Food, Dancing, and the City Wall in Xi'an

May 31st, 2013

Food in Xi’an

Xi’an is particularly known for its dumplings and I sampled many kinds at a dumpling feast.

My guide also took me to a restaurant that catered to Westerners


I'm not a culinary expect, but I'm pretty sure deep-fried egg
fritters coated in syrup are not a traditional Xi'an delicacy

One night, I went scavenging to find some street food. Tourists never went to the market I saw, and although the sellers and I couldn’t communicate with words, we could bridge the divide through smiling, pointing, and creative hand gestures. They were quite amused that I was willing to try their native dishes and gladly served me.

Next to the market was a big supermarket that housed the Mexican store.

Does anyone have ideas what makes this store Mexican?

Dumpling Feast

The show was good, but not as epic or incredible as the one at Yangshuo. The costumes were excellent though.

 

 

 

Most audience members recognize that shows, performances, films, etc. are a stylized view of reality. But we rarely consider that the works of art we see are often created by artists whose worldviews are quite different than those of the general public. Differences in categories such as level of income, political leanings, religious convictions, etc. naturally feed into what they produce and how they try to influence culture. I most notice it when I see dances that are theoretically highlighting masculinity, but feature people prancing around. I liked most of the dancing, but did not appreciate the one featuring the aerobatic, flexible side of the Chinese army.

Perhaps I have unrealistic expectations because no live performance can ever
compete with the montage from Mulan's "I'll Make a Man Out of You"

City Wall

Around the old city is the city wall.

My official itinerary called for a bike ride around the city wall. Learning my lesson from Taipei, I changed the itinerary and had a pleasant walk instead.

 

My poor guide is used to caring for obese elderly Americans who walk for five to ten minutes max before they get exhausted and want to go back to the bus. Once he realized that I was serious about wanting to walk for a couple hours around the wall, we had a pleasant 5 mile stroll. Xi'an is one of China's ten biggest cities by population with about 8.5 million people in the administrative area.

The walk provide a nice blend of ancient history and modern city to see what Xi'an was like and how it will be in the future.

 

 

In between the skyscrapers and wall is a great place for a park.

The government provides affordable housing for many cities within the old city walls. As we walked, we moved from slums into increasingly nice areas.

 

Not bad for a youth hostel

 

My guide was a botanist before realizing he could make multiples of his salary
 as a tour guide. He would often smell trees before we could see them

How do you make a skyscraper distinctly Asian? Add a pagoda top!

You know what looks good? Hawaiian shirts. What's even better?
A Hawaiian building!

 

Shaanxi Museum and Big Wild Goose Pagoda

May 31st, 2013
Chartres, France
Song of the Day: Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
Mood: Content

In addition to the Terracotta Warriors, I made it to a few other cool sites in Xi'an.

Shaanxi Provincial History Museum
I enjoyed the history museum, but it wasn't the most amazing thing ever. There were some cool wall decoration and statues:

 

There’s typical ancient museum stuff:

Show me the gold!

 And lots of little figurines:

Zodiac people



 My favorite artifact:


The emperor key. An emperor would send a message in the device and
only his general had the key to unlock it. I prefer e-mail, but at that time,
it was the most secure way to send a message. It makes me appreciate
how easy communication is today.

There were a couple other interesting exhibits:

Shaanxi has an exhibit on pre-historic times. The area is important because it
is where the Lantian Man was found (Estimated to live 1.15 million years ago)

 

Zhang Qian was a Chinese explorer that went through the lands of the Huns (who remembers Mulan!?!) and discovered the routes that became the Silk Road. His two missions significantly expanded China's connections and world view.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda
While I was at the museum, my friend the Liberated Consultant arrived in Xi’an and we met up at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

Reunited!

I enjoyed the beauty of all the artistic renderings of Buddha:

 

 

 

The fat and happy Buddha representation is more traditionally Chinese

This man was probably an emperor based on the fact that his chair is made of dragons.
Only the emperors were allowed to have things with dragons on them

The emperors were viewed as if they were gods and received special treatment such as being the only people who could walk on the emperor walk



Notice how the emperor walk is made of dragons. Everyone else had to use the stairs.

The pagoda also housed a giant bell and drum as well as other sculptures

 

If you climb the pagoda, there are great views of the city

 

 

Expert tip: The giant LED display is a great five minute detour
Right next to the pagoda is a big mall full of western stores.

Even in mid-March it wasn't too late for Christmas shopping.
Christmas 2013 is only 209 days away!

 

The ceiling hosts a massive LED display. There
are a couple shows per day

Belonging
One of my favorite things to do in Xi’an was meeting my tour guide’s daughter. We only met up with his wife and daughter for two minutes, but it was very important for him that his daughter meet someone from Yale. His philosophy is that he wants her to meet people from prestigious backgrounds so that she thinks it is normal and that is not a big deal to apply to the Beidas, Tsinghuas, and Yales of the world. This is a problem in the US as many students from rural backgrounds or the poorest socio-economic classes never consider applying to a top school, even if they have a good chance of getting in. It’s such a foreign concept that someone from a school like theirs could go to an elite university that they think it is impossible. As a result, many non-profits have emerged that help students prepare and apply to competitive universities so they can best develop their talents.

Both of the tour guides I asked said their daughters wanted to grow up to
 be doctors. 10-yr olds don't always fully appreciate their parents' efforts

In a random connection, my guide’s wife used to live in Minnesota (in the city where I had my first job!) and helped set up Confucian Academies.

Showing off his Minnesota swag