Opera at the Ballpark

The San Francisco Opera had done a few of these simulcast now. Last year, I went to their simulcast at Stanford for "Rigoletto". This year, they hold a similar event at AT&T park, call "Opera at the Ballpark", showing "Samson and Delilah" on the jumbotron.

This is actually my first trip inside AT&T park. Compare to the other parks which I have been to(I have been to Wrigley Field, Jack Murphy Stadium and Tiger Stadium), this stadium is very new. It shows in the floor and seats. They are clean!

The weather was fairly cold. In fact, on my way to the stadium, part of 280 was actually raining! Luckily, the stadium was designed to shield the audience from the wind, so sitting through the opera was not a near death experience:)

I choose a seat about 20 rows behind home plate. One could have also sit on the field, but, I wanted a little more comfort:) The resolution of the wide screen jumbotron is quite impressive. From where I was sitting, I felt like I was watching my regular television(which is not HD) at home.

The opera itself is enjoyable enough. I sort of know the story of "Samson and Delilah", but am not familiar with the music. Acoustics at the ballpark is also not very good, but that is understandable.

Most people were there to enjoy themselves. I saw people circling the bases even while the performance was going on! The opera staff had handed out signs that say "Go Samson" and "Go Delilah" on either sides to the audience during the simulcast. Then, when there was any hint of physical contact between Samson and Delilah, people was holding up the sign and cheering! It was quite funny!

All in all, a enjoyable experience.

Last day of vacation

I woke up today with a mild hang over. I normally do not drink and certainly overdid it the night before:(

P offered a simple breakfast of granola bars and we sat around chatting again. For some reason, we started talking about calligraphy. It gave him an idea. He suggested I can go visit Guo Zi Jian(国子监）. According to P, this is the highest level of education one can receive from the Qing dynasty imperial court. I think of it as the Qing dynasty grad school:) P figure there might be some stone tablets of calligraphy there which I will enjoy.


Guo Zi Jian is right next to Kong temple(孔庙） which I had visit on my previous trip to Beijing. I must have arrive on a bad day, since everything at Guo Zi Jian is under construction. Much to my disappointment, there wasn't really much to see. The only stone tablet I found was one by Zhao Men Fu(赵孟頫）. I am not even sure if it is an orignal, since the stone tablet is not protect at all, someone had taken the liberty of carving some random lines onto the stone tablet:( After about half an hour at Guo Zi Jian, I am pretty much done! P had suggested having lunch at a vegetarian place across the street from Guo Zi Jian call Xu Siang Zhai(叙香斋). An excellent choice! They were serving a buffet lunch of all vegetrain items, with various faux meat and fish. I regretted not taking any photos, but the food look so real! The buffet had almost 50-60 varieties of food, including sushi, congee, dumplings, soups and deserts. The food is not overly season, which is a rarity in Chinese vegetarian cuisine and I enjoy it very much.

After lunch, it was time to head home to P, and from there, catch a cab to the airport for my flight home.

This silk road trip is definitely a blast. The highlight were the terracotta Warriors and Dun Huang Murals. During the couple of days where we traveled with the tour group, we certainly did not eat as much good, local food as I would prefer, but overall, it has not been to shabby too. Our tour guides and the locals we met were all very friendly and I had a really good time.

Beijing

Arrive in Beijing from Xin Jiang at about 1pm. Went to Pingod apartments where my cousin P stays. After catching up a little, we decided to take a walk in Ritan.

We had a beer to welcome me to Beijing at a Germany restaurant in ritan business park. Then walk around the park a little. Ritan is not like Tiantan, which is very touristy, but it does have some ancient ruins. It feels like a park which the locals used for their recreation activities. P has taken on rock climbing rather seriously, and the park has a climbing wall, so this is his regular hangout.

We stop by Xiu Shui Street (秀水街） after our walk in Ritan. I really did not have much to buy, but figure I could use a new sports watch. There are some sporty looking fake Nike and Reebok watches, but none of them has lap timer feature. The sales person complaint I am being difficult. "These are all fakes!", she exclaims. I had imagined the fake watches would have all the features of their real counterparts, but implementing lap timer feature on a fake must be too costly:)

Dinner was at Lao Beijing Luju Huo Shao (老北京卤煮火烧） in Jinbao street（金宝街）. P informed me the food here is very authentic. There were several taxi-cabs parked outside the restaurants, and the cabbies were all inside having dinner.

