China Day 7

After the festivities of last night, we had to rise really early to get a flight to Guilin. There was so much more to see in Xi’an that I was sad to leave. The first impression at the train station was not good, but the city has a lot to offer. Kathy told us about a panda reservation in the mountains and seniors doing tai chi in the parks in the morning and people walking their pet birds in their cages through the historical city streets and the city wall, etc. I need to go back! But we headed out instead to Guilin…


Guilin is a city of 600,000 (very small for Chinese standards – versus the 9 million in Xi’an!) that sits in the southern area of China. It is known for its natural beauty and is a very popular tourist destination for the Chinese. When you think of Chinese painting (if you ever do!) and think of the limestone mountain peaks rising out of the green river valley, well, that’s Guilin. For our first day in Guilin we met our tour guide, Gary, who took us to see the Elephant Trunk Hill.

This is a natural rock formation that sits in the middle of the Peach Blossom River. You kind of have to use your imagination to see the elephant standing in the river drinking the water with its trunk, but I have since discovered that the Chinese use their imaginations to see quite a lot of images in natural formations (I will elaborate more later.)

Lunch anyone?

There were many decorations all over the country in preparation of National Day (the whole country gets the day off).

So from Elephant Trunk Hill we went to the Reed Flute cave which is half way up one of those limestone hills I spoke about.

Inside is a beautiful array of stalactites and stalagmites all beautifully illuminated and named for what they look like (see, I told you they like to use their imaginations!) Like the “Lion Seeing You Out” or the “A Bumper Harvest of Melons and Vegetables ”.

One of the most stunning parts was the reflecting lake that gave a perfect mirror image of the stalactites above it.

After the Reed Flute cave we headed back to the hotel for an early evening – we were pooped by this point! In fact Emmy and I were both in bed with lights out at 8:30!  But before bed, I did take Emmy and London down to the pool because they were both begging to go.  Never mind that it was not that warm, they had to go.  So after a trip to the "disinfection pond" - ie. chlorine water - Emmy jumped in without a second thought!  London followed suit, only to promptly jump back out.  Emmy's my polar bear - I finally had to drag her out when her lips were blue and her teeth were chattering!  The swimming cap was a requirement in Xi'an so we thought it would be in Guilin too.

China Day 6

The overnight train deposited us in a very busy, very Chinese section of Xi’an around mid-morning. The scene we were greeted with was this…

But lucky for us we stick out like a sore thumb so were easily found by our guide, Kathy. Kathy was a tough cookie who took good care of us while we were in her city. All of these guides have studied tourism and English in college and then are employed by the government tourism agencies to guide foreigners through the cities. I have to say, they really know their stuff. Each one has had a very detailed knowledge of Chinese history with precise dates, names of Emperors, places, etc. for the 2,000 plus years of Chinese history!

After a quick time at the hotel to refresh, we were on our way to lunch (Chinese!) and then to see the Terra Cotta Army just outside of Xi’an. This site is called the 8th wonder of the world and I can see why. Here’s the history in case you’re not familiar: Back in the 1970’s some poor peasant farmer was digging a well and dug up a head made out of terra cotta. Although he did not realize the significance of the discovery, a visiting journalist to the village soon did and then the government began to excavate and discovered an unbelievable find. Thousands and thousands of these terra cotta soldiers, and a few terra cotta horses and chariots, buried beneath the ground for 2,200 years. The Emperor of the Qi dynasty, a very powerful guy, chose Xi’an as his final resting and to protect him into the after world, he ordered the construction of this terra cotta army. They are placed 1.5 kilometers to the west of his tomb which rises like a hill in distance. His tomb has yet to be opened because there is a series of “booby traps” in place, including a lake of mercury, and scientists have still not figured out how to open it without destroying the inside contents.

Anyways, back to the warriors… there are three pits that the archaeologists have discovered via X-ray. The first pit has over 6,000 warriors in it while the second and third pits are smaller but equally impressive.

Pit 1 - the largest collection

Pit 2 - Look at how broken the statues are when they find them!



The second largest pit.



What a puzzle to piece together.

The warriors were initially discovered by the successor to the Qi emperor and destroyed and burned but since the 70’s the Chinese government has been steadfastly and meticulously piecing them back together bit by bit. They also have discovered that the warriors were originally painted but when they are exposed to the air, the color fades within 3 minutes! So for the time being they are not uncovering any more until the technology we have catches up and they can preserve the color.

This is where they are piecing ones together bit by bit.

These are the ones that have traveled around the world to special exhibitions.

Look at the detail!

Each face is unique.

Of all the 6,000+ warriors that have been found – either uncovered or x-rayed – only one, the kneeling archer, was found intact. He has been brought up to the surface and enclosed in a glass case so you can get a better look and I have to say the detail is amazing – down to the detailing of his braid and the soles of his shoes. Each statue is different from the others by what they wear, their hair, face, expressions, etc. This is an overwhelming discovery that is truly impressive!

Because we spent so much time at the warriors, we missed going to the city wall, but instead we had a special outing at night. The Xi’an city wall is the best preserved and oldest city fortification wall in China. It is 14 kilometers long, 17 meters tall and is 12 meters across. You can actually walk or bike around the top of the wall. There are 4 original gates to the wall and then a bell tower to the east and a drum tower to the west. The bell and drum towers were the original way of telling time in ancient days.

