Day 3 -- Xi'an

The nights are short or the mornings come too early now.  We were up and out by 8:30am to see the old city of Xi’an and some museums before flying back to Beijing.  We finally saw some sun today.  Xi’an is located in a basin and unlike Beijing which gets a lot of wind it wasn’t windy for a change.A

s I described before, the old city is encircled by a wall that is 10 miles in circumference.  The wall is 600 years old and is wider than the Great Wall.  It is 36 feet wide at the top, 180 feet wide at the bottom, and 54 feet high.  It is made up of pounded earth covered by a layer of brick.  That is a lot of dirt.  We had a brief visit to the East Gate and negotiated a steep 70 stair climb to get to the top.  Thank goodness my legs are now strong enough to do all this stair climbing!  We had an excellent view of the old city.

Next stop was a folk art museum and a demonstration of Chinese calligraphy.  Calligraphy brushes are made out of all kinds of hairs such as horse, goat, and even baby hair.  But the best brushes are made using mouse hair!  I don’t know how they can keep the precious ancient art as the place is not climate controlled.  It was cold and damp in the museum, and in the summer time, temperatures can run as high as 105 degrees.

This was followed by a stop at the History Museum.  I do not like museums.  This was another place where there were too many people to get up close to the exhibits and no place to sit down.  Do the Chinese ever sit??  There were lots of jade sculptures, bronze items, terra cotta warriors, coins, and artifacts from the beginning of Chinese culture.  I managed to walk the two floors and see everything and still have time to browse in the gift shop all in an hour!

Time to eat again.  We went to a large plaza and it was amazing how the bus could maneuver and fit the narrow roads without wiping out the nearby cars.  People were out walking, shopping and eating lunch in the park.  It was a lovely place.  Red lanterns were hung in front of all the restaurants and were gently swaying in the breeze.  We had way too much food again; one fellow sitting next to me didn’t eat anything but rice, complaining about eating Chinese food again. Ah duh, we are in China what do you expect – to eat at McDonald’s?

The drive to the airport was quite interesting.  The traffic was very heavy and I was wondering if we would make it on time.  The driver weaved in and out of traffic playing commando chicken.  It amazes me that there weren’t more car accidents.

We had no organized dinner plans so the group voted to have the guide take us to the silk market.  We had a lesson in how the worms spin the cocoon and how they process the silk thread.  Then the real fun began:  SHOPPING.  We haven’t had much shopping time and money was burning a hole in my pocket.  The recipient of my labor of love was Isabelle.  I bought her a Mandarin collar dress and matching silk shoes, in pink of course.  I had a scroll made with her name in Chinese characters and I even got something for myself (a chop with my name – it’s like a rubber stamp but is made from jade).  I was amazed at the skill and precision it took to carve Beverly and my birth year sign in such clarity on a ½ square surface.

We decided to skip dinner tonight.