Today is Day 2 of our trip to China. I managed to sleep most of the
night, which was great- I did wake up with a splitting tension
headache at around 3am, caused no doubt by carrying my 45 pound
backpack all the way from Cambridge. Yes, 45 pounds- laptop +camera+2
lenses and misc camera bits does add up! When I woke up this morning
with a foggy head due to this terrible headache I realized 2 things:
1) I'm not as young as I used to be, and carrying that heavy bag
around that's not designed for so much weight is not a good idea and
2) I should just look for a wheeled version of a camera backpack
instead while I'm here in China as I should be able to get a good
price on it. I've carried heavier bags hiking, but those bags are
designed for the weight to sit on your hips and are designed for women
especially- this camera bag is not woman friendly. :) So I've asked
our tour guide if we could stop by a camera shop tomorrow.
Our guide's name is Yo Yo- she's a lovely young Chinese girl who
finished her university degree in tour guiding last year. Like almost
all Chinese her age she's an only child, and tends to see things from
a practical perspective. She actually reminds me just a bit of my dear
friend Stacy. Yo yo has been a very good guide for us- we've booked
our tour with a company called China Highlights, which we found
online, and they have really taken care of everything. If you're
thinking you'd like to see China but are put off by the language
barrier or fears about navigating a foreign Asian city on your own,
I'd recommend them. It is a bit weird to have a local guide helping
us- whenever I've traveled in Asian before I've been on my own or had
a local friend assist me until I was proficient enough in the language
to go it alone. So it's strange to just have someone right there who
can translate for you, who knows where everything is, and is so
helpful.
Today it snowed again- I love the snow, it makes Xi'an feel like the
perfect blend between Michigan and Cambodia. :) Except here in Xi'an
all the cars are very very new- Yo yo told us that people here tend to
be very wealthy, and have their own cars. The city population is about
9 million, and our hotel is on the main drag, not far from the East
Gate in the old city wall. Our guide took us by private Asian style
taxi (a sort of smallish van with lovely plastic on the floors and
always foggy on the inside) to a very interesting factory that makes
high quality replicas of the terracotta warriors, amazing rugs,
lacquer furniture, hand made and glazed tiles, and all sorts of
amazing things. We spent about 2 hours there seeing how things are
made and doing some shopping- a person can buy a lifesized replica of
a warrior and have it shipped straight home. We were sooo tempted by
this lovely mahogany rocking chair with mother of pearl inlay, but
1500 pounds was out of our budget. :)
From there we went on to have a nice Chinese lunch at a restaurant on
the grounds of the terracotta army museum. It's a massive complex with
LOTS of people hawking cheap souvenirs everywhere, and people selling
pomegranates and fresh dates all over the place. Lunch was very good-
spicy chicken bits (with the bones in- I was blessed and got the foot)
and green beans with mince (and "ma" which is a spice that tastes a
bit like dish soap right before it makes your mouth go numb). It was
so good to have real Chinese food, I've been dreaming about eating
like a pig here for months! :) After lunch we proceeded on to the
terracotta army- our guide had worked at the museum and she had all
sorts of inside knowledge. And can I just say that nothing is quite
the same as seeing these guys up close- you can't get too close to the
3 main pits where they were found, but they have some you can look at
closer and they are amazing. Each one is different in body type,
height, weight, and ethnicity, because all the craftsmen were from all
over China and were not allowed to go home or visit their families
ever again. So the made some of the soldiers to look like their family
and friends. They're amazing. There are still some sections that are
under excavation, and since it's the quiet season the archeologists
were there digging and repairing the soldiers. They were not all in
tact (in fact few were) because after the Emperor Ching (who had all
this done) died, there was a civil uprising and his tomb was raided
and set on fire. The roof over the soldiers was wooded, so it burned
(you can still see the black from the fire 2200 years ago) and the
roof collapsed on the soldiers. Fascinating history here- we even
bought a book about the warriors and had it signed by the farmer who
discovered the place when he was digging a well. :)
Tonight we're going to see a Tang Dynasty show- this wasn't on our
original itinerary, but it's a dancing and singing show from the Tang
dynasty, which is very old. I don't know how old. ;) Time for a shower
and stuff before dinner- interesting how new habits start to sink in,
as I've gotten very used to having tea in the morning and tea in the
afternoon, and the day just seems nicer after a cup of tea. :) I've
had a nice cup of Chinese green tea and looking forward to more
Chinese food and celebrating Chinese history tonight! Our guide says
it's supposed to snow more tomorrow, and our flight to Shanghai has
already been pushed back 2 hours, so I guess we'll see what happens.
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