Following a flight on Hainan Airlines to Xian (pronounced phonetically as ‘shoo warn’), sitting aside a man that persisted in spitting the contents of his phlegmy cough into the sick bag for the whole hour long flight, I was somewhat relieved to disembark! Met by Ben, a young man who waved the sheet displaying our names, said hello then dashed off to locate the driver – I sensed the pace had been set! Taken to the Tang Dynasty Garden Hotel and briefed that it was ‘authentic Chinese’, we were shown to our room having passed chairs and flowers being set up for the wedding due to be carried out in the morning. The hope of any sleep was just a dream as the folk preparing for the wedding continued to work through to the early hours, speaking in the typical Chinese ‘shout at each other, at the same time, keep raising the volume and eventually all stop together’(!), our bed was as hard as the stone floor and pillows likewise – even earplugs firmly placed did little to ease the voices but the spare duvet hidden in the wardrobe, rolled up acted as a ‘softer’ pillow whilst my husband made do with towels bundled together!
Breakfast – I shan’t even go there, we thought it couldn’t get any worse – it could! Ben arrived, whisked us off into Mr Dang’s van and off we trundled to visit the Terracotta Warriors – the part of this vacation I have looked forward to most! Having seen many a documentary about these archaeological discoveries, I was somewhat nervous any hopes of a life-sized wonder being reduced to a glass cabinet of ‘look what we dug up’!
HISTORY BIT …
It seems that at the age of 13, in the year 200 BC, a boy inherited the kingdom (at which time assisted by his mother and elder sister), and was made Emperor at the age of 22. He was incredibly evil and killed anyone that could be a threat to him – Confucius scholars were buried alive and anyone that disagreed with him, murdered. He apparently created routes for trading as he searched for longevity tablets – seemingly not found as he died at the age of 50! He had two sons with wives and around 60 children with concubines’ (busy fellow!). He left his kingdom to his eldest son, however, the younger son had the Will changed to read that the eldest should commit suicide on his father’s death, this ‘wish’ was carried out and the younger son then ruled! In honour of his dead father, this (naughty!) son had the terracotta warriors built to protect his father’s mausoleum in the afterlife, discovered by a farmer as he dug for water in 1973!
Now the farmer was not feeling the need to share this find, kept it to himself but a journalist found the farmer and his ‘field find’ and reported it to the Government who generously (!) gave the farmer a one off payment equivalent to £4 for the field and then they reaped the benefits from paying visitors themselves … (Moon festival week expect 63,000 visitors a day!).
BACK TO THE BLOG!
I have to say, the anticipation as we approached Pit One was welling up, as were the crowds …. I ‘far too politely’ waited my turn to get to the railings and simply ….. WOW! Before me a vast hanger covering what looked like 4 sandy football pitches, I looked down and saw the faces maybe reflecting the image of the craftsmen ‘encouraged’ to chip away and create the army of the Qin Shi Huang. With warriors’ costumes identifying their rank lined up aside horses and the remains of those less delicately unearthed, all I could have ever hoped to see looked back up at me – my eyes filled, my spine tingled and I felt a shudder of history hit me like the power of the army below.
Visiting Pits two and three the discoveries continued in various stances – some uncovered intact, others in need of the jigsaw pieces realigned… I wished we could have stayed longer and soaked up the haunting feeing again but alas, Ben was on a mission, and we needed to keep up!
Lunch was taken in a hotel that Ben knew – ‘no tourist trap for my 5 star guests’ apparently and we were grateful as another yummy meal enjoyed before heading off to the Little Wild Goose Pagoda (look and photograph!) then the Shaanxi Museum to look at artefacts from China’s ancient history (and give Ben time to play on his phone and reply to his texts!).
Without time for a ‘quick freshen up’ we were finally taken to the local theatre to ‘enjoy’ a dumpling banquet (oh my, delights of duck, tomato, chicken, not sure and veg, heavily wrapped in a thick dumpling casing, to be eaten as they come or wait until they have really congealed and dip them in the soupy bowl to reignite them into an almost chewable consistency ….!) then a Tang Dynasty dance show. Thank goodness for the synopsis screen which attempted to tell the story of the opera (though the editor might have benefitted from a few weeks learning English as I’m not sure it was meant to be a comedy!) – brought to life by the over gesticulating conductor who, at a crucial piece, lobbed his baton out of his hand into the lap of the lady opposite, continuing without a pause, replacing the lost member with a digit! Thankfully, no eyes were extracted in the performance and I kindly returned the baton to the conductor at the end of the show who merely bowed his gratitude without a blush or fear of a claims lawyer’s call! Ben had clearly decided to have ‘an early bath’ as poor Mr Dang was left to wait underneath the mooncake advertisement (I sense a song title there!) and return us to our (literally!) wooden bed (with towels and duvet pillows!).
