Xian, China - why would we go there???

On Wednesday we headed to the airport to start our big trip through China. This was the longest of the overnight trips in China and we will be visiting Xian and Beijing. There were 98 people on this trip most of which were students, there were a few lifelong learners (Shelly was my roommate) but I was the only staff and there was one faculty member. He was the trip leader and I was the bus leaders. That basically meant that we needed to make sure everyone got to and from the buses because our guides were phenomenal. We met in the morning in the Union and got everyone on buses and then it was off to the airport. Much to my surprise there was a decent airplane food meal served.
Jackie Chan on a tea bottle in the airport:

The mountains from the plane:

Once we arrived in Xian it was straight to a museum we went to learn how to write Calligraphy and explore the art from local artists. We learned about the different styles of Chinese art as well as some info about the different dynasties.
Art:

One thing I found particularly fascinating is that the Tang dynasty revered large women and we all decided that that was the dynasty for us!

We walked around a bit more and then it was time for our Calligraphy lesson. We learned the basic format and structure of the Chinese written language and then we wrote out I love you!

After our Calligraphy lesson we were off to our 5-star hotel (Xian Jianguo Hotel) and I found out that I had been upgraded because I was the bus leader!!! From what I understand the other rooms were quite nice as well and I think the only major difference is we had a shower stall and bathtub in our bathroom. After a brief break at the hotel it was time to head out to our dim sum dinner. The bus dropped us off in a location that made it necessary to walk through a very decorated part of the city and it was hard to not become distracted by all of the fanciness around us. We made it to the restaurant after snapping photos of course and had a feast waiting for us. We ate 18 different varieties of dumplings…I was in dumpling heaven!! The dumpling varieties we tried were pork with celery, spicy pork, pork with cabbage (they really like there pork), walnut, duck and a fried rice dumpling which stole the show amongst others.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to rest up for the next day which was going to be a big one!

We woke in the morning to head down to a complimentary buffet breakfast. Note every meal is included in this trip except one dinner and they will all be excessive…excessively good that is!!! Also, I am really happy to not have to plan anything and just be led around for a few days. This is the only trip that I am doing like this and usually like to be spontaneous or plan myself but this trip will prove to be a nice break from that.

So anyway our 1st stop this morning was to the Xian city wall. This wall separated the inner and outer city of Xian. The inner city is where the emperor of Xian lived during the Ming dynasty and the wall (the largest and most complete city wall that still stands in China) protected him. The wall was decorated for the New Year, some large lavish decorations.

This is our group!!!

After the wall we went to the Great Mosque and Old Bazaar. We learned that the silk road was built from the Middle East (Persia?) through China to bring silk to China and specifically Xian. This is why there is a significant number of Muslim Chinese in this area. I had not connected the Muslim religion with China but I was mistaken. We walked around the Mosque, learned about its history and ventured through the Bazaar.

Now the Bazaar was essentially street vendors selling knock of purses, polos, jackets (Northface, etc) and souvenirs significantly cheaper then in the stores. We will come across many more of these experiences as our days in China continue. Now Stacey of a few years ago would have taken full advantage of the haggling that could ensue, instead I left the haggling to the others only picking up a few postcards and chopsticks. Now it was off to lkunch. Similar to the night before’s dinner we had large dishes of food placed on a lazy susan and be ate family style. It was not as good as the dim sum the night before but how can you compare with 18 courses of dumplings! I love dumplings and will eat as many as the country allows me too!!! Even if it means turning in to one and I am almost at that point!

After lunch it was off to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. Now is when I must let you know that I had no expectations for Xian and I pretty much agreed to go on this trip because they needed a bus leader and the trip that was only going to Beijing already had the leaders taken care of. But now I understand one of the most significant reasons to visit this part of the country - this is why we would go there!!!!  Xian is a small city compared to Beijing and Shanghai, with only 8 million people and you can definitely see and feel both the country and city life. In 1974 (only 36 years ago) peasants were digging a well and came upon a clay head and thought they dug up a ghost. To everyone’s surprise they had uncovered the Terra Cotta Warriors. The 1st Emperor of the Qin Dynasty had these warriors created to protect him when he would die. Because he was a hated emperor when he died one of the generals at the time destroyed all of the warriors and left them in pieces. So when the pieces were found it was realized that there are at least 8000 of these soldiers all of whom have different faces. In fact if any were found to have the same face the emperor would have the artist and his family executed.

So I envisioned a museum (because that is what it is called) with the warriors behind glass that we would walk around. No, they built the “museum” around the excavation site…it was pretty amazing. The man who discovered these warriors has now been hired by the government to sit in one of the other museum buildings to sign autographs on a book you can purchase about the warriors. Pretty sweet gig and apparently he gets paid pretty. So there were a few museum buildings that we could walk around but the true star of the day were the warriors.

This one was behind glass:

These bronze chariots were also found:

Here is the man that found the Warriors: 

After this we went to an orphanage to meet with some children. We were told that the kids who lived here were children of parents who were in jail so they were not able to be adopted. There is no foster care system in China so this is where they would stay until their parents are able to care for them. The children had prepared a a little performance for us and while they were getting ready we sang a few children’s songs to them. Though the time with them was short I believe it made an impact. Since this was Chinese New Year if the children had family in the area they would stay with them for the holiday so the 30 children we did get to see did not have any family to go to.

After the orphanage we made a brief stop back to the hotel and then it was off to the Tang Dynasty dinner show….ummm can you say Vegas??? I was thinking this will be cheesy but it was kind of amazing! This was like some sort of Vegas style Chinese review with singing, dancing and full orchestra instrument playing. This show has won awards in China and it certainly deserved them! Everyone had a great and the food was excellent as well (the only dinner without lazy susans!) and we were able to try rice wine which was warm and kind of tasted like melted butter (it really was not that bad).  

Now it was back to the hotel to rest up for Beijing.