Silk Road Highlights

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Silk Road Highlights

So since I fell so far behind on blogging I'm gonna give you guys the highlights of the silk road in favor of getting to the more recent stuff. As always, check out the pics.

Xi'an
We arrived in Xi'an at 9:20AM via our 20hr train ride. I felt relatively rested despite my 6AM TaiChi wake up all. We took a quick bus ride to the hotel, which was really central, and had lunch on our own.

Historical Context: Xi'an
Unlike our previous 2 towns, Dunhuang and Jiayuguan, Xi'an exists for much more than just the sites around it. Xi'an served as capital to 11 dynasties over a period of 4,000 years, mostly notably the Western Zhou (11th century BC - 771BC), Qin (221BC - 206BC), Western Han (206BC - 24AD), and Tang (618 - 907). So, needless to say, there's a lot of history here. Actually, in one respect anyway, its similar to Rome. They started a subway a few years ago, and are having a lot of difficulty getting any where with it because everytime they start somewhere they unearth remains of the city from the past 4,000 years. Nowadays Xi'an is still capital to the Shaanxi Province, and host to 8 million people (a medium sized city by Chinese standards).

After settling into the hotel and grabbing some lunch we were off the bike the city wall. Xi’an’s city wall is unique in that it has been completely preserved. At 14km (9 miles), it still completely surrounds the inner most part of the city. Anyway, we walked over and up to the top of the wall as a group of about 20 or so and rented our bikes. It was a pretty leisurely ride as we had an hour and a half to finish the 9 miles.

Probably the coolest thing about Xi'an were the Terracotta Warriors.

Historical context: Terracotta Warriors
Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of unified China in 221bc. He feared death so much that he spent much of his life after unifying China seeking immortality. He also believed that death was a continuation of life on earth, so he had his mausoleum contructed. It was 22,000 square meters and housed 8,000 lifesize warriors and horses, thus the Terracotta warriors were created. Most of the people who created the tomb and those who knew of its location were burried alive with the emperor to preserve the secret. This was affective, as the tomb was not discovered until March 1974. Much of the tomb still has not been unearthed because there is no current technology to effectively preserve the contents of the tomb.

We were actually lucky enough to meet the farmer who happened upon the tombs while digging a well. He worked since then to help publish a book on the warriors and was having a book signing the day we were there. I was lucky enough to get the book signed. Woohoo!

They also sell replica warriors at the museum. They are made exactly like the warriors were 2,000 years ago and take a total of one month to make. I bought one thats about 2 feet tall. Check him out:



Shaolin Monastery: Luoyang
Yes, the same Shaolin that produced Jet Li and Jackie Chan. It's known world wide for it's training in martial arts and that definitely showed when we were there. It was pretty toursity, but there were a couple things that made it worth it. First was the Pagoda Forest. The Pagoda Forest is a collection of pagodas, each one dedicated to a monk who led a disguished life at the monestary. The other was, of course, the Shaolin Kunfu show! Words can't really describe what that was like so make sure you check out the pics!

Longmen Grottoes: Luoyang
The longman grottoes were really cool because, unlike the Mogoa Caves, or "the cave of a thousand buddhas," we were allowed to take pictures!

Historical context: Longmen Grottoes
The longmen grottoes are a series of 2345 caves with 2800 inscriptions, 43 pagodas, and over 100,000 Buddhist impages. Construction began in 316AD. In 2000 the area was listed as an UNESCO World Heritage site. According to UNESCO, the grottoes are "...the perfection of a long-established art form which was to play a highly significant role in the cultural evolution of this region of Asia"

Thats pretty much all that can be said.. they were fascinating. Here's a pic to give you a little taste:



We finished our 12 day trip with Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia.

Mongolian Grasslands
Everyone was really excited about getting to stay in a Mongolian Ger with a host family. It was to be the culmination of our tromp across China in our first days in China. Unfortunately, we were in for a bit of a disapointment. The Gers were actually on the grasslands, which was really cool.. but it was a resort. Granted, not your traditional resort (there was no running water in the rooms), but we did have two beds and a TV placed in a modernized Ger. We also didn't get to stay with a family, but with our roommates instead. So, our first impression was pretty negative, but things perked up quickly. We started with a visit to "Obo" which was a Shamanism Altar. Traditional Mongolia didn't have any modern organized religions, but they did have Shamanism. Shmanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spiritual world. Groups of people would generally have a "Shaman" who could do this for them. That's the quick and dirty. Anyway, we got to check out an Altar. We were given white scarves upon our arrival to the grasslands and were now told that if we walked around the altar 3 times then tied our scarf to it then we could make a wish. Most of us did it, although i'm pretty sure I walked around four times.. so maybe i countered any wish i might have made.

Anyway, the Shaman Altar was cool. We had a couple hours to kill before the "Mongolian Wrestling and Horse Race," so we did what anyone would do: threw down some ultimate frisbee in the grasslands. The only problem there was that the grass was littered with horse droppings. We picked oura seemingly safe place (actually using the bigger droppings as sideline markers) and played. One enthusiastic person we were playing with (*cough* jeff) dove for a frisbee.. directly into a pile of shit. He slid through it starting from his chest down. Luckily most of it was dry.. so it wasn't TOO bad. :-P

After frisbee it was time for the horse race. We all lined up in anticipation. We were sitting there talking while they ran in circles, assumably warming up. We looked up to see them returning the horses the the stable and asked what was going on. We were informed that that was the race. They ran in circles a fair distance away from us and called it good. For most part we laughed it off, attributing it to one more thing in China we may never understand. Next came the wrestling. This is one thing that followed through. Not really because of the wrestling with the mongolians.. they actually didn't really take it seriously and quit almost immediatly. What was fun is we got to put on the armor they wore and wrestle each other. This lasted for about 45minutes until dinner.. and the pictures are definitely worth checking out. Here's a little preview of my match:



Dinner was one of the most unique I've had in China thus far. This is probably because along with the standard fried rice, steamed vegitables, and tea, a whole lamb was served. That's right.. the whole thing, on a plate. Well, rather on a cart. We did a little ceremony where we elected a king and queen to take the first bite including 3 bowls of Bijiou (like vodka, but 60% alcohol and tastes TERRIBLE). After their 3 BOWLS of Bijiou, we were allowed to begin the feast. We were each served different parts of the lamb. The meat I got was indistinguishable, but it was damn good.

After dinner we had a Bonfire party. I can't imagine a better way to finish our trip. It began with some traditional Mongolian performances. One, with a "horse head instrument" and electric keyboard in the background was especially cool. Another one was a 15 minute dance where a girl had 4 bowls stacked on top of each other on her head for the length of the performance. Next, a few people from my group had arranged to give a couple performances. By far the funniest and most interesting was probably the impromptu "Soldier Boy" dance we did. The performance we gave was pretty standard, but what was so cool is that one of the Mongolian dancers joined in, having never seen the dance before, learned it, and improved upon it. By the end she was at the front leaving everyone else in awe. Again, for most of this the pictures will say more than the words. After the formal performances an all out dance party broke out. We hooked up an iPod to the stereo system and about half our group and all the Mongolians had a dance party. It was an incredible experience. The night ended with a group of us singing songs around a fire burning in an old barrel. It really was an unforgettable experience.

Well, that's pretty much it for the silk road. Sorry for skipping out on the details, but its time to get caught up, and we still have Shanghai to talk about!

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Silk Road Highlights