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Xiaoyan
Ta
Small Wild Goose Pagoda
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Our
next stop would be at the Xiaoyan Ta, the Small Wild Goose Pagoda,
located back in Xi'an. On the way back to Xi'an you could see several
tomb mounds where many of China's earliest emperors are buried.
They're just large mounds of earth with no visible markings or ornaments,
much different than Egypt's pyramids.
The
Small Wild Goose Pagoda stands 210 feet high and dates to Tang Dynasty,
652 AD, when Crown Prince Li Zhi built it as a memorial to his mother.
Xuanzang, a monk, made a pilgrimage to India in 629 and returned
in 645 with many Buddhist scriptures which were at one time stored
and translated into Chinese in the pagoda, originally part of a
Buddhist temple. Little remains of the original temple complex today.
Today the grounds are the home of an active artist community. Strolling
the grounds you can view many Chinese art works including sculptures,
paintings and scrolls. Anne, of course, found two nice prints for
her office wall. Me, I found nothing. I was in search of a tiger
scroll but didn't like the rendering of the tiger and preferred
to put off my search until later in the trip.
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The
pagoda through the trees
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My
niece, Alicia, ringing
the ceremonial bell
(Photo by John)
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Courtyard
scenes
(Photo below by John)
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If
you asked me there really wasn't much interesting to see at the Small
Wild Goose Pagoda. Five minutes would have been sufficient (in my
opinion) to see it and then run, but more time was allotted to allow
people to view and purchase the art works. Perhaps I was a bit anxious
because our two days in Xi'an were the coldest days of our trip. There
was a lot of moisture in the air and it seemed to go right through
you and all of the buildings at the pagoda were open to the elements. |
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Between
visiting the terracotta warriors and Great Wild Goose Pagoda we'd
had a full day of sightseeing, and we were all tired having arrived
the night before after midnight. It would have been nice to have
been able to return to the hotel and fall into bed, but that wasn't
to be. We were scheduled to have dinner at the Tang Dynasty Cultural
Theater and Restaurant. Now, as much as I hated the Chinese
opera we attended in Beijing, I loved this evening's entertainment.
It was combination of traditional Chinese music, song and dance,
and the performance was absolutely wonderful. Very entertaining
and enjoyable.
Sorry
I took no pictures. I guess you might say I was pictured out and
didn't even think to bring the camera and, as the Gods would have
it, I missed something special. Our tour escort, Mei, told the restaurant
that three of our group were celebrating their birthday. Actually
she lied. There were three in the group who shared the same birthday,
May 13th, and my sister, Carol, was one of them. I know you're picturing
being at some restaurant where they come up and sing or clap or
do something otherwise to make you feel stupid, but that wasn't
the case. Here they delivered the cake with much fanfare and cut
it with a long sword. It was quiet and quite entertaining. I wished
I'd brought my camera, but I wasn't alone. John didn't bring his
either.
Another
interesting thing happened during the evening. One of our travel
group had a friend in Xi'an. She was a teacher and had recently
come over on a year's exchange program to teach at one of the colleges.
She'd been in Xi'an since September, about two months, and was not
impressed with it at all. She complained that they hadn't turned
the heat on in her building and that food, for the most part, was
miserable. She did note that the food she had at the Tang Dynasty
Theater was the best she'd had since arriving in China. When asked
if she knew then what she knows now would she have volunteered to
come to China she responded quickly in the negative.
After
the show we returned to the hotel for some much needed rest. The
next day had a relatively light schedule, thank goodness, with a
quick visit to the Xi'an city wall, lunch and then to the airport
for our flight to Guilin.
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The
inner courtyard showing
the Xi'an city wall
View
of the wall and the ever
present city smog
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China
relied heavily on walls to protect its cities from invading armies.
While nothing is left from the original Tang Dynasty walls, 9 miles
of wall from the Ming Dynasty survives. These walls are a massive
40 foot thick and thirty to forty foot high. The city (as shown in
the photo left and below) has been restoring these walls and the moat
outside the walls. |
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Anne
and Alicia
on the wall
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Workers
repairing the roof
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The
Smiley Balloons
Don't Leave Home Without Them!
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Climbing
the stairs to the top
of the wall ... a long way up!
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Anne
playing with Smiley
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See
where it ended up!!!
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The
Smiley Balloons: No
we didn't find it flying through the air. No we didn't purchase
it from the "dollar people," and no one gave it to us.
So where did it come from? We brought it all the way from the States
with us, a whole package, along with several other packages of small
toys that children would enjoy. If you've viewed all the prior pages
you'll note that we enjoy photographing the children in the foreign
countries we visit. We learned over the years and trips that we've
made that it's a good idea to take an "ice breaker" along
with you. This trip we took the balloons, tiny spinning tops and
some other toys. Anne actually bought a three pound bag of small
candies to take, but I said it was to big and heavy to carry all
that way so it stayed home and was given away at Halloween.
