Xi'an

The draw to Xi'an for me was to visit the Terra Cotta Army. Now you may be familiar with this, but if not, the story is interesting. Around 2,200 years ago, Qin Shi Huangdi was emperor of China, in fact he was the first emperor of the Qin dynasty. He was a major architect of the Great Wall of China and a unifier of the disparate parts of China in his time. When he died, his body was entombed and the entrance to the tomb was was guarded by an army of over 7,000 life-sized Terra Cotta Soldiers. Each was created by an artisan and each has a unique figure, facial expression and military uniform. It is said that if the new emperor was dissatisfied with the figure an artisan made, the artisan was killed. Powerful motivation to do a great job! The first 5 pictures give you a sense of scale. Our first sight was the view you see here.

During its history, the tomb was ransacked by invaders and most of the Terra Cotta Soldiers were broken or destroyed. Over time the tomb and it's entrance were buried and memory of it was lost. In 1974, a farmer digging a well found the tomb by accident. Between then and now the tomb has been excavated. It is among the foremost archeological discoveries of the 20th century and a World Heritage Site. The archeologists are working hard to record the exact position of each part of the site. They are using GPS satellites to mark the location of each part of the dig. You can see little GPS receiver balls in this photo.

Besides excavating the tomb, archeologists are painstakingly reconstructing each individual soldier from the fragments that have been found. When we visited the sight I had understood we would be visiting a "dig." But I was unprepared for the sheer size of the site. The largest of the 3 "pits" is bigger than an American football field. It is now covered by by a giant roof to keep out the elements.

For me, this was one of the highlights of the trip. Whenever I see something like this, it gets me to thinking about the permanence of the things we are building today. Are we constructing anything that has a reasonable chance to last 1,000 or 2,000 years? What is our responsibility to the future to explain ourselves, our values, our hopes and aspirations. Could we in today's world devote an economic fortune equivalent to this to create an artifact that the world in the year 4005 would consider important? Sadly, I fear the answer to all these questions is ... no.

For me, this was one of the highlights of the trip. Whenever I see something like this, it gets me to thinking about the permanence of the things we are building today. Are we constructing anything that has a reasonable chance to last 1,000 or 2,000 years? What is our responsibility to the future to explain ourselves, our values, our hopes and aspirations. Could we in today's world devote an economic fortune equivalent to this to create an artifact that the world in the year 4005 would consider important? Sadly, I fear the answer to all these questions is ... no.

One of the things we visited in Xi'an was the Shaanxi History Museum. Here are a few pieces from this wonderful museum.

One of the things we visited in Xi'an was the Shaanxi History Museum. Here are a few pieces from this wonderful museum. This photo is of a Tang Dynasty agate cup with a removable gold stopper at the left end.

One of the things we visited in Xi'an was the Shaanxi History Museum. Here are a few pieces from this wonderful museum.

Throughout our trip, we saw many many Chinese doing Tai Chi in the morning, often in small groups in local parks. At the hotel we had a chance to learn a bit of Tai Chi. I'm here to tell you it's harder than it looks!

At several points in our trip we had a chance to visit local markets. The practical excuse was to buy bottled water. But the real charm of these markets was their exotic collection of things for sale. And since these were local markets, there were very few westerners, so this was a chance to get closer to the Chinese people and culture we had come to experience. This photo is of a night market inside the city walls of Xi'an.

At several points in our trip we had a chance to visit local markets. The practical excuse was to buy bottled water. But the real charm of these markets was their exotic collection of things for sale. And since these were local markets, there were very few westerners, so this was a chance to get closer to the Chinese people and culture we had come to experience. This photo is of a food stall in the market. The markets are organized in a sort of street fair mode. In the center of the street are temporary stalls. On the sides of the street are permanent stores selling things like tea or art supplies.

We visited a traditional Chinese pharmacy which sold traditional Chinese herbs and medicines in response to a prescription from a doctor. In this photo which my wife took, you can see a pharmacist carefully measuring out 3 packets, each containing multiple ingredients.

This photo is an extreme close-up of the medicines that will eventually be steeped in boiling water and drunk as a medicinal tea.

These photos of the market seem representative to me of the experience.

These photos of the market seem representative to me of the experience.

These photos of the market seem representative to me of the experience. And yes, in this photo, these are dried lizards for sale. The dried snakes and dog penises are not pictured.

One evening we ate a dumpling banquet at the hotel and then adjourned to a nearby theatre to see a Tang Dynasty cultural show. This was one of about a half dozen "gigs" we saw on the trip. Each was fun! Each was entirely different from the one before. Recommended.

I am pretty happy with these pictures. The stage was brightly lit, but I was shooting hand-held with my Nikon D-70, the lens wide open, and ISO set to 1600 in order to get reasonably fast shutter speeds to stop the motion. And even with all that, without the image stabilized lens, these would not have turned out at all. And without Photoshop to correct grain, sharpness and color, you wouldn't have liked them.