The breakfast was really good. Once again, it was a huge buffet, and the rice especially was so delicious.
Today is our last full day in China, so it's a little bit sad, but we are going to see the Terracotta Warriors, so I am also very excited.
The Terracotta Warriors was not our first destination today; first we went to a national culture/history museum for China (I forget what it's called at the moment). Since it was Sunday, the museum opened 30 minutes later than we thought. Cathy took those 30 minutes to give us a spontaneous lecture on the history of China. It was really impressive that she could just give us such a well organized, thorough history lesson with no notice. She went over so much information, and I can't remember all of it.
I think the most interesting takeaway that I had never heard before was about how Buddhism changed as it came from India to China. In India, the Buddhists believe that life is suffering, so people believe in Buddhism to escape that suffering. The Indian Buddha is skinny with a solemn, serious face. As Buddha came to China, people wanted a more happy, friendly figure. That is why the Chinese Buddha is more fat with a smiling, happy face. I never really thought about why there were so many Buddha images, so it's interesting to hear how the image of Buddha changed as Buddhism spread to China.
While Cathy was giving us our mini lecture, it was hard not to notice all of the people walking by, either just watching for a bit or watching and taking pictures. People crack me up when they're taking selfies with us in the background.
When we finally got into the museum, I will admit I was pretty underwhelmed. I'm so glad that we only went to this one museum the whole trip. I like museums, but I can only be so interested in them when they're all in a language I don't understand. It was cool to see the different stages of history, even if I couldn't read all about it. My favorite exhibit was from the Tang Dynasty. I think the art style was fairly ridiculous, and it definitely gave me a good laugh to look at.
After the museum, we went to the Big Goose Pagoda. It is an impressive structure that has withstood several earthquakes and other natural disasters without falling over. It is also still an active Buddhist temple site. Our guide through the Big Goose Pagoda wasn't a monk, but he was Buddhist and kinda reminded me of a monk. He told us all about the history of the Pagoda and more about becoming a Buddhist monk. To become a monk, you have to dedicate your life to Buddhism. It is completely voluntary, but if you do choose the life of a monk, you have to give up everything, including land, belongings, and family. It is a lonely life, but one that some people feel called to. They also cannot leave the temple unless they are communicating with another temple.
Our guide also showed us the best places at the Pagoda to take photos. There are some huge tomb-stone looking things at one corner. The have names on them and Buddhist people believe that rubbing these stone slabs will bring them good luck and fortune.
He also showed us the famous image angle that is shown on all of the post cards so that we could get a photo of our own.
Then we went to see the calligraphy and artwork that the monks make. The guide told us about the evolution of the Chinese characters. He showed us the traditional way to write Xi'an and explained its meaning. The first character is for west, and looks like a bird sitting on its nest. The second is a woman inside of a shelter, which helps identify it as a safe city. With the traditional characters, it is easy to see that story. Then with the simplified characters, the story is not so clear, but I can see their semblance with the traditional characters. After the lesson on Chinese characters, he wrote all of our names in calligraphy for us. Lil Mao even got one!
After we finished up at the Pagoda, we said goodbye to that guide and got back in the van. The next stop is the Terracotta Warriors museum. Cathy said it will take about 1 hour to arrive. She talked about the history of the soldiers the entire way, but I fell asleep about a minute in so I missed pretty much the whole thing.
Before we went to the actual exhibits, we got some lunch. The food wasn't the best, but it wasn't too bad. The most unfortunate part was that I dropped my phone into my soup bowl and spilled soup everywhere. Don't worry--the phone is okay, no damage there. It was just a bit embarrassing.
In my opinion, the whole thing with the discoverer of the soldiers is a little bit milked. The Terracotta Warriors were discovered by a simple Chinese farmer one day as he was digging to find water for irrigation. Once the soldiers were discovered, the government built a city for the farmers to live/work in so that they could take the land and excavate the soldiers. The guy who discovered them is very famous here. He sells a book and hangs out in a shop so that he can autograph the books and take photos with people. While we were in the store, he walked up to me and shook my hand and sat down at a table. Liz tried to take his picture, but the shopkeeper got upset and said we had to buy a book first. They were so expensive that it wasn't worth it.
We waded through the town filled with aggressive street vendors to make it to the Terracotta Warriors museum. We were supposed to watch a 10 minute introductory video, but you couldn't really see the screens at all so we just kind of walked in and then walked out.
Liz, Alexia, and I walked around with Cathy, and she told us about the different exhibits. There are three different pits of soldiers that have been excavated. They are all a part of the tomb for an emporer from the Qing dynasty. Apparently Chinese emperors used to start building their tombs as soon as they became emperor so that it will be finished before they die. This tomb is so elaborate, and it has all of these soldiers to defend the emperor in the afterlife. Each soldier has a unique face and was modeled after a real soldier from the Qing dynasty.
