Wei and Chis-Shin must have wondered why the "Gold 1" group walked so slowly and threatened to upset their carefully planned tour schedule.

Xi'an September 3-4, 2006

We got up early, if not too bright, the next morning, eager to travel on to Xi'an, the next place on our Chinese journey. (Click here to review our Ports of Call "Getting Ready to Go" page for Xi'an.) Having put our suitcases outside the room door before retiring, we just had to shower and get dressed before going downstairs to the Crowne Plaza's very nice coffee shop to get some breakfast .

Nobody had to no rush because Wie, the master of "Gold 1's" precision timetable, had allowed plenty of time for everyone to eat before we boarded our bus for the drive from central Beijing to the city's new international airport, 90-minutes away on the Expressway. Once at the airport, we found it to be bright, clean, busy, and very international, indeed! Checking in was a breeze--- Wie hustled our luggage through security, picked up our boarding passes, and "mother-henned" us to the gate where our China East flight would be found. All we had to do for ourselves was stand around and wait!

A modern sculpture catches the eye just outside the Beijing airport.

Wie knew all the ropes to get us checked in without delay.

The five "Friendlies" welcome you to the 2008 Olympics.<

As the plane was taking off, we noticed again that the smog/pollution was so heavy that it would be all but impossible for pilots to fly in and out of Beijing (or any the other Chinese city) without the aid of instruments. Visibility was measured in feet not miles! Once we reached 5,000 feet or so, we were above the smog and saw the bright sun and unobstructed blue skies for the first time since arriving in China.

Right after we landed, we met our guide, Chis-Shin (A/k/n/a Ingrid), and made our way to the terminal restaurant where were had our second group encounter with Lazy Susan style serving style and Chinese food. When our food arrived (no menus, no choices) is seemed as if the dishes served here were just about the same as we had seen the Great Hall of the People restaurant the day before. (Note: All through the trip, in fact, it seems as if the chefs were all using the same cookbook and recipes. Chinese people would probably be able to see great variety in what we were served during our eight days in China but to the untrained Western eye and palate, the expression "same old, same old" came to mind every time we sat down to lunch or dinner.)

After lunch, we stepped just outside the terminal are and waited for our bus. Once more we noticed how clean everything seemed---- halls, window glass, curbsides, etc. The Chinese, at least their airport authorities, are very keen on keeping up first-class appearances! Airport cleanliness aside, were again appalled by the horrendous smog that covered the countryside. When asked about it, Chis-Shin just shrugged and replied that it was part of the price for China's economic growth and suggested that it could be blamed largely on the continued operation of outdated factories that have little or no pollution control procedures or technology. Apparently the people are willing to sacrifice the quality of their environment in order to accelerate their push toward becoming one of the world's economic superpowers.

Terra Cotta Warriors

As had been the case in Beijing, we didn't have a chance to go to our hotel before arriving at our first Xi'an visitation--- the site of the famous Terra Cotta Army, twenty-five miles to the east of Xi'an. Chis-Shin told us the whole area around Xi'an is peppered with the tombs of emperors, generals, and other wealthy people who, like the monarchs of Egypt, starting building their internment sites almost as soon as they took power.

Looking out our bus window as we drove along the highway to the site of the Terra Cotta Army, we saw many active farm fields with mounds covering still untouched ancient tombs!

Unquestionably, the most famous of these burial sites is the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, China's first Qin-dynasty emperor. Discovered in 1974, the Army of soldiers and horses (literally the Emperor's "military servants") is a collection of over 8,000 life-size terra cotta figures. Everything about the place is big and grandiose--- it covers twenty square miles and took 700,000 workers to complete. (It is said that thousands of workers were buried within the tomb after they died on the job). As always seemed to be the case in China, we got off the bus by a huge statue, and about a thousand miles from our the actual entrance to the Warrior site.

Although there was a small train of passenger wagons pulled by a golf cart available to transport people from the parking area, marked to the entrance of the exhibit grounds. The line for these carts was so long, however, that our whole group decided to follow the pathway--- in this case a rose-colored brick road. Some of us, however, walked at a slower pace than others, something that occasionally caused great concern to schedule-minded Wie and Chis-Shin. Our whole group finally made it to the gate where thousands of people were funneled through the two lone turnstiles guarding the entrance to the site grounds.

There are several attractions inside the gates including the three excavation pits in the which the Terra Cotta Army is found and a formal museum. The first pit, where the first statues, where the first statues were discovered in 1974, has 8,000 figures on display, while Pit Two has 2,000 statues. Pit Three, where excavations have just been started, has sixty-eight figures and wonderful wrought iron window decorations for visitors to enjoy. (Incidentally, we noticed when we got back to Portland that the pictures from Joan's camera come out with a slightly different hue than those taken with Ralph's. This is apparent below if you compare the center and right versions of the same shot--- Joan's, on the right, is rosier!)

