sybarites

With little pre-planning, we accidentally visited the Top 3 Things To See in China:  the 2200 yr old Terra Cotta warriors of Xi’an, The Great Wall and The Forbidden City of Beijing.

The first “Must See”, the warriors in Xi’an, was, I admit, our favourite.  We were part of a tour of 8: some Americans, an Indonesian, a German, a couple from Holland, and us.  We stopped at several other sites before arriving at the warriors in the afternoon and the joke among the tour-ed was that “these warriors had better deliver”.   The beastly heat, the souvenir gauntlets and the tourist restaurant all dimmed with the first breathtaking view of the site.  Through a short tunnel, we emerged into the great stadium-esque structure that protects the figures that they have so far reconstructed (1087 out of 3000 in the past 30 years).  To see the detail, the remarkable scale of the work put into the creation of these warriors was absolutely worth the trip.  2200 years ago these soldiers were made, modeled on the real life soldiers of Emperor Qin’s army, each with different armour, shoes, hairstyles, weapons, everything.  Even the facial features and treads on the soles of their shoes are unique.  We took an obscene amount of photos but this was one of the best.

The second “Must See” was The Great Wall. We’re already very familiar with China’s other Great Wall (the virtual one that bars access to many of our favourite websites) but of course, could not miss the physical version.   We elected to visit one of the less popular sections of restored wall called Mutianyu, that was supposed to have the least amount of tourists, great views, steeper climbs and some great views of the non-restored sections.  On all accounts, it exceeded our expectations.  We had picked a beautiful, sunny day to visit and took a series of public buses and private mini-buses to the base and back with our friend Rudy, who we met in Xi’an and who, lucky for us, speaks Mandarin.  I’m not sure we would’ve made it without him .  We shared a small picnic lunch on the top of one of the watchtowers and it was one of the highlights of our trip;  marvelous, fantastic, to sit in the sun and the breeze and just marvel at the vastness of the endeavour.

The third “Must See” was The Forbidden City, also known as “Let’s Get Moving, I’m Hungry”.  Granted, it may be that we are currently “templed out”, but the center of Beijing, the former residence of 22 Emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Northern border of Tiananmen Square, the site of so much history and grandeur was, umm, pretty good.  In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, this city is in a flurry of construction.  One site we drove past on a bus had no less than 10 cranes busy at work on a new building, and the historic sites have not been spared this lightening-speed improvement. As a result, a few of the structures within the wall-ed forbiddeness were closed for repair so I’m certain we missed out on some excellent touristic opportunities.  However, what we did see was quite remarkable, very beautiful and the history that revolves around the lifestyle and daily existence of the Emperors was very interesting.  Also, it rained.  So now, we are the owners of what shall henceforth be known as The Forbidden Umbrella.

Worth an honourable mention are two things:  one, a sign over a doorway in Xi’an and two, a meal we shared in Beijing.

Imagine walking down the street of a rural-ish city in central China and passing by a doorway flanked by two men in dressy clothes with a sign above reading;  “Populace Direct Bus Eyeglasses Supermarket”.  Anyone care to offer an opinion as to the nature of this shop?

Two, we shared a pretty extraordinary meal at a Tibetan restaurant in Beijing where we happened upon a live performance of traditional Tibetan dance and music (we were seated right next to the stage) and were served  platter of lamb ribs with an unexpectedly artistic construction of a traditional Chinese tower made entirely, and very intricately, of vegetables.   I kind of have to wonder if maybe it wasn’t delivered to our table as a joke to “see what the foreigners would do!”.  We took a picture.

Now, we are off to Qingdao, home of the famous Tsingtao brewery and lovely beaches.   Finally, we’ll be able to even out our tans.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 10th, 2006 at 6:54 pm by Marc and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.