HK - China Trip (Part 4)

Next! More about 西安.

Day 6

The day's itinerary started off with a seminar on the Terracotta Warriors and Chariots. We learnt about their features and some history of its construction. After that we had a short tour around the campus of 西安交通大学 (Xi'an Jiaotong University), where the seminar was held.

Outside the university's library

We visited the actual place where the Terracotta Warriors were buried in the afternoon. It was a gloomy/rainy day if I remembered correctly. There are actually 3 pits altogether, however Pit A is the one usually shown on TV and the media:

Terracotta Warriors, pit A

Just to show I was there =P

The other 2 pits are much smaller and contain more fragmented pieces. At the back of Pit A we could see some of the terracotta soldiers being pieced back together. It must be a terribly painstaking job! Although Pit A is big, only about 1/3 (I think) of the soldiers are "unearthed" and displayed. Lots of excavation will still need to be done in the following decades to get the whole army "out".

Figures still under repair

The ruins in another pit

In case you haven't heard it before, no two terracotta warriors look the same. There are also hierarchal differences between soldiers, and this can be noted through their headgear, clothing, position in the army formation etc. There are also soldiers in other postures apart from standing, such as the half-kneeling archer. Weapons were supposed to be placed in the now open fists of the soldiers, but I'm not sure if they are now stolen or kept. Dimension wise, the figures are bigger and taller than the average Chinese.

Warrior with horse

Kneeling warrior, probably crossbow soldier.

In pit A we were also "accosted" by the phoenix TV crew (who were following and traveling with us throughout the trip). They asked us stuff about the Terracotta warriors and stuff. A guard came over and told them that they were not allowed to shoot there and some raised voices ensued. I recorded a bit of it but I'm not gonna put it up. We returned to the city and wandered around at a place near to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. We then had free time to roam about the city, and some of us visited the 钟楼　(Bell Tower).

Contemplating history at the Bell Tower

Having Chinese friends really helped... since they know the places better and what food are nice to eat. We ended up at this famous street in Xi'an called 回民街 in the Muslim district (so everything there is naturally Halal). A Ming Dynasty city gate was located at one end of the road. Anyways, we went to eat at this famous restaurant called 贾三灌汤包子馆. We had meat on a skewer, the soup-dumplings, and (my favorite) this soup-like dessert called something like 八宝粥. After some research online, another name--八宝甜稀饭, seems to be a more accurate description of it. It consists of rice in a sweet (but not too sweet!) brown-yellowish soup.





Day 7

The day once again started with a seminar, this time at 陕西师范大学. Can't remember the contents but the topic was supposed to be 西安--东西文化交流的源头. After that we visited the Shaanxi History Museum. Lots of interesting artifacts inside, including this bottle below:

When placed in water horizontally, this bottle will fill up on its own and will assume a vertical position once full

Crossbow with a trigger. More advanced than European weapons of the time.

The bunch of CSPers outside the museum

After spending most of the morning in the museum, we then went to a rural village located at the outskirts of Xi'an. I believed this trip was meant to show us that China still faced poverty and problems in improving the standard of living. After alighting the bus we heard a loud "band" welcoming us (think drums and cymbals a la Lion Dance, Chinese New Year...). We were left to wander to the few small stalls selling handicraft, as well as to take a look at the school.

"热烈欢迎海外学子来我村小指导"

The ah gong-s and ah ma-s welcoming us

Sure, the school still needs lots of improvement. However, it wasn't all that bad to me, as I spent 4+ years of my primary school education in the old campus of 正修二校, where some of the "windows" and stairs were made of wood. The classrooms were in a mess--I wonder if that was intentional. If it is, I have no idea why they would want to do that. Some of my friends went to the toilet and were horrified by the "hole" with green liquid stuff floating on top. I didn't see it but the descriptions were good enough. However all in all, these "village" people don't really have it bad.

See, they're not so poor. They've got good clothes and dyed hair!

We then proceeded (by foot) to another village area, passing by wide expanses of paddy fields and other crops. Our tour guide had mentioned the day before that the region near Xi'an is generally flat, and it has been an important agricultural production centre of China for a long time. The village further confirmed that the villagers aren't really poor--they had nice renovated houses, which kinda reminded me of Sekinchan back in Malaysia. To be fair not everyone had renovated houses. As part of the tour we went to a house which essentially consisted of burrowed caves on one side of a hill (窑洞). The kitchen again kinda reminded me of Sekinchan. Anyway, it was really cool inside (temperature, i mean).

Wide open fields

The house we visited

the kitchen

A newly dug cave

We spent a long time in the airport before taking a plane to Beijing. It was here we managed to gather all the Malaysians together. There were 15 of us I think... can't remember liao! Anyway, the plane flight wasn't nice and we didn't get a proper meal on board. We had a proper dinner at 12+am in Beijing instead.

Day 8

Don't you mess around with him...

We visited a military camp in the morning. It was an hour's journey by bus from our hotel somewhere near the east side of Beijing. Yet it was still within the borders of Greater Beijing, which has a total population of 16 million. Photography was forbidden within the area (well, kinda expected). The so-called military camp wasn't really for the army but rather the 武警. I don't know what's that exactly in English, but a direct translation would be "armed police". So I suppose they are the ones in charge of internal security (probably those that clamp down on riots and terrorist attacks etc.). Their motto was:"首战用我，用我必胜" (erm... first war use me, use me sure win! I'll leave that to your own interpretation. lol). They gave us many "performances": marching, close combat, rifle accuracy, dog training, climbing buildings and even a mock terrorist attack where some people in an office building were held as hostages. It was awesome to say the least.

The rest of the day was free and easy. We went to 天安门广场　(Tiananmen Square) and walked around the surrounding areas. It was a very very hot day! Much hotter than what I'm used to experience in Malaysia/Singapore. Probably 40 degrees. Then we went shopping at the famous shopping district 王府井 (Wangfujing). There were many shopping centres and shops but there was sooo little time. Mostly walked around with Phillip. I bought my (fake) Kappa shoes there. I cut the price down but I think I was still cheated. Learnt to be a hard bargainer after that day. Spent quite some time at a book store. Met up with the rest again after some time. Olivia bought sooooo many things!

Gotta love Communist statues. So uplifting.

The famous Tiananmen Square

A city gate, remnant of a city wall that surrounded Beijing's old region that was demolished under Mao Tse Tung's directive.

We then had our dinner at a restaurant that sold 云南过桥米线．There were many "levels" to the 过桥米线　dish (秀才、进士、举人、状元), so the prices vary depending on how "high" a level you want. A higher level indicates more ingredients and of course, a higher price. At our table we were speaking English and this waitress came over and we chatted a bit. She was like:"what dialect were you speaking? I don't understand it." -_-"' Haha...

At the restaurant

There were group discussions at 9.30pm. We were supposed to share our experiences about the trip so far. Of course, it was on a voluntary basis. The general idea that I got out of it was that people are glad they made new friends, despite language and culture barriers at times, and they found the trip interesting and an eye opener (especially to those who came from places out of Asia). We also talked about the “toilet problem” in China, and these issues were mainly brought up by those from the Western countries. In the last part of the discussion I helped to do translation for someone and I ended up translating (from Mandarin to English) for both Mr. Wu and Ms. Wei. Many people were impressed with me but I think I didn’t really do a very good job. I now know how difficult impromptu translation is. The worst part is that they might want to use me again next time... they did. Lol.

But that's a few days later... stay tuned!