Next morning, a walk along the ancient city wall of Xian, constructed in 1370, 12 metres high and 8 miles long – for me the best viewing point of the bustling Sunday morning food and fabric market below and for my hubbie, an opportunity to run for a bit, stretch his legs and get it logged on his running app!
Not sure for who exactly needed the reminder not to relieve themself over the wall, but it made us chuckle!
Mid morning and escorted at a gentler pace (now!) to the Bullet train station for our 2-hour trip to Luoyang. We said goodbye to Ben (am I being really cynical in feeling his sudden need to slow down be so we did not forget his tip!!?) and waited where placed before our platform. After about 5 minutes, a business looking gentleman and young lady decided to engage in conversation with us about the weighty look of our luggage, where we were bound, where we were from and what they had been doing in Xian (a conference apparently). Clearly kind hearted, the lady offered me a box containing two beautiful little Xian figures as a gift and they wished us well for the remainder of our trip. I have to say, once aboard our train, I was a little sad that my husband insisted that we give the gift back to the business gentleman (now seated alone a few seats behind us) as he said we would be foolish to accept gifts from strangers as it MAY not be kindly meant (reminding me of Bridget Jones 2, I was not sure I knew all the words to ‘like a virgin’ and indeed did not possess a Wonderbra should I be placed ‘inside for possession’!). He was right (rarely I say this so do note!) and we should be travel cautious, so as we approached our stop, he took the gift to the business gentleman and said we were sorry, we could not accept it as it was ‘far too generous’…. I know, at this point our son will be cheering his father’s wisdom and protectiveness and our daughter will be, like me, a little sad as it might have actually been a really nice gift!
Next stop Luoyang to meet Jerry (question, is he Ben’s ice cream partner?!)
Train arrived and Jerry waved an eager wave, apparently pleased to meet us! We were loaded into Mr Waing’s vehicle and immediately driven to the Longmen Grottoes, apparently one of the most important Buddhist sites in China where over 100,000 Buddhist statues are carved into the limestone cliffs.
After an incredibly lengthy walk and climb up many steps, never have we seen SO MANY BUDDHAS! In every size imaginable, tucked into every nook and cranny (literally no stone unturned!), these carvings certainly were worth the exhaustive mount! Next, to the Lee Royal Hotel where if you ignored the grubby shower and ‘don’t move the rubbish bin as the floor has not been washed in months’, the hard bed (now offering a soft layer sheet if you call number 5 on your room phone which is placed next to the paper note saying the phone is not working!) and this time SOFT pillows beckoned!
Breakfast was apparently a blend of Chinese and western, but I am not sure who was responsible for sourcing the western range as it was again lacking (toast and rice krispies- lookalikies!). Collected and driven almost an hour on to the White Horse Temple for a photograph and then a stop for a vegetarian lunch, how startled both of us must have looked when Jerry said the food would be vegetarian as the common food for the area was ‘human’ …. ! Sensing our look of ‘surely not but who knows!!?’, Jerry corrected himself with a slightly better offering of English translation and explained the food was vegetables, ‘human made’ to look like meat ie rolled mushrooms looked like pork and tofu coloured to look like salami!
An effort made to eat and digest, on we went to a well known Shaolin monastery in Henan Province, famous for Kung-Fu Monks (Jet Li and Jackie Chan’s training school!) and were treated to a show of skills by boys (from 13 years) and young men (I had know idea a foot could even be placed behind there!!) and then a final stop and look at the pagoda forest … burial grounds for monks of yesteryear (and rather recently!).
As the rainy, grey day never stopped blessing us with a day long shower, we were finally taken (after another 2 hour drive!) back to the station to board our 7pm train to Beijing (a 4 hour trip!). Fortunately, Colonel Saunders beckoned and KFC filled our tums, thankfully the game of ‘Chinese whispers’ intact as his secret blended recipe just like home! See you in Beijing!
