|
Day Two-Friday, April 6 (Weather today was about 70 degrees. Skies are always hazy due to air pollution.)
It was a busy day today. We started the morning with a buffet breakfast in the hotel. There were some western foods on the buffet and many Chinese options such as noodle soup, chinese vegetables, fruits, porridge and much more. It was very good. I started the day trying to learn how to use chopsticks. It takes a lot of practice.
After breakfast we headed out for the Xian city wall tour. Xian is the oldest city in China and is called the ancient city. Xian means "western peace". During the Ming Dynasty, a wall was built around the city to protect the people from enemies. A moat was also built around the perimeter for further protection. There are four gates in the wall which was built in 1397 BC. The perimeter of the wall is 13.7 km. We went in through the Bell Tower this morning. This is one of three towers in the wall. Our group rode bikes around the perimeter of the wall. It was fascinating to see the buildings and housing inside the wall versus the modern buildings outside of the wall.
Following our bike tour we went to a hotel for a hot pot lunch. A hot pot is a small pot of water which has a small flame underneath to boil the water. In the middle of the table is a large turntable which has many bowls and plates filled with different meats, noodles, vegetables and eggs. We used our chopsticks to pick the different foods we wanted to boil for our lunch. We picked out sauces to mix together for dipping our food once it was boiled. Some of the sauces were sesame sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce (spicy), green chives, garlic, cilantro and more. Once our different foods were boiled we scooped them out with our chopsticks and dipped them in the sauce to eat. It takes quite awhile to eat with chopsticks. We had a very good dessert which was like a small donut with a sweet dipping sauce. They also gave us fresh orange slices to end the meal. The meals typically come with two types of beverages which are a light beer (from Germany) or soda products such as Pepsi or Coke. They also have water but the only water we can drink in China is bottled water.
After lunch we went on to visit the Xian History Museum which featured many artifacts from ancient dynasties. It was fascinating to see the many ancient tools they used, many statues of horses and warriors, pottery, jade and porcelain. This is a very nice museum which is rated one of the highest in the country. We then went on to the Big Goose Pagoda which is a working monastery for Buddist monks. We visited the many temples inside the monastery and saw the pagoda. The many temples have pictures and wood carvings which depict the life of the first Chinese boy who followed the Buddist ways. I believe his name was Triptaka. He left the country when he was very young to learn about Buddism. When he returned he was welcomed back with great celebration. Our guide told us that Buddism originated in India but was developed in China in the early ages.
Our evening meal took place at the New World Hotel where they have a dumpling banquet followed by a Tang Dynasty music and dancing show. Our meal once again featured a turntable filled with bowls of items as our first course. These items included a cooked mushroom which is very thin, tofu-like noodles, green vegetables (I'm unsure of the name), shredded chicken. This was followed by 21 different types of chinese dumplings. The dumplings is like a small pasta with different fillings which are then pinched together and steamed. These dumplings were formed in many shapes like a pig face, monkey face, fish, peacock, and others. The dumplings had different fillings such as ham, pork, sea grass, vegetables, cabbage, seafood, shrimp and more. Again, we created a sauce for dipping our dumplings from chili sauce, vinegar and soy sauce. Our dessert was a small walnut shaped ball which was filled with a sweet paste and orange slices. The music and dancing show was very beautiful. There were many male and female dancers in traditional costumes from the Tang Dynasty era. The males dressed in warrior costumes and were very athletic. The females had beautiful costumes with flowing ribbons of color. There were many greens, blues, pinks and reds. We had a special treat as we were seated in the front row for our meal and the show.
Our night finished with the ride back to the hotel. We are still adjusting to the time difference and recovering from a bit of jet lag. We will have another full day tomorrow.
| 