When
you give the children the toys all you have to do is just stand
back and watch their faces light up. From then on you can get some
pretty good pictures with great expressions. We made a mistake on
this trip though. When we visited the kindergarten in the Beijing
hutong we were taken by the children, but there were so many of
them. We decided to ask the teacher if it would be OK to give the
children some of the toys. She said yes and then took two bags of
toys from us for the children. We thought she'd give them to the
children with us present, but she didn't. She put them aside to
distribute later after we'd gone. I'm sure I missed a bunch of pictures
because of that.
Now,
about this particular smiley balloon. Anne had been carrying the
package in her pocket for days in search of some little children,
but none were to be found anywhere. When she saw the miniature terracotta
warrior statue on the Xi'an city wall the little girl in her took
over and she began to play. We tried to find a home for the balloon
in several places, but this was by far the best place for it. The
warriors missing head was now present and he was a happy warrior
to boot!
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Our
next stop was another of the "obligated" shopping stops.
This time it was to observe how the Chinese lacquerware furniture
was made. Of course there was a massive showroom where you could purchase
any kind of furniture you wanted right next door too. It's amazing
how GCT plans this out. Each city you visit there is a designated
shopping stop. In Beijing it was for cloisonné, Shanghai it
was silk rugs, Suzhou it was silk bedding and clothing, and here in
Xi'an it was lacquerware furniture. We'd learn in Guilin it would
be the Chinese scroll paintings and in Hong Kong the jade jewelry
factory. We couldn't help but wonder what kind of kickback they received
for steering so many customers to these places. |
The
Chinese lacquerware factory showroom
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A
piece bought by friends
on the trip. I took the picture
for them so they'd remember
what they purchased.
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Again
I was lucky ... we didn't purchase any of the lacquerware furniture
or odds and ends. Why? We already have our basement finished and
decorated in a Chinese motif, including all the furniture, screens
and wall hangings we needed. Save some money here, but Alicia didn't.
She bought a nice piece similar to the one at left.
Now
a word about your purchases being delivered. We had no problem with
the cloisonné or silk rug we purchased. The cloisonné
was waiting for us when we got home and the silk company actually
called me the day after we arrived home to tell me they were shipping
the rug and when to expect it. They gave me the tracking number
and everything I needed to follow up in case of problems. So, Anne
and I had no problems. Unfortunately the chest that Alicia purchased
was damaged in transit. Contacting the company has resulted in no
action or response from them. We even contacted our tour escort
who called the company and still, five months later, not a word
from the company. I guess it's the luck of the draw.
While
everyone shopped Anne and I snooped around the grounds and took
a few pictures.
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Anne
by a glazed ceramic dragon gate
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Dragons
carved in
marble
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A
worker applying
paints to the lacquer
-ware (photo by John)
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Part
of the Xi'an City Wall
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A
plaza where we ate
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Leaving
the lacquerware factory we headed to a large plaza fronted by a
park (above right) for lunch. The restaurant specialized in Chinese
dumplings, which we've had many times, but never like this. They
had dumplings made from just about any kind of vegetable or meat
you could think of and each was shaped and colored to represent
the filling within. Dumplings barely two inches across in the shapes
of chickens, ducks, pigs, squab and many more. It was amazing how
the chefs could prepare such little shapes.
Now,
about the Chinese and what they eat. One of our local tour guides
aptly described the Chinese psyche on eating. They said, "We
eat anything with four legs except the table, and anything that
flies except the airplane." This dumpling restaurant offered
proof of that. Laid out in the center of the room was a table of
exotic foods, like a bull's penis to mention just one, that could
be purchased by the diners. I'm happy to report we were served only
the normal fare and none of these exotic delicacies.
Now
a word about poverty in China. In our previous trips to China crossing
the border at Macau we saw many people who were absolutely destitute.
It was explained at the time that many were citizens of other provinces
who had come to try and escape across the border to freedom in Macau
and Hong Kong. Being citizens of other provinces they did not have
citizenship papers making them eligible for work and, therefore,
became beggars to support themselves. Having seen this I expected
to see more poverty as we traveled through China, but that wasn't
the case. It's obvious that, for the average Chinese, the standard
of living is much lower than in the States, but there wasn't much
evidence of what I'd call poverty. It was also rare to see beggars
in the streets as we'd seen before. The only place I remember seeing
beggars during the entire trip was after we lunched at the dumpling
restaurant and went to board our bus. We were inundated by beggars
and dollar people. Many of the beggars were mothers carrying horribly
deformed children and, as you walked by, they would thrust the babies
into your view. You couldn't help but feel terrible seeing such
unfortunate beings. We were told by the tour guide that there were
public assistance programs for such people.
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With
our tummies full we boarded the bus and headed to the airport for
our flight to Guilin, our last stop in Mainland China before heading
to Hong Kong. Join us on the next page for pictures of our cruise
down the Li River and of its magnificent limestone peaks ... |
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