China's DNA---Part 2 

Powerful Qin

We got up earlier, and took a bus to the railway station. We need to take NO.306 to visit the Terra-Cotta Warrior. When we arrived there, so crowded, and the line like a dragon, I can’t find the end of the line. There were several workers maintaining the system. We found the end of the line under someone’s help. So many persons, but don’t worry about this, there were also many buses, and many kinds of bus, including some double-decker buses. I hope we can get the double-decker bus, so exciting.

After a half an hour, we got on a double-decker bus, I have never been to this bus on the highway. Was it safe? I didn’t mind that ,and went to the second floor, fresh for me! The bus was running one the highway from Xi’an to Lintong, and everyone was happy in the bus, I talked some Qin history to Pablo, and wanted to see the warriors as soon as possible.

We arrived the Terra-Cotta Museum 1 hour later. And followed by the most persons, it was a bit long distance from the bus station to the entrance. But the landscape at the two sides of the path were beautiful, the weather was hot enough, and the flower can’t smile to us. Some birds was crying and singing……

It cost 90RMB, I don’t think it is expensive when you finished your viewing. There were three exhibition malls of the terra-cotta warriors and everyone was different from the others, the whole museum was only a small part of Qinshihuang’s(The first Chinese emperor in feudatorial society ) Tomb. The first exhibition mall was the largest one, and you can see many terra-cotta warriors. I can image how wonderful and splendid in the moment when Qinshihuang built it. He wanted to have the same live as his alive. So he made so many warriors protected him. You can image how powerful of Qinshihuang. In that dynasty, many persons was force to build Great Wall and tomb for him, only one person. But I think he can’t image that his dynasty only last for less than 100 years, so short. Of course, Qinshihuang is a great emperor, he created a whole China, including most parts as present.

We spent the whole morning in there, and tasted our proud history, Pablo was shocked a lot, and felt dizzy, I think. We met a tourist group who came from Spanish, Pablo was very excited, and the Spanish talked to him, asked many questions, I only can stayed in a corner, because they never spoke English or Chinese. Too bad!!! After goodbye with Spanish, I met an American old man, he asked me if proud of this, of course! I was!!! I felt so happy that we had so amazing and envious culture.

The weather was still hot, but my heart was also hot. When we leaved the museum, I just thought when the Qinshihuang tomb can be opened, it will be fantastic.

Splendid Tang

We took a bus, and arrived Huaqingchi in the noon, so tired and hungry. And we had to eat near the tourist place, it was a little expensive, we just ate a kind of Chaomian, I didn’t remember the name.

Huaqingchi was a Tang summer palace, and there was many love stories happened between Tangminghuang and Yangguifei. It was also famous for “Xi’an Event” in 1936, and Jiang Jieshi escaped from here, LOL~~~~~~

There were many bathrooms in the park, and especially for Yangguifei. The figure of the plunge bath like lotus. Very beautiful! And the interesting one is the chef’s bathroom, amazing that he had an own one.

You can climb Li Mt. from the park, and you can also enjoy a bath in there, comfortable! I can image how colorful in that dynasty. You know, Tang is the most important dynasty in Chinese history, and it has effect to the whole east Asia, especially Japan.

The park was nice, but also very crowded in May holiday. I hope I can return there in some day and have a bath.

Relax night life in Xi’an

We returned the our hostel quickly, it was only one hour from Huaqingchi to the railway station. Today, we drank a lot of water, and the weather was so hot. I nearly wanted to stay in a refrigeratory. I didn’t feel tired when I was traveling. Pablo felt a little tired, but still excited.

We chatted with our Swedish roommate, he bought more than 40DVDs, one is 3.5RMB, haha! It was so cheaper for everyone. He looked so amazing, and told me the place where he bought these DVDs. And he also asked Chinese to Pablo, and wanted to learn: ”What’s your name?” in chinese?
“ni jiao shen me ming zi”, Pablo said confident.
“ni jiao……” the Swedish confused.
“shen me ming zi!” Pablo said clearly, slowly and loudly,
“Hi, Pablo, you don’t need to speak so loudly, Chris wasn’t a deaf mute!” I spoke Chinese to Pablo.
“Oh, yes! I forgot!” Haha, so interesting.
“You can say Ni jiao shen me for short.” I said to Chris.
“OK~~~ Ni Jiao Shen Me, Right!” Chris said easily.

Pablo told him that how reasonable and perfect of Chinese language. And Chris would return China, and studied Chinese in the city Chengdu, it was his favorite Chinese city. I don’t why.

We were a little hungry, and went to the local food street again. We shuttled in every different restaurant, from one by one, outside and inside, Chinese and muslim, good and bad, hot and cold…… I like this style of life, so relax.

We ate too much food, and Pablo slept deeply, I went to a internet coffee and saved my pictures in my MP3. It was nearly the midnight, I should sleep now!

Lost in Qian Tomb

Our destination were Qian Tomb and Famen Temple today. We went to the railway station to take the tourists buses, about 18RMB to Qian Tomb. There was only two seats left when we arrived there. It seems the seats for us specially, LOL~~~~~~

Pablo sat with a girl, and my neighbor was a little boy. The bus was very quietly, there was no one speaking, I don’t know why. Usually, it was very noisy in Chinese buses. Maybe it was too early to chat. After a half an hour, people started to chat with each other, including Pablo and that girl. I didn’t want to chat with the little boy, so I slept.

There were many bees around toll stations, and we had to close the windows, it was really hard because of the hot weather. Many persons worried that hurt by bees, Ha ha!