We started with 4 cold dishes: Xin Li Mei carrot skins（心里美萝卜皮）, Century eggs with tofu（皮蛋豆腐）, napa cabbage with yellow wasabi（芥辣白菜墩） and ma tofu（麻豆腐）. Then 2 bowls of Luju（卤煮）. Then got adventurous and order huo shao donkey meat（火烧驴肉）, served in shao bing, plus dog aspic（狗肉冻）. Wash everything down with Red Star Er Wo Tou(红星二窝头）.

Xin Li Mei carrot skins is a pickled carrot skin. The carrot skin is a special type of carrot with green skin on the outside, and a pinkish skin on the inside, sliced thinly. The pickling is not too tart and the vegetable is still quite crunchy. Pretty good dish.

Napa cabbage with yellow wasabi is exactly what is being described. The cabbage has been pickled with a yellowish liquid and pack quite a punch. Good on days where allergies is serious:)

Comparatively, century egg with tofu is a very normal dish. Good, but normal. Soft tofu is slice then soy sauce and sesame oil is poured over the tofu. It is then topped with century egg. A good contrast in texture and flavor between the mild taste of tofu and century egg. I might try to recreate that dish at home.

Ma tofu is the fermented soy bean residue left over from making tofu or soy milk, stir fried with diced spicy dried chili pepper. I enjoy the texture of the dish and the spicy aroma of the fired chili pepper. Again, another dish difficult to recreate due to lack of soy bean residue.

Luju is a bowl of pig's intestines, five spice tofu and pieces of flour, cooked in a flavorful broth. I cannot really make out what the exact ingredients of the broth, but do taste some fulu (腐乳) . Very satisfying soup base. I think I end up drinking more soup then eating the intestines.

Donkey meat is a little unusual. It is quite soft, but not melt in your mouth soft. There is still some texture in the meat, but no stringiness. There is no strong donkey flavor(whatever that would be...), but it was clearly not chicken, beef, lamb or pork. I don't know if I consider it good enough to order again.

Comparatively, dog aspic has a dog like smell to it...in a bad way. I did not like this dish at all. It is my first taste of dog meat and besides saying I have eaten dog, I really cannot recommend the dish to anyone. Probably it is the preparation, and an acquired taste, but not a dish I will ordered again.

After dinner we had a drink at Q Bar. The owners: Echo and George, were bar tenders at Long Cafe, where we had drinks 2 years ago on my last visit to Beijing. I like the atmosphere of the bar and am a sucker for roof top garden. I have 3 special grape martini, which is not too sweet and got quite drunk.

A good break from the rather hectic silk route travel schedule. I like going to museums and visit natural scenery on my vacation, but just catching up with family/friends is fun too.

Urumuqi

Our final stop on silk route is Urumuqi. The attraction in Xin Jiang is mostly its natural beauty. The first stop is South Mountain Ranch（南山牧场）, where we visit a working Kazakh yurts. We are served a salty tea drink and some fried snacks. The tea must be an acquired taste, since I did not enjoy it too much. The fried snacks were pleasant enough, but the weather is cold and the food cool down too much, making it taste greasy.

But we were not just here for food. The travel agency has also arrange for us to witness some other activities: horse racing, courtship on horseback and sheep football. Horse racing, as the name suggested is kids racing their horses. The riders are all in their teens, with the youngest as young as 6. Their horsemanship is incredible.

Courtship on horseback is another traditional event. Here a young man would follow the object of his desire on a horse ride to the far end of the field. Along the way, he can say anything he wants. On the return trip, the ladies show their true colors. If they are unhappy with anything he says, he gets a solid whipping by the ladies. On our visit, the young men could all use some help with courtship, since all of them were whipped hard by the ladies:)

The last event is football, except instead of pigskin, a sheep carcass is used. Men on horseback would wrestle each other for the sheep, and if successful wrestle the sheep from an opponent, ride a round about the field and throw the sheep into a basket. His teams will attempt to block for him, while the opponent attempt to take back the sheep, all on horseback. While there is not crash like in football, the action was fierced and the man were all very much into it.

