Man Man Zou

I don’t have anything special to say about Xi’an, except it was worth the trip just to see the famous Terracotta Warriors. We knew we had to go to Xi’an, Shaangxi province, since it’s a must-see in China. It still has its city walls, and a heck of a lot of preserved history.

It also has a heck of a lot of tourists which normally I don’t mind, but the tourist situation in Xi’an was an exception. Most short term tourists in China go to places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an. Since they’re in China for such a short time, they don’t have enough time to figure out how to do things on their own and have agencies and tour guides do everything for them. I found that in Xi’an, there were so few people doing things on their own, that it was almost impossible to do things the local- or at least a cheaper- way. Trying to catch a cheap bus to see the Terracotta Warriors was almost futile since everyone was dumbfounded that we didn’t come in a tour group. We had to search for an internet cafe outside of the tourist zone, in order to avoid being charged more than double the regular rate. The clerk at our hotel phoned our room to see which tours we wanted, and was genuinely surprised when I said we didn’t want any. That was probably the only bad thing about Xi’an- I just felt like it was too much of a baby-sitter city.

Now onto the good things. We spent 3 nights in Xi’an. We stayed in a very nice hotel for our somewhat low standards (Lu Dao Binguan, 160Y). It was expensive, but at first we couldn’t find any cheap places so we had to settle there. Each floor had its own attendant, 24 hours a day. It was a genuine hotel with maids who cleaned our room everyday, and an English speaking staff. It was worth the splurge, I guess.

On our first day, we walked to the Great Mosque- one of the largest mosques in China. I’ve been to many mosques in Malaysia and Brunei, so I was surprised to see that this old mosque looked absolutely nothing like the others. There was a large room with the prayer mats, but other than that it was hardly different from what an old Buddhist temple typically looks like. I didn’t see a dome or a minaret, though other mosques I’ve passed in China have these. Also, the Muslims didn’t care at all about the tourists, such as me, walking around the mosque in shorts. I asked, and the guy said it didn’t matter. That definitely wouldn’t have been kosher at any of the other mosques I’ve been to.

The next day was museum day, in order to keep Mark happy (not that it’s difficult). We went to the Forest of Steles Museum and the Shaanxi Provincial Museum.

The Forest of Steles Museum was so nerdy- it was all books… stone books. There were more than 2000 stone books there, some from as long ago as the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). That’s pretty old, but I still couldn’t help but make fun of the place because it was all stone books that we couldn’t read. Mark, as usual, was in his glory and we had to walk past every single book in the seven buildings. The other museum was the Shaanxi Provincial Museum. The collection of dynastic Chinese artifacts was of high quality, but nothing compared to the National Palace Museum in Taiwan (which contains China’s finest collections, all transported from China to Taiwan when the KMT fled the mainland).

On the third day, we finally made it to see the Terracotta Warriors- yet another 8th wonder of the world. Thousands of terracotta statues dating back to 200BC were unearthed a few decades ago near Xian. Some people call it the greatest archeological find of the 20th century. We took a bus 40km out of Xi’an to the huge site- there wasn’t just one building of warriors, but three. None of the sites were finished being dug up, since they’re waiting for more sophisticated methods to be created. I preferred it this way because I could see the way they’ve been excavated. The faces and bodies of the warriors were even more impressive than they looked on the many TV shows I’ve seen them on. And the crowds weren’t as bad as what I’ve seen on TV, so all in all, we had a good time.

After three nights though, I started to feel really crappy. I didn’t enjoy being in a big city like that for so long. So the next day we took a bus to a town called Tianshui, Gansu Province.

Tianshui is at the beginning of the Silk Road. Before this trip, I didn’t even think I’d get much Silk Road action, but here I am, following it. It’s nice not to plan too much ahead of time.

Tianshui is home to one of the four famous Buddhist grottos in China. In the past, travelers on the Silk Road would stop at these grottos, called Maiji Shan Shiku, to pray for their safety. The grottos were basically a big stone (the size of a small mountain) with Buddha figures carved all up the side, some as old as 400AD. They built stairs all the way up to the highest carvings for tourists to see, which was quite dizzying for us. We had the whole place to ourselves that day!

After two nights in Tianshui, we took a bus to a small town called Luomen, Gansu province. Luomen was a surprise for me- I thought it would just be a blah stopover town, but instead it was the friendliest town I have come across in China so far. Everyone was curious about us, and everyone smiled. Many people in town seemed to have a good sense of humor too.

We walked around town, and passed a house with a huge pile of coal in the yard. There were people sitting around smoking, and a guy shoveling the coal. They asked us to come in for a look-see. They also asked me to take their picture, which was hilarious to them. And one guy was smoking a big, fat hand rolled cigarette. I asked if I could take his picture and he just laughed and smiled. Random things like that tended to happen in Luomen. It was a nice surprise.

The main reason we went to Luomen, other than that it made a good stopover, was to visit Shuilian Dong (Water Curtain Caves). It was a little similar to the grottos in Tianshui, only there were a couple of old temples there, as well as a 30+m high Buddha carved into the side of the mountain. Like the grottos in Tianshui, there were no tourists at Shuilian Dong either. The ticket sellers walked with us around the paths to the temples and carvings. We went inside one small temple, and found that it was actually a genuine working temple. There aren’t many real working temples in existence in China because of the Cultural Revolution, when the communist government destroyed many religious places. In the temple, there were a few really old people around, offerings on the table, candles, incense, etc… One old guy took an apple off the offering table and gave it to me as we were leaving. The temple was nice, but still not as nice as the real thing in Taiwan.

Tomorrow we will take a train to Lanzhou, then hopefully a bus to Xiahe.

Update:
Days: 27
Photos taken: 19.5GB
Souvenirs: Still only 3!