When I decided to come to China, THIS was THE thing I intended to see above anything else. China has changed capital cities many times in its 5000 years, but Xi’an is a serious contender for the oldest. It was the capital of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China; the one English gets the word “China” from, the one who unified the previous warring kingdoms, and told everyone in those previous kingdoms they would now all write in one language. He ordered burned all books in any language other than Chinese, and murdered anyone who questioned the emperor’s immortality. He was a mixed bag.
I think what I love most about the army he ordered created for him in the afterlife is that I knew about the army before I knew who it was for. When I mentioned Qin in Canada before leaving, no one knew who I meant…but I’d say “He built the terracotta soldiers,” and “OH, yeah!” Congratulations, Emperor Qin — your army is more famous than you.
The mountains bordering Xi’an.
Rose garden in the park of the museum.
Dr Seuss trees.
Maple trees??
Building housing the bronze chariots and horses. I didn’t get photos of them — the 80,000 other people visiting that day made it crazy.
The park.
Building of Pit number 1, discovered in 1974. It contains the 6,000 foot soldiers found SO FAR.
Building of Pit number 2, discovered in 1986. The size of a smallish aircraft hangar.
We saw the pits in reverse order. This is number 3, the “smallest”, discovered in 1986. These are the officers in their strategy meeting. For. Real.
I. LOVE. THE. HORSES.
The statues were all free-standing when buried — these columns weren’t filled in!
Over the centuries, the ground shifted under and over them, and they broke.
The archaeologists tried to leave things as they found them.
Pit 2…most of which is partly excavated.
Once everyone realised the paint of the statues in Pit 1 disintegrated in the OPEN AIR, it was decided to not uncover anything more.
The hope is that we’ll eventually find a way to preserve the colours on the statues still buried.
My favourites are the archers. Each had a wooden crossbow. Most of those had disintegrated — a few are being reassembled and preserved.
Traces of paint left on one archer’s armour.
Pit 2 was an enormous company of foot soldiers, archers, and calvary.
Of the 8,000 statues revealed so far, about 2,000 are here.
THEY GAVE THE HORSES FACES.
Pit number 1.
I LOVE that the office is still just sitting there!
Emperor Qin’s tomb is another 1.5 km AWAY from all this.
Some believe this company of soldiers stretches all the way underground to the foot of his tomb. There’s no knowing until more digging can be done.
Broken statues being reassembled.
The uncovered end of Pit 1. It’s still a working site.
For International Women’s Day, our school’s staff went on an outing to a fruit farm just outside Zhongshan. In Alberta, Canada, you see canola and wheat. Here, in a subtropical zone, you can see, and immediately EAT, these:
Sunflower!
Photo by my co-worker Vicky.
STARFRUIT TREE!
The farm’s owner picked this starfruit just for me, and asked to take my photo with it.
Closeup of the ripest starfruit I’ve ever seen. At home they’re usually tiny, and green.
TOMATOES.
Not sure…sadly, not ripe enough to try.
Green dates! They tasted like mealy apples.
Me eating starfruit. Juice all over my face, hands, and shirt.
Field of dragonfruit.
Closer on dragonfruit plant — don’t they like cacti?
That’s a BANANA TREE!
Papaya tree.
Fresh. Cut. Papaya. Indescribable.
A very attractive photo of me masticating on a piece of newly cut SUGAR CANE.
Watchdog!
And THEN, we had dinner.
All the meat. ALL.
This is meant to cool you down during smoky barbecues. Vanilla flavoured chrysanthemum milk won’t replace beer for me.
Among the stories history students have heard about China is how anyone wanting to work for the Emperor’s government had to take killer exams. This is one of the places where that happened. In the late 19th century all the families with the surname Chen in the Liwan district, around Guangzhou, gave money to build a place for all clan members to stay in the city when studying for their exams. The resulting building, also called the Chen Clan Academy and Folk Arts Museum, is stunning. Every surface is carved wood, brick, stone, or wrought iron. This kind of thing is my Disneyland.
Every clan had one of these “lineage halls.” This is one of the few left.
There’s a huge, wide plaza in front of the Academy – this is at the opening.
One of the gates in and out of the main plaza before the Academy.
The front of the Academy.
That’s carved, painted wood along the top. Below, the brickwork has had reliefs carved into it.
The main door into the building.
One of the Academy’s many courtyards.
Sadly, the woodwork is being weathered away.
This piece has been completely covered over to keep it from being damaged further.
This one has been restored.
This is a statue of two would-be thieves getting caught in an old-style Cantonese door!
One of the doors in person. Quite a few older houses in Guangzhou still have these.
This was found in pieces over several decades. It was only reassembled in OCTOBER LAST YEAR!
Archway of grape bunches. I can only guess this was the wine room.
Hallway along the side of the building. On the right is a courtyard, on the left are some of the enclosed rooms.
The doors to one of the rooms.
Windows looking out into a courtyard.
The panels are etched, stained glass.
The panels from inside with the sun coming through!
Some of the carved furniture on display.
Lest you think there’s no British influence in China…
Leading outside…
Between the main building and the outer wall.
A lion guarding the path.
This is called “Storytelling”.
Enamel works.
More of the fabulous furniture people used.
The CEILING even!
Looking out from one of the verandas to a courtyard.
The courtyards are partitioned by huge wooden screens, and every panel is carved with a scene from history or legend. This one is a scene from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
The Academy’s garden.
Houses butting right up against the back wall of the garden!
