Chengdu Week 10 - Xian Day 2

Nov. 7, 2014

    The day began early but in a very natural way. I went to bed at 10:30, since I was exhausted from the train ride. I went down and there was only Jack eating. We had a nice chat and consumed too much coffee. I enjoyed it. Eventually people trickled in as the morning rolled around and eventually we were able to get going. Our first stop was about an hour outside the city. It was the hot springs of the Tang dynasty. Famous for being the site of Chinese valentine’s day. I essentially glued myself to my history professor and she walked us (myself and Karen) through the palace. It was really interesting as this particular site was famous for ancient Chinese history but it had modern historical context. It’s the place where 蒋介石(CKS) agreed to work with the Communist party during the Japanese invasion. So there was a section that contained an office, sleeping quarters and bathrooms, all of them modern. It was really interesting to see that. Xian is an ancient capital and Chinese culture rarely forgets their roots. Certain areas have deep cultural meaning, so it was very strategic for moral in invaded China.

    After the palace it was off to the Terra-cotta warriors, the thing Xian is the most famous for. We ate lunch in the park and then we were set loose. There are three pits, the third is the most recent and was fairly excavated, but it was also the smallest. The second pit is huge but hardly excavated, I think most of it was destroyed through time. It was amazing to see the size of it. The first pit however was the most impressive. At least two football stadiums long, the warriors were all restored. I think the think that really moved me was the physical size of the pits. This is the Mausoleum of the first Emperor of China, who found his empire in 221 BCE. And he essentially constructed tomb that even in the modern era can’t be matched in it’s complexity. I took as many pictures as I could but it’s had to really get the scope of what I was seeing. This mysterious place I had always heard about was suddenly right in front of me and tangible. It was a moving experience.

    After the terra-cotta warriors, we went back into the city, which took a really long time. We were off to the Wild Goose pagoda. It famous because the monk that established the temple was the monk who traveled to India to bring back the Buddhist canon. He spent the rest of his life in the temple translating from Sanskrit into Chinese. It was ok, after everything that we had done to today I wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous. We wandered the grounds, and just milled about. It was fun and then quick enough we were back on the bus. We were taken to the Tang dynasty show (total tourist moment) and had a Jaozi dinner. It was actually a pretty tasty meal despite the problems I caused by not eating pork. I ended up with a little plate of jaozi since I couldn’t eat about half the dishes served. It worked out I was definitely full by the end. The show was fairly interesting. Very colorful, and full of chords I did not recognized.  We made it back to the hotel and for some reason everyone had way too much energy. There were frisbees being thrown and various shenanigans. Overall it was an insanely fun day. Tomorrow will hopefully be as awesome.