Living History in Xi'An

Now, if you want to learn more about China’s history, Xi’An is the city to do it. It was the home of China’s first dynasty and was the capital of many after that. For starters it has an ancient wall that was built ~ 600 years ago during the Tang dynasty to protect the gridded city inside. Now the city has stretched out but the wall still there and open to visitors. We went for a great bike ride around the entire city.

                                                                 

 The City of Xi’An also has a Bell Tower and a Drum Tower, both which date back ~700 years to the Ming Dynasty. They are and were public infrastructure used to signal to the city both time and events.


Not far away, the Terracotta soldiers and horses were unearthed and are still chilling. All 8,000 of them site in 3 sites discovered in 1974 by farmers. They were made in 210 BC to protect the Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. There were soldiers, generals, archers, horses and chariots. Every face is different and the details were striking. When they were first unearthed they had pigments that quickly faded due to exposure. More are still being dug out and reconstructed.

The rich culture continues on today. We got the chance to visit a market area where tasty food of every sort was made. Xi’An is known for it’s spicier dishes. We had the wonderful dinner with Hanzi’s family. Dinner tradition here reminds me of big dinners in Germany, food and a good amount of wine.

 There is a water show that happens daily in a public plaza in front of the Goose Pagoda. The temple was built to house Buddhist text during the Tang Dynasty. It leans slightly. The water show is supposedly the largest in Asia and even with the bad weather, was fun to see and even get wet in.

Green Leads the Fashion

We got to Xi’An after what I can only describe as the happiest flying experience of my life. I did not know seats and flight attendants could be so colorful, that people did in flight exercises or that the landing tune would be a Chinese version of ‘On the Bayou’,  but all were welcome.

The International Horticultural Exposition in Xi’An is one of the principal reasons for our trip here. It’s put on annually around the world by a Swiss horticultural group. We submitted a garden design last fall that was accepted. The garden was based around the concept of phytoremediation as a solution to industrial waste in the landscape. Although time ran out on the construction of our garden, we received tickets to attend the expo and a few phones calls got us around to see everything quite easily.
    
Our time at the expo fell on a usually hot day for Xi’An. Temperatures reached 35 C and we were on the pavement all day. Thankfully we were cajoled into buying hats for the occasion.

The mascot of the Expo followed us through Xi’An. It was displayed everywhere, from the Terra Cotta warrior site to the taxi’s.

The expo itself was enjoyable. It’s construction and advertising reminded me of a theme park in certain ways. Unlike most developments of this scale, a year ago the entire property was farmland. The Expo features a section on China’s provinces where I got the chance to learn about more than I could travel to. There was a zoo section with pandas, an international section with country’s gardens selling souvenirs, and a lot of surprising things done with plant materials.


The Master Garden Section had designs by West 8, Wang Xiangrong, and Martha Swartz, representing the USA with her garden design. I know this will seem biased but that design was my favorite, with one-way mirrors along the outside walls that were designed to give you a glimpse into what people do when they think noones watching. We yelled to a woman with no avail as she fixed her hair right in front of us. Brilliant

Hangzhou Walk Through

If China had a national bird, it would be the crane. It soars over every skyline we’ve seen. A large number of these are building giant commercial/residential towers. Although many of these towers appear to be empty, I’m sure time will have a purpose for them in this rapidly developing country.

From SuZhou we took a train to Hangzhou on May 16th. Hangzhou is an urban area of 4-million in northern Zhejiang province in eastern China. The city dated back 2,200 years to the Qin Dynasty and is one of the ancient capitals of China. Our one-night stay was packed with Hangzhou.  Hanzi’s friends picked us up and dropped us off at the airport and saw us the whole way in-between.

We had dinner at a restaurant inside one of the nicest malls I’ve ever seen. It had an open floor layout for stories and stories with the top labels. It’s the older one of at least two in the city.  Concurred this is a wealthy city and apparently has been for the last thousand years due to trade with close urban areas and its natural beauty. I’ve made a point to avoid going into detail with food, but I can say it was another rotating table of never-before-seen delicious.

They brought us to the civic center on the new development waterfront area of Hangzhou. It was straight out of Tron. Big, huge, giant with lights, a glass ‘entryway’  half the size of a soccer field and four round towers connected by a circular walkway at least 30 stories up, with an abstract glass arena in the middle. Once they finish construction, I picture the place buzzing like something out of a sci-fi movie. Next to the civic center was a lux hotel shaped like the Death Star and lit up like a rainbow. I’ve only imagined this stuff happening in a 3D architectural modeling program.

Some time later that night we walked around on a causeway that was constructed over West Lake in 591. No big deal.

The original city of Hangzhou was constructed around the North and East sides of West Lake. Now parks border the lake and its islands. We found the paths were well made and the park a mix of natural and planted throughout. The city is historically known for its green tea and Dragon Well Longjing tea is still grown around West Lake. We got a chance to see some of the plantations on our walk.

We visited the new campus of the China Academy of the Arts. It’s located outside Hangzhou in the country. Its design is a smart mix of natural and industrial and the buildings have been LEED-rated.

From there we boarded the plane for Xi’An. We are getting all too comfortable with travel.