On my way out. Who would have ever noticed this one (besides tourists), but it’s decorated anyway…
I’m a history buff, so I’d heard of Canton. I knew nothing about it, I’d just heard that it was an important port city to the colonial British in Cathay. Cathay is China, and Canton is Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. And I can’t believe I knew nothing about it before coming here, because it’s a Tier 1 city…meaning in terms of population and economy, China ranks Guangzhou at the same level as Beijing and Shanghai!
I stayed in a hotel on Shamian Island, which is where the British — and other colonists — set up shop; company headquarters, banks, tennis clubs. All of their 19th and early 20th century buildlings are now protected, and house galleries, hotels, restaurants, and consulates.
The Victory Hotel, where I stayed.
Please note the tree being held up by…other trees!
The canal and brides on the north side of the island.
Lots of photos of beautiful buildings. Be warned.
And lots of centuries-old trees…
Down the centre of the island is a long promenade, with different-shaped paths and trees.
I can’t say if this electricity is “modern” or…not.
Starbucks. I know. But hey, they chose a lovely location.
A sample of what the buildings were used for.
See the running track?
The ORIGINAL Bank of Taiwan!
Our Lady of Lourdes, Guangzhou Parish!
Looking up at the vestry.
Inside the church courtyard.
Traditional red lanterns on a modern hotel in a 19th century building.
The Armani shop housed in here must feel right at home…
The veranda of my hotel’s restaurant–it sits on the third floor.
Shamian Greenway — a long park running along the south side of the island, right against the Pearl River.
The Rose Garden restaurant.
This is a fish market!
Guangzhou was the first place I saw these New Year decorations. For all I know they’re real fireworks!
Christ Church, Anglican.
This church’s gate was open, so I slipped into the courtyard…
Or Macao. For various reasons, I was only able to stay one night. NOT ENOUGH. Will be going back. I spent most of my time there giggling because my Spanish allowed me to understand just about ALL the Portuguese I saw!
Just past the gate from Gombei Port in China…
…is the entry to Porto Centros, Macao.
The fountain before The Sands hotel and Casino near the harbour.
What street is The Sands Casino on?
“Lotus Flower in Full Bloom,” across from the Sands.
The flags of China and Macau.
One ferry arriving from Hong Kong, another just leaving.
A Cine-Concert…The Triplets of Belleville, with live music. How fricking cool is that?!!
This fellow was just handing out lucky red envelopes to kids!
This is part of Fisherman’s Wharf, very nice restaurants and shops in slightly kitcshy new buildings made to look “old”.
Beautiful fountain in between faux Italian and Tudor English houses!
The aptly named Harbourview Hotel. Not sure what style architecture this is…
Lovely red lanterns everywhere.
Most of the buildings in this area were old-style, but the brick and stone of these tells me they’re genuine.
Looks like a Roman column, doesn’t it? Hee here!
The “Roman” column overlooks the “Roman ruins” of the Babylon Casino!
“Roman” Amphitheatre. I kept telling myself “I should hate this…but I don’t!”
“Give me your money to eat! Bwa ha ha!”
New Year’s Display on Fisherman’s Wharf.
How much more like Vegas can you GET! So ridiculously awesome!
LOVE THIS.
Jardim Vasco de Gama Garden, as seen from the front of my hotel!
Sports centre to one side of the Garden.
Orange trees. I am NOT exaggerating, orange trees EVERYWHERE!
Fountains of Vasco de Gama Garden.
Vasco de Gama himself.
And this is my hotel, from the Garden. If you didn’t hate me yet, you do now. 😀
I treated myself to dinner at Fado, the Portuguese restaurant in my hotel. These are fresh codfish cakes.
All of this came with every meal! 6 different breads, 3 flavours of olive oil, carrots steeped in olive oil, olive tapenade, and garlic-tomato butter.
Seriously, ALL the seafood. This is shrimp and bread stew. Happy Place.
The church of St Michael.
This is a bridal shop!!
Rua Horta Companhia Rotunda.
I wish I could tell you what this shop sold, but it was shut!
The other half of the crazy-awesome display.
The air smelled different in Macau. It took me a while to realise ALL of these shrines had incense burning. Those are wrapped cookies in front.
Just hanging off someone’s door. Amazing.
New Year’s decorations down a street median.
I couldn’t stop marvelling at the streets here…
Monkey see…
…monkey do.
Tap Seac Square.
Tap Seac Square.
St Lazarus Church.
Another church. I lost track. I think the Portuguese colonists were Catholic.
Bonito gato negro, esta desayando.
This was a church, now it appears to be apartments. Sigh…
The paving on the street is modern–it fits around manholes–but it’s very nicely done.
Looking down from the ruins of St Paul’s. The crazy pointy building at the back is The Grand Lisbon Hotel and Casino. (Macau has a LOT of those.)
I was very kindly invited to New Year’s dinner by the family of Becky, one of my middle-school students. Before dinner, though, Becky’s mother had to get some new flowers. THIS is the Flower Fair.
The gate.
ORCHIDS.
These are decals! The backing is peeled off, and then you place them on your windows.
Mushroom…trees??
I love the lady at the bottom of this photo looking up — the flowers are beautiful, AND it’s a good price!
In case flowers aren’t enough, there are branches of ornaments too.
These were all taken on the eve of the Lunar New Year, the night of February 7th, in Sun-Yut-Sen Memorial Park. The sculptures you see are all made of a transluscent, coloured fabric, and then lit from the inside. EXCEPT for the House of the Monkey King — I’m told that’s made of ironwork, scaffolding, and magic!
PS: I cribbed some photos from my co-teacher Jennifer, since her camera is better than mine. Credit where due!