After lunch, we visited Heavenly Mountain and Heavenly Lake(天山天池）. Again my impression of Heavenly Mountain is heavily influenced by martial art stories of Lian Yu Shen（梁羽生）. But this time, we were all greatly impress by the natural beauty of the region. Again, we rode the cable car up the mountain to heavenly lake. One thing I immediately notices is the water of Heaven lake is not as clear as I had expected. I was comparing the water to Tahoe, which is much clearer and blue in color compare to the rather muddy water of Heavenly lake. However, there are layers upon layers of mountain with a snowy peak at most remote shades of mountain, giving the area a certain romantic feel. It is not Tahoe, but certainly has its own charm.

Turpan

Today we wake up to find ourselves in a new province: Xin Jiang(新疆）. Our destination today is the fiery hot city of Turpan（吐鲁番）. But someone must have been praying to the travel gods. We got lucky! The high was only 29 deg C!

We arrive at Turpan at about 7am Beijing time, 5 am local time. Again, the draw of a tour group our size is amazing. There was actually 2 beautiful Uygur ladies were there dancing to the drum beat of a Uygur gentleman, welcoming us at 5 in the morning!

After a quick breakfast, we set off for Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Cave（柏孜克里克千佛洞). Similar to Dun Huang, the caves are painted with Buddhist murals. Unfortunately, these murals are severely damaged and have little aesthetic value. According to our guides, the murals, if undamaged, could rival those of Dun Huang. One can only imagine...

The caves are located on the foot of Flaming Mountain(火焰山). If the name sounds familiar, it should! This is the inspiration for Flaming Mountain in "Journey to the West"（西游记）!

Now, there is of course no flames to be found in the mountain, but there is fairly unique landscape. On our next stop, we drove to a tourist center for the "most ideal photographic location for Flaming Center". Also in the center is the largest thermometer in the world.

The center is clearly milking its connection to "Journey to the West". On the walls of the corridors leading to thermometer are paintings of stories from Journey to the West.

The thermometer itself seem a little small. In fact, the one at Baker, California seems bigger! However, our tour guide keep insisting the one at Flaming Mountain made the Guinness Book of World Record. She's cute, so I decided to let it slide:)

The weather was cold enough that we were wearing jacket, but decided we need to lose it while taking pictures so that our friends will believe we are actually in Turpan:)

From Flaming Mountain, we went to Grape Valley(葡萄沟). This is probably the most blatant tourist trap on the entire trip! There was nothing to see except grapes hanging overhead. Having visited many vineyard in Northern California, I am just not interested.

Next, we visited a Uygur grape farm for watermelons and grapes. Again, the Uygur farmer clearly often have tour group visit. There was a long table where we all sat. On the table were Uygur hats that guys could wear and take pictures. We were served watermelon and grapes while there was a singing and dancing performance. Then we were asked to join in. Finally, the farmer ask if we are interested in tasting raisins...

He started by telling us the cheapest raisins from Xin Jiang are not fit for human consumption. Rotten raisins are soaked in chemicals or smoked by sulphur to preserve them, and then sold at a low price. Well, goods from China has been suffering from bad press lately, so I am incline to believe him:)

He then turn us on to raisins he cultivated. They are indeed quite sweet and tasty. Feeling a little guilty from the free watermelon and grapes, we decide we should buy some rasins...Sigh...I guess we fell for the oldest trick in the tour guide's book:(

After a quick lunch, we went to Jiaohe city ruins（交河故城). I usually enjoy visiting ancient relics, but the ruins here have abandon for so long that natural erosion has cause the entire city ruins to look like some random mud caves. I cannot help but recall a article by Yu Qiu Yu(余秋雨） about how fragile a city is.

The next spot requires is a large network of underground water canel call the Karez system(坷儿井). Since most of Xin Jiang is a desert, the only source of water is melting snow from the Heavenly Mountain(天山). Digging more expose canal to bring water from the mountain to Turpan is not feasible because too much water would have evaporated during transportation. Instead, underground canals were dug. According to the guide, the sum of length of all the underground canal together would exceed that of the Great Wall of China and is one of 3 ancient engineering marvel of China. It is indeed very impressive, but somehow not widely report(at least I was not aware of the Karez system before this trip).

