Living it up in Xi'an

It's late Tuesday night and I just got back from an exciting trip to Xi'an with my Archeology class. Two of our teachers, one of their wives, 4 SU students, and 6 of us UW students all departed on Thursday afternoon for China's ancient capitol, the center of all things archaeological in China. The trip started out well when we received English "China Daily" newspapers on the plane. I hadn't realized how much I missed reading the newspaper, but I got so excited to read one again. We landed that night and were off exploring right away. We took the bus to the center of town where the ancient city wall still surrounds the Bell and Drum Towers. Enclosed within the city wall is also a Mosque, "Muslim" tourist street, and countless malls, restaurants, etc. We first went the Muslim street to try some of Xi'an's specialty foods. We got a special kind of noodles that are really more like little cubes of bread in broth that were delicious. They also had a wide array of all sorts of different dried fruits for sale in the outdoor market that we could not resist. Then we wanted to go and walk on the city wall, but it had just closed, so we walked home and vowed to come back the next day.
We were not too disappointed to return to the hotel because our hotel TV's got National Geographic Channel, the first American television any of us had watched in 7 months and we were addicted for the rest of the trip.
The next day we went to the History Museum of Shaanxi Province in the morning, which had a really nice collection of artifacts from all different time periods in China's history. My favorite things on display were these "Tri-color" glazed pottery and statues from the Tang dynasty. You can tell this statue is Tang dynasty because in the Tang dynasty it was attractive to be fat, so all the statues of people and horses are pudgy. I especially like this one, I think she looks very graceful and content. After lunch we continued on to the Banpo Museum. The Banpo culture is one of the earliest cultures ever discovered in China (4500-3500BC) and is thought to be matriarchal. The museum is built on top of the archaeological site and many of the dig sites are on display in the museum, which was very interesting. The clan was very advanced for the time and were already using tools such as fishing hooks with barbs. This is a pottery bowl they found at the site with the Banpo "symbol" on it, which reminds me alot of Navajo symbolism.
That night, as planned we returned to the city wall and got to go on top this time. On the wall you can also rent bikes, so we all rented bikes to ride around the whole wall (about 20km or so). Laura and I rented and tandem bike, which made it that much more fun. One of our Chinese friends who is from Xi'an had told us not to rent the bikes because it was "the most ridiculous bit he has ever seen" but we decided it was ridiculous in a good, hilarious way and had a great time. Then we returned to the Muslim street to try every snack the street had to offer. With all 10 of us, one of us would buy each snack and we would all get to try it. With the bikes and delicious food combined, it was undoubtedly one of the best nights I've had in China so far.
The next day we visited the famed Terracotta Soldiers of Emperor Qin (China's first emperor), which were absolutely amazing. There are literally rows upon rows of life-sized stone soldiers and horses. Before touring the museum, we were "received" by the people at the museum, as we would be "received" at every place we went to, because we were with the Archeology professors. The up-side of this is that we never had to pay for admission. The down-side was that at each place we went we would have to sit quietly in a room and look attentive while the professors and our host would go through the customary "you're the best," "No you're the best," "No you're the best," routine, always finished off with "well you simply must come to Chengdu and we will go to dinner." Another undeniable plus to being "received" is they often treated us to lunch or dinner as well, as was the case after we finished touring the Terracotta Soldier museum. That evening we went to the Yang Mausoleum. A mausoleum is a huge burial site for emperors and other important royalty that consists of a huge (usually man-made) hill with the tomb and other treasures buried underneath. The Yang Mausoleum Museum was the coolest museum yet. It was underground and was designed like an "underwater world" where you walked on glass and got to see all the excavation sites under your feet.
The next day we toured several more mausoleums, each one being different. The first one we went to didn't really seem open to the public but I think we got to go, again, because of our professors. It was a little out in the boonies, but beautiful and SOOOOO windy. Ben and I climbed the to the top of the mountain that was used to house this tomb. We went to the Tomb of Princess Yongtai that you could walk into and had beautiful Tang Dynasty paintings on the walls (if you haven't figured it out already, the Tang dynasty was a very arty dynasty). Then we went to possibly the most famous mausoleum of Emperor Gao Zong and his Empress Wu Zetian, who is the only woman to have ruled China. The most memorable feature of this mausoleum is the long paved road that leads from miles away to the mountain where they and their treasure are buried. The stone walkway is lined on either side by statues of people and horses.
The next day we visited the Archeology Institute and Northwest University and were able to see their personal collections, as well as some things that had just recently been discovered and archaeologists at work. It was really fortunate that we got to go with the professors because we got to see alot of things that we usually wouldn't have been able to and see how archeology really happens in China. It was very interesting, although I realized I am happy I am not an archaeologist. That evening we walked to the Little and Big Goose Pagodas; large multi-layered towers that are holy places for people of Buddhist faith. The large Goose Pagoda also has a large fountain park (100 meters by 20 meters) in front of it that does a water show to music every evening. We stayed to watch the water show, which was worth it. You can stand in the middle of the fountain while all the fountains are going off around you and it is really cool, and wet. There were hundreds of spouts of water all choreographed to the music, as well as lots of neon lights because nothing in China is complete without neon lights. The more the better.
Today we didn't have any archaeological excursions planned so we walked to a park near our hotel. The park had a beautiful tulip garden and pond, as well as an amusement park. I couldn't resist (sorry mom) and Deborah, Matt, Ben, and I risked our lives to try out a few of the Chinese rides. It was definitely scarier than rides in the States, but we luckily made it through unscathed and I have a new appreciation for life now as well. Then we made our way back to the Muslim street (undoubtedly the best part of Xi'an) for lunch and do to some souvenir shopping.
It was a really fun trip, definitely one of the best. I even found a four leaf clover!! but I am glad to be back in Chengdu. Now I am just trying to get caught up.