May 6, 7 Xian, China - The Start of the Silk Road from the East

We unfortunately did not have a good night sleep as the hotel was not running the room AC system despite the heat, although we opened the window as they suggested. Next day we switched rooms and they started to run the cooling system, no doubt due to many complaints, and we were much happier.

We went first to visit the spectacular terra cotta army that was discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well. It numbers thousands of super life-sized soldiers that had been made out of clay, painted with natural colors, armed with real swords, bows and arrows, spears and each has different features - and were buried in battle formation near to the tomb of the first Chinese Emperor who had unified China at his death in 206 BC. Apparently he also buried thousands of the workmen who had constructed his nearby mausoleum, which has not yet been excavated although the hill has been identified, and which is reported to be very rich with treasure but also guarded by hidden crossbow booby-traps and poison gas, as well as other supernatural protectors. We had seen the first pit during our 1982 visit to Xian, but now they have uncovered two other sections of the army and constructed a museum for some of the most spectacular finds. It was still an awesome sight even the second time around even when you could not get up close and had thousands more tourists then before. Some say this was the most spectacular archaeological find of the 20th Century - Perhaps uncovering his mausoleum will rank first in the 21st Century.

We had lunch in a tea shop restaurant outside of the museum. After lunch we went dowstairs for tea sampling which we enjoyed very much as we had never seen the traditional tea service being performed. There was a "greedy cup" where if you just filled the cup half full none would leak out bu if you filled it full it would all leak out. we thought the one leaf tea (Ku Ding) was interesting as it looked more like a vanilla bean than tea! We bought a small package of Ginseng Oolong tea.

Some of the original paint on this soldier
under restoration

Enjoying a traditional tea ceremony

Chinese Dragon Greedy Cup

We drove back to the city to see the Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 652 AD after an emissary of Emperor Gaozong named Xuanzang spent 17 years traveling to India to collect original Buddhist scriptures and bring them back to China. He became the first abbot of the monastery and translated hundreds of the Sanskrit scriptures into Chinese. We had remembered stopping here in 1982 and NOT electing to walk up the hundreds of steps to the top of this leaning pagoda. The pollution is so bad now not sure there would be much to see to make the climb worth it. The old shop houses that had surrounded the Pagoda are now gone in favor of a park.

Next was a stop at the oldest Muslim mosque in China, constructed in 742 AD in a very Chinese style, and containing scripts both in Arabic and Chinese. The smell and sights of the Muslim quarter were interesting - lots of lamb being cooked and naan bread. We bought a cheap backpack in the market as we are having trouble feeling organized with our stuff. Our luggage consists of 3 small wheeling bags a purse and a broken unlockable backpack that things keep falling out of, so hopefully this backpack will help us be more organized during the day.

We went out to a dinner theater for a sampling of local dumplings and colorful song and dance reminiscent of the opulent Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD). The various colored dumplings were shaped into animals and flowers that gave you a hint of what the filling was. Pigs, ducks, fish, bok choy, walnuts, lotus flowers Everything was delicious including the Great Wall white wine. The 1 hour and 10 minute show was excellent! The dresses in the Tang Dynasty were seductive and the top heavy hair styles something to be seen. The dancers were incredibly graceful and hand and head motions not at all reminiscent of India or Khmer dance. The long sleeves that were swirled about like ribbons were fascinating.

Steamed dumplings - see the fish?

Next morning we went to the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, which had impressive exhibits ranging from pre-history through the Qing Dynasty that ended in the early 1900's. We proceeded directly to the airport for our 2 1/2 hour flight to Dunhuang, crossing almost 1,000 miles of the Gobi desert and snow-capped mountains en route to this small oasis that was an important stop on the Silk Road.