It's so interesting to see the pits because they're still active dig sites. There is a sign that says "No Pictures" in English which I thought was so strange, so I asked Cathy what the sign said in Chinese. Apparently it said that we couldn't take pictures of the archeologists while they were working. The English was just missing a few words π
The first and second pits were significantly more excavated than the third pit because the soldiers in the third pit still have colored paint on them, so they are waiting until there are better techniques to preserve the color. Right now, to excavate the pits, the archeologists coat the ground with water and let it soak in for an hour or two. Then they brush away the dirt without damaging the terracotta clay. It is a slow process, but it's currently the best they have.
At the third pit, we saw the different layers of the land. The bottom layer was the terracotta soldiers, but those were barried in the ground and the people after the Qing dynasty didn't know they were there. As a result, they put some of their own graves on top of the site. This top layer has the bones of the people buried in these graves.
The final attraction was the bronze chariots in the tomb. They were originally located about a mile away, but they were relocated for convenience of tourism. Since bronze was so expensive and a little bit rare at the time, the chariots are only half size. There is a little museum exhibit that tells the story of the chariots, but there is no English so Cathy just took us on a shortcut to directly see the bronze statues.
Overall, I was very impressed with the Terracotta Warriors. I don't think they had the same wow factor as the Great Wall, but I think that's mostly because the Great Wall has this beautiful, scenic mountain landscape, but the terracotta soldiers are just chilling in a hole in the ground in what looks like an airplane bunker.
On the way out, we couldn't resist the temptation of all of the fresh fruit. That reminds me, in Xi'an, they grow a special kind of fruit by grafting a persimmon tree onto the base of a date tree to get a really beautiful unique fruit.
Anyway, we couldn't resist all of the fresh pomegranate around, so Liz and I got some fresh pomegranate juice and Alexia got a whole pomegranate. The lady was so nice and gave Alexia another half pomegranate for free. Alexia shared part of her pomegranate on the way back. The pomegranates here are so sweet and fresh. I really wish we could get such an abundance of good pomegranate back in Ohio.
The last item on our list to tour today is the City Wall. The closer we got back to the city, the heavier the smog became. It wasn't so bad this morning but by the early evening time we were getting back, it was seriously awful.
We went to the City Wall, and the view was pretty sad because of all of the smog.
After we finished up at the Wall, we went back to our hotel (a 5 minute walk) to get ready for dinner. I was really cold and wanted another coat before we went out. Xi'an is known for its dumplings, making them in all different shapes with all different fillings. I kind of rallied everyone to want to go get this dumpling banquet, so we asked Cathy where to go. This time we got much better directions and also confirmed them with the hotel desk.
It took us a while to find the dumpling place because it took us a while to break the guys down and ask for directions. We made it to the place with much more success than last night. And we even got the dumpling banquet.
It was basically a crowded open market filled with food and other vendors. We looked everywhere for mahjong, but had no luck. One nice lady said that if we came back at 3 pm the next day, she would have it for us. Unfortunately we'll be long gone by then, but it was so sweet of her to offer.
The shopping was interesting because it's so funny to watch people bargain when both parties don't speak a common language fluently. I was able to help clear up a few situations. The funniest one was when Liz was buying some tea. She wanted green tea and jasmine tea, but the shop keeper also had scooped her black tea. She was trying to say that she didn't want the black tea. He didn't understand the English, so they were telling him "沑ζ black tea" to try to say "no black tea" but they were just saying "don't have black tea" and I could see how confused the shop keeper was. I was able to clear that one up, with "δΈθ¦ black tea" which means "don't want black tea" and that seemed to make a lot more sense to him. It cracks me up that they picked 沑ζ" and the shop keeper was so confused, which made it even more humorous to me.
Oh yes, we can't forget about Alexia's brass knuckles π
The last thing I really wanted to try is called εε±ι₯Ό or Thousand Layer Pancake. It was really tricky to find, and I almost missed the stand that sold it. We were expecting/hoping for some sort of dessert-type pancake. Instead, the pancake was savory, more like a sandwich. I was so full from the dumplings still that I couldn't finish it all. Lil Mao helped out some, but he was also pretty stuffed.
Muslim Street seems to shut down around 11 pm. Before then, everything was super well lit and not exactly clean but not super dirty. Then around 11 as the shops were starting to close, people were putting trash out at the side of the road and throwing waste water into the street. It smelled not so great and was not pleasant to watch, so we hurried out of there.
It's our last night together in China, so it was difficult to walk back because this was it; after we go back, it's like admitting our trip was done. Jonathan and Jacob leave super early tomorrow morning, and we'll be gone before lunch. We got one last picture together before we split ways.
Liz, Alexia, and I stayed up and talked for a while, but eventually we all ended up passed out, just like Lil Mao.
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