Our final stop is at Emin Minaret(苏公塔）, a real life mosque which welcomes non-Muslim. The architecture clear is different from the Tang inspire building we have been seen through our trip, but did not have the onion shapes which we are familiar with either. The tower itself if made of bricks and has various patterns on it. Quite beautiful to look at. However, in terms of historical importance or artistic value, it cannot compared with some of the buildings we had seen thus far.

For dinner, we were treated to BBQ whole lamb(烤全羊), a Xin Jiang specialty. I know I have complained we were not able to get authentic local cuisine, but here I have to take back what I said. Given the size of our group, we were able to order 3 whole lamb. This would be difficult is I had traveled alone or even in small group. The lamb itself does not have a strong lamb smell, due to its feed. According to the tour guide, the grass in Xin Jiang has more alkaline in it, so it changes the taste of the lamb. I personally do not have a problem with the lamb smell anyway, and really enjoy the dish. The meat has a little cumin like seasoning on it, but most of the flavor comes from the lamb itself.

After dinner, we had a performance of Uygur dance/music group. This is suppose to be a professional group, but they have only 4 female dancers, 4 male dances and a band of 4 musicians. Consequently, the performers are forced to do back to back dance. I felt really bad for the dancers.

Crescent Lake, Dun Huang

This morning, we visited an attraction within Dun Huang city call "Echoing Sand Mountains, Crescent Lake". It is a somewhat interesting geological formation. According to our tour guide, the crescent shaped lake is formed due to the unique mountain formation in the area. The sand storm created a circuit pattern, just sparing the stream to form a sparking lake. The lake gets its water from melting snow atop Qi Lian mountain. Unfortunately, in recent years, due to global warming, there is less melting snow and parts of the lake appear dried.

The excursion became an excuse to play in the sand! We were encourage to slide down a rather steep sand dune. Supposedly, the echoing sand will make a loud noise. After consulting with our tour guide, he frankly tell us it is unlikely we will hear the sand. Bummer...

We also got the chance to ride a camel. The animal is fairly tame, so they walk slowly on the sand. It is still a fairly bumpy ride. I gain much more respect for ancient travellers who had relied on these animals to ferry them across the vast desert that is the silk route.

When we are in Gobi desert, the desert scenery is quite similar to the desert of Arizona. It is here at Crescent lake that we see scenery similar to those of the Sahara. While this is not a historic site, I did think it is a worthwhile stop.

In the afternoon, we went to what I consider the other most important attraction of the trip: the murals of Dun Huang at Mao Gao Caves. Our first cave is home of the North Buddha, where a large piece of rock is carved into a big Buddha from the early Tang dynasty. The entire statue is more than a few person high and is aw inspiring. The walls of the cave is covered with paintings of various scene of Buddha spreading his gospel and the surrounding disciples. All were vividly painted and the colors have survived through the ages extremely well

The second cave is home to the South Buddha. Here the craftsman has already master perspective and design carve the Buddha so that it appears even bigger than the North Buddha, which being actually shorter. The third cave is home to the sleeping Buddha. Here the Buddha is in his sleep soon before his death. His disciples are shown standing behind him, some frowning, some happy. Some of the disciples are depicted as statues and others as paintings. On the opposite wall is painting of 5000 little Buddhas. Each has its own facial expression and distinct features.

We also went to several caves from early dynasty where it was obvious the art is clearly Indian art and showing early signs of influence from Chinese art. Another highlight is the cave where the Buddhist elders had hidden their sutra from invaders. The sutra was later discovered and subsequently sold to museums from around the world.

One painting that I had especially wanted to see was the "Reverse playing of the Lute"(反弹琵琶）. Our guide told us that particular cave is too small to accommodate tourist. Sigh...

All in all though, it was a treat to see these priceless treasure. I don't usually buy souvenirs, but since we are not allow to take photos inside the caves, I broke down and bought a set of post cards of Fei Tian(飞天).

Travel to Dun Huang

After a relatively light day in Jia Yu Pass, we travel to Dun Huang(敦煌). The trip takes about 4 hours by train from Jia Yu Pass and another 2 hours along a really bumpy road by bus. Along the way, we saw a sand structure said to be remains of the Great Wall from Han dynasty.

The surrounding is the vast Gobi Desert again. It is on this trip where one starts to realize how big China is in terms of land mass...

At dinner, we were served camel's foot. The meat really has no distinct taste of camel, and I recall only it has lots of connective tissue, giving the meat a gel like chewy texture. I really can't say it is delicious, and since I do not know if camel is endangered, I cannot recommend the dish again.

