Elizabeth's Visit, Part 2 - Xi'an

On Friday, April 18, we flew from Shanghai to Xi'an, home of the famous Terra Cotta Warriors.  We signed up for a 3-day Country Tours package trip sponsored by the Shanghai Expatriates Association (SEA) which included an option additional day in Luoyang.  There was a mother & daughter on the 3-day part of the trip and a single woman doing both parts, all 4 days, with us.  Although not many people, it was a nice group for the tour.

When we first arrived in Xi'an, our tour guide, Kristy, picked us up at the airport and took us
for a quick lunch at Pizza Hut in the airport.  Pizza Hut is a much nicer restaurant in China than it traditionally is in the U.S.  After lunch, we headed to the Hanyang Tomb, a tomb of the 4th Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and his Empress.  We got to see a museum of the tomb and the excavation done there, as

well as to practice some excavation of our own. 

Unfortunately, it was a rainy, grey day in Xi'an and, given that it was a rainy Friday afternoon, the traffic was horrific.  We inched our way to the lovely Westin hotel in Xi'an, but by the time we got there, the Qujiang Museum of Art in the hotel was closed.  Chris, Elizabeth and I settled into our room and then headed out for a nice, hot pot dinner at Haidilao in Xi'an.  Hot pot is similar to a fondue restaurant, where there are two wells of broth into which we dunk our vegetables, meat, noodles, etc.  Haidilao is a chain - we've been to the one in Shanghai before - so we figured it would be a great place to take Elizabeth, who wanted to try hot pot.  There weren't any other caucasians in the restaurant, so they had trouble finding an English-speaker to take our order.  A kind young woman came to help us, although we realized she wasn't a waitress, so she must have worked in the kitchen or somewhere else.  She stayed at our table the entire time, helping us to order, cook our food, and do everything we needed, so it was excellent service, especially considering my allergies.  We stopped at Dairy Queen for a quick ice cream on the way back to the hotel, but declined to try the green tea and red bean blizzard. 


On Saturday morning, we headed out to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, with a quick stop at a factory where they are making replicas for people to buy.  One of the women on our tour ordered a custom-made one with her face, which they will ship to her in Shanghai.  We bought a small one for our apartment and go to see how big the typical ones were as compared to Chris.

From there, we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  They are impressive, to be sure - especially the scale of the tombs and the fact that there are about 8,000 warriors, each with a different face, each there to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife.  Emperor Qin Shi Huang not only orchestrated the building of the Terra Cotta Warriors, he also started the construction of the Great Wall of China, and unified the money and characters (writing) of the newly unified China.  We learned that they haven't opened the Emperor's personal tomb because he is believed to be surrounded by a river of mercury and they haven't quite figured out how to do that safely.  

We couldn't help but think that the whole site would do better with some more explanatory exhibits, at least in English.  It would be great to start out with a movie that included pictures of the discovery and uncovering of the tombs, the ways they restore and preserve the statues, more about the Emperor, etc.  It just seems like China is missing the boat a bit in getting this information across well, especially to the English-speaking tourists.  We did get to "meet" one of the farmers who originally discovered the Terra Cotta Warriors while digging a well.  The farmers now "work" in the gift shop, signing copies of a book about the site.
Part of what hurt our impression of the Terra Cotta Warriors, as well, was the huge crowd, pushing and shoving their way to the railing and front of the "line."  We were told that part of the reason that Chinese people don't stand in line like westerners do is that there is no rule that requires it.  The Chinese are very good at following the rules, so we just wish there was a rule about standing in line.  It has improved a lot since we were here in 2005, but it's not what we're used to in the U.S., for sure.

Don't get me wrong, the Terra Cotta Warriors are impressive, no doubt.  The displays just left us with the feeling that it could have been so much more.


After the Terra Cotta Warriors, we headed back to Xi'an to tour the Great Mosque and the Muslim Quarter.  The Mosque is fascinating and beautiful, the combination of traditional Chinese designs and traditional Muslim designs, as well as the juxtaposition of Chinese characters and Arabic.  The Mosque is the oldest and one of the most renowned mosques in the country, founded in 742. 

After touring the mosque, we also toured the home of typical nobleman's family and walked the Muslim Quarter.  Everyone else tasted many different types of street food typical to Xi'an and the Muslim Quarter, including sticky rice and small hamburger-type sandwiches, but, of course, I couldn't try anything.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, though.


For dinner, we went to a traditional Xi'an Jiaozi restaurant.  Jiaozi are Chinese dumplings, similar to potstickers in the U.S.  The restaurant we went to, "DeFaChang," is famous for their shaped Jiaozi, which were beautiful, as well as delicious.   

The dumplings arrive in baskets on your table in an endless stream, and you need to gobble them down quickly before they get cold.  The only problem came when the waitress said one batch was filled with walnuts and peanuts, even though our guide, Kristy, had assured me that there would be no nuts or seeds.  Once she found out, she gave the restaurant manager a piece of her Chinese mind, at full volume, and we later learned that there weren't actually any nuts, the waitress just didn't speak enough English to understand that.   I was just lucky that there weren't any nuts, as the jiaozi were delicious.

 






After dinner, we all headed to a traditional Xi'an show, which involved a lot of music and dancing typical of the Tang Dynasty.  This theatre production includes a live Chinese-style orchestra and a vocal choir which accompanies a dancing, acrobatic, and kungfu performance. The vocalists and instrumentalists are excellent and there was a special floutist who played a tradition, ancient mouth flute that sounds a lot like a bird song.  It's a little high-pitched and sometime screechy, but very unusual and entertaining.  All-in-all, it was a great day in Xi'an.

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast in the hotel, which - much to Beth's pleasure - included scallion pancakes. Apparently, scallion pancakes are one of her favorite breakfasts, which one of her Chinese-American friends in college used to make for her.  She enjoyed them both mornings that we were in the Xi'an Westin.

 Afterwards, we headed over to the Provincial History Museum for a brief visit and exploration of Xi'an history.  Xi'an was originally called Chang'an and was the Chinese capital for something like 2000 years.  The museum contains murals, paintings, pottery, coins, as well as bronze, gold, and silver objects in chronological order, covering local development over time.

Last, but not least, we took a trip to the Xi'an City Wall, another monument built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang.  The wall is huge and wide and obviously worked, as Kristy told us the city was never attacked, once the wall was built.  We walked a built and then rented a single bike for Elizabeth and a tandem bike for Chris and me.  The wall is a somewhat tricky place to bike ride, as it's bumpy, uneven, and often pock-marked with missing bricks.  But, the view is great.  

Xi'an is a beautiful city into which the Chinese government has poured approximately 9 million RMB over the past 5 years or so to revitalize.  The parks, fountains, plazas, and tourist areas of the city are beautifully maintained, clean, well-planned, and quite lovely. (The traffic is lousy, though.)  We didn't have nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to see, even if it was raining much of the time.  Kristy says Xi'an doesn't have many days of blue sky, and the air quality isn't supposed to be very good there due to the surrounding sandy area (although we didn't experience air quality problems because of the rain), but the city is pretty and deserves a longer visit.