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  • Day 7

    Pagoda, Warriors and more

    November 10, 2017 in China ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Another fabulous day Lily & Mr Li picked us up at 8:30 and our first destination was the Big Goose Pagoda. Xi'An traffic seems to require nerves of steel - I can't suss much in the way of road rules and Mr Li in common with all our other drivers is happy to sneak in front of buses and create an extra lane if it would be faster. Lots of the cars are local Chinese brands but because they make all the bits for European manufacturers all the buttons are labeled in English. The Pagoda was not far away just far enough to fit in a conversation about the Pope. How do you answer the question "what is the use of the Pope?" I went for a response about people believing he was God's representative on earth. Which then led to "how do they know? "does he have marks /signs...?" Fortunately we arrived at the pagoda so I was saved from further theology..for a bit...

    The pagoda was first built 1300 years ago but rebuilt in 1987 - I like this practical approach to monuments - it doesn't matter at all that it has been reconstructed. It still has 1300 years of history. It was founded by the Buddha who brought Buddhism to China - he spent 17 years in India and came home with 640 books of Buddhist teachings - and then set about translating - sadly he only got 30 or so done before he died. I felt some sympathy for him my "to read" pile always exceeds my abilities to keep up. There were also halls for other Buddhas including the one who looks after people - lots of arms each ending in a hand with an eye on it so they can hold everyone and see everyone. After she had told us all about it Lily then knelt and spent a few minutes making her reverences to the Buddha - which I found just a little disconcerting. It seemed like an oddly private moment for her in the middle of our visit. We wandered around various other halls and we heard how after he died his remains were shared around various temples in China - they have his finger bones here, although Lily pointed out that as Buddhists cremate their remains it was a little hard to be sure...

    Back to the car where we discussed which pope was which, what church was in England, and sundry other religious details I was a little hazy on. Much discussion about the pope with a beard who came to Xi'An....on reflection that might have been Rowan Williams I think...but I really didn't want to get into the Church of England, the Reformation and its relationship to popes.. Lily has read a lot of Buddhist texts but now she isnt convinced and she wants to read more about other belief systems. The drive up to the Terracotta warriors took about an hour but we didn't run out of conversation!

    The Warriors are out in the foothills of the Chingli mountains - the range that divides northern China from Southern China. This area apparently has hot springs and it is the pomegranate centre of the universe - every 10 yards or so there were stalls selling just pomegranates. Arriving at the warriors it was like arriving at a theme park, a huge parking lot an enormous ticket hall and then a vast 20 lane security gate system. As it is relatively quiet now we really didn't queue at all but I can imagine what it must be like when it is busy, apparently on the 1st October - Chinese national day there were 70,000 visitors - completely horrible apparently - Lily was there guiding!

    The warriors in their pits are astonishing - three pits of which pit 1 is the most impressive 6,000 warriors and they haven't finished excavating it yet! I knew they were all individual but I didn't realise they were crafted by convicts - very talented convicts - as Lily pointed out they hadn't spent 4 years getting fine art degrees like today's sculptors. also they have taken the decision not to restore any of the warriors - if they cant find the head/hand etc they leave it off. Some are too damaged to be restored - you can see these in the pits. Only one warrior has been found intact - a kneeling archer, all the rest have had to be put back together.

    The mass of people and the jostling to get to the edge of the pit was quite something, so how it must be in the busy season doesn't bear thinking about. After the seeing the army we went for lunch in a large quite fancy restaurant on-site, nice food, a buffet, 2 kind of noodles and about 5 other dishes. We skipped on the noodles otherwise we'd have been waddling. I had tea which pleased Dad - he could have two cups of beer because tea is free. The tea was subtly different here - slightly minty maybe the Arabic / Muslim influence?

    After lunch we went to look at some chariots they had excavated - Lily tried to sneak us in via a back door ..we descended into the pitch black on slippy marble steps....and then found the way was closed for renovations so we had to take the usual route after all. These chariots were small - about 1/4 to 1/2 size but beautifully detailed - dragons painted on the outside. When they were found they were each broken into over 1000 pieces and it took years to rebuild them.

    After the chariots we headed for the exits - past lots of souvenir shops and an orgy of hawkers - selling warriors and persimmons - apparently that's what the farm that the warriors were found on grew! Once past the first ring of sales people there are large plazas with fast food shops, some local, some western and also a range of weirdly unrelated exhibits - "Rock and Snow World" amongst others.

    Back to the car and back to the city. The drives have been interesting in themselves apart from discussions with our guides they always provide the opportunity to glimpse everyday life. Not so much here but in Beijing and Pingyao, street washing to keep the dust down was a regular feature. The car was very hot and it was an effort to stay awake - dad did better than I expected!. My wakefulness was rewarded by noticing a delightfully named hotel - "The Golden Showers Hotel"

    Soon we were back at the city walls - they are huge 12m high and 14m wide at the top and they still encircle central Xian. We had a bit of a walk along them and you can hire bikes and ride the 14km circuit -they have tandems - we might do that tomorrow... Whilst walking we talked more with lily - she has two cats 1 dog which strictly belongs to her boyfriend but she is the one who spends time with it and feeds it and we bonded over a shared fondness for books and reading.

    Our last stop was the Grand Mosque in the Muslim Quarter - 60,000 Muslims live in the quarter and there are 9 mosques of which the Grand mosque is the largest. The Muslim quarter is a warren of narrow streets and alleys and felt quite souk like - tons of people selling stuff - you cant go more than 10 steps without someone trying to sell you a warrior, a t-shirt or a knock-off bag. The mosque itself was very Chinese - it could have been another temple - a succession of courtyards gardens, gates and pagodas. Only when you get to the main hall do you see a traditional carpeted hall. It was very busy - Friday prayers were due soon and they were playing some recorded calls. Lily must be here regularly, she excused herself briefly because she had been asked to get some medicine for one of the people based at the mosque and she went off to deliver it. The recipient came over and exchanged a brief greeting with us whilst profusely thanking Lily. I wanted to ask so many questions about why she was getting the medicine and how the health system worked but I didn't want to be too intrusive. And that was that - we emerged on the street behind the drum tower, Lily made sure we knew where our hotel was (about 50 yards away), gave us a map and said she would see us early on Sunday for our flight to Hong Kong.
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