We went to the local night market after dinner. It was targeted mainly towards tourists. There were skewers of lamb BBQ on the street that smells wonderful. However, wary of the hygiene standards of street vendors, we decided to pass...

Jia Yu Pass

Woke up on the train to some beautiful scenery: the snow tipped peaks of Qi Lian mountain (祁连山）sparked in the morning sun.

Today we arrive at Jia Yu Pass（嘉峪关）. Our tour group must be a big local draw, since there was an actual dance troupe welcoming us! Our tour guides said they are mainly retirees who are performing as part of their workout...but still.

The morning schedule is quite simple. We drove around Jia Yu Pass city, which is a newly created city for the nearby steel plant. Very clean and quite modern. There is a site for Ironman training/competition. Being a former distance runner, I took some picture in front of the running man statue:)

Our final stop before lunch was at the moon light glass factory. The famous Tang poet, Li Bai(李白）, once wrote: "Lovely grape wine served in Moonlight Glass, As I started drinking, the lute started playing on horse back, Do not laugh if I am drunk on the battle field, How many warriors made it back from the war?"（葡萄美酒月光杯，欲饮琵琶马上催, 醉卧沙场君莫笑，古时征战几人回） Moonlight glass was therefore forever associated with grape wine in Chinese culture.

We had all imagine moonlight glass are crystal glasses. Turns out they are made of a type of dark green color jade with speckles of impurities embedded in the stone. The jade has lots of iron in them, so the glasses can be attracted with magnet. The reason its call moonlight glass is when filled with red wine, the jade glass can be made thin enough that moonlight can shine through the glass, giving the red wine an amber color. Sigh...the real thing is never as romantic as imagination...

The main draw is the old Jia Yu Pass castle. Jia Yu Pass is west most point of the Great Wall during Ming dynasty, so it was an important outpost, and despite the harsh natural condition, the structure has survived well. The tour guide did a good job of explaining the details of the soldier's life in castle during Ming dynasty and the associated entertainment facilities, temple, offices for immigration and of course defence mechanism. A very interesting and informative tour.

The highlight was when we finally walk out the outer most castle wall. Looking west was the vast Gobi desert. Even today, one cannot see road or other man made structure all the way to the horizon. All the talk of the loneliness and uncertainty facing ancient silk route merchants as they left the confines of Jia Yu Pass suddenly seem so relevant...

Next to Jia Yu Pass is the Great Wall museum. Another relatively new museum, it does not have much in terms of collection, but did a very good job of describing the structure of Jia Yu Pass, its defences, its construction and such. A very good conclusion to our Great Wall visit.

Lanzhou

We arrive at Lanzhou after spending a night on the train from Xi'an.

Our first tourist stop is White Pagoda Temple. Frankly, not very impressive. The temple was build in Qing dynasty, so compare to buildings in Xi'an, it is REALLY modern. Also, it is not richly decorated or particularly refine. The saving grace is the view. From atop the temple located on the local hill, one can the Yellow river and both sides of Lanzhou city around it.

Ah yes, the Yellow river. Traditionally considered the birth place of Chinese culture, I finally got to see it for myself! Lanzhou city really does not have much to offer in terms of natural beauty or historical sites, but it does have the Yellow river. The city tries to milk it for all the tourist dollar it is worth.

The next attraction we visited is the "Mother of Yellow River" statue. A fine statue in its own right, but a tourists attraction? You gonna be kidding me! After the statue, we stop by a recreation of water wheel used by locals years ago to drive stone mills. The wheels are huge! More than the height of 2 person, but looked new and artificial:( We were also shown sheep skin rafts where people used to cross the Yellow river with. Since the Lanzhou stretch of the Yellow River is relatively up stream, the river is flowing very fast! I can imagine crossing the river being an interesting ride:)

The famous Lanzhou Ramen was served at lunch. We now have the disadvantage of being with a tour group. The choice of restaurant was probably made more for its capacity than for its food. The beef ramen has a slight numbing spicy kick to it, but did not have the depth of flavor that we had expected. Compare to pho, the flavor was almost too light. The noodles was handmade, but not too well. Some noodle strands are twice as thick as others! Sigh...

