Silk Road - ShaanXi Xi'an, Where it all begins!

We finally got a hard sleeper on the train ride to Xi'an, paying almost double as we could only get the ticket through an agency!

Xi'an (西安) was once called Chang'an (长安).  If you know mandarin, you would know 'Chang' mean "Long" and 'an' means "Peace", so "Perpectual Peace" it hopes. One of the Four Most Ancient Capitals in the world as Athens, Cairo and Rome, Chang'an was the capital for 12 dynasty in ancient China before it was renamed to Xi'an in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty. As the eastern terminus, Chang'an was also the beginning of the ancient Silk Road with the west most terminus to Cairo and Constantinople (today Istanbul).

Xi'an, the fort is the best preserved part of the Great Wall, is a museum by itself with 3000+ year of history.  We couldn't possibly visit it all in our short stay.  So, we aimed for the biggest - the Tomb of Emperor Qin (秦始皇墓) and the Terracota Warriors (兵马俑).

The reason to visit the Tomb of the Emperor Qin (Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huan) is to understand the existence of the Terracota Warriors.  The tomb is on a little hill, where now is fully grown with pomegranate tree.  We were not allowed to go in the tomb as it is underground, only to visit the park.  However, when we reach the top, we can view at its east where the terracota sit.  The legend said for the position the terracota in the east, it is the garrison force to protect the emperor, even after his death, from the invasion of the east, which at that time, Japan.  By going into the Terracota Warrior Museum, one can only realize the size of it, is a troop of army.

Terracota Warriors Museum Pit No.1 - Xi'an, Sep 2004.

There are 3 pits for the museum and the photo is only Pit No.1.  The interesting thing is this very first pit were found by a farmer during drilling a well, in the month I was born, :-).  It opens to public in 1979, 230Mx620M (18 soccer fields?) in size and has 6000+ warriors. Without any existence of historical record, the Terracota Warriors is the most valuable piece of cultural heritage in China second to the Mogao Grottoes.

Although I was not aware that Xi'an is actually the centre for the space exploration program in China, I did know that it is renounced for it's food, especially the FuLu Chicken  (芙芦鸡).  What is a FuLu?

This is FuLu.  It is a type of melon.  When it is dried up, it can be made into liquid container (most to hold wine) and here, an artifact.  However, FuLu chikcen is nothing like this.

  

FuLu chicken, as I read, is cooked first by steaming the chicken with different ingredients to get the right taste before deep fried till goldish.  It supposed to be soft inside and crispy outside. I read about the Xi'an FanZhang (西安饭庄) serves such a dish in its best.  When I asked the ladies from the agency, they know nothing about this restaurant.  Then one of their train ticket agents scolded them that they as mainland chinese should know where is Xi'an Restaurant for it is so famous.  I had no clue why till I reach the restaurant for my dinner.  It took us a while to find it because we could not believe how grand is the restaurant.  When we went inside (2 backpackers), we realized from the photos hanging along the hallway, this restaurant serves dignitarians such as the President of USA, Singapore and is a favourite among the Chinese Premier.  But, to my shocking surprise, the waitress and captain were in the most manner behaviour, serve us just like any customers  and the food was in a reasonable price.  We ended up having the best meal in the whole journey.

Our menu - FuLu Chicken (right) always serve as a whole, Asperagus (middle) and Tea Mushroom with rice steamed in a claybowl with Pearl Ball Jasmine tea.

Silk Road - Gansu Lanzhou, it is really Yellow?

When I got to Lanzhou (兰州), I was exhausted after 2 weeks of travelling.  Thus, I took 2 days off just to sleep and eat here.  First thing I learnt in Lanzhou, the people here talk very loud, but definitely brainy. A hotel manager help me to unscrewed my pedlock with 2 screw drivers. A taxi driver got me the best deal in town to stay with a humbly tip. A bus driver kindness protected us from the conning act of boatman.

Lanzhou, if you hear people saying, always the Ramen.  The Lanzhou Beef Ramen is the most famous ramen in Chinese culture.  I went on the street and tested it, it is indeed the best ramen I ever had!  If you ask anyone on the street which is the best store, they will say All Are Good.  It is indeed!

Most tourists came to Lanzhou to see the HuangTu Plateau (黄土高原). Over the history, this area had and will be flooded in which the HuangTu (a.k.a Yellow Soil) deposited over thousand of years is what formed the plateau.  You can see from the plateau the mark of level of the flooding over certain years. The flood certainly can reach a very high level.  But the soil deposited does not seem to be fertiled.  The cultivation here is mainly corn and the farmers are mostly poor.  Thus, they will work as the boatman during the tourist season.  Surprisingly, the culture is completely different along this river and plateau, the people here are mostly muslim. This could be due to the close vicinity to the NingXia province which once upon the time was one of the 5 largest dynasty in China.  West Xia (西夏) dynasty was predominatly muslim.

By taking the boat up the Yellow River, it is actually not Yellow, we reach a grotto called Bing Ling Si (冰灵寺) in the canyon built a little bit latter than Mogao Grottoes in AD420. It is not one of the 3 greatest grottoes in China (Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes), but Bing Ling Grottoes has something very unique to it.  On top of it was flooded by the Yellow River, it is a fully expose grottoes making it vulnerable for erosion. Due to that reason, it is in the open and preservation is almost impossible.  As time past, this grottoes will disappear.

>27M in height, this Maitreya Buddha is similar in style to the great Buddhas that once lined the cliffs of Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Take in the view around, a sail along the Yellow River is a must. We might not feel the force of its flood, but we can see the mark the flood left behind.  In which, the impact seem tremendous.