10. 西安 秦俑 辣午餐 被騙上山 華清池 海鮮火鍋 房間好多了 (22nd)
10th day in China:
XI’AN AND STUFF
As most of you have heard of Shanghai and Beijing (which btw wasn’t visited due to a snow storm), you may think Xi’an is a small place, as it’s not as famous. However, this city has been named capital for 13 dynasties, the longest to date 2500 years ago (the Terra Cotta dynasty), so this is where you go if you want to see a diversity of different periods’ buildings and cultures. Some of the biggest dynasties, Ching and Tang, both made Xi’an their capital, so there’s lots to see.
TERRA COTTA WARRIORS
If you’re here, the warriors are of course the first thing to see, so after our ”western” buffet breakfast (which sucked) at the restaurant, we left to the warriors at 9am. Arrived at almost 11am (it was quite a distance), there are apparently 3 (or is it 5?) locations, the 2 sub ones were opened and the others not yet, as they’ve been underground for so long, the colours would oxydize immediately.
First we were taken to the museum. We got to see the cart with horses (all exactly half the size of live ones) and the guide explained the details of how the horses were decorated, which one was the leader, and how the fake hair on the horses are actually made of bronze thread, somehow made by hand 2500 years ago to be the same thickness as real hair.
We were then brought to an exact duplicate of the carriage’s umbrella, used during travel or at war. It has 2 double locks, one releases it from the stand and can become a mobile thing, and to release the other lock it becomes adjustable for all angles. It’s extremely clever for something made 2500 years ago, it’s made so it can block the sun anytime of the day, it can also be taken out and become a weapon to fend of enemies or as a walking stick if necessary. Another thing that lingered in my mind, was an item that was displayed in a glass box, and on it says no one has figured out what it was for, so it’s on display for everyone to have a go at it. Apparently you get some cool prizes if you know what it’s for.
After which we were taken to the actual tomb (the first to be discovered). The story was that in 1972 farmers were in need of more water to water their fields, so they went to find the head of the town (like a mini mayor) and they started digging for a well, until they hit something and dug it up. It was one of the warriors parts, and as it came out coloured but within 5 sec it turned grey, they all got scared. They believed it was something unlucky, and needed to be disposed of, but the head thought it may be best to be taken to the nearest museum to have it checked out. As he got to the museum, it was late, and the only person there was the security guard. Knowing nothing, he thought the guy was a joke, so he agreed to take it to the professionals first thing in the morning, while he tossed it away in the dump. It wasn’t until years later that it was found and traced back to the old farmer, to find the entire section of the first tomb. The tomb is named the 8th wonder a few years ago (dunno when), and there are heaps of proud photos of Clinton and Hilary standing in the midest of the warriors.
MORE STORIES
Apparently 1500 years ago the tomb was robbed by a troup of soldiers led by the to-be king. It wasn’t recorded in detail, all we know thus far is that they broke into the 2nd tomb and took all the warriors’ weapons (they were real) for fighting, and then they set fire to the place.
For those who don’t know about the Ching Dynasty, this was the king that’s famous for the great wall and the terra cotta, and was a cruel and ruthless king that all decendants made him the role model of how NOT to rule a country and the ppl. He had a terrible temper and whenever he was unhappy he’d kill for fun. Once he decided he hated ppl who read so he ordered the town to burn all books and kill all readers, only a few survived to this day. He was so scared of death, he spent the 2nd half of his life searching for that eternal pill, and he died on the way back from his last search, it was said that he suffered from mercury poison (which was fed to him slowly as an ”eternal pill”).
LUNCH
When we finished it was almost 1pm, hungry as we were, we saw this restaurant that looked rather big and clean and there were a few cars parked outside, so it shouldn’t be too bad. We ordered probably the saltest noodles we’ve had for ages, and the worst layered bread (it’s like naan bread but different) we’ve ever had, let’s just say I didn’t really like their food.
After that, they were really excited about this place called Hwa-Chin Pond, where Yang Yu-Huan bathed, so their driver drove for another half an hour to get there.