We took a different route walking from the statue area back to our bus and, once again, "people watching" was almost as interesting as the main attraction! There were kids playing in fountains, performers entertaining along the sidewalks, balloons and Chinese lanterns in the air, and, as always, vendors offering quite a variety of goods and products--- miniature Terra Cotta warriors, T-shirts, leather goods, and Chinese flags, as well as such food items as "meat on a stick," yams, eggs, cabbages, apples, and pomegranates. There was a whirl of color and activity to see and enjoy.

Tang Dynasty Show

We were also scheduled that day for a special gala dinner and cultural experience, the Tang Dynasty Show, featuring music and dance that originated in China's Tang Dynasty over a thousand years ago. Wei told us that the performance we'd be seeing has been recreated in accordance with various historical records as well as ancient art and relics discovered in Xi'an, the capital of the empire during the Tang Dynasty.

Our bus took us safely through the heavy Xi'an traffic and delivered us to the main entrance to an enormous theater restaurant. Wei escorted us to our "Gold 1" tables (no Lazy Susans!) and the food and beverage service started immediately. Bottles of beer, soda, and water were distributed freely, an array of foods steadily arrived, and we enjoyed a group of musicians playing some typical Tang Court music as we ate. Featuring various ancient Chinese musical instruments, this "concert" was originally performed at royal banquets at the Huaqing Palace, an imperial residence located just east of modern Xi'an

When we were finished eating, the headline performers, "Tang Dynasty Song and Dance Troupe," took the stage and began a series of dances depicting episodes from Tang legends and folklore. The main "acts" were women dressed in billowing gowns with long, long chiffon sleeves that they alternately whipped and floated through the air around them. There were also some male dancers who did what seemed to be "chest beating" routines establishing their ferocity and manhood. Probably nobody in the audience had a clue as to what the significance of any these dances might be but they were beautifully performed and very well received.

The Xi'an City Walls

Part of our second day in Xi'an involved a tour of the City Walls. The original walls were started during the Tang dynasty (618-907) when Xi'an (then called Chang’an) was capital of all of China. The walls were rebuilt and expanded several times over the subsequent centuries until they were "completed" during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Today’s rectangular, moated walls, studded with turrets, battlements, enclose the old city for eighteen miles and are the only complete city walls remaining in China. (Walking it is a 24-hour undertaking.)

Inevitably, the tour included a lot of stair climbing, but that was something we were getting used to as our tour evolved. Muttering "Upward and Onward," we trudged to the top of the wall and saw the whole city of Xi'an spread out before us. (At least as much as we cold make out through the heavy smog.) Once up and the wall, we found the ubiquitous souvenir shops (Joan bought ceramic tiles and a silk scarf) and found some places that rented bicycles to tourists (mostly young ones!) who wanted to circumnavigate the entire wall. Their were also guided tours available for those who wanted to spend half the day cruising around the wall in a golf cart. (Walking it is a 24-hour undertaking.) Once again we were impressed with the efforts being made to keep tourist sites clean and attractive--- even on top of an ancient wall, workers were busy sweeping, polishing, and generally straightening things up.

After leaving the Xi'an wall, we headed across town to visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, our final stop before heading for the airport for our flight to Chongquin. We had a fine opportunity to see more "Chinese City Sights" as we drove along. We passed the usual crowds of people, as well as stores, cyclists, bazaars, sidewalk vendors, and even another MacDonald's.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is spectacular tower on the grounds of Xi'an's Jianfu Temple. It is well over a thousand years old and has survived wars, great earthquakes, and the more recent Cultural Revolution. It is located in a large square with many fountains that rise and fall in time to music during regularly scheduled performances. As background for our visit, Wie explained that Xi'an lies at the eastern end of the ancient trading route called the Silk Road.

About 634, the Emperor of China sent a scholar named Xuan Zang on an expedition to explore the territories and peoples to the west. When he returned after eighteen years, he brought news of many new lands that held great trading potential for China. After that, China traded its products, especially silk, with such far way places and Indian and, eventually, Europe. (Perhaps more importantly Xuan Zang began studying Buddhism during his journey and also brought home with him strange and wonderful ideas based on what he had learned--- politics, philosophy, and religion would all be influenced by exposure to new concepts.) Grateful almost beyond expression, the Emperor bestowed great honors on Xuan Zang and had the Big Wild Goose pagoda built to house him and his library. Xuan Zang spent the rest of his life studying Buddhist manuscripts, contemplating philosophy, and writing stories and poems that have become central to China's written heritage.

Front door to the grounds of the Big Wild Goose Temple.	The Big Wild Goose Pagoda styles classic Chinese architecture.	A souvenir shop sold tapestries depicting Xuan Zang's travels.
The grounds around the pagoda have lots of similarly styled buildings.	Dad is explaining the travels of Xuan Zang to his unimpressed son.	Joan celebrated finding a clean toilet .

After the Big Wild Goose pagoda tour it was back on the bus and off directly to the airport for our Air China flight to Chongquin and the start of our Yangtze River cruise.

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