Pingyao and Xi'an

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We were glad to put Taiyuan behind us; we saw a fatal auto accident, road chaos, and monkeys on a leash. The whole city was so chaotic that we felt frankly unsettled. What we saw there, however, was pretty amazing; sometimes it is hard to sort out all the contradictory images--especially when the past and the present collide without any obvious connections. Before we left for Xi'an on the overnight train, we visited a charming city called Pingyao. It is a Sturbridge/Stockbridge kind of town, a walled city preserved from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It grew to importance as a financial center and offered draft banking. It is quaint and modern at the same time--lots of commercialism. We did visit the Daoist temple and were snookered into some sort of hoodoo fortune telling exercise (for a fee)--I will have good luck, by the way. My luck may be dampened as I did not contribute to the temple restoration at the expected level!! The Confucian enclave was by far more interesting; we saw the traditional Chinese exams to qualify for university or for civil service posts. Those poor guys had to prepare for years and then sit in a tiny cubicle for 4 days--just writing.
The overnight train was certainly better than a bus since we had berths, but it was far from optimal--the train seemed to stop at every town along the way--for about 9 hours. A groggy bunch arrived in Xi'an early Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we went to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda; the pace was just right. The pagoda grounds are lush and beautiful; we saw the pagoda and some "peasant"art. The farmer or peasant art movement began in the mid-70's under Mao. One of the women has risen to some prominence; she's still painting and selling her work--yes, I bought two pieces... Birders, we saw grey magpies which are present in China and on the Iberian penninsula. Guess I can add them to my life list.
By far the most exciting thing we have done in Xi'an and possibly the whole trip is the visit to the terracotta warriors museum. It is so mind boggling that I'm not sure I can even describe it. I remember when the Smithsonian Magazine came out in the late 70' or early 80's with the pictures; seeing the terra cotta warriors has been a dream for me. The scope, the detail, the sheer size of the army is almost unbelievable. I spent our last hour of the tour just walking around Pit 1 studying the individual features, wrinkles in their clothes, nose shapes--each one so different and distinctive. Phenomenal!!!!
Last night we had a traditional Xi'an dumpling dinner with sixteen different kinds of dumplings-each one better than the last. The warm rice wine wasn't too bad either. A friend and I walked to the Haagen-Daz store for some chocolate ice cream. Lovely...
More later, Melis

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Photos

Prayer tablets for good exam scores
Confucian Temple, Pingyao

Small Wild Goose Pagoda
Hitching posts in foreground

Monkey Hitching Post
"Better luck next time on your exams!"