We started the day visiting the Mausoleum of Jingdi, Han-dynasty emperor (188–141 BC). He had significantly scaled down the mausoleum stakes compared to his predecessor (see tomorrow’s trip). He only had a burial mound with wall, 4 entrance gates and about 81 pits surrounding his burial spot. And his wife had a burial mound nearby.
Inside the tomb 11 narrow pits have been excavated. Some were covered by a glass floor, so we could walk over and get a great view of the relics.
In order to be able to operate as an emperor should in the after life, it’s important to have a posse of staff and goods around you. It is thought that more than 50,000 terracotta figurines were buried here, including eunuchs, servants, domesticated animals and female cavalry on horseback. The figurines originally had movable wooden arms (now gone) and were dressed in colourful silk robes.
There were also kitchen pots, chariots, horses and loads of other animals provided. The animals were beautifully carved out of clay: horses, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, pigs and very cute piglets.
We caught a DiDi - Chinese equivalent of Uber - back into the city, very pleased that we’d sorted this app and 4G data in China before we left. Our data is £10 a month and it’s turning into a necessity here. WePay, connected to WeChat (the equivalent of WhatsApp), is one of the main digital payment apps and it’s impossible to use vending machines without it. Translation and map apps work more accurately online too.
We headed for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda: no idea of the origin of the goose name for the pagodas but saw no geese. It was built in ~649 during the Tang dynasty with five storeys at 60 m high. One of its functions was to hold sutras and figurines of Buddha, brought back from India by seventh-century Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator Xuanzang. It has had a few rebuilds since then. The first version collapsed after 50 years and was rebuilt with 10 storeys. The second one lasted 850 years until an earthquake shook off the top three layers. It had a large renovation in 1964 and now it's back up to 64 m. It was pretty busy which set JC off tutting as people walked in front of his perfectly lined up shot!
The area around the pagoda has been significantly developed since JC was last there (again). The wall has also been heightened much to his amusement. I presume it’s designed to stop sightseers getting a shot of the pagoda without paying their 30 Yuan entrance fee.
JC lined up a shot through a metal structure. Others watched him and then, as he left, someone else stood to take the same shot. Before we knew it there was a queue of others waiting to shoot the same. JC the trend setter.
We walked some of the gardens surrounding the city walls on our way back into the old city.
We then sat on the roof terrace of our hotel which, conveniently, was the same height at the city walls! So we watched the wall walkers watch us watch them.
JC introduced me to the concept of hot pot tonight. I hadn’t heard the term before but it’s basically a savoury fondue. We mistakenly ordered a super hot (as in chilli) concoction but it was fun to dip vegetables into anyway. You can see how many red chillis are floating in our fondue. It did blow our heads off a bit!
No comments:
Post a Comment