Paintings, Walls, and Paradise

 (Alex)

For our fourth day in Xi’an, Richard decided to take us outside the city to visit one of the local towns and allow us to sample some of local culture. After about an hour’s drive, we came to a town that Richard described as “very prosperous and well-developed”. The town appeared to be more of a gated community than anything else, with a shoulder high wall surrounding the entire village and with one very grouchy gate-keeper. After our driver Mr. Liu and the gate-keeper argued for a little while as to how we would negotiate the car through a gate which looked only large enough to accommodate mo-peds, we decided it would just be easier to walk through the village rather than drive. We set off into this “prosperous town”, a term we discovered to be rather relative. Although the town was, by all accounts, far more developed than the towns we had driven through in Yangshuo, the only really indicator of prosperity was the relatively large and well made houses. The streets were, for the most part, deserted, with only remnants of the past nights New Year’s celebrations indicating that people lived here. After about 15 minutes walk, the real object of our visit came walking toward us. Xiao Ling, one of the preeminent cultural artists of China and winner of multiple prizes for artistic achievement around the world, had been contacted by Richard and had graciously allowed us to visit her home and studio. Entering her house Richard exclaimed in English “Her house is bigger than mine!” which gave us some impression of how well off she was. Her studio upstairs was covered from ceiling to floor with magnificent cultural paintings; very reminiscent of some of the German cultural illustrations I had seen in my childhood with a decidedly more Asian flair. It was quite an experience witnessing the works of a lifetime of an artist who had singlehandedly elevated her town out of poverty, and some of us even bought a few of her more reasonably priced works. After a good hour of just viewing her vast collection and asking her more about her experiences, we said goodbye to Xiao Ling, thanking her profusely for such an enormous honor, and headed back into the city for lunch. Most of the food was, as usual, great. However, one dish Richard ordered, “Mao’s Pork” was hands down the most delicious dish I have had in China. Those of you who know how much I love the food here will appreciate the extremity of this statement. With the delectable still Mao’s Pork sitting in my stomach, Richard took us to the old city wall of Xi’an where we learned a little more about the intricacies of ancient defenses of the city, and, of course, were able to bike the entire 26 km length. Mark and Richard stayed behind to sit and talk, while Allison, Li and I all took off at different paces around the wall. I took off ahead of the pack and pretty much stayed there the entire time, but I did meet a friend, “Fling”, a 14-year old boy from a village outside Xi’an who was also riding the wall for the first time. We talked and biked for a while, practicing our respective languages on each-other (he was far better at English than I at Chinese…) The panoramic of the city that unfolded before our eyes was truly spectacular, and extremely therapeutic. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride and I welcomed the opportunity to finally stretch my legs after what felt like weeks of driving and trudging. As luck would have it, Li and Allison had also made friends, the traveling companions of Fling. After finishing our bike ride, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed on to what Viz had described in the itinerary as “A Tang Dynasty Theme Park”. Needless to say we were all curious and a little hesitant. As it turned out, “Tang Paradise” was more of a Plymouth Plantation, only on a far more epic scale. We entered the walls of the recreated Tang Empire and were greeted with all the sights and sounds of an ancient, extravagant civilization. This place was enormous, dotted with many buildings devoted to many aspects of the Tang culture. My favorite was a stone carving façade devoted to many of the most famous of Tang poets. However, full appreciation of the park seemed lacking due to both to Mark still feeling a little bit under the weather, and that we could only appreciate so much of the history without speaking the native language or having learned more about its intricate culture. But we all agreed that today was a great day. Right now the fireworks are blowing up all around like a warzone (it’s the last night of New Year’s, and the Chinese are trying to get rid of all their explosives). I’ll take a video and hopefully post it soon. Will blog again soon!