We arrived Qian Tomb after 1.5 hours, and got the ticket, started to visit with the girl. She came from Wuhan, and traveled alone. We just said “hello” to each other. And I was busy for taking photos.

Qian Tomb belongs to Wu Zetian and her husband. Wu Zetian is the only one woman emperor in Chinese history, and she was as the emperor when she was 63 years old. She was a great woman, you know, it is very easy to become an emperor in Chinese men society. But she was also callous and brutal, she killed her daughter for smearing the empress, and then she became the emperor. And she also abolished the right of his two sons as the emperors. Wu Zetian was wallowed in Buddha, and established up many temple and caves in everywhere in China. As the other emperors, she also had many husbands, no! I can’t call them husband, maybe “concubine”! We can’t say she was whether a good emperor or not. But she also done many good things for commons.

The place of her tomb was perfect for a tomb. It was suit for Chinese geomantic rule. There were to steles in the front of the tomb, one is written about Li zhi, her husband, the second emperor of Tang Dynasty. Wu Zetian wrote the words for him, and said many good and great things, but in fact, Li Zhi is a cowardly and weak emperor. The other stele is Wu Zetian’s. But there was no words on it. Because when her son Li Xian wrote for her, he didn’t know how to write it. Because he hated his mother that captured his emperor right, but if he wrote in the bad word, she was still his mother. So he didn’t wrote it. In fact, there were words in the stele written by some poets.

The tomb wasn’t opened, you only can see a mountain in your sight. When we climbed the mountain, a girl followed with us, who wanted to sell something to us. She dressed not very well, and looked dirty, and she told the stories of this tomb to us. I really didn’t want to buy her art. She said that she earn money as her study fee by this way. I gave 10RMB to her, and I didn’t buy her art. She disagree with me.
“Why?” I confused.
“My mother has told me that I shouldn’t accept money for others” she said.
“Sorry, I don’t think you are a beggar, because you have told us many stories, you are our tour guide, you should earn it” I explain to her.
“No, I can’t” she stick to her mind.
“OK! I buy it!” I decided to buy the ugly things from her. And she looked very happy, and then, I took a picture for her.

We felt a little hungry when we returned the foot of the mountain. And we decided to have lunch in here. After said goodbye to the girl, she wanted to visit the other tombs. We asked some local food, two kinds of noodles, for our lunch. And we sat with a family who came from Xi’an. The old woman was very friendly, and chatted with us in Xi’an dialect. I can understand her, but Pablo was nearly crazy. Luckily, her sons and daughter-in-lower can speak mandarin with us. Their children climbed the mountain, and they just had a rest in there. We ate our delicious Xi’an food, and enjoyed her words. She even bought a food called Guokui to us. Yes, I remembered that food the boy told me in the train. Yes, Guokui. It was a large cake with toughness, I think I can eat it for two days.

They told us too much about Xi’an. It was a happy thing that we can meet the native during our trip. The grandma asked our next destination, and I told her we would go to Famen Temple in the afternoon. She said they also would go there, and invite us to take their cars. I really didn’t want to disturb the others, and refused her invitation. Their children returned and we chatted with each other again, and of course including Real Madrid. And then we said goodbye to the family and took photos with them. It was really a happy and plentiful day for us.

Looking for Sheli

There was no bus from Qian Tomb to Famen Temple, and we had to got a taxi, and we bargained with him, and deal with 55RMB. I felt a little expensive for 33km. It wasn’t a long distance.

We sat on the back of this small car, and it flied on the wildly road. I opened the window, and enjoy the wind, because of the construction in front of us, we have to turn to a village road, it was too dirty, and felt with sand and dust. I don’t think it was 33km from Qian Tomb to Famen Temple, we spent more than one hour and arrived there. Pablo said 55RMB wasn’t expensive for this trip. Yes, I agreed with him. Thanks for the professional driver.

Famen Temple was really a large one, including a museum. It was famous for a real Sheli(made from the bone after death of a monk ) Sakyamuni. In Buddha, they said there were 19 Sheli in China, but we only still found this one. When the tower in Famen Temple fell in 1987, the archaeologists found an underground palace in here, and many antiques came out, and touched our eyes, including the real Sheli. And now, a new tower was built, and you can visit the underground palace, but you can’t come into it, because the gate was so narrow.

We spent one hour in the museum, and knew more about Buddha, Pablo said Buddha were usually smiled, Haha! I had interests in the language. And then, we visited the temple and underground palace. Yes, we found the real Sheli!!! Amazing!!! The Sheli likes jade, very holy. Around the real Sheli, there were 3 bogus. Because, the Tang Dynasty emperor worried that the Sheli was stole, and he made 3 bogus to protect the real one. Haha! They look like same.

The temple were quietly though there were many tourists. And we visited everywhere of it, and enjoyed the sunshine. It was 17:00, we must return Xi’an. When we arrived the bus station, there was only one bus, and full of persons. We decided to go to the downtown of this small city, and then changed the bus. Finally, we took a small bus with three students came from Shandong province. Badly, I lost the art in the bus which I bought from a girl in Qian Tomb. It wasn’t mine. We took a bus from that small city, and returned Xi’an west coach station at 20:00, then arrived our hostel by taxi.

The two german girls had left, and two Australian girls came, also a german boy lived in our room. We chatted with each other, and I had to fix attention on her words, and I can understand 80%. Luckily, Pablo can’t understand her. LOL~~~~~~