1068. China -- # 1-- September 14 to 27th, 2018!

The fantastic tour of China I was able to experience!

We left Salt Lake City on an airplane at 7:15 a.m., September 14, 2018.  After a 2 hour flight to Seattle, we got on the Hainan Airlines, and went on an 8 and a half hour flight to Shanghai, China! On the plane we had a small movie screen in front of us, and I watched 2 really good movies!  First I watched "Pride and Prejudice", an old version with Greer Garson, and 2nd one called "The Great Waltz", the life of Johan Strauss, who wrote so many beautiful waltzes.

 Then a 3 hour flight to our first city, Xi'an, (pronounced Shee--on, population 12 million, in about the center of China.

Waiting in the Seattle airport, about to fly to Shanghai!

  We arrived at night, and had a good night's sleep after being awake almost 24 hours, China being 14 hours ahead of Utah time!  We were a group of 21 people, all couples except two ladies who were traveling together, Chris, and Orimi, and me.    I was delighted to have those 2 ladies to be with many times, especially Chris, (her American name) who was born in Taiwan, and spoke Mandarin!  She was invaluable many times in China, helped us out in airports, restaurants, etc.
                        Pal, (me), Orimi, and Chris.

This was a stewardess in our flight to China.  They were beautiful and petite Chinese women!

As we got off the flight in China, and were sitting on a bus, this lovely young couple gave up a seat for me!  My first encounter with the lovely, polite, and kind Chinese people!  Our hotel room in the "Golden Flower Hotel" in Xi'an was very nice!

The next morning we met our guide "Peter" (Chinese names are quite difficult to pronounce so most have taken American names, sort of a nick name, to use with Americans.)  Peter is a University Professor, and extremely knowledgeable about Chinese History.  He was telling us so many things on the bus as we rode around.  First we visited a museum, and here are many pictures of the relics there.  

               

               

Peter and I in the museum.  He was such a fun guide!  He was quite tall for a Chinese.  His father was from Manchuria, a taller group, and his son 18 year old son is taller than he is!

      Most of these were small, not life-size.

They also had camels -- as this statue shows.

This was of pure gold, and actually small -- about 6 inches.  Dragons are very prevalent in their history, and traditions.

                               

This gives you an idea of how tall the vase above is!

 This is a replica of the layout of the city thousands of years ago.  It is amazing that it was laid out in square city blocks!

In the park next to the museum there were many of these red ribbon things.  Each was a "prayer" to Buddha for blessings, put there by people, believing it would bring them good luck, a good harvest, money, etc.

This is a tree which is over 800 years old there, about 4 feet in diameter in the Big Wild Goose Pagoda Park, 

and a strange tree below.

This tall pagoda in the same park, used to be a library, but it is empty now.  During the "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1976, many books were destroyed, as those ruling tried to remake China, destroying many ancient relics and books.  Peter's father, a doctor, was put in jail for 10 years! Many intellectuals, and artisans were killed.  

           

 This girl was carving tiny things on a type of ink press.  You could buy one, and have your own name put on it, as a stamp.

Here we were taught about Chinese calligraphy, and how to make some simple characters.  Their language has over 40,000 separate "words", in characters.  An educated person used to know most of them, but now only about 3,000 are used in most writings.  Different strokes make up the characters, each different from the others.  Each word has to be memorized!

               

     

   

This was at a restaurant where we ate lunch.

 I thought these were quite interesting sinks for washing hands!

  This was a very large mural, covering most of a wall there.

 

The traffic in Xi'an was strange -- as Peter said -- the traffic lights were merely a "suggestion" of what they should do.  Lights and traffic rules weren't followed much at all in that city!  A person would cross the street between cars wherever they could see a break in the traffic, going in any direction!

They are very proud of being the only walled city in China, an 8.5 mile wall, built when Xi'an was the capitol of China for many years.  It has lights along the top at night, and is very beautiful.

That first evening we went to a beautiful water show.  It lasted around 20 minutes, with the fountains timed to beautiful music.While at the water show, I met this lovely young mother.

To end the day we went to a restaurant where they had large round tables, with a glass turn-table in the center.  They brought out 10 or 12 different dishes, and we sampled each one, family style, until we had our fill.  Lots of spices used!

One serving was of a whole chicken.  Chris found the head, which she is holding up!  They don't waste any part of an animal.  In one restaurant we had a snack, and I saw a waitress taking the two legs of a chicken which had been roasted--claws and all, to another customer!  I couldn't get my camera ready quick enough to take a picture!But according to the internet ? they are very tasty, and have definite nutritional benefits!  It was on the menu there!  

Next I will write about the Terracotta warriors, and their statues discovered in 1974, and the Tang Dynasty Song & Dance Show, before we flew to Yichang.  There we got on a 4 day cruise, and saw The Three Gorges Dam Site, largest dam in the world, and other fascinating scenes, which I will tell of.  Later seeing live panda bears in a zoo -- many fascinating things! Decorations in the restaurant where we had the family style dinner.

There were many beautiful sites, and interesting history in the days to come, ending with Beijing, which with 22 million is a beautiful city, and the capitol of China today!