Emperor's Tomb, Fa Men Temple, Stone Tablet Forest

Today, we start off early to visit Qian Ling (乾陵）. Our tour guide in Beijing used to say the following: "Beijing has lots of castles, Shanghai has lots of heads, Xi'an has lots of tombs（北京城头多，上海人头多，西安坟头多）". So Qian Ling is just one of many tombs located near Xi'an. Of all the tombs around Xi'an, we chose this tomb because it is the only tomb where 2 emperors are buried together. One is Li Zhi(李治） and the other is his wife, the only emperor in Chinese history, Wu Ze Tian(武则天）.

The tomb was never excavated, so the only thing to see is the spirit path (神道）and the stone statues along the path. Compare to the spirit path in Ming tomb in China, this seems shorter. The statue are mostly that of Weng Zhong(翁仲） and has less variety compare to those in Ming tomb. The highlight was of course there are 2 stone tablets, one for each emperor. Also the pair of stone lions did not have male/female distinction. It seems like the male/female lion distinctions are made only in later dynasties.

Also, there are a group of 61 headless statues around the tomb. These were statue of emperors of nearby, smaller nations. The details on the statues are worn out by erosion, so it was not a good judge of the skills and technique of Tang craftsmanship.

We have a quick lunch in one of the roadside farm house. We saw stores like this on our previous trip to China, but I am always wary of eating at these restaurant, for fear of their hygiene standard. This one is kept pretty clean. The food is considered peasant food, which consist mainly of vegetables and tofu. Most are slightly spicy and quite good. The finishing touch is a spinach noodle soup with dice meat (哨子面）which is excellent!

In the afternoon, we visited Fa Men Temple(法门寺). This temple was a royal temple, and has gotten famous in recent years for the discover of Buddha's bone(舍利子) in the hidden section of it pagoda. The entire temple isn't all the big, nor was it grand. The hidden section of the pagoda was small(I guess that's how it stayed hidden:), and not really too much to look at. Finally, the real Buddha's bone is not display on site! It is stored elsewhere for save keeping. I can understand the rationale, but essentially we came all this way for nothing!

From the temple, we headed back to Xi'an for Stone Tablet Forest(碑林). Some of you know that I have been writing Chinese calligraphy for almost 6 years now, so this place totally make my day! Famous tang calligraphers like Yan Zhen Qing(颜真卿），Ou Yang Xiu(欧阳询), Chu Xiu Liang(褚遂良）, Yu Shi Nan(虞世南) are all represented. Many of the works I have studied about in class, but seeing them in person was a touching moment. For me, it is like kid in a candy shop, there is just not enough time to see everything! We also saw some of the workers there printing of stone tablets. While it is not new to me, others have not actually seen stone tablet printing and was quite intrigue.

After dragging me away from Stone Tablet Forest, we had dinner at Xi'an Sunshine Lido Theater. The other famous Xi'an dish: Dumplings dinner（饺子宴）is being served, followed by a Tang dynasty inspired music and dance performance.

The dumpling dinner consist of about 20 different types of dumplings, each with different filling, some sweet, some savory. The wait person told us we do not need condiments, but frankly, I think the specialty dumplings are somewhat over rated. The skin is hard and the taste not distinctive. Sweet dumpling is an interesting twist, but not great either.

The simple dumplings served after the specialty dumplings are better, juicy filling, thin skin. I suspect the specialty dumpling is such a tourists draw that they really do not take too much care making them.

The performance is quite good, some dance, Chinese music performance and some acrobatic/ juggling moves. Sort of like a Vegas show, but with less variety and smaller scale.

Overall, a good day! The first 2 attractions are probably not worth the time. Unless one is a devoted Buddhist, I would advise skipping Fa Men Temple. Ditto Qian Ling, especially if one has visited Ming Tomb near Beijing.