China - Day 10

Thursday, July 24
Xi'an

Our first stop on our tour of Xi'an was the Great Wild Goose Pagoda. There is much more on the grounds than just the pagoda. There are several Buddhist temples and a small cemetery.

As we neared the temple grounds, we saw a street cleaner truck and commented among ourselves how nice it was that the truck was playing some soothing Chinese music. Later in the trip, we saw another one that was playing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" -- much, much better than "beep, beep, beep".

Next we went to a jade showroom where we saw how jade is carved and the many colors jade comes in. One could buy anything from jewelry to large statues to (our favorite) globes - with oceans and countries in different colors of jade.

Then we went to look at the city wall (which is enormous), one of the few remaining intact city walls in China. It's surrounded by a moat which is now a park.

Xi'an and the surrounding area have a long history. The Northern Silk Road began at Xi'an. Xi'an is on the Wei River, which is a tributary of the Huang He or Yellow River, called the cradle of Chinese civilization.

After that we went to eat lunch at a dumpling restaurant inside the city walls. The dumplings were shaped in the form of the type of meat/vegetable that they contained -- chicken-shaped for chicken, etc.

The drum tower (pictured) is near the restaurant). There is also a matching bell tower nearby. In ancient times, the drum was beaten at dusk to mark the end of the day, the time the city gates would close. The bell was rung at dawn to mark the opening of the gates.

After lunch, we drove out to the Terracotta Museum where Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a united China, had statues constructed of his army -- an estimated 8,000 soldiers plus quite a few horses and also court officials and entertainers. His tomb lies nearby, undisturbed. Construction began in 246 BC. The picture shows part of the largest excavated pit.

Then, in the evening, we went to a performance celebrating the Tang Dynasty. Costumes were based on paintings and carvings from that time. We stayed at the Shangri-La Hotel.