The afternoon's activity was a river cruise....like I say, milk it to death...Seriously, it wasn't bad, since it is early autumn and the winds were cool. There was enough sun to keep everyone nicely toasted though:) We saw people actually crossing the river on sheep skin raft, and the above mentioned White Pagoda temple, so it was quite nice. Just that I had hoped to see more historic sites on this trip.

Big Goose Tower, Shaan Xi Museum, Xi'an Museum

On our final day in Xi'an, we visit mostly museums within the city limit.

First stop is Big Goose Tower, where Tang monk went to India to get copies of the original sutra（取经） and conduct translation work. Many readers will find this story some what familiar. It is the story of "Journey to the West"(西游记）! The Tang monk is, of course, Tang San Zang（唐三藏）. No, he is not a fictional character!

Big Goose Tower is also know historically where after winning scholastic exams(考状元）, part of the celebration of the winners was to go atop Big Goose Tower and walk along Qu Jiang（游曲江）. Qu Jiang is now mostly covered up, but Big Goose Tower is still standing and one can even walk up its stairs to the top.

For me, there is an additional draw. Famous Tang calligrapher Chu Sui Liang（褚遂良）, wrote one of his most famous work, the "Goose Tower Sutra Preface"（雁塔圣教序）, which is being display at the foot of the Big Goose Tower.

From Big Goose Tower, we went to ShaanXi History Museum. We find the museum display technique a little old fashion, but it does have a lot of interesting artifacts. From Shang dynasty all the way to Tang dynasty, the collection is vast. I enjoy seeing things like tiger symbol(虎符). In ancient time, this is used as an authentication tool to verify the orders for the military, which may be stationed far away from the court, are indeed from the Emporer himself. I have only read about these artifacts in books and seeing it for the first time is quite exciting!

Unfortunately, the museum did not do a good job selling itself. While the collection is vast, they did not highlight their most valuable collection and we find the overall experience only average.

After touring ShaanXi History Museum, we went looking for a restaurant for lunch, but found most places occupied by wedding parties. Turns out Sunday was a great day for wedding base on Chinese horoscope! Also, the tradition was to have wedding celebration start before noon, so wedding lunches are especially popular.

We tried and few places and finally managed to snatch a table at Da Qing Hua（大清花）.

Da Qing Hua serves Manchurian cuisine, which is not the local cuisine for Xi'an area. However, I enjoy the food enough to talk about it. My favorite dish is sauced bone(酱大骨). Pieces of boned in pork legs are being served. The meat has been cooked in a brasing liquid, which make the thin layer of meat covering the bone "fall off the bone" tender . Disposable gloves were given to each diner to pick up the bones and eat using one's hands. The kicker is a straw used to suck the bone marrow and broth from the within bone. Delicious! Now I know why bone marrow is such a hit among chef's circle.

After lunch, we drop by Xi'an museum. Open just this year, the museum is brand new. We like the atmosphere of the museum. The floor of the main podium is a map display of Xi'an city size in different dynasty. In the ground floor is a large scale model of Chang An city in its Tang dynasty form. Both are quite impressive! The collection is smaller than those of ShaanXi History Museum, but the display made the best use of their collection to give the maximum impact. For example, there was a row of 10 Tang dynasty statues. While individually they may not be the most refine Tang statue, putting them side by side gives visitors a bigger emotional impact than having a beautiful Tang statue standing among random objects.

From Xi'an museum, we went by to Shu Yuan Men(书院门）, since I wanted to buy some calligraphy supplies. I got myself 2 calligraphy brush and also bought a "Fairness cup"(公道杯). This is a rather interesting cup. If wine is fill half way in the cup, it would not leak. However, if the cup is filled to the brim, all the liquid in the cup would leak out of a hole at the bottom of the cup! As engineers, we are debating the mechanism of how the cup works and got intrigue enough to get a souvenir:(

Dinner was at Dong Lai Shun(东来顺），a Beijing chain specializing in Beijing style steamboat. We had it on our previous trip to Beijing, so it was nothing special, but this is the point where we join our tour group for the rest of our Silk Route trip.

Huashan

We set off early in the morning to go to Huashan(华山）.

Huashan holds much draw for me because of Jinyong's (金庸）martial art stories. The top martial artist of their time challenge each other for supremacy atop Huashan(华山论剑：射雕英雄传，神雕侠侣）, the Huashan school of sword artist practice their arts （华山派：笑傲江湖）。 The list goes on and on...

