Finally I am here travel China in Xi’an of Shanxi province. From my China Tour agency advisor Linda I know that Xi'an used to be the capital of China in a much earlier time. Xi’an, the eternal city, records the great changes of the Chinese nation just like a living history book. Called Chang'an in ancient times, Xi’an is one of the birthplaces of the ancient civilization in the Yellow River Basin area of the country. It's geographic location surrounded by mountains provided a natural barrier. It also makes it insanely humid. Anywhere you went in Xi'an, you could find cranes a plenty. It's really convenient that the private tour has guided us to see the Xi’an city attractions. Situated in the heart of the city is an ancient City Wall that still stands in great condition. Within the wall were many office buildings and the hustle and bustle of night life, not to mention our fancy hotel.
The first thing we saw the next morning in Xi'an was the infamous Terra Cotta Warrior army. They are considered the 8th wonder of the world, and are impressive to see in person. Our tour guide, Susan, from Top China Trip was extremely knowledgeable about them and told us everything there is to know. At times I wondered why Susan was not a historian. Anyway, the Terra Cotta warriors are actually larger than life-size, standing like 7 or 8 feet tall I believe. And contrary to what you would think from the popular photographs, most of them were in brilliant color. The exposure when they were excavated actually wore away the paint or whatever it was that the ancient sculpters used. I was lucky enough to have watched a history special on the warriors, which detailed the life of China's first emperor. Qin Shi Huang (or Huangdi?) was the emperor of the Qin dynasty, which was the first ever unified China. He was a pretty power-hungry guy, and longed to be immortal. I think the records indicate that his advisors told him to consume mercury as a means to longevity, which ultimately killed him. He had the warriors built in order to spiritually guard him in the afterlife. Actually seeing them, the organization was most impressive. They were arranged in ancient battle formations, as if ready to march. Additionally, they were designed down to the tiniest detail. Susan said they were uniquely modeled after soldiers in the actual army, which blows your mind considering how many of them there are and how long it must have taken to make them all.
The next order of business in Xi'an was the "Big Wild Goose Pagoda". A pagoda is similar to a tower I guess, with traditional Chinese architecture. While I didn't get a chance to actually scale the tower, the park surrounding it was impressive. The whole thing is a place of worship for Buddhists, so you could find plenty of Buddhist art depicting stories central to the religion. There was even a procession of some sort walking around. Near the back of the park was a building that had these amazing, huge epics carved out of wood or marble. Imagine a very long painting stretching around a room, but made out of marble and in 3D. I want one. There were also several decorations made out of gold. I think the story of the pagoda is that there were some Buddhist monks who were starving and prayed to the Buddha for food, at which point a couple of geese flew down next to them.
In honor of this spiritual event, a pagoda was built and still stands as an icon of Xi'an to this day.
Before we retired for the evening after our first day in Xi'an, we were treated to a Tang dynasty musical show, which was included in my private tour. It has several pleasant instrumental and dance performances, all of the traditional style. It was extremely colorful too, very aesthetic. Immediately following this was a dumpling feast! They brought out dumplings made out of so many different meats and vegetables, it was quite good. An interesting anecdote: Yan (my pen pal) scold me for calling everything wrapped in dough a dumpling, because in China they all have different names. Really, today is an eventful day and thanks to my travel agency TopChinaTrip arranged an enjoyable travel in Xi’an. Many thanks, Love Xi’an.
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