Experiences Abroad: January 2015

With the New Year holiday I had a crazy schedule that first few days of the year. Everyone had the 1^st of January off but then for some strange reason January 4^th day of work was moved to January 2^nd. Which did mean I had a three day weekend starting that Sunday through Tuesday. I took the chance to go on a trip out of my city. I ended up along this famous wall walking along contemplating its historical magnificence. This wall is quite unique and has seen a lot of history through the years. Like they say a picture is “worth a thousand words” so go ahead and ‘read’ the next 2,000 words.

I know some of my readers have been to the Great Wall of China and are probably thinking where this part of the wall this is located? Well in fact it is actually about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southwest of the Great Wall and isn’t the Great Wall of China. These pictures show the Xi’an city wall. While it isn’t as widely known about as the Great Wall of China it still is a grand structure and of course has seen a lot of history. So after taking a night train after work on Saturday I ended up in Xi’an where the first thing you see when leaving the train station is this city wall. This wall stands 12 meters (40 feet) tall, 12-14 meters (40-46 feet) wide at the top, and is 13.7 kilometers (8.5 miles) long. The shape of the wall is pretty much a rectangle and it even does have a moat surrounding it. On top of the wall there were areas spaced out along the wall within an arrows shot length of each other for maximum protection. This wall is historically unique because it is the most complete city wall that has survived in China, and was one of the largest ancient military defensive systems. Another way the city was protected was the complicated gate structures that did allow the city to be locked up and not breached. Nowadays you can still see the gates with the large buildings for protection but traffic drives in and out of the gates. Xi’an in history has been an Ancient Capital during a couple different times in Chinese history so that is why this city has such a big wall to protect it.

A little bit North of the South Gate (giving directions was easy because of the gates) in the middle of the inner city sits The Bell Tower. This is where guest were brought in and welcomed to the city and usually with ringing of the bell. From my understanding of it this is where the ruler at the time would meet the guests of honor and have a performance for them. Not too far away is The Drum Tower. I am guessing the bells from The Bell Tower and drums from The Drum Tower would make a great welcoming performance. Nowadays you can go inside both of the towers and walk up to the second floor which provides a little bit of a view. On the first floor are different cases with old statues, figurines, bells, and drums on display. Plus on the first floor of each tower they had short performances using either some bells or drums.

Another thing to see in Xi’an was various different religious buildings. I visited three on my trip but there were more to see. One was a Daoist Temple which was named Temple of 8 Immortals. It is my first Daoist Temple and pretty unique. It is still a working temple and so a lot of people were there praying. Before walking in you are surrounded by people selling incense burners which were used in the Temple. I didn’t get up close to what everyone was praying and bowing to because I didn’t want to get in the way, but there were quite a few areas people stopped to burn incense and pray. Each little area they would light their incense and then bow in four directions (it seemed like the cardinal directions) while saying prayers to themselves. Plus another unique thing was rubbing the heads of statues, touching your arms, rubbing the heads, touching your legs, rubbing the heads of statues. . . they did this sequence multiple times each time touching different body parts. Overall a different experience then I have witnessed before and did peak my interest in reading a little bit about Daoism.

The second religious building was a Buddhist Temple. This temple is called Da Cien Temple but most people know the area by the name of Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The second name is more common because this huge pagoda towers over everything else on the premise. This temple had a big open area with different areas for gardens but of course now with winter not that colorful. Then for it to be a temple there were multiple gods to pray to working your way to the back until you get to Buddha. Where Buddha is located the room itself is one big picture that is carved out of stone. It has some great details and is a great piece of artwork. I didn’t go up the Pagoda itself because of time constraints but wherever you were the tower was noticeable.

The final religious building that I visited was: Xi’an Great Mosque. Yes, there obviously are mosques in China and that is thanks to The Silk Road. With the many merchants coming and going from all over it did mean religions, ideas, and cultures were mixed together in some areas. Eventually some merchants settled down in different areas and a mosques were needed for religious services. This particular mosque was set up in 742 AD and according to some resources was the first mosque in China. I personally have been to numerous mosques and for the most part all of them being located in the Middle East. At first glimpse I would have never guessed it was a mosque. This mosque has a particular design of mixed architecture being Chinese styles and traditional Muslim. After going through the courtyards I could find the different items that are at every mosque no matter where in the world it is located, but it was neat to see the Chinese influence. Obviously different Chinese characters were seen all over but also some Farsi, and Arabic script were seen. Visitors aren’t allowed to go into the worship hall of this particular mosque which would have been neat to see. Plus with it being the off season for tourist the minaret had scaffolding surrounding it. The minaret is where the muezzin calls people to prayer and is typically the tallest building (or buildings depending on the mosque) at each different mosque.

These sites are all the sites that are within modern day Xi’an and might be unfamiliar to people. Well Xi’an is also home to a very famous site that everyone has heard of even if you don’t know much about China. It’s about an hour bus ride out of the city with the stop called bingmayong. For my non pinyin readers that translates to Terracotta Warriors. I ended up getting a guide (not the first one that approached me because they lower the prices the closer you are to the entrance) because there weren’t many people and I bargained down. These warriors are here because of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 B.C.). He is an important figure because he was the founder of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) and was the first person to unify Ancient China. He had these Terracotta Warriors built to protect him in his afterlife. They weren’t found until 1976, when one day some farmers were digging for a well and found them buried. In total there are four pits with different warriors but only three are open to the public. The different pits represent a different formation in military fighting at the time. Pit 1 being the right flank, pit 2 being the left flank, and pit 3 being the headquarters. Pit 1 is the pit with the most unearthed warriors. Now keep in mind all of these warriors have been reconstructed by archaeologists. Natural disasters, enemy emperors, and most importantly time is the reason they aren’t completely found whole. Each different warrior has its own facial expressions and uniforms with none of the warriors being identical. Obviously the uniforms signified the different position in the military. Plus what most people don’t realize is that the warriors were originally colored. Again time and the elements have ruined the original coloring. In fact in pit 2 most of the pit you don’t see the warriors because they don’t want to unearth them to try and preserve them. Overall it was a great afternoon looking at the great craftsmanship and hearing the history.

There is a little bit more I want to talk about from Xi’an but I am going to leave that for a different time. This post is long enough plus some more pictures are below. It was a great first trip within China. I will write later.