Xian (14th October 2015)

It was warrior day for us. First a terracotta warrior factory, where for a price, you could get a life size warrior with your own facial likeness.

Then we got to the tourist magnet: The Terracotta Warriors Museum. Here's the main dig.

And there were about 6000 of these warriors visiting on the day we were there. The buffet lunch was plundered.

The Muslim Quarter of Xian was a buzz.

Shui Jiao dumpling banquet! In a theatre, followed by Tang-y music and dance.

Xian (13th October 2015)

Our transport from Beijing to Xian was an overnight train. It was during this journey that we tried to revive the fad of planking - lying flat on structures that were never intended for humans to lie on. We managed to get some sleep anyway and woke up as fresh and lively as terracotta warriors.

First stop: Xian city walls.
It was here that we got a taste of the true Chinese city air quality. Beijing had been fairly clear (as you can see in the photos). Xian got a number of our tour group coughing.

Next stop: Shaanxi Provincial Museum
Here be warriors. More tomorrow.

Fancy digs for a meal.

It's at night that Xian really shines. We took the optional night tour.

 No, we didn't taste Mr Prawn's Holy Soup.

We saw Sun Wukong in a shopping centre. Maybe going from Beijing to Xian could be considered a Journey to the West?

This was the main reason we went into that shopping centre: a ceiling full of LEDs dynamically displaying shiny stuff (and some adverts too).

Sculptures, sculptures, and more sculptures. And all the pillars were wrapped in bright LED displays with ever-changing patterns.

The city walls showed up in a different light too.

Beijing (12th October 2015)

Today we got a dose of home cooking in Beijing. To get there we walked past shops, some surprising,

and then took rickshaws.

I noticed a different type of doorbell as we entered the home:

After the meal, we had a celebrated guest to give a show and tell: a cricket trainer.

Gambling on cricket fighting is illegal, but that doesn't stop huge sums of money changing hands. We didn't see a fight, but we did see a few sturdy crickets.

As a bonus, we had a demonstration of a Chinese Zither.

In the afternoon we visited the Temple of Heaven and relaxed in the gardens.

A garden of rocks, or alien pods. You decide.

In the late afternoon we stopped off at the street of cunning calligraphers - or at least a street where every second shop was selling calligraphy brushes and paraphernalia (I think it was called Liulichang).

Beijing (11th October 2015)

On the way to the Wall, we got to see a little of Beijing's architecture from the bus.

Some of the construction from the Olympics has not stood the test of time:

It was a lovely day for wall climbing.

Our tour guide told us that we would not be true men until we had climbed the wall (probably quoting Mao, but don't quote me).

There's a lot of steps up there. How much of a man do I really want to be?

Argh! I'm up on the wall and I forgot to bring a padlock. How will my marriage last?

Hmmm. Nice view from up here. Could man-up further. Could go back down and have a coffee with Lyn. Decisions.

Next stop: The Jade Factory

Interesting job for the trainee jade carver: carving holes in spheres in holes in spheres in ...
Apparently these balls are good for holding your family together.

Nice bath toy here. I wonder how well it floats.
Ooh, a dragon turtle! I like dragon turtles.

Next: a romp in the park at the Summer Palace.

And any covered walkway you can build, I can build longer.

After that, we had the acrobatics show - including a large spherical cage for motorbikes to ride around in. Impressive to watch; not so good for getting happy snaps with a phone camera.

Beijing (10th October 2015)

Today the tour started in earnest. Everybody onto the tourist bus.

As expected for a tour like this, ages ranged from late 40s to mid 70s, with a lot of retirees.

First stop: Tiananmen Square.

 

Lyn was always an attraction, particularly when the sun was catching the colours in her hair.

Me - just another foreigner.

There were some special floral constructions - garden models of the great wall. Seemed designed to invite hoards of foreigners in rather than keep them out.

Next stop: Out the back of the square to The Forbidden City

Their designers and builders knew how to do defenses, how to create vast open spaces for assembling thousands of soldiers,

how to make ornate eves using the same pattern over and over, and how to guard their buildings with little figurines to ward off the spirits (and tell the commoners how special the house owner was),

how to make big chamber water pots in case of fire,

how to make awesome dragon turtle statues, but...

really...
garden design?
Let's just take these wobbly eroded rocks that someone dredged up from the bottom of a river and make them a garden feature. Yeah, that'd be really cool!

Final stop for the day: The Red Theatre.

It's a story about a boy delivered to a monastery and turned into a Kung Fu master. That sounds really cool until you think about it in terms of the current investigations into abuse within religious schools.
Good performance, though. Some interesting percussion.

Beijing (9th October 2015)

After a long flight and a slow drive from the airport in Beijing morning traffic, we wandered the streets near our hotel. The gardens along this street weren't exactly immaculate.

Here we see the care and attention to detail of Chinese calligraphy as applied to communications cabling. Note how the ornamental loops and swirls appear almost chaotic, yet still reflect nature's order.

I'm not sure there's anywhere in Beijing where you can't see scaffolding or cranes in some direction.

We didn't do much on that first day - poked our noses into little convenience shops, learned how to avoid being honked at by scooters, etc. Call it settling in to a different culture.

Excuses

Due to various problems with intermittent internet connections and Google Blogger's dodgy editing interface on a tablet, the initial plan to blog our Chinese tour proved too painful. Over the next few days I'll add pictures and comments.