Beijing Nov '09 Part2: Xi'an1

The local night train experience, despite travelling 1st class in a private cabin for 4, was not a good one.
We found some 2 intruders sleeping on our beds when we boarded.
They just left after being told, without feeling guilty of dirtying our bed sheets!

Xi'an has been the capital to 11 dynasties over a period of 4000 years. Thus you can expect a lot of splendid sights recalling those past glorious emperor days.



The first place we visit is this 明城墙, a 14Km long square Ming dynasty city walls. The 12M high bastions have bases up to 18M thick.



Walking on it was quite an experience,
jogging on it would take too much time, so we elected to just have a shot taken.

Interesting weapons were displayed on the bastion.

Nicely designed trash collector to blend into ancient days.

We then visited the famous "Bell Tower"

Straight ahead is the modern Xi'an city center, inside the fortifications.

and right opposite is the twin "Drum Tower"

We had the highly recommended dumpling Buffet 餃子宴, in a restaurant near the Drum Tower.

However, we get only to sample only one each, for RMB88 per head. All were freshly wrapped and steamed.

Nevertheless, we tried so many different types of 餃子that .........hmhm, now we know why did they offer us only one per type!

This one claimed to be world smallest, at the size of a peanut.

However, for it's size, there was hardly any meat inside.

We suckers only get to eat the skin, haha!

This one is purplish black, made of yam?

This duck dumpling is the prettiest. With duck meat inside, it tasted good too.

Don't under estimate the size of these dumplings.

When they brought out the last dish, we were so full that we could not finish them.

We paid a short visit to this Tang dynasty Dayan Ta(Great Goose Pagoda), 大雁塔, built 2600 years ago, for the famous monk, Xuanzang, 唐三藏 to translate those Buddhist Sutras he brought back from India into Chinese.

His travel blogged on the wall carvings were fabulous.
Incidentally, his travel was made famous by the legend, " Monkey goes west" 西遊記.

Later in the evening, we patronised this brand new 大唐芙蓉园, big, nice and will become a potential hot tourist spot one day.

Night scenery was even better. We watched 2 shows here, one indoor and one outdoor.

The first was a musical depicting the good old days of the Tang Dynasty,梦回大唐.

The other one was an open air laser projection on the lake, 水体景观.

Neither were particularly impressive.

An hour ride the following morning got us to visit the eigth wonder of the world, terracotta!

The arrow on the right on this photo shows the exact location where the farmer found the first terracotta while sinking a well. Today, he sits in the hall and autographs a publication on Terracotta, and I bought one ;)

There are 3 caves of Terracotta dug out till now. This is the 1st and the biggest.

Original Terracotta dug out were coloured, but oxidation makes them look dull after a while. Only these 3, dug and preserved by German Technology, remained intact. Hence, more excavation will only continue when enough Chinese technology is developed ;(

Among them, There were horses and chariots.

We then proceed to a place, 華清池, where the famous concubine of 唐明皇, 楊貴妃 stayed.

The pool here was where she used to take bath, using the hot spring water nearby.

Supposedly, she was slightly rounded, by the standard of Chinese beauties, as you can see for yourself ;)

The back ground lake is known as 華清池九龍湖, the 9-dragon lake.

The highlight of the visit was a grand show at night, 長恨歌, a poem by 白居易.

It is directed by 李捍忠, who makes use of the lake as a dance stage, lighted bridges and surrounding buildings as backdrops, while the hill at the back is made to glitter like stars with a moon which changes in shape.

300 actors and dancers performed on this stage raised from the lake. At one war scene, canons were fired from the back, and the whole lake was on fire!

Later, when 楊貴妃 died, her spirit was seen retracting towards the sky.......

七月七日長生殿，夜半無人私語時。

在天願作比翼鳥，在地願為連理枝。

天長地久有時盡，此恨綿綿無絕期....recalling those good school days when we learnt this poem ;)

This is a fantastic show not to be missed.

That night we stayed in this nearby 爱琴海 spa resort, and soaked ourselves in the water drawn from the same hot spring 楊貴妃 used to enjoy.......;)

There were many different fragrant pools, indoor and outdoors, and we were very impressed by the workers' hospitality and working attitude.

However, it is a different experience as our Suginoi Onsen extravaganza in April ;)

The 3rd day in Xi'an is to scale the dangerous and yet beautiful Hua-San, 五岳之首，以险而著称——西岳-华山.

Our endeavouring driver managed to send us in time for our climb, despite an accident on the highway, by deviating via a narrow village tunnel road.

Thank you, Sifu ;), ..............my next post will be our climb up Hua Shan, 华山论剑

Beijing Nov '09 trip 1: Datong, Pingyao

Julie, Hua Keong and I made a 15- day trip to Beijing from 11th/Nov to 25th/Nov. Weather can't be better, comfortably cool. Dominick and Karen played hosts in Beijing, with their driver chauffeuring us all over Beijing and it's vicinity. This picture was taken in front of Dominick's neighbouring house, a local Chinese singer.
As we have all been in Beijing before, this trip we concentrate mainly on Beijing new attractions and outskirts, mainly destinations not normally visited by most tourists.

