Stories from Xi'an

Aha, well, our flight to Shanghai has been delayed by two hours, so I suppose this is a splendid opportunity for another copy-and-paste blog entry. I really don't mind waiting in airports too much, especially considering I've got my laptop with me. Definitely getting a snack after this, though...
So, the adventures in Xi'an are complete. Yeah, we're only spending two days here, but considering the air quality it's probably for the best. The past two days have been delightful, though I regret we were unable to see more of the city. There's a great deal of history here to dig up, something that can really only be done by careful exploration... Of course, it'd be nice to do that anywhere, but to explore all of China's mysteries, even just in Shaanxi province, would take much more than a year, let alone a single month. But I digress... Without any further ado, I present: Xi'an!

Day one, we woke up on our own and made our way down to the continental breakfast at the hotel. It had a decent selection, and a fair mix of Eastern and Western breakfast foods. Lots of breads, and there were some nice dumplings. After breakfast we assembled in the hotel lobby and got on the bus with our tour guide for Xi'an, Tony. First thing was a visit to Banpo, the site of a neolithic village. That's neolithic, as in 6000 years old. Needless to say, it was mostly pits and holes, with some pottery and incredibly antiquated remains. But there was an almost-hidden reconstruction behind the museum, and it was really amazing to see exactly how advanced we were so long ago. I uploaded a picture or two from there. After that we paid a short visit to a pottery shop that makes replicas of the terracotta soldiers to see how they were made, then rode the bus over to the museum itself.
The terracotta soldiers were made my one of the emperors in the Qin Dynasty. He contributed a great deal to China's development, but he made quite a few enemies in the process. He was very afraid of death, especially since all the enemies he made in life would be waiting for him there. So, he decided that he would have the Chinese army (yes, all of them) buried with him to protect him. Fortunately, his advisers were able to convince him that this was not a good idea, so he agreed to have terracotta replicas made of every soldier. And that's exactly what they are. Each and every single face (that's over 8000) is unique, modeled after the soldier as he was back then. And that was the most impressive thing about it all; just the scope of this project. And you thought the pyramids in Egypt were impressive...
There are three main pits where the soldiers are located; I can't recall exactly what pictures I posted, but the biggest one is Pit 1. Pits 2 and 3 were also enormous, but Pit 1 was at least as big as both of them combined.
We spent a few hours there, then took a visit to a Tang palace. One of the Tang emperors had this place built for his favorite concubine, and there's a Romeo-and-Juliette-esque story behind their relationship. The most notable feature of this palace is the hot springs. Since it's the off-season, they weren't actually open for bathing, but there were a few pools to look at, and seeing some of the artwork and construction from China's glory days was certainly worthwhile.
That concludes our first day. On day two we were able to wake up a little later than usual (left the hotel at 9:30 instead of 8), and hit up the Muslim quarter. Yes, China does have a sizable Muslim minority. It spread over along the Silk Road from Persia back in the day and ended up staying (apparently they got all the way to the East Indies; the official religion of Malaysia is Islam). It's got a big shopping street, which was the main reason we were there. They had a great selection of stuff (like most Chinese markets), and for better prices than other places. Bargaining is how you shop, of course, but their starting prices were lower than, say, Silk Alley. Got a couple things there, but mostly looked and watched some of the other people bargain. After the shops, we had lunch and scurried to two museums and the Wild Goose Pagoda, all before a show and dinner at 5 >.< We didn't give me museums all of the time they deserved, but we were able to see most of what they had to offer. Unfortunately it was the Wild Goose Pagoda that got shortchanged. In front of the Pagoda (which is actually more like a tower than the pavilion-type image you may think of; I posted a picture) there was a fantastic Buddhist temple, with a gigantic statue of the Buddha in gold. Monks actually live at this temple, which is neat, and I saw a couple of them walking the grounds.
We didn't have time to actually go into the pagoda, but we still showed up late to our show. The impression I got was that we were going to see a recreation of the court dancing from the Tang Dynasty, but instead we got a 90-minute Eastern-themed Western ballet. There were a few Chinese instruments used in the composition of the music, and of course the costumes were Chinese, but that was the only thing Oriental about it. The majority of the music was composed in a Western style, the dancing was very much like the ballet I've seen (though less stylized, and not quite as good). The story was Chinese, of course, but when you've got an Eastern story presented in Western mediums, especially with something like dance, you get something flashy, overdone, and ultimately cheesy. The dinner afterward was wonderful, though. They served us a spectacular variety of dumplings, and all of them were delicious. It won't take me very long to miss dumplings once I get back to the states...
And so ended day two. We just came back to our hotel rooms, went to bed early and got up at 6:30 to catch our flight, which was delayed anyways >.< Look for stories from Shanghai within the next day or two!