Xian, July 19-22

We were in Xian for two full days and two half days. Once again, we were met at the airport by a pre-arranged guide and driver, Carrie and Ren. These days, Xian is known for the Terracotta Soldiers. However, it is an ancient city with thousands of years of history. It was the capital city for several dynasties and was also the eastern end of the famous Silk Road trade route.

Today, Xian is an amazingly pristine city of 7 million people featuring a diverse economy, modern freeways (ring roads) and many educational institutions. There are eight different rivers that flow through and around Xian and much farmland nearby. The city itself is beautiful and has an inner city completely surrounded by the restored original 1000 year old city wall. At night, the wall is lit with red lanterns and nearby trees are spotlighted with green. The effect is wonderful.

Since I am now back in Olympia, I’ll summarize some of the sights we saw in historical chronologic order rather than do a day by day account. The oldest site we visited was the Banpo Museum, an archeological dig site discovered in the 1950s. It is a 6000 year old Neolithic village featuring what was believed to be a matriarchal society. The sign declared it to be…”a bright pearl of human art culture…” Hut foundations, painted pottery, jewelry of bone and shell, burial sites, and a moat could be seen. It was interesting.

The next sight, the terracotta soldiers, were discovered in 1974 and date from around 200 B.C. in the Qin (pronounced “chin“) dynasty. Chinese history is all about the different dynasties (25 or so) and the times of war in-between. Very gradually, we began to get a timeline in our heads and to at least recognize a few of the most famous or memorable of the dynasties/emperors. Qin Shi Huang, or the first emperor of unified China, was a very ambitious man. Besides the terracotta soldiers (his own massive mausoleum), he standardized written language and money, built the Great Wall by extending and connecting existing walls, and constructed many roads and canals. He was ruthless and taxed the people heavily. Revolt ended his relatively short life and reign.

The terracotta soldiers are as incredible to see as one would expect. They are life-like and life-sized and vary in height, uniform, posture, and hairstyle according to function and rank. Originally, the unique figures were painted (now faded) and had actual weapons (mostly stolen). There are infantry and archers, foot soldiers and generals (only 7 found out of the 8,000 soldiers), horses and chariots. There are several buildings displaying the different dig locations or pits. The first building we entered was the size of a couple of football fields and was filled with other tourists viewing the standing soldiers from a raised walkway around the periphery. Equally interesting to us were the unreconstructed pits--a mass of broken pieces in disarray. The restoration work done has been almost inconceivable.

We also visited another mausoleum called the Han Yangling of Liu Qi known as Emperor Jingdi from the Han dynasty (200 B.C.-200 A.D.). How is that for a mouthful? To add to our confusion all the emperors have two names! The Han dynasty was known for its peace and prosperity and a happier general population. It is no mistake then that everything is done on a lesser scale (fewer resources used and taxes required). The figures are one-tenth actual size and include musicians and dancers as well as soldiers and female cavalrymen who are recognizable by their big “chicks” (cheeks) as our guide said. The simple figures were originally dressed in clothing and had wooden arms. There were also very cute clay dogs, pigs, chickens, goats and sheep, cows and horses. We chuckled at the reduced genitalia of the clay eunuchs (a couple of things missing….).

We visited a couple of places from the 7th century Tang dynasty also. First was a large, still functioning Buddhist temple called the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Repaired often through the centuries, the temple is surrounded by a beautiful park.

Near Lishan (or Li Mountain) is an area of hot springs used by the ancient emperors for over 3000 years. During the Tang dynasty a palace was built on the site. The Winter Palace is known now for its many constructed hot pools and also the romantic but tragic love story of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) and his concubine Lady Yang. The lady was one of the “Four Great Beauties” of ancient China. She was known for her plump, voluptuous body as well as “a face that puts all flowers to shame.” Apparently, the emperor was so distracted by the lady that he ended up losing his kingdom….she, on the other hand, ended up losing her life!

One evening we went to The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show, a “must see” show in Xian, which included dinner and a 90 minute show. A 20 piece orchestra of ancient Chinese instruments and a dozen singers performed and then provided the music for a series of excellent dance performances. The dancers were clad in an ever changing succession of iridescent, brilliantly hued, flowing costumes and intricate headgear. It was captivating.

We visited two other places during our time in Xian. The Forest of Stone Steles Museum houses 3000 steles or large stone tablets in seven different exhibition halls. Here history, painting and poetry, classics and calligraphy are literally carved in stone. Many people do or buy rubbings. It was initially established in 1087. We had fun wandering the rooms, watching a rubbing in process, posing with Confucius, and finding one ancient tablet telling of early Nestorian (eventually considered heretical) Christianity in China.

The last historical place we visited was ONLY 400 years old. The Gao Family home is an example of a traditional Chinese dwelling of a high official in the 1600s and sits in the middle of an area of Xian known as the Muslim Quarter. Our tour was somewhat rushed since the provided guide seemed more interested in getting us to a tea tasting (which we declined) than in showing us the house. Afterwards, we walked through the very busy markets of the Muslim Quarter. Mark bought some dried dates and we ogled the yummy looking street food and the poor caged crickets for sale.