Arriving in Xi'an after dinner, we decide to take an evening stroll around town to check out some of the sights.
Passing the many street vendors we see the usual touristy rubbish for sale as well as an assortment of very cute puppies. Doing our best not to make inappropriate jokes about China's reputation for the consumption of exotic meats, we pass on by.
Our tour guide, Charlie, points out some of the local sights worth seeing one of which is the "Great Wall of Xi'an", the wall build around Xi'an to protect the city, much like the Great Wall of China was built to protect China. We take a walk towards the city wall, which Charlie says is beautifully lit at night. Arriving at around 10.25pm, Ness spends five minutes trying figure out the best angle and fiddling with her camera to get the best shot and is just about ready to take the photo when the lights are all switched off. Oh well... We do, however, manage to get some snaps of Xi'an's Bell and Drum Tower. Originally used as musical instruments and constructed in almost every city throughout China, the Bell and Drum towers were later used for tell time. There was a "morning bell" and a "dusk drum" and these played an important role in helping people live and work regularly when there was not other means to keep track of time.
The next morning we're up bright and early to eat a delicious breakfast of pork baos accompanied by soy bean milk. For those Aussies currently picturing the soy milk you can buy at your local supermarket, stop. Soy bean milk in Asia is (almost always) sweet and tasty, and never pored over cereal.
After breakfast, we're off to visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda at Dacien Temple. Construction of the pagoda was arranged by the monk Xuanzang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang), most famous for his seventeen-year overland journey to India, which was the inspiration for the TV series "Journey to the West" a.k.a Monkey Magic!
On the temple grounds is a room displaying an impressive collection of jade and a painting of Xuanzang. Ness takes a photo of the painting before receiving a verbal bashing from the resident monk. Apparently taking photos from outside the temple buildings is fine, but taking photos inside the temple buildings is less fine. A local defends Ness in Chinese to the irate monk saying that Ness is a foreigner and we move onto the next attraction.
Our next stop on the temple grounds is an art gallery displaying some beautiful Chinese calligraphy and paintings. The resident artist describes the two predominant techniques in Chinese painting: Gong-Bi / meticulous style (quick to learn but slow to produce) and Shui-Mo / watercolour style (slow to learn but quick to produce). Ness does her best to convince Tim to slightly loosen his (money) belt to purchase one or two of these bargain pieces...but is unsuccessful.
Lunch today is at a local resident's home. We sample a wide variety of dishes, many of which, surprisingly, meet the expectations of the vegans in a group. With our bellies full, we board our little bus and head towards Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum to see the terracotta warriors.
We arrive at the museum and expect to see a collection of perhaps one hundred warriors in a room. What we see instead, is a huge enclosure with literally, not figuratively, thousands of terracotta soldiers. We're amazed by the sheer scale of the place as we stroll around the walkway overlooking the first pit containing warriors. Sadly the first pit is by far the most impressive and as you've probably guessed, we're progressively less impressed as we visit Pit Two and Pit Three. For those of you who haven't been, it's worth putting up with the almost unbearable pollution in Xi'an just to visit the terracotta warriors, as they're quite spectacular.
We leave the museum and head back towards our tour bus for the return journey to the centre of Xi'an. On entering the bus, we're unhappy to discover that the driver had spent the intervening period smoking on-board the bus. With all the windows shut to keep out the freezing weather, we cover our mouths and noses with our scarves / handkerchiefs to create air filters that MacGyver would be proud of.
Safely arriving back in Xi'an, Charlie explains to us the process we're to follow tonight when boarding the overnight train to Suzhou...
Passing the many street vendors we see the usual touristy rubbish for sale as well as an assortment of very cute puppies. Doing our best not to make inappropriate jokes about China's reputation for the consumption of exotic meats, we pass on by.Our tour guide, Charlie, points out some of the local sights worth seeing one of which is the "Great Wall of Xi'an", the wall build around Xi'an to protect the city, much like the Great Wall of China was built to protect China. We take a walk towards the city wall, which Charlie says is beautifully lit at night. Arriving at around 10.25pm, Ness spends five minutes trying figure out the best angle and fiddling with her camera to get the best shot and is just about ready to take the photo when the lights are all switched off. Oh well... We do, however, manage to get some snaps of Xi'an's Bell and Drum Tower. Originally used as musical instruments and constructed in almost every city throughout China, the Bell and Drum towers were later used for tell time. There was a "morning bell" and a "dusk drum" and these played an important role in helping people live and work regularly when there was not other means to keep track of time.
The next morning we're up bright and early to eat a delicious breakfast of pork baos accompanied by soy bean milk. For those Aussies currently picturing the soy milk you can buy at your local supermarket, stop. Soy bean milk in Asia is (almost always) sweet and tasty, and never pored over cereal.
After breakfast, we're off to visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda at Dacien Temple. Construction of the pagoda was arranged by the monk Xuanzang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang), most famous for his seventeen-year overland journey to India, which was the inspiration for the TV series "Journey to the West" a.k.a Monkey Magic!
On the temple grounds is a room displaying an impressive collection of jade and a painting of Xuanzang. Ness takes a photo of the painting before receiving a verbal bashing from the resident monk. Apparently taking photos from outside the temple buildings is fine, but taking photos inside the temple buildings is less fine. A local defends Ness in Chinese to the irate monk saying that Ness is a foreigner and we move onto the next attraction.
Our next stop on the temple grounds is an art gallery displaying some beautiful Chinese calligraphy and paintings. The resident artist describes the two predominant techniques in Chinese painting: Gong-Bi / meticulous style (quick to learn but slow to produce) and Shui-Mo / watercolour style (slow to learn but quick to produce). Ness does her best to convince Tim to slightly loosen his (money) belt to purchase one or two of these bargain pieces...but is unsuccessful.
Lunch today is at a local resident's home. We sample a wide variety of dishes, many of which, surprisingly, meet the expectations of the vegans in a group. With our bellies full, we board our little bus and head towards Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum to see the terracotta warriors.
We arrive at the museum and expect to see a collection of perhaps one hundred warriors in a room. What we see instead, is a huge enclosure with literally, not figuratively, thousands of terracotta soldiers. We're amazed by the sheer scale of the place as we stroll around the walkway overlooking the first pit containing warriors. Sadly the first pit is by far the most impressive and as you've probably guessed, we're progressively less impressed as we visit Pit Two and Pit Three. For those of you who haven't been, it's worth putting up with the almost unbearable pollution in Xi'an just to visit the terracotta warriors, as they're quite spectacular.
Safely arriving back in Xi'an, Charlie explains to us the process we're to follow tonight when boarding the overnight train to Suzhou...
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