Special arrangement was also made for our tours outside Beijing. The first exciting place of visit was Datong 大同(265 Km SW of Beijing), after a long night train ride in a local train. Datong used to be a big coal mining town in the past. Here we witnessed the Unesco World heritage Yungang Caves—云冈石窟.

These are huge Buddha carvings on a low but long sandstone cliff, dated back 2500 years ago. Created over the years, these carvings reflect Indian, Central Asian, Persian, and Hellenistic influences entering China via silk road.

We are up near to the Buddha Statue. Look how small those people below are. Different caves house different Buddha statues, big and small, exceeding 51,000 of them. It reminded me of the same stone cave statues in Afghanistan destroyed by Taliban a few years ago. What a shame!

We then proceed to the 'Internet famous' hanging monastery 悬空寺, a place I never dreamt of visiting years ago when I first read in my e-mail. Can't imagine it right in front of my eyes now. Temple built on stilts!

This carefully selected site at 恆山 (for the temple) caves inwards, and thus the wooden temple is sheltered from direct rain, and avoids strong wind erosion from both sides. It sits high up so as to avoid flood water from the river used to run below.

Supported by slender wooden pillars, the temple clinks precariously to the canyon's walls. It has some 30 over halls, connected by walkways and bridges.

They house numerous statues of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist Gods, an example of religious harmony dated back to the Qin dynasty, 2200 years ago.

However, the tourist guide predicts that this temple may be closed to all visitors in 2-3 years time, as the old structure may not stand the increasing load of tourists pouring :( So, go asap if you want to!

En route to dinner, we visited this 11th century wooden pagoda, 县木塔, one of the oldest wooden building on earth, constructed without using any nail. The clearance of the wooden hinges makes it survived many earthquakes.

A closer look.

Yet we can still walk up to have a good look of the surrounding.

An excellent dinner was arranged in a huge courtyard restaurant with special performance demonstrated in our room, with the kind arrangement of 小峰。

After enjoying 刀削麵, we were shown how to slice it from the dough.

Looks easy for me....:) ,
.........and Karen

However, you can see the struggle from the others, like Dom, hehe.

Julie almost cut her fingers.

while HK did not manage to slice any piece, ;)

The Sifu then challenged us to do it on wheel, blind folded. We almost fainted!

What I love most is this 1-strand 'throw noodle'.

Ladies are supposed to take just 1 strand, it makes 1 big bowl. Even the stronger sex, just 2 strands will be more than enough!

Fortunately, Marco Polo did not learn this trick, otherwise, spaaaagggghhhhheeeeettttttiiiiiii will be spelt this way.

The grand finale was a conducted tour to witness the many collector items of the restaurant.

The next day, we visited a very beautiful old Chinese courtyard house and garden 乔家大院 , made famous by Zhang Yimou's film, "Raise The Red Lantern", starring Gong-Li.

It has 6 courtyards, and 300 rooms, built in the 18th century. A typical courtyard viewed from top.

Supposedly, there are a lot of Qi balance ( Harmony?) in the construction of this courtyard.

Can you feel it?

The big urn is filled with water, and it is where the Qi collects.

That explains why the owner is so rich, through his tofu and tea business ;)

Lunch at another courtyard restaurant was sumptuous, with too many dishes. However, the typical local cold dishes do not suit our taste buds. Somehow, we prefer hot food:)

Pingyao, 平遥, our next destination, has the best preserved city walls( 6 Km) from the Ming dynasty. Being the financial center of China during the Ming and Qing Dyansties, Pingyao used to be an affluent town. The first bank in China was established here. It subsequently offers 'Cheque' issual facility, with special technology and codes to prevent frauds.

However, when Qing dynasty defaulted on loans and abdicated, the banks were left empty, and thus Pingyao lost it's colour too. New financial centers were then built in Shanghai.

This is a main part of the city walls where visitors gain access to the top.

A view from the top.... Within the walls, there are 3000 historic shops, museums, and heritage sites.

Rain makes these beautiful shop houses look sad, with so few customers.... :(

yet another gate tower.

We then visited an old court of justice, the black stone carries original knee prints sunken into solid stone slabs. You can imagine how many people knelt here since day one!

Next is this 'car-less city', where the only fast transport is by golf carts. Some cycle, while many walk. It has long narrow roads, but clean!
Dinner, we slowly enjoyed some local delicacies in this pretty courtyard restaurant.

Our rowdy neighbours were shouting, yelling, quarrelling, or were they just celebrating some function?

We don't know!

Restaurant is beautiful, food is just so so lah. However, the toilet is far beyond description...... We still have quite sometime to kill after dinner, so we went for foot massage. But the standard is poor, far from Dominick's angels.

Soon, we have a night train to catch.

Good night.

See you in Xi An........

The party is over.