Muslim Quarter – this entire street was lined with restaurants and little shops.
This bread was made by hand in a Tandoori oven on the street. It smelled so good we just had to buy one. The swirl pattern on the bread is made by the mold that they press the dough in before slapping it onto the side of the oven.
We stopped for dinner this night at a local place. You would order bits of raw ingredients and cook it yourself. There was a cumin-based and a paprika-based seasoning mix on the table that you used for seasoning. Awesome stuff. This was one dinner that I made it clear before we started that I was going to buy. We ate until we could eat no more and the bill finally arrived with a total of 127 for 7 people. Again, that’s 127 RMB, or about $20. Crazy.
Ketti has no problem being the center of attention. She’s been taking voice lessons and had been eyeing the mic at the hostel restaurant ever since we got there. This night, she asked if she could sing and they let her. She did Elvis and Coldplay.
Xi’an is one of the few cities in China that still has its original defensive wall. Our last day in Xi’an, we took a short walk on the top of the wall. It is an impressive structure – wide enough for 4 lanes of traffic to comfortably drive down the top, but they don’t use it for a road. You can, however, rent a bike and take a loop all the way around the wall back to where you started…
Noah strikes again. Although, once more, this one was staged so I’m not sure if it really counts…
This one he finally got me…
This collection of characters made me smile…
This is what’s left of the Daming Palace, built during the Tang Dynasty… I thought it interesting that the city walls are still standing, with little reconstruction, but the palace looks completely rebuilt…
Large mural in the last stop in Xi’an – a cultural center with lots of historical detail and information, including monitors the kids could use to take pictures of themselves and work into period-themed pieces…
So, what’s the score on the kid trying to bomb other pictures getting caught in the act without him knowing? Not sure, but I think I win. Great time in Xi’an and now it’s back to Shanghai for the final few days… Zia jian!