|
  | |  |
Day 3 Xi'an
Entry 10 of 23 | show all | print this entry |
After a very restful night and another fortifying western style breakfast at our hotel, we had the morning to ourselves to explore. Weather was lovely, shirtsleeves, but we always carry our fleece jackets (yay RRI) just in case. The sun was once again trying very hard to poke through the "fog" without success. I say "fog" because each of our guides has insisted that it is fog, not smog. We set out in search of the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower, and a marketplace. First the Bell Tower where we had a nice view but limited view (fog) of the central business district and heard/saw a beautiful performance of bell ringers. This is just an added feature because the Bell Tower in the Emporers day held a huge bell used for alerting the inhabitants for defense and other communications. Same with the Drum Tower where we heard a wonderful drumming performance by college age kids. We have observed that Asians (at least here) do not applaud. I haven't figured out how they demonstrate their appreciation for these kinds of performances. Very stoic.
We had just about given up finding the marketplace, but from the Drum Tower we were able to spot it. Another experience of sights and smells and bargainers galore. Made a hurried pass through as we hustled back to our hotel to meet our guide at noon. Now it was lunch time and our this meal was not included in our tour package, but our guide would take us whereever we wanted to go. She "highly recommended" a dim sum luncheon (for only $22 each) but we didn't want to spend the time on a fancy luncheon so we asked her to take us to a restaurant where the locals eat. Well, did this ever throw a cog in the tourist guide's trained response. She had a little bit of a panicked look in her eyes and started quite the conversation with the driver trying to figure out what to do now. I think she was concerned that her choice might not meet the approval of her superiors. But she found us a linen tablecoth place that turned out to be perfect in every way. We had Kung Pao chicken (sort of) and garlic cucumbers (sliced and heated warm) and of course steamed rice and tea. All for the sum of $5.14 total for the 2 of us. It has become very clear that China is expensive only for tourists who don't know how to get to the local economy.
Then it was off to the City Wall which enclosed the original city, 14 kilometres around. The neat thing is that the Wall is still intact (with some reconstructive help) and you can walk or ride bikes all the way around it. We did not have time for that, but we did have time for an informative little talk about feng shwei (sp?) which I really enjoyed by the way, but I didn't enjoy the sales pitches at the end for buying trinkets. The hawkers are everywhere here. It makes me wonder if it is the same in the US and I just don't notice it.
Then it was time to head to the airport, but with an unexpected stop. Originally I had asked our guide if we could squeeze in a historical museum as we had not seen any yet on our trip. Because the driver was limited by the number of kilometres his car could "drive" without extra charges, she suggested another terra cotta solider museum. What a find that turned out to be! A highlight of our trip I would say. If you can, picture the other big museum that we already told you about. It had huge pits the size of multiple football fields. We could only walk around the pits. In this new museum, they had built glass all over the top of the pits, so visitors could actually walk over the top and look down on the artifacts perhaps 10 ft down. It was just incredible. And these artifacts were mostly intact when discovered in the 80's. They had not been plundered and the Emporer had ordered that after placing the soldiers (and animals and vases, vessels, etc) in position, the workers filled in the area entirely with dirt so they couldn't be tipped over. Also, these soldiers were without arms and without clothes. The arms had been made of wood and the clothes were from silk. Both had rotted away. They were also half-size, whereas the other museum soldiers were full size. Just an amazing, amazing experience to see and try to visualize life back then.
Following that, our guide dropped us at the airport for an evening flight to Guilin where we checked into a very nice Sheraton. I have a new theory about myself as a traveller. When I am planning a trip, I am all about "adventure" and experiencing the local "culture." But now I realize that after a full day of cultural and sensory overload, the familiarity of a western style hotel is VERY welcome. Traveling here really makes me appreciate the amenities we take for granted in the US.
Julie, you mentioned the Tibetan riots and the local take on that. They have an English language newspaper here called the China Daily. The articles blame the Dali Lama for inciting the riots as a way to derail the Olympics, but the government has "used exceptional restraint" in quelling the riots. Some people we met yesterday told us that they were watching CNN the other night (we have not turned on the TV since leaving the US) and as the news of the Tibetan situation came on, their TV screen suddently went black. Just completely black. They thought they had inadvertently turned it off, but no, the other channels worked fine.
Jack will tell you about our first day in Guilin in the next blog.
Latest Comments (1)
|
HAVING FUN! (reply)
Mar 20, 2008 14:52 EST by spriwo
Fred and I have been reading your blog every day and how informative and it is like being there. THanks so much for including us! We are glad you are having fun and doing such interesting things and seeing so much! You take care and be safe and have fun!
Fred and Sheila
|
 Post a new comment |
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from China or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
