Xian, China
July 9th

Today was a rather wild day. We started the day at 5am so we could catch a flight from Beijing to Wuhan. We were taking a domestic airline, China Eastern. The Beijing airport was much less chaotic than the Train station. The airplane was completely uneventful. Before I arrived here I would have not have expected that. Since I have been here the last week I have been nothing impressed by the work ethic and kindness of the Chinese people.

The terracotta army of Qin Shihuang

Once we arrived left directly for site of the Terra Cotta Warriors. These warriors were found by a farmer in 1974 who was digging on his farm for a well and found the over 2000 year old remains of a massive burial site. The burial tomb was for the Han Emperor who united China’s different dynasties of the time, Qin Shi Haung. Qin Shi Huang employed the Legalist philosophy to unite the seven kingdoms of ancient China. Legalism boils down to this; you must reward good behavior and punish bad behavior in people because humanity is inherently bad. That is a bit harsh but he in his very short reign he standardized writing, coinage, wagon gauge, and united the seven kingdoms. So it worked for something. His tomb contained thousands of life sized, EXACT terra cotta (clay) replicas of his imperial court, advisors, and army. When I say exact I mean that everyone had to sit for modeling or they were killed. What can I say the man had a mission. The expanse and attention to detail is amazing. I have studied and taught about this “8th wonder of the world” before but seeing the actual thing is beyond description.

Some of the highlights of lunch were the drinking of sea serpent and snake wine and noodle making. I will have to download the photos when I get a chance. Too many “you had to be there stories” with lunch, I will not bore you them.

Snake wine

After going through the rest of the excavation site after lunch we negotiated through crazy rush hour traffic to a dinner theater in Xian. Traffic in China is nuts! There seems to be no formal rules. Bicycles, mopeds, and walking people compete with and against cars and jam packed buses for a sort of street cage match for traffic survival. With every turn it seems that we are going to kill somebody or vice versa. Thank god I am not driving.

Sleeve dance from the Tang Dynasty

When I first heard about a dinner/theater in China I was more than a bit skeptical to say the least. I was dead wrong. First off the meal was excellent from both a gastronomical and esthetic perspective. The meal consisted of numerous helpings of dumplings filled with every kind of meat and vegetable imaginable. We tasted several different kinds of pork, chicken, leak, chestnut, and shark’s fin. The dumpling was rolled so that it looked like what was inside it. For instance the shark’s fin dumpling looked exactly like a shark’s fin. The pork looked both a whole pig and another looked like a pig’s snout.

Another dance form from the Tang Dyanasty

The meal was excellent. After the meal we were treated to an outstanding performance of music and dance from the Tang Dynasty, one of the golden ages of China. The music and dancers were phenomenal. The dancers performed several sleeve dances which consisted of women in, you guessed it, extra long sleeves. The dance movements with the long sleeves, several yards long gave a dramatic visual image. The musicians were amazing with simple but well played instruments from the Tang Dynasty in China. I was thoroughly impressed by the whole dinner/theater.

It was even better in person

After dinner my roommate and I wandered around the city taking pictures and simply watching people. After taking life into our own hands with several street crossings we made our way near a small city park that surrounds a statue commemorating the Xi’an role as the founder of and starting point of the Silk Road. We had to cross a roundabout to get to the park, imagine a chubby Pete doing his best Frogger impersonation and you get a glimpse of the hilarity of the scene. Once we got to the park we watched a large group of people, young and old, singing and dancing. As we started taking pictures from the periphery the people noticed us and invited us into the action. We had a blast. We took pictures of and with all the people who got a kick out of seeing themselves on camera. We stayed a little over an hour till we had to get back to the hotel. It was one of the more enjoyable experiences that I have had so far. The people were hospitable, generous, and fun. Even though no one spoke English we were able to communicate with gestures and charades. Another great day.

My and some people that we hung out with for a while, the giy in the hat behind was a wild guy.

Photos of Day 1 in Xian, Chian