million (roughly the size of NYC) is "only a medium sized city"
according to our guide. It was also the beginning of the Silk Road and
the capital of its region something like 2000 years ago, giving it a
lot of rich history. I won't go into that though because that would
take pages and pages (and also I don't remember most of the details).
I haven't had time to blog since we got there 3 days ago so this is
going to be a long one.
After the aforementioned nap in my previous post, we hit the town. And
by hit the town, I mean spent a few hours in the Shaanxi History
Museum. After trying, only semi-successfully, to understand the story
written mostly in Chinese, here is my highly scholarly take on the
history of China: There were a lot of dynasties. The emperors were all
very wealthy and commissioned super luxurious art. They had lots of
slaves. Then there was communism and the people loved it (or at least
pretended to). Maybe I shouldn't generalize, but the museums and
historical sites here that I've seen are much less cohesive and
interactive than museums in the United States.
This seems like as good a time as ever to provide a disclaimer: I take
no responsibility for what may seem to be fact in this blog,
especially dates and superlatives. Sometimes the English explanation
is hard to understand, I have a very selective memory, and (if you've
ever met me you already know) I've been known to zone out
occasionally. Remembering numbers, particularly, is not my forte. Feel
free, however, to correct any inaccuracies in the comment section.
After the museum we went to the top of the city wall and then had a
Mongolian hot pot meal, which is like fondue but not as good. I had
fun with it, but a few of the people in our group had a shockingly
difficult time understanding the concept of cooking their own food.
The next morning, our first stop was a jade factory. Carving jade into
complex, highly detailed designs is very difficult, but the
demonstrators made it look easy. I learned a lot about jade, including
the fact that jade is not always green. Also, unlike most other
gems/stones, the more colors and variations in a piece of jade, the
more expensive it is.
Next stop was the Terracotta Warriors site. The Terracotta Warriors
were made to protect an emperor in his afterlife and are buried about
a mile from his tomb, which is, by the way, the largest tomb in the
world. Yes, bigger than the pyramids. While the varied and detailed
8000ish warriors and horses were incredible to see in person (one of
those" way better in real life" type situations), I would like to
focus on how they were found: by a local farmer digging a well. They
have the site of the well included in the exhibit, and it is on the
verrrry edge of the front line of warriors. As in, if he had decided
to dig half a foot farther over, he would have missed the underground
lair completely. I guess the find worked out ok for him in the long
run, though, unlike in the USA, he has no claim to site even though it
was on his property. He now has a cushy, government assigned job
signing books in the museum gift shop and for 20 Yuan (roughly $3)
he'll pose for a picture. This tourist attraction, unlike most other
ones, did have a pretty cool interactive part. I now have a picture of
myself riding a bronze chariot pulled by clay horses.
After a brief stop at a wholesale herbal medicine market (lizards on a
stick, goat testicles, and human placenta were among the delicacies)
we headed to a delicious dumpling feast. You're probably sick of
hearing me talk about food so I'll try to keep this short: 18
different kinds of dumplings all in different shapes! A gastronomical
adventure and delicious! During dinner we saw a performance of
traditional Tang Dynasty music and dance. All of the dances were
interesting, but the one that really stuck out was the 10,000 Hands
dance. I don't know that a video would be easy to find online, but
it's definitely worth a try.
Yesterday morning I woke up early for an optional Tai Chi lesson,
which I loved. I guess I was the Tai Chi master's favorite because he
gave me a peacock feather as we were leaving:-) Of course now I am
determined to carry it around for the next 2 weeks and somehow get it
through customs…
After a brief stop to learn about lacquer furniture (sick of
showrooms, I quickly retreated to the bus to read about 15th century
England) we headed to our "day in the life, typical farming village
overnight home stay." I actually had a great time and enjoyed my host
a lot, however I had a hard time getting over my anger that the
Chinese government was trying to sell this as a "typical" farmer's
life. First of all, this was a model village, only 10 years old that
was clearly built for tourists. All of the houses we stayed in had
second stories with two bedrooms and a western style toilet. All of
the houses also had certificates on the wall that they were certified
by something like the Chinese Bureau for Tourism. Second, we didn't
even live like they do. We had much softer beds, they cooked for us,
and we were there from 4pm to 11am. At night, we went to the center of
town for traditional Chinese dancing (at the risk of being immodest, I
was the only one of us to really learn the dances) and American dances
like Cotton Eyed Joe and the Macarena. I ended up talking to a
16-year-old girl who said that she comes from a neighboring village
every night to practice her English because they have dancing with
American tourists almost every night. Oh, and there was a group of 30
or so People to People teenagers staying in the village too.
We went to the old village that everybody had moved from when the town
was built, and that is similar to where the majority of farmers in
China still live. It reminded me a lot of Uganda. I am trying not to
get too into this rant right now, but the amount of control that the
Chinese government has over our experience here is scary. Even though
we have a tour guide, we are required to hire local tour guides
certified by the government, each place we go. All of the tour guides
so far have parents who are in the communist party, which, by the way,
is pretty difficult to get into. Most of the information they give is
only half the story, and even by asking direct questions it is hard to
ever get an answer that doesn't show the Chinese government is a real
light. And don't even get me started on the government banning US
citizens from traveling to Tibet! In trying to control my experience
here so that I see the Chinese government in a good light, they made
me view it as extremely oppressive. But I digress…
This morning we got a demonstration of a unique emerging style of
farmers' art, and then participated in a paper cutting lesson. My
paper snowflake skills are clearly not developed enough for anything
more complex.
Now I am on a plane to Chengdu, as a documentary/infomercial on the
overhead TV tells the inspiring story of a flight attendant who had
trouble in flight attendant school (she was petite and had trouble
opening the emergency door) but persevered and is now a well trained
flight attendant on this airline. I can't tell whether the point is to
give us confidence in our flight crew or inspire us to want to BE the
flight crew. Regardless, this is getting long enough and I want to
nap. Gotta get rested for pandas tomorrow!!!
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