Stevie arranged through Kathy our guide to go to eat at a restaurant within the city wall for my birthday. Inside the wall is not the historical type district you might expect, but really the shopping district for the city. Xi’an and it’s province is known for their dumplings so Kathy made us reservations at the best dumpling restaurant in the area. You have to pre-order your meal and it comes out as an assortment of 18 different types of dumplings all beautifully made. The true works of art are on display in the lobby of the restaurant…

Yes, those are dumplings in the shape of swans!

Too pretty to eat!

After making it through walnut dumplings, spicy chicken dumplings, pork and sweet potato dumplings, etc. I was surprised by a rendition of “Happy Birthday” sung by the waitstaff and accompanied by a Chinese flute. They presented me with a crown and a beautiful homemade cake decorated with lychees and chocolate rolls. What an excellent way to spend your birthday!

With my wonderful hubby!

Yes, that is a tower of 18 different types of dumplings!

After dinner we walked past the 600 year old bell tower to the Muslim night market. A cacophony of noises, sights and smells that was truly Chinese. The stalls were laden with dried fruits, trinkets, various meats on sticks, walnuts roasting, etc. What a way to end the day!

The bell tower



Where else but in China would you see a man with a very large telescope on his motorcycle???



Dried fruit stalls

Pomegranates

Bowl of noodles anyone?

China Day 5

Had to get moving early today to fit everything in before our train ride tonight. Datong is west of Beijing and about 50 kilometers from the border with Inner Mongolia. You could really see the difference in the look of the people here from in Beijing – definitely more Mongolian looking – higher cheekbones, flatter noses. Datong is a city of about 1.3 million people with 3 million in the surrounding area and certainly a city on the rise. Everywhere you looked there were tall, tall apartment buildings being constructed and wide roads and bridges being built and old tenements being torn down. It was really unbelievable how many apartment units there were and was baffling to try to figure out where the people would come from to fill them. But the dichotomy of the city was very apparent. There were either new apartment complexes and parks and roads or houses that looked like they had been bombed out with unpaved roads and trash spewed everywhere.

These are all apartment buildings being built.  There were hundreds of them.

And then you saw cows being herded across the street.

And donkey-pulled carts going down the road.



This is a village just outside of Datong.

Our first stop was the Hanging Temple – an amazing feat of architecture and engineering that was built in 491 AD! It was a temple that was built fully out of wood on the side of a cliff without a nail – all of this more than 1,500 years ago! The temple was built as a Buddhist temple, but also served as a Tao and Confusian temple over the years so consequently there are all three religions represented. Did you know that only 20% of the population in China is religious? That’s all religions combined. Buddhism was brought to this area by the Mongolian empire that raided and took over around 400 AD. They built this temple on the side of the cliff because the river below (before being dammed) used to flood the valley and everything would get washed away. This was truly an amazing site.  The poles off the bottom don't actually support anything unless the load in the temple gets too heavy!

Dad and Cannon in front of the Hanging Temple (it was a bit chilly!)

Emmy was having a ball, but London was not too thrilled with the height.  I think this picture captures that!

Yes, it's a long way down...

One of the statues in the temple.  A lot of damage occured during the Cultural Revolution.

The second stop was back in Datong for lunch at – you guessed it! – a Chinese restaurant! The food here was Yummy with a capital Y. The specialty of this province was some noodle dish and a pork dish that was a delectable slightly sour taste. Double Yummy! The other cool thing about the restaurant was that there was a Chinese wedding taking place during lunch. Seemed like an odd time to us – 1:00 on a Tuesday afternoon, but I guess not for the Chinese. We observed the proceedings for a bit while the wedding-goers observed us.

Yes, they seem very curious in Datong about us “foreign devils” – their term, not mine. But mostly they just stare at us with a curiosity about as intense as us looking at the pandas at the zoo. Granted, they do like to take our photo – especially Emmy, sometimes London and today, Cannon. A whole group of tourists captured him at our third stop and wouldn’t let him go. I think it was the braces!



This is a photo of men taking photos of Cannon.  They were fascinated with him!



He just kept smiling!

Stop three were the Buddha Grottos, something I had read only a little about but was completely blown away by. On the other side of Datong to the Hanging Temple is a series of caves, or grottos, that have been carved into the sandstone. Each cave houses a collection of Buddhas – some 17 meters tall, some 2 centimeters tall and all sizes in between. But there were thousands of these Buddhas in various positions in these series of about 17 caves. 51,000 Buddhas in all! And the even more amazing thing is that these caves were carved over 1,500 years ago by those industrious Mongolian invaders. Each cave was started by carving a “window” at the top into which the artists climbed to begin carving the Buddhas. They worked their way down the sandstone by hauling out the rock through the window. The last thing they carved out was the door.

This is one of the windows.

Thousands of tiny Buddhas.

You can see the window and the door I was describing in this photo.

We would have loved to have spent a little more time at this fascinating place, but an overnight train to Xi’an was calling our name and so we were whisked expediently to the train station. As a side note, “whisked” in an understatement. You have never, no never, seen driving like here. They continuously use their horn as they pass within inches of cars, bikes and pedestrians (even an odd donkey-pulled cart outside of Datong) often on the wrong side of the road, even on twisty mountain roads. They break so many traffic rules you really have to wonder if there are any! My advice is to never play a game of chicken with a Chinese driver!

So now I’m on the overnight train to Xi’an about to cap off my 39th year in a dream-like state. Hope the next 39 years are as good!

Dinner and drinks on the overnight train!



Ramen for dinner, it was the only safe option.