By now a routine and savoring the luxury of it, we enjoy another breakfast buffet in the hotel before setting off in the mini bus with our guide Sean and bus driver Mr. Lee (or is it Mr. Li?). We are off first to the factory where reproductions of the terra cotta warriors are made in an authentic manner, compared to ones people can buy off the street, so we're told. (We're all getting more and more suspect of the quality of products, given the information we get and the manner in which we receive it. It seems that everywhere we land - "I give you best price". We were each interested in picking up some things for mementos and gifts but the lack of trust has erased that desire, so these "opportunities" are nothing but an uncomfortable ordeal). This time, however, we are pleasantly surprised to learn about what the process of the reproduction entails followed, in the next area, by watching the process of the polishing of lacquerware, putting designs on lacqueware, and painting the pieces. It is explained that the carvings that overlay the lacquerware begin as uncut flat pieces of jade over which a free hand pattern on a piece of paper is placed and the design is transferred onto the jade after which the design is cut by a very fine saw that resembles a bow. Then it is glued atop the lacquerware after which it is painted. The designs are so intricate. Most of the pieces are folding screens. We then choose a few items to buy which we actually want and about which there is no haggling, thank goodness.
On to the Terra Cotta Warriors' Museum where, in spite of the oppressive heat, we are captivated by the whole exhibit, considered by some to be the eighth wonder of the world. The written descriptions don't do justice to the magnitude of the entire spectacle. Qin Shi Huang (- his actual name was Ying Zheng, born in 259 BC), became the first emperor of China at age 13 years old in 247 BC. He is credited with unifying China, came up with the ideas of the Great Wall and the tomb for himself for his anticipated afterlife. It took a total of 38 years for 700,000 workers to build it, making the life-sized and larger than life-sized figures of sitting and standing archers, warriors/infantrymen, officers, generals, horses, cavalry, charioteers, and others such as members of the honor guard. The tomb was placed in this location presumably because it was considered to be advantageous to be between a mountain (Qin Ling Mountain Range there) and a river, one of the tributaries of the Yellow River. Excavation and research and reconstruction in the area have been in progress since the initial discovery of the tomb was made by a local farmer digging for a well in 1974. Apparently, the secret of the tomb had been maintained secondary to the workers building it being buried alive at it's completion. There remain areas that have not been excavated yet, including the remains of the emperor, his family members, and his slaves. Upon excavation, the paint on the figures disappears within a week or so due to oxidation? Some of the parts of the tombs were destroyed by invading forces not long after completion, it is believed, while other areas were plundered by local farmers in the years after the discovery of the tomb was made: Our guide told us that they removed the heads of the figures to sell. First, we visit Pit #1 containing the figures of the infantry with weapons in fighting formation facing east to protect the emperor behind them, then Pit #3, the smallest of the pits, which housed all of the 7 generals that were discovered as well as the honor guard - probably the headquarters of the generals and officers. Pit #2 is the final pit we visit and is in the shape of an "L", housing 4 different kinds of soldiers within including archers and charioteers that carried soldiers and weapons. A remarkable sight, the whole thing. And, by the way, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.
Xian was the capital for 6 dynasties including the Shang, Western Zhou, Qin - the first feudal empire, Han during which the silk road first started to go west from Xian, Sui, and Tang (1300 years ago) considered to be the golden age of the feudal kingdom before it's fall in 907 AD. The main commodities of the silk road included gunpowder, papermaking, silk, carpet, and printing. Xian is the capital of the Shaanxi province. (Shanxi province is adjacent to Shaanxi province. There are different ways to spell the names of these provinces in Pinyin since they have different tones, but the tones are not on any keys on the keyboard...). Before China became the Republic of China, our guide Sean tells us, Xian used to be a poor area, but is now thriving due to the following industries: airplane, textiles, electronics, scientific research including a center for satellites.
Based on what we've seen, Xian has exploded in growth compared to what we saw in 1995. When we visited the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit in 1995, the access to it was a 2 lane road and the parking lot was unpaved. Now, there is a highway that goes there and the parking lots are enormous and paved. Additionally, there are a number of modern, high-rise buildings in Xian that have occluded the small streets with open storefronts in older buildings with typically Chinese rooflines. There is also a great amount of traffic congestion of cars, taxis, buses with many less bicycles. Our guide ascertains that development in China has occurred at a very fast pace, there is more money in China now than there ever used to be, and that government workers make the most money. A bit of a conversation ensued here about the government being made up of about 5% of the people and the reality of the lack of ease in becoming a government worker since there seem to be family connections from generation to generation. Our guide tells us that females hold more power now than years ago since there are more men now than women. This is the second guide that we have who has moved to his wife's hometown. He also affirms that the one family/one child rule is in effect in China. If rich, can have more. There seem to be slightly different understandings of that rule, depending on who one talks to... One of our guides who is in her early 50's has 5 siblings while the others thave no siblings. On the whole, it looks like girls and boys are both equally treasured now just by what we see in passing on the part of parents/grandparents.
We have lunch at the Qin Jin Tang Restaurant followed by a lesson from a chef in how to make jiao zi - Chinese pot stickers (which Anna has learned from Mrs. Haas prior to this so this is a bit of a review).
En route to the art museum, the passing views include small groups of men sitting in circles on small children sized chairs, an open front fish market with a variety of seafood placed on ice, and birds in cages hanging on tree branches in several places near small groups of people visiting with one another.
Next stop: Tang Dynasty Art Museum. Nice tour through farmers' paintings from 1950s followed by art work from 1960/70s that was used for propaganda during the Cultural Revolution, and then folk art of the 1980s. We also see art from the Han, Qin, Tang, and Qing Dynasties. While the girls are being instructed in a bit of calligraphy "wo ai ni" for "I love you", I learn from one of the art museum staff that there are four types of art in China: farmer (not learned in school but passed down from generation to generation), Chinese traditional (learned in school), modern, and oil.
We go back to the hotel to quickly get ready to go to a dinner theater and arrive at the theater later than our guide had wanted us to but, in fact, it looks like we are there in more than enough time to have a 4 course dinner before the show begins. The theater is not at all full and some of the other audience members seem to be westerners, so I surmise that this is a tourist attraction. The instrumental music is lovely and includes some musical instruments that are not used often anymore but I'm not sure which ones they are. The instruments in the ensemble include flute, erhu, what looks like a mandolin, and what looks like a zither, and what looks sort of like a banjo. (Remind me to check them out in our book at home about Chinese musical instruments). The show is made up of different kinds of dances including cloth dances. Some dances employ more ballet, some more gymnastic abilities, but the choreography doesn't look like it's from the Tang Dynasty era. The costumes are very glitzy and appear new but we also wonder if the styles are really authentic to the period of the Tang Dynasty. Hmmm... Nevertheless, it's been an enjoyable evening.
General note: We are left to wonder at more times than not what the guides are required to take us to no matter what - in particular, regarding the pressure to shop/buy - and if there are any sort of kickbacks involved... Also, the factors of time have seemed to shift inexplicably in Xian. We are told that it will take a certain amount of time to get somewhere, for example, when that is quite inaccurate. Traffic congestion explains part of this discrepancy but not all of it. I'm not sure that our guide understands a lot of English which also might be part of the problem in terms of our communication and understanding of one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment