Xian - City Wall, Terra Cotta Soldiers, Wild Goose Pagoda
Xian is a nice city. Its far to the interior of the country and is maybe what you'd call the old capital of China. The city is a bit different, its just a bit more mid-western Chinese feeling if you will. It is the great city of the interior.
The night before I walked out down town to a bar labeled "pub" in blue letters. The place was quite elaborate and required a metal detector entrance and an elevator ride into a loft. The place was alive. As Americans we were immediately sent in to the high roller VIP private area and offered expensive drinks. Meanwhile the stage was filled with events ranging from live bands, to game show-like contests, to some sort of partner erotic dance routine that involved wearing a "scream" mask and dancing to Michael Jackson songs. It seemed clear that this place was very "hip", and kept turning up new surprises. The whole bar was western and idealized. Jack Daniels was printed on everything in the place, and thousands of whisky bottles lined all the ceiling spaces. The Chinese people seemed very satisfied with me every time I ordered a Jack and Coke. With the help of a friend that spoke Chinese, I made my first attempt at learning their dice-based drinking game. I would later pick this up from Yaya, while she hustled in Shanghai.
We stayed at a rather nice hotel with futuristic elevators and pricey laundry. The lobby was gorgeous and the buffet we were served was a more than welcome sight. At dinner later that night we feasted on many many courses capped off by Dim Sum dumplings of all animal shapes. Frog, monkey, duck, chicken, prawn, each with their own recognizable shape and distinct flavor.
That morning we headed out to the City Wall, and I couldn't help but be reminded of a particular South Park episode. The moat entrenched 36 foot high wall runs a rectangular 8 mile swath around the city. It's quite a sight.
After the wall, we headed over to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers. This is another great wonder and testament to the ego of one man. The emperor started building his tomb the day he became emperor. 700,000 people labored for 37 years to build it, and when they were done, he was buried there along with an entire life size army made out of clay.
As usual there was a state run factory producing novelties -- in this case all shapes and sizes of clay soldiers. I toured through the museum and watched a giant "circle vision" 360 degree surround movie about the soldiers. I met the man who discovered the Soldiers, he was old and not far from death. He signed my book resolutely and stared off unhappily into space. He was the most grumpy, crotchety old man you've ever seen. Why? He lives the life of a slave. Ever since he discovered this great archaeological triumph, he has been condemned to spend every day for decades signing his autograph in its museum. A slave to his own discovery, fame can be especially bittersweet in China.
On the way out we were pimped with all kinds of miniature terra-cotta figurines. On the way in some people paid as much as $20 for these, and on the way out, they went for as low as $1 for a set. Most of the people who paid $10 were rather pissed. As it turns out, nobody should really have bought them as they were worthless and fell apart immediately. In China they bring a new meaning to cheap goods; I call it temporary merchandise. The fake Rolexes are so fake that they become several hours off from each other within a 24 hour period. They barely even approximate telling time.
This excursion seemed to be about the point that many of the travelers had lost it with Chinese jackal salesman. One member in our group actually got in something of a fight. It was about this time I noticed little lines drawn in the dirt. The sales people had little territory lines that they were not to cross. If you backed up past the line, they would walk up and stick their neck out towards you, enticing you to come back but not daring to cross the line. About the time that I saw one such man cross his line, I watched another bouncer figure approach and start pummeling him with his fists. It was then I began to pity these desperate salesmen. I should have known they were not entrepreneurial spirits, but rather they were being used, and pimped for every last dollar they could round up. They were operating in a highly controlled game, with identical merchandise. The only way to get attention, and to survive, was to be more extreme than the other 200 competitors. A sad world.
After that it was off to another state sanctioned tourist lunch. Any city in China, you'll find the tourist lunch is the same. The standard fare: a round table for 7 or so, 1 liter bottle of coke, 2 bottles of beer, low meat content Chinese food served on a round turntable. If you're good, watermelon, cherry tomatoes and orange slices are served for desert. Though I often went a bit hungry, I certainly benefited from the fact that I seemed to be one of the few people who actually liked this stuff.
Wild Goose Pagoda -- The Buddhist pagoda was beautiful and inspiring and the scent of incense rolled through the area. Many of the students seemed confused by the temple, asking "what is this?". One Vietnamese student was Buddhist and I had a chat with her. She seemed a bit ashamed at not understanding her own religion as well as she'd like. A few students were interested, but most glossed over it very quickly.
After visiting the pagoda, we went to a near by calligraphy school and art museum. There we learned things about the origin of various Chinese characters (chaos is composed of three symbols for women, inside the symbol for house) and other such novelties. I learned that rice paper does not have any rice in it, but rather elm and bamboo. Like-wise they don't' call it rice paper -- its really more of a western slur. I bought some artwork from an artist I enjoyed, as well as a higher quality calligraphy brush.
We then moved on to a nearby museum where we learned a few interesting cultural tidbits. I had previously been astounded by the number of concubines kept by the emperors, but apparently Xian had been home to one female emperor, and she had kept a slew of male concubines. Also, at that point in history it was customary and acceptable for a woman to show her bare breasts in public, but not her teeth.
