Sunday, May 10, 2009

Xi'an

Our first day in Xi’an, we went to a lecture on the Qin Dynasty. The professor was from China Normal University, which is a very prestigious school, and he only spoke Chinese, so one of our professors translated for us.

After the lecture, we went to a restaurant to taste some of Xi'an's finest. Xi'an is famous for its dumplings, or as we call them jiaozi, and we were brought 18 different kinds of dumplings in round steamed crates that stack on top of each other. There were dumplings with pork and chives, steak and onions, and odd ones like eggs and catsup. Each one was amazing, and I was stuffed once I had sampled all 18 of the different dumplings.

To burn off all that jiaozi, we went to Xi’an’s city wall. Xi’an is one of the only cities in China with a city wall that is almost fully intact. It is also the only city in China that will let you rent a bike and ride along the top of the wall for as long as you like. The top of the wall is about the size of a normal road on the street, so Cara and I, Jon and Jill, and Georgette and Molly rode on tandem bikes while Aaron and Richie both rode singles. We spent a half an hour racing up and down the wall, illuminated by red lanterns and city lights all around us. It was very beautiful, and probably the most fun I’ve had on the trip so far. And of course I had to freak out my professors and climb on the edge of wall, just to keep them on their toes.

The next morning, we woke up early to visit the Terracotta Soldiers. An army of eight thousand soldiers were constructed to surround the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi during the Qin dynasty. They date from 210 BCE, and were only discovered in 1974 by some farmers. Every single soldier, each of the 130 chariots and 520 horses are different, with different facial features and adornments. The majority of the soldiers are still buried to protect them from air contamination, but about 1,000 of them are on display. It was overwhelming to imagine that each soldier was individually constructed and worked on, and the faces and positions were not created by simply filling a mold. This is one of the sites that is firmly on the tourist line, so we saw more white people than usual.

In the afternoon, we visited the Great Mosque in Xi’an and spent some time in the Muslim quarter, shopping and talking to Hui people, who make up the Muslim minority in China. The mosque was very beautiful and very distinct from both Middle Eastern mosques and Chinese temples, with colorful gardens everywhere. The shops and stands had cheap souvenirs, and reminded me of a more laid back silk market experience – they even sold North Face jackets and fake Pumas.

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