Leaving this town, our mode of transport was a medium-sized boat which took us across Lake Taihu to Suzhou. This is also a canal town but its popularity is due to the many gardens that have been developed here. In China, a garden is not just flowers and shrubs. They use buildings, pavilions, lakes, streams, rocks, trees, plants, and flowers and lay them out very carefully in a pattern designed to insure tranquility for the visitor. Many of these gardens are hundreds of years old.
One of the best was The Master of the Nets garden, where we attended an evening performance. Here Chinese artists perform musical acts from opera, play classical Chinese music on flute and guitar, do humorous interpretations, play Chinese folk music on various Chinese instruments, and do Chinese dancing, all in beautiful costumes and set in various parts of the garden.
Suzhou is also the place where silk was developed and is still an important product here today. At the silk museum we saw silkworms and cocoons, displays on silk history, as well as many of the early looms, and of course, had the chance to purchase silk items at the gift shop.
Our next stop, Luoyang, is famous for the Longmen Grottoes. The digging and carving of these grottoes began around 494 AD and now there are over 2100 caves and upwards of 100,000 carved statues, mostly Buddhas, in these niches. Many of them are very small, but some are over 100 feet tall and are carved into the side of cliffs. Near here we visited the cave dwelling of a 90 year old woman who has lived in a cave for most of her life. Caves are cool in summer and warm in winter, and hers was very clean and had regular furniture in it. According to the Lonely Planet guide, over 100 million Chinese still live in caves!
Nearly everyone has heard of the terra cotta warriors and visiting Xi’an, close to where they are located, was a highlight of our trip. In 1974, some men digging a well brought up a terra cotta head. Excavation began and to date over 6000 terra cotta warriors have been unearthed.
They were constructed during the reign of Emperor Qin Shihuang starting in the year 246 BC, for his mausoleum. He wanted an army to accompany him into the afterlife. Unfortunately, most of them were in pieces when unearthed because the protective roof and walls of wood had been burned by invaders who discovered the tomb and stole many of the weapons, then torched the place.
All of this is dramatically presented in a surround-view movie which you see prior to visiting the actual pits where the army is located. The warriors are life-size, have solid legs and hollow bodies, and no two faces are alike – each is a personal portrait. They used to be brightly painted, but that has worn off. There are also cavalry and war chariots, complete with horses.
Everywhere there are signs saying that photographs are not permitted, and Jacqui said that she has seen guards yank the film right out of the cameras of people who violated the rule. Yet, when we were there, Chinese people were taking pictures right and left, practically posing next to the guards! So we asked them, and they said we could take pictures too.
Xi’an has the largest, most complete, restored city wall in China. It was built in the Ming Dynasty and is over 40 feet across at the top and 9 miles around the perimeter. It affords marvelous views of the city. Additionally, Xi’an has a large Muslim population and the Great Mosque is an interesting place to visit. We found the Muslim quarter to be one of the best places in China to buy souvenirs and gifts. Beautiful things such as cloisonne vases cost less than four dollars!
The night market has delicious and inexpensive food which is different than other places. We ate at a place where a “hot pot”, a big metal bowl of broth, is placed in a hole in the middle of your table and a propane burner is ignited underneath it. Then you select skewers of seafood, meat and vegetables and cook them in the hot broth, dipping them in a sauce before eating. Another night we had delicious noodles mixed with chopped meats and veggies in a succulent broth, with barbequed skewers of beef and lamb on the side. Xi’an is also famous for its wide variety of dumplings.
You would think with all this great food we ate that we would have been blimps by our return to the US, but Chinese food is so healthful that we actually lost a few pounds. The Chinese people themselves all look wonderfully fit and seem very healthy.