HWA-CHIN POND
After getting there, they started looking for a carpark near the place, and saw this restaurant at the corner waving at us. It seemed that he wanted us to park outside their restaurant so we can eat there, except we’ve already eaten, so we asked if we could park there anyway. They came up to us, and the wife told us they know a way up the mountain without walking (it takes 5 hours to walk) as long as we follow them, and it will only cost us $2. Us 3 plus the driver plus the daughter of our neighbour immediately sensed the fraud, so we all told the mother to just ignore her and let’s just go, but she seemed very naive and believed this could work. After this whole ”let’s just go!” and ”this could work” process went on for way too long, they managed to convince the mother that they’ll take us to the pond and everything. We were told to follow their car, so we did, until we got to just before the entrance of the mountain, she got off and said we should send one of us to their car and she can get in our car so somehow we can get in one person cheaper. As dodgy as it already sounded, the mother decided the best idea is to let her OWN DAUGHTER to get in their car, alone with the the fraudulent husband (btw our neighbour’s husband’s a busy man so he’s hardly with us). Concerned as we were, their van followed us, and we got through the entrance with something like $60 RMB each. After we got in, we found out that the ticket wasn’t for anything at all, it was just for driving on the road beyond that point, we had to pay more for all the temples in there. Mad as our neighbour was, she had a yelling match with the crazy woman in our car, though we couldn’t say much but hey, we warned her.
THE REAL HWA-CHIN POND
We drove out immediately, flagged the wasted tickets, and went straight into Hwa-Chin Pond. The place was much prettier than I thought. The name itself didn’t give me much impression, it made it sound like a temple and I wasn’t particularly fond of temples as we have lots of those in TW. This was originally the place where the concubines lived, and of course the Emperor would visit them frequently. The most famous and loved of all concubines was Yang Yu-Huan, who was famous for her beauty and her full figure. It’s because of her figure that it became a fashion to be fuller figured during the Tang dynasty, and that’s their standard of beauty. She was the Emperor’s favourite, and he spent most of his times with her. This place is famous mostly coz she lived here, rather than the fact that all concubines lived here. This is a wonder in itself, as this place is full of natural springs that’s 43c degrees all-year-round, and one of the areas even has a natural cave and inside the cave is another spring, this is what nature’s beauty is all about. It’s obvious that she was loved, there were numerous bathing areas built just for her, and one built for the Emperor himself. As Xi’an gets up to 40+ degrees in summer, it’s important to have a cooling place for them to spend their time, so the Emperor spent most of his time in the cave with her. Tang is my favourite dynasty, probably coz this was the most beautiful, extravagant dynasty of all, and this was also the dynasty where cleavage and shoulders are good. This is a place of huge proportions, I mean the main pond itself is massive (although frozen at this time of the year) and every single building is of a decent size.
A LITTLE SOMETHING ELSE
By this stage, I’m starting to feel like this thing is an obligation more than anything, but I really do want these down while they’re still fresh in my memories.
SEA FOOD DINNER
After an enjoyable trip to the pond, we anticipated a good dinner. I must say the dinner wasn’t too bad, except the dumplings tasted a little weird. Today’s ”Winter Arrival” day, which is the shortest day, and although Taiwanese celebrate it by eating a bowl of rice-starch balls (dunno what to call them) which is one of my FAVOURITE thing, Chinese eat dumplings. They ordered like 3 dishes of meat dumplings and 3 dishes of vegetarian ones, let’s just say the meat ones were almost finished and the vege ones remained almost untouched. Other than that, we had steam boat dinner, which was basically a bowl of boiling bone essence soup with lots of other good tasty stuff and then you add whatever you want and boil it. Yeah, it’s like fondue, this is the traditional Asian fondue, not the cheese or chocolate kind. Most of the food was sea food, so some I wouldn’t dare eating, like some gutty parts of a fish or something random like that I had to stay away from, but the strange tasting dumplings were alright so managed to get full on those .
CHANGE OF BEDROOM
As we arrived at the hotel with changed room, we were curious what they were like, as we only had a glance when we first changed it in the morning. A 2nd look, everything although similar was actually quite different. Things were generally a lot newer and cleaner, the bathroom itself was really similar except there’s no rust on the showerhead, in fact, every metal’s gold-plated, talk about difference of treatment! No wonder our neighbour said this is among the best hotels, it’s coz they stayed at the good ones so they expected similar treatment in the ”normal” ones. Man this place really has some problem of different treatments! (Did I mention the hotel itself on the first floor looked absolutely grand, with a waterfall and a fountain and a pianist playing on a grand on top of it?)
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