The Fritz Family in China: Thursday in Xi'an

Well, we caught a little nap, got showed and ate breakfast. Now it is time to head out into Xi'an. Xi'an is an ancient city, still surrounded by a city wall. It was the capital of 13 of 24 of the dynasties in China. It is a very cold and rainy day here. Before heading out, we did our morning ritual of gathering around the computer and checking emails.

We met Sherri and Lina in the lobby and they had umbrella's ready for us, and we all put on our warm coats. We were headed out to walk on the city wall.

The wall has 4 major towers one on each cardinal direction (East, West, North and South). Each tower had a different purpose. One was for the archers (it had a bunch of windows where they could shoot arrows at the enemy, and another was for administration, etc.) Along the wall they had Ramparts...little towers where guards could be stationed. They were 120m apart. This is because an archer could shoot an arrow 60m - so they could get the bad guys from both sides. Inside the archer tower their were Fung Shua experts talking about the Chinese beliefs in how they placed their buildings would bring them could fortune.

It was very interesting...he talked about how each building should face east and have water in front and a mountain in back. Since that is not possible for every building and certainly in big cities, they have other ways of bringing good Fung Shua. That is why you see the big lions or dragon statues at the entrance to buildings for example (we call them foo dogs, they call them lions. There is a male and female.

The female has a baby lion under its paw and the male a ball to show dominance of the world. The Fung Shua expert showed us a dragon (he had another name for it that I don't remember) that was for good Fung Shua. He showed us that you are supposed to rub its ears (to show you are friendly and you are its owner and command it), you rub down around his beard, then his paws along his wings then you rub his butt and put the good luck in your pocket.

Sherri pointed out a lot of the ornate detail on the buildings. I'm not sure I caught everything she was telling me, but if you look at the end of the round roof beams, you see eye's painted on them. That is for protection. Those are the eyes of the Phoenix that are always watching and protecting the wall (...they never have lost the concept of someone always watching...kinda a creepy).

They had replicas of old weapons along the wall as well as Pepsi vendors. You could rent bikes and ride the full 9km of the wall...but it was too cold and rainy today. We decided is was too cold and rainy to go to the Muslim market. Lina and Sherri were both so cold they were shaking (it really wasn't too bad out...but neither one of them have any meat on their bones. They're both tiny). I decided that Chinese people are NOT skinny because of what they eat (they have been stuffing us full of delicious food). They are skinny because all they do is ride bikes and climb steps...if they would just stop smoking they'd be great. Sherri suggested that we go to the Xi'an History Museum (it was indoors!).

So we hopped in the van and took a short ride to this very nice complex. All the buildings were replicas of the style from the Tang dynasty..we learned that this dynasty was sort of their Renaissance period. Lots of great art, music and culture came from this period. (I want to say it was about 500 - 990AD but I'm not sure...I got confused with all the names and dates).

As you enter the museum, there is an enormous lion (foo dog). It is very impressive facility. Also, you enter where the gift shop is with some of the most exquisite items in it (funny, they got this capitalism thing down just like in the States). We saw some very cool things. I must admit, this was a very well done museum. One of my favorite items was a small tiger. The emperor and his key generals would issue orders using this little figurine of a tiger. The orders were written on it (Chinese characters read top to bottom left to right). The tiger is in two halves.

The troops were ordered to not follow any orders unless they were shown both halves of the tiger (this is a lot like our nuclear submarines where the captain and the XO independently verify the orders given to their ship for authentication...pretty cool that these guys did something like this so long ago). It makes sense, if you are the emperor and you want to make sure no generals start giving rogue orders to over throw you, this would be a good method. As Sherri was explaining this to me, I got confused. The tiger looked like it was whole. So I was asking how it comes apart. She got a puzzled look on her face and said this is only half...I looked confused because I assumed the tiger was split front and back (you know, head is one half tail the other). She said this is already split...only one half is there. It dawned on me the tiger was split down the middle (left half, right half). I got this knowing look on my face and said "Oh, it splits down the middle." She looked at me, and I swear she was thinking..."what a twit!" She was cute, she took us through all the exhibits and was very knowledgeable about Chinese history. Clearly, they are very proud of the Tang dynasty.

Another very cool object was the wine goblet that the emperors would drink from. These guys were so paranoid that someone was out to get them, when they had a banquet no one could sit by them. This created a problem for the servants. They needed to keep his cup full. So one enterprising friend of the emperor said you should create a cup with "two mushrooms on it". Notice the two little mushroom shapes sticking up. When the emperor drinks, the servant can see from a distance how close the "mushrooms" are to his face. If they get close, its time to refill the cup.

Lina got very excited when she pointed out one of the signs in the Qin dynasty (the first dynasty that united China). The sign is the symbol for "Ma" or horse. As you might remember, Maggie's Chinese name is Ma Hong Wen. Ma is her "family" name and it means horse. This plaque was showing how under the Qin dynasty the emperor united all the names. This shows there were numerous writings and families under "Ma" or horse. He decided on the one true "definition" and that is what this sign shows. The symbol at the top is the old Chinese character for "Ma".

We got a chance to get back to the hotel for a brief nap before heading to dinner and a show. Xi'an is famous for their dumplings. We were supposed to go make dumplings, but Sherri told us that this is high season and it is too crowded. So we were just going to eat them. We got a chance to take a nap. Unfortunately, we were so tired we slept passed our time and Lina had to call us to wake us up...we had to rush down stairs. We got to this very fancy restaurant. It was in the same building as the show. The ladies that greet your were very dressed up and were wearing long purple coats that were beautiful. We got a table for five (Lina and Sherri ate somewhere else...not sure why). Then they started bringing the dumplings...and bringing them...and bringing them. There was every kind under the sun. We got completely stuffed. It was good that the kids got to try some very interesting variety. There was hand made, home made, fried, steamed, you name it.

After we ate, we went to see the show about the Tang dynasty (remember, the one that is associated with all the art, music, etc.) It was well done. It was in a dinner theater setting, much like in Las Vegas (except the girls had tops on). The featured performer was a nationally known figure who played an ancient instrument. It looked like the pan flute. His big number was playing a tune written for an emperor in the Tang dynasty. During his ceremony for ascending the thrown, a group of orioles flew over. He commission the musicians to write a song commemorating this. This is the piece that he performed. It was really a very cool show.