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Published: June 29th 2005
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We are now on Hainan Island and need to catch up for not updating our blog recently. Xi’an (meaning western peace) was a really fun city to visit, in many ways more fun than Beijing. It was the capital of China for 1100 years, 600 more years than Beijing has been the capital. It has been called the cradle of Chinese civilization, and was the original trading city for Silk Road entrepreneurs. Even coming from the airport we saw huge mounds, which are the tombs of emperors from the Tang Dynasty and have been left unopened; the government is waiting to have the appropriate technology and financial resources to open them without ruining what are sure to be treasure troves of terracotta, stone and metal sculptures and artifacts, silk and paintings.
The city itself is extremely organized in ever widening squares. There is a huge and amazing city wall that surrounds the inner portion of the city, 9 miles in length, which has kept the city from being taken by invaders ever since it was built. The main downtown area looks like a Chinese Rodeo Drive, as the terracotta warriors and other artifacts have brought a tourism fortune. Shopping and
fashion is definitely a major part of their lifestyle here.
We also visited the forest of stone tablets, an extensive collection of calligraphy etched in stone blocks that have been created for the past 2000 years. We could see how the handwriting has progressed over the years, as personal scribes detailed the perspectives of Confucius, emperors, the first Christian missionaries (who came in 500 AD), Buddhist writings that were brought from India in 200 AD, etc. Many scholars come here to interpret for themselves the original documents that our understanding of history is based on. There were also some amazing sculptures of rhinos, lions, mythological creatures and daily life, some as old as 2000 years, and in perfect condition (except that when the tombs were first opened, exposed to oxygen, the paint, which had not faded at all, disappeared in less than a minute.) Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the sculptures. At night we celebrated Kaley’s 27th birthday at a show that included traditional and fun music and dancing.
The second day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors, which were very impressive. A Tang emperor started building them when he was 14 to guard his
tomb. Each warrior is an exact image of a real warrior. The tour guide said it took 740,000 people 38 years to build the soldiers. Only less than 10% of the sculptures have been fixed up. They also had chrome technology, which they coated their weapons with, which supposedly wasn’t invented in the west until the 1900s. The crazy thing is his actual tomb, which is even bigger, has not been opened yet. On this day the heat reached 110 degrees! The tar on the street was melting on our shoes. Luckily, it was a dry heat, and we were inside most of the time.
At night, we walked around the Muslim section, home to the descendents of Arab Silk Road traders. Many people were out just to shop and relax, and the squares were filled with musicians, chatting friends, and kite flyers, and streets were filled with food and other items for sale. The following day we visited the history museum, in which through artifacts from tombs, we were able to learn much from the vast history here.
After only three days in Xi’an, we moved on to Hong Kong to meet up with more of my (Jeff’s) family.
We toured around the city and checked out the Hong Kong Park, which included a really nice aviary, botanical gardens, and zoo. We went on an 800-meter escalator that funnels 40,000 people a day. The city itself is like no city I have ever seen, giant skyscrapers are all over the place (our hotel had over 50 floors), nestled into any space between the mountains and the sea, and the city often extends many levels underground (our hotel had a 4 level mall under it that connected to other malls). For the most part, business and trading rule the city, and the culture to explore was mostly current life and recent history.
The next day we left for Hainan, an island in the South China Sea, to spend time with my family and enjoy beach life. Where we are on the island (the south near Sanya) is quiet and tropical. We went snorkeling, and Kaley had her first glimpse of underwater life as seen through a mask. We have been reading about the history of the island (it has been home to political exiles from the Imperial court as early as the Han Dynasty, “getting to know the workers through
farming” practices that went on during the cultural revolution, the French and Japanese have colonized here, and the women of the local people, the Li, have tattoos all over their faces). However, it is hard to experience much of the history as developers have tried hard to turn it into the “Hawaii of China” (complete with the exploitation of local people and resources).
On third day we went to see “Monkey Island” and got a nice gondola ride there. The monkeys are mostly wild, but two tribes hang out at the tourist center and are fairly used to humans. It was great to see them doing cannonballs into the water, swimming with each other, sometimes underwater, and wrestling in the water. The tour guides were pretty knowledgeable about the habits of the monkeys; luckily one of them could speak Cantonese and my mom and aunts could translate to us. Unfortunately they also catch some and train them to be in silly shows, but supposedly they only hold on to them for 2 years of their 25 year life span, and wait until after the males have been kicked out of the tribe when they reach adolescents and before they reach
sexual maturity and can start their own tribe. We also went to a “cultural center” with examples of the local minorities’, such as the Li, customs and artifacts, and although it was very set up for tourists, it was somewhat interesting to see.
While it has been hard to see life on the island without it being packaged for tourists, Hainan has undoubtedly been a nice place to relax, be with family, learn about Chinese culture and language, read and write, watch wimbeldon and plan our further adventures. More To Come! Jeff (edited by Kaley)
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Lucas
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Loved Hainan, too!
I really loved Hainan, too. I didn't know too much about it, but stumbled upon a great (English language) travel guide that was really useful. What I found most helpful was the recommendations on what sites to go see, and what we mostly tourist traps (like you said, "packaged for tourists." I'll definitely go back again, because there's lots more I want to see that I never had a chance to.