Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China

Xi’an City Wall

The city wall of Xi’an is fully restored and it is possible to cycle the 12km around the city on this wall, which we did on our last afternoon here.

Found some crickets singing outside shops in Xi’an, the traditional way of enticing people in to come and buy. Also, outside vault number 1 of the terracotta army Cam came across a dead cicada on the ground. It looks like a cryptotympana atrata, one of the big ones, but I can’t be sure yet. Hoping to make a high res scan of it as I doubt I will be able to take it into Australia.

The Terracotta Army at Li Shan

We visited the Terracotta Army at Li Shan [Li Mountain]. The modelling of these soldiers is exquisite. It is quite astounding to see so many 2000 year old sculptures of such a high standard and in such good repair in one place. One of the most impressive things about these works is the fact that the museum is built around the archaeological dig, rather than the objects being shipped hundreds of miles away to some established museum in the capital. The dig is still active of course, and will be for many, many years. There are still many warriors that have not yet been unearthed and this raw element adds a real dynamic to the experience. We were shown around the site by Daoxuan’s daughter and Mr Zhang, one of the museum managers. The warriors are part of the army of Emperor Qin, the first emperor [259-210 BC]. His mausoleum is about a mile away from where the army was found. The mausoleum is dug into the ground with the soil forming a large mound above ground equal to the unearthed space below. Many such burial mounds pepper the landscape in this part of Shaanxi Province [Xi’an is the ancient capital of China, and is in fact the geographical centre of the Middle Kingdom]. These mounds reminded me of ancient long barrows/barrow mounds, the Neolithic tombs that are still evident across Britain [although these date from around 2000 BC].

Harvest time in rural China

Agricultural Festival

One of our visits was to the Agricultural Festival, a harvest festival held at the mausoleum of one of the Emperors high in the hills north east of XIanyang [I fear I have forgotten which Emperor]. Amazingly enough, we were the guests of honour for this opening. Many of the local people had never seen foreigners before, so we were of great interest to them. Many people crowded around us staring, but as always the crowds were gentle and completely unthreatening. The sky was clear and the sun was hot. The air was fresh and pungent.

Of course, the harvest was particularly evident here in rural China. All along the streets and lanes corn [maize] was growing in endless fields, and was cut and dried in the sun along every street and lane. Apples were the next most prolific produce followed closely by sweet potatoes.

We had some lovely meals during this trip, all organised by Daoxuan. Frequently lunches were in what seemed like villagers’ homes and the food was wonderful. The dishes seemed more varied and interesting than our experience so far in Beijing, and being vegetarian was no problem at all with Dao’s myriad choice of dishes. We had a lot of vegetable dumplings [my favourite and hard to ask for without language], some wonderful aubergine preparations, green beans, chilli tofu hotpots, noodle soups and so on and so on. This is the best Chinese food I have ever tasted, and what’s more it is so healthy. I always feel good when I eat Chinese food. Chinese tea [cha – where ‘a cuppa char’ so obviously comes from] is served at every meal.

Xi’an [the definition is ‘west’, ‘safe place’] and Xianyang [‘sunshine’]

We arrived in Xi’an early, and Daoxuan picked us up and ferried us to Xianyang, about 20 minutes down the road by car. During our stay we met up with Geoff Hogg and the RMIT Masters in Public Art students who were coincidentally in Xianyang at the same time. Cameron came with Geoff and RMIT in 2000 and constructed a pebble and stone mosaic with the students from that year in Wei Bin Park, Xianyang. We went to look at this mosaic to see how it was faring. The locals were using the stones for foot massage! The largest stones and pebbles were all rubbed smooth and glossy from this constant attention! The mosaic was in great shape, all stones remaining firmly in place. It was good to see it used as part of the daily activities of the park goers.