At the foothill of Huashan, we took the cable car up the mountain. Had a quick cup noodle and walk up North Peak, which is the nearest peak off the cable car station. The trails are well paved, so it was quite easy to talk along, but the parts of the path is quite steep and requires some climbing.

Atop the north peak, a stone with carving of "Fighting for supremacy upon Huashan"(华山论剑）has been setup! We took pictures over there, knowing full well that the story is a work of fiction and the stone nothing more than a tourists trap. Still, we couldn't resist the temptation:)

From the north peak, we went back to the cable car station and walk towards the central peak. The path here is even steeper and holding on the the chain railings was probably the only way to walk comfortably. We saw several old man carrying goods walking along these paths and are greatly impress. One even stop by, stood on 1 leg and play the flute. All on a fair steep stretch of the mountain path. I am impress to say the least.

There is an old Chinese saying: "Once you have seen the 5 mountains, you don't need to look at other hills" (五岳归来不看山）. Huashan is one of the 5 mountains, but frankly, I was not that impress with the view. Maybe its the atmosphere, since there are thousands of others along with us, fighting to go up the path. Maybe its very commercialize, since there are tens of stores along the path, selling water, souvenirs and photo op. One never has the serene feeling of being in nature.

After descending from Huashan, we went back to Muslim street and tried another of Xi'an specialty: "Soup buns(灌汤包)”. The restaurant is call Jia San(贾三), which has been serving this specialty for over hundreds of years. The soup buns are somewhat similar to Xiao Long Bao, where the buns filled with beef or mutton filling, with a soupy both in addition to the meat. The meat is spiced with some cumin and other curry like flavoring and is delicious. We washed everything down with a pigs stomach soup, which is fairly light, thicken slightly with cornstarch and has a little Chinese herbs to rid the soup of bloodiness tastes. Dessert was a slightly sweet eight treasure congee. Very well balance dish. Definitely the best meal in Xi'an.

Call it a night early since we did walk about 4-5 hours on Huashan.

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.

Terracotta Warriors, Huaqing Hot Spring, Muslim Street, Gao's Estate

Woke up early due to jet lag, but full of spirits. After all, it is the first day of vacation!

Had a decent breakfast in the hotel, then head towards one of the highlight on this trip: Terracotta Warriors(兵马俑）. These are the famous statues built under the order of the first Qin Emperor, as a burial relics.

The site of the Terracotta Warriors are located about an hour drive away from our hotel. The first historical site we saw, however, was related to the Shang（商） dynasty. Our guide pointed to a structure located on the top of the mountain and told us that is the watch tower （烽火台）when a Shang emperor had trick his subjects in order to draw a smile from his favorite concubine（烽火戏诸侯）. I have my doubt if a structure from Shang dynasty would have survive all these years, but our guide claims this is not a recreation.

From the parking lot, it is a 5min tram ride to the actual entrance of the museum, which is build right over the evacuation site. The first stop: watch the re-enactment of Emperor Qin's conquest, slaves laboring to build his tomb and terracotta warriors, his death and subsequent destruction of the site of his tomb in a 360 degree surrounding theater. This serves as an introduction.

The actual museum is divided into 3 pits. Pit 1 is the largest. When entering the pit, I was amazed by how big the site is! Without checking measurements, I will venture a guess it is at least the size of a soccer field. There are about 5 rows of soldiers facing forward, with 2 rows of soldiers on the flank facing outwards. From the railings, it is difficult to tell the intricacies of the terracotta patterns, but each statue do look different. There are also some statue of horses. The warriors look like they used to hold some sort of weapons, but the handles were probably made of wood and has long rotten away. There are also some obvious darken earth around some broken statue, explained as fire burn mark left by intruders trying to destroy Emperor Qin's grave.

Despite the fact that the terracotta warriors have been discovered for more than 10 years, there are still unexcavated sites in pit 1.

Also at the back of the site, on a section of unexcavated ground, are reconstruction terracotta warriors from bits and pieces found in the cave. We jokingly call these the "Marshall's" section.