Just goes to show you how deep our assumptions about society go.
The night before I walked out down town to a bar labeled "pub" in blue letters. The place was quite elaborate and required a metal detector entrance and an elevator ride into a loft. The place was alive. As Americans we were immediately sent in to the high roller VIP private area and offered expensive drinks. Meanwhile the stage was filled with events ranging from live bands, to game show-like contests, to some sort of partner erotic dance routine that involved wearing a "scream" mask and dancing to Michael Jackson songs. It seemed clear that this place was very "hip", and kept turning up new surprises. The whole bar was western and idealized. Jack Daniels was printed on everything in the place, and thousands of whisky bottles lined all the ceiling spaces. The Chinese people seemed very satisfied with me every time I ordered a Jack and Coke. With the help of a friend that spoke Chinese, I made my first attempt at learning their dice-based drinking game. I would later pick this up from Yaya, while she hustled in Shanghai.
We stayed at a rather nice hotel with futuristic elevators and pricey laundry. The lobby was gorgeous and the buffet we were served was a more than welcome sight. At dinner later that night we feasted on many many courses capped off by Dim Sum dumplings of all animal shapes. Frog, monkey, duck, chicken, prawn, each with their own recognizable shape and distinct flavor.
That morning we headed out to the City Wall, and I couldn't help but be reminded of a particular South Park episode. The moat entrenched 36 foot high wall runs a rectangular 8 mile swath around the city. It's quite a sight.
After the wall, we headed over to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers. This is another great wonder and testament to the ego of one man. The emperor started building his tomb the day he became emperor. 700,000 people labored for 37 years to build it, and when they were done, he was buried there along with an entire life size army made out of clay.
As usual there was a state run factory producing novelties -- in this case all shapes and sizes of clay soldiers. I toured through the museum and watched a giant "circle vision" 360 degree surround movie about the soldiers. I met the man who discovered the Soldiers, he was old and not far from death. He signed my book resolutely and stared off unhappily into space. He was the most grumpy, crotchety old man you've ever seen. Why? He lives the life of a slave. Ever since he discovered this great archaeological triumph, he has been condemned to spend every day for decades signing his autograph in its museum. A slave to his own discovery, fame can be especially bittersweet in China.
On the way out we were pimped with all kinds of miniature terra-cotta figurines. On the way in some people paid as much as $20 for these, and on the way out, they went for as low as $1 for a set. Most of the people who paid $10 were rather pissed. As it turns out, nobody should really have bought them as they were worthless and fell apart immediately. In China they bring a new meaning to cheap goods; I call it temporary merchandise. The fake Rolexes are so fake that they become several hours off from each other within a 24 hour period. They barely even approximate telling time.
This excursion seemed to be about the point that many of the travelers had lost it with Chinese jackal salesman. One member in our group actually got in something of a fight. It was about this time I noticed little lines drawn in the dirt. The sales people had little territory lines that they were not to cross. If you backed up past the line, they would walk up and stick their neck out towards you, enticing you to come back but not daring to cross the line. About the time that I saw one such man cross his line, I watched another bouncer figure approach and start pummeling him with his fists. It was then I began to pity these desperate salesmen. I should have known they were not entrepreneurial spirits, but rather they were being used, and pimped for every last dollar they could round up. They were operating in a highly controlled game, with identical merchandise. The only way to get attention, and to survive, was to be more extreme than the other 200 competitors. A sad world.
After that it was off to another state sanctioned tourist lunch. Any city in China, you'll find the tourist lunch is the same. The standard fare: a round table for 7 or so, 1 liter bottle of coke, 2 bottles of beer, low meat content Chinese food served on a round turntable. If you're good, watermelon, cherry tomatoes and orange slices are served for desert. Though I often went a bit hungry, I certainly benefited from the fact that I seemed to be one of the few people who actually liked this stuff.
Wild Goose Pagoda -- The Buddhist pagoda was beautiful and inspiring and the scent of incense rolled through the area. Many of the students seemed confused by the temple, asking "what is this?". One Vietnamese student was Buddhist and I had a chat with her. She seemed a bit ashamed at not understanding her own religion as well as she'd like. A few students were interested, but most glossed over it very quickly.
After visiting the pagoda, we went to a near by calligraphy school and art museum. There we learned things about the origin of various Chinese characters (chaos is composed of three symbols for women, inside the symbol for house) and other such novelties. I learned that rice paper does not have any rice in it, but rather elm and bamboo. Like-wise they don't' call it rice paper -- its really more of a western slur. I bought some artwork from an artist I enjoyed, as well as a higher quality calligraphy brush.
We then moved on to a nearby museum where we learned a few interesting cultural tidbits. I had previously been astounded by the number of concubines kept by the emperors, but apparently Xian had been home to one female emperor, and she had kept a slew of male concubines. Also, at that point in history it was customary and acceptable for a woman to show her bare breasts in public, but not her teeth.
Just goes to show you how deep our assumptions about society go.
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