Beijing and Xian, China
Larissa and I were
traveling on our own, but Larissa had been to China twice before and has friends
in all the cities we visited. We booked most of our flights through a travel
agent (some had to be booked in China -- Larissa's friends were very helpful),
found hotels on line (all very inexpensive and very nice), took a couple of day
tours arranged through our hotels (Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors), and got
everywhere else either by cab (incredibly inexpensive, as is everything in
China, and usually readily available) or foot.
China is close to being
overwhelming. The cities are HUGE -- both in population and area. Many also have
a very long and interesting history, with ancient buildings and monuments
side-by-side with skyscrapers, malls, and neon lights. I'm used to
European-scale cities, in which everything is closer than it looks on the map.
In China, everything is further away – much further away. Even the ancient
precincts of the cities are vast.
Our first stop was
Beijing, where we did all the obligatory touristy things -- climbed the Great
Wall (immense and impressive -- amazing in how it snakes along the tippy tops of
mountain ridges that appear inaccessible), saw the Ming Tombs and Spirit Way
(wonderful), visited the Forbidden City (endless but beautiful halls, pavilions,
and temples), Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace. We went to Beihai Park early
one Saturday morning, where we saw people practicing tai chi, others dancing
with swords or fans and scarves, even a gentleman writing calligraphy on the
sidewalk with a giant brush and dirty water. We got to the Lama Temple, still in
use, and watched worshippers spinning prayer wheels and lighting incense. We
went on a hutong tour -- a hutong is an old neighborhood consisting of
single-story courtyard houses. They're rapidly being torn down, all the more
quickly because the Olympics are coming to Beijing in 2008 and there's a huge
amount of new construction in progress.
Xian - Teracotta Soldiers in situ
We went to Xian next,
in order to see the Terracotta Army. It's wonderfully displayed -- 3 huge
pavilions erected over the pits in which the warriors were found and to which
they are being returned as they're restored. The statues are fabulous -- 6,000
life-sized soldiers, archers, charioteers, etc., each with individualized
features. There is also a wonderful archaeological museum in Xian.
Xian has a significant
Moslem population -- one night we walked through an arch in the Drum Tower and
emerged on a street scene that could have been mistaken for an Arab bazaar had
it not been for the Chinese writing and Chinese tchatkes for sale. It was a
crowded smoky street, lined with tables with goods for sale and stalls
barbecuing food -- hundreds of skewers at a time. Off on a side street is a
mosque, except the mosque looks just like a Chinese temple right down to having
a pagoda for the minaret. In Xian I went to change money in a bank and the clerk
used an abacus to figure out the exchange rate.
Mimi Santini-Ritt
2004