Pit 2 and pit 3 are much smaller compare to pit 1. Warriors in pit 2, in particular, are mostly destroyed. Right next to pit 3 are some display of various types of terracotta warriors. This is the only opportunity to observe them up close and personal. The details of the statue is quite amazing. The softness of the fabric wore by the a soldier under his armour can be seen. Not as elaborate as some ancient Greek/Rome sculpture, but detail nonetheless.

There is also a museum showing 2 copper cars found in the museum. Also a replica of a candle holder with various spring loading mechanism, said to the some of the earliest spring mechanism ever discovered in the world.

Overall, I find the museum ground well maintained, the explanation and display adequate. We did not hire a tour guide for this part of the tour due to time constraint, but felt we left with a good enough appreciation of the site.

From the museum, it is a 20 minutes walk back to the parking lot. The walk way is along a pseudo-ancient market, with souvenirs stores on both sides. There are ponds/modern sculptures/classical sculptures in the middle. Overall, a fairly pleasant walk, with the exception of constant shouting of sales person, trying to get us into their store. We had a quick lunch in Old Xi'an Restaurant located on this area. Pretty decent food for a touristy locale.

After lunch, we visited Huaqing Hot Springs. A spa retreat since the Tang dynasty, rumor has it that Tang beauty Yang(杨贵妃） had taken her bath in this location years ago.

There are a total of 5 spas, all dried. Each spa is located inside a building. One which beauty Yang had used, one for the emperor, one for his subjects, complete with a heated changing room and one for his cooks. I guess they need to keep clean too! In the spa for the cook, there are some depression in the ground. Our guide explained it is where the cooks had scraped their feet, since they cannot scape their feet with their hands for obvious hygiene issues. Given the size of the depression, I think it takes a lot of cook to leave such a deep mark....oh well...

There is a modern artwork in the building containing the emperor's spa. On it was drawing and words of the famous tang poet Bai Ju Yi（白居易）'s poem "Chang Hen Ge（长恨歌）", documenting the love story between the emperor and beauty Yang. There are about 40+ paintings and calligraphy which I enjoy a lot.

Stepping out of the spa buildings, we took some pictures with a modern beauty Yang statue, as well as wash our hands in one of the natural spring water tap. The water is indeed warm, but not hot. I can imagine how comfortable soaking in that spa would be during a cool, autumn day:)

Huaqing hot spring is also where another historical event had taken place. Call "Xi'an incident（西安事变）", it is the place where Chang Kai-shek was forced by his subordinates to make peace with the communist party and have joint effort to repel Japanese forces attacking China before the start of World War 2. Chang's office, bedroom and guard rooms are all maintain, complete with bullet holes from that faithful day. For reasons I cannot explain, I have very much wanted to see where the incident had happened.

Before we left, there was a small music and dance performance in the Pear Garden(梨园）. Not the most exciting chinese music/dance performance I have ever seen...but it's free, so I am not complaining:)

Dinner is in the Muslim Quarter （回民街）in Xi'an city. Here, we tried the famous bread soak in lamb soup(羊肉泡馍）. When I first heard the description of the dish, I am skeptical. A hard bread is been broken by hand into small pieces. Then mutton soup is poured over the bread and served. Breaking of the bread was quite an effort, especially for us out of towner. The result is a soggy bread pudding like food, which has very little texture and not too much taste. While I know this is a authentic local dish, I must say I did not enjoy it very much.

We visited Gao's estate(高家府） located right on the Muslim street, maybe 2 blocks from the restaurant. Gao won second place overall （榜眼）in the exam for choosing civil servant and the emperor gave him a big house. His descendants did well and kept the house. Since we were visiting after dinner, there aren't any other visitors.

The highlight was a leather puppet shadow show（皮影戏）. I must admit I am unaware of this art form in China, thinking it exist only in Indonesia:( A team of 3, one working exclusively on the puppet and singing, another exclusively on drums and percussion, and a third doing singing, playing the er hu(二胡）and occasionally helping with the puppets. The puppets can smoke, dance and jump, so it is quite exciting.

From Gao's home, we walk under the drum building(鼓楼） to a open square where there is a small musical fountain performing. It was a nice end to the evening.

Starting vacation

After a long, uneventful flight from SFO to Xi'an via Beijing, finally arrive to start my 2007 vacation.

On this vacation, I will be travelling along the ancient silk route, going from Xi'an, west into Xin Jiang.