Saturday, September 24 Xi'an (Part 1)

 The tour to the multiple cultural sites including the Terracotta Soldiers took all day. The driver picked us up at 8, and we joined the tour guide and two other people taking the tour.  First we stopped by the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, originally built in the late 600s but rebuilt once around 700 and repaired multiple times, the most recent in 1964.  Three of the stories were destroyed in the 1556 earthquake and never rebuilt, leaving it at a grand total of 7 stories.  

The Wall around the Pagoda

A wall told a story for a long stretch.  This was pretty typical for China.

This is the entrance way.

Outside the Tanin door

The Wild Goose Pagoda is located in the center of the Temple of Great Maternal Grace. It was build by Li Zhi to express thankfulness to his mother.

I love these dragons.  

This area is a Buddhist Temple, telling the story of how Buddhism came to China and the story of how Buddhism began.

One of a series of natural color jade inlays showing the enlightenment of the Buddha.  This one is entitled "Dreaming the Buddha and getting impregnated."

I'm guessing this is the one entitled "Ascetic Practices."

After the Wild Goose Pagoda, we drove through Xi'an to a jade factory. 

This dragon guarded a lot of places including the jade factory.

The man carving the jade did really detailed work.

The shop was full of really incredibly beautiful pieces all priced to take advantage of the many tourists who were brought here on tours.  I'm sure the owners were disappointed that we admired all the pieces but didn't buy anything.

Banpo Village, a prehistoric village from the Neolithic Period about 6,000 years ago, was our next stop.  Most of the holes were the imprints from buildings, but we also saw kilns and burial places, sacrifice areas, most planned, but one noted that the dead in one area "were probably dead not normally."

This is an artist's depiction of what the village originally looked like.  

The surrounding Chinese tourist were puzzled that I was taking a picture of this in Banpo Village and directed my attention back to the artifacts.



We drove through more of Xi'an,

 past many 3 wheeled cars and even trucks which we saw no where else in China 

and also past a statue of a man on a horse which has a story behind it that I don't remember--I believe something along the lines of a famous person who defended the city--

and some interesting stores including this one which looks like it's probably a toy store.

Pomegranates were in season. People set up stands all over the place selling them. They were sweeter than the ones I have had back home without the tanginess that I generally associate with them.

 Our next destination was a pottery shop which made replicas of the Terracotta Warriors as well as other pieces of pottery and other art forms such as lacquerware.

Next was lunch at a place which catered to tourists followed by a long drive out to the Terracotta Warriors.


We arrived at the Terracotta Warriors mid afternoon--the place was incredibly crowded.

An area off to one side was roped off for some dignitary which probably added to the crowding in the other area.  But in the next couple of hours the crowd thinned out considerably, and by the time we finished, almost everyone else had left.

(More on the Terra Cotta Warriors in Part 2)