The Mausoleum of Jingdi and Big Wild Goose pagoda

Monday 14 October 2024

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!

And off we go to China

Advance warning - this is the first of many, many blogs on our trip to China.  I like to chat so there will be a few ;-).  JC is fascinated by the Silk Road, particularly China, and this was his 5th visit.  He'd brushed up his mandarin (the language, not the orange) and included essential Ruth phrases - the most important of which was "does this have meat?".  So we schemed, planned, googled, prepped, googled again, travelled to London for visas and finger prints, checked buses/trains/opening times.  Eg, we did all we could to ensure our independent travel adventure was as water-tight as possible.  So off we went.

Friday 11 October/Saturday 12 October 2024 

We left Heathrow on the last flight out of Terminal 4 on a small, but perfectly functional, China Southern flight Boeing 787.   Such pretty boarding passes.

After a few hours of sitting my sciatica really flared up and, at one stage, I feared I’d need to stand for the rest of the 11 hour flight.  But the aircrew moved JC to another seat, giving me two seats to stretch across which saved the night.

We landed in Guangzhou late afternoon (local) and entered China.  There were some unusual processes, including using an automatic finger print machine which gave you a receipt to take to passport control. They seemed to ignore this so unsure of the point?

We then waited in a hall to go through to domestic security, but could only go through when they called our flight and stuck the destination on a board.  For a country which is digitally driven, it was a very manual system!  JC eventually twigged that it we should move when they called the city from where we'd come, not where we were going (how confusing) so we shuffled through security once they’d stuck London on their board.

It was a late night arrival into Xi’an but seamless check in and sleeeeeep.

Sunday 13 October 2024

Unsurprisingly we slept late, having spent ~24 hours travelling and 'losing' 7 hours time zone wise.  We ambled out and found ourselves our first Chinese noodle meal for brunch.  I like that the coffee shops have a latitude and longitude on. Very important to know where you are in the world when you have coffee.

We took a metro (25p each) down to the Small Goose Pagoda.  This pagoda was built around ~707 CE to store Tibetan scripts. It has lost its top due to an earthquake so it currently stands 2 metres lower at 43 m.  

JC was unimpressed by the bamboo forest they’d grown which interrupted the view “that wasn’t there in 2012,” he muttered.  In fact, this was JC’s third visit to Xi’an and, of course, lots has changed. They'd moved the horses and lions too.

It cost 10 yuan, £1.10, to dong the bell 3 times.  It is meant to bring fortune and good luck.  When the bell was struck the fountains (out of shot) gave a little splurt of water which greatly amused the children - and me of course. 

We popped into a museum which gave me my first taste of terracotta lovelies.  Lots more to come.

By this time, it was mid afternoon and we headed for the city walls.  The inner city walls are complete - due to a mix of survival, refurb and rebuild.

They span 14 km in total so we hired a bike to pedal the circuit. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) they only had tandems left, so JC and I both had our very first ride on a double bike.  It took us a few 100 m to get the hang of it but it was a lot of fun!

We were on the walls as the sun set and the lights flicked on.  Every so often we’d stop and take some shots.  A perfect way to see Xi’an.

Feeding Ruth became a bit of a chore in the evening but we needed to eat as we’d only had some noodles each.  JC suggested the Muslim quarter as it had stacks of street food.

Indeed it did, but meat and egg/wheat noodles were aplenty and veggie gluten free options barren.  I hadn’t realised that this part of China is a wheat growing area and rice isn’t much on the menu - not as boiled or even turned into rice noodles.  Everyone JC asked “rice noodles?” just shook their heads.  So we left the squid, beef, offal offerings behind and ended up in a restaurant where JC had some sort of meat patty in a bun (no we weren’t in a McDonalds) and I had a side of vegetables.  Ah well it’ll keep us going.

Aachen, the Mossel and more Casemates

Friday 30 August 2024 

After my epic adventure to Luxembourg (here) we went to Brandenburg castle on the Friday.  There wasn't a lot to see but we had a good walk around with some wonderful views.

Saturday 31 August 2024

On Saturday we went to Aachen, Germany.  I'd wanted to visit the cathedral there after as it was recommended to me when I was in Liege in 2022.  The Belgium Church of St John the Evangelist church, an 8 sided building, was modelled on the octagonal design of Aachen Cathedral, so it was a must see.  

It was soooo beautiful!  The ceilings are all tiled in blue and gold.  It didn't start as a cathedral but as a palace/temple.  The central rotunda (well octagon) was probably built in about 10 years starting in 798 (+/- 5 years).  It is the final resting place of Charlemagne (or most of him), the coronation church of the Roman-German kings until 1531 and as the pilgrimage church on the occasion of the Aachen Pilgrimage, which takes place every seven years. It was the first place in Germany to be inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1978. 

I liked this water fountain, the Spatzenbrunnen, a 1978 water fountain on the east side of Munsterplatz.  I really thought it was a lot older than that!

This fountain was also interesting.  It's the Kreislauf des Geldes, the money cycle.  

There was another interesting fountain nearby.  If there had been a 'trail of all fountains in Aachen' I'd have signed up.  On our return journey we found the tripoint of Germany, The Netherlands and Belgiums so I popped along (more here).

Sunday 01 September 2024

Today we took JC's parents out for lunch - actually I think they took us out, but we drove them! We headed for Bernkastel-Kues but found they had a wine festival on, and the town was only accessible by shuttle bus.  So we moved on and ended up just further north at in Brauhaus Kloster having a lovely sunny lunch watching the local paragliders jump.

Monday 02 September 2024

Today we visited the Bock Casements in Luxembourg City.  Like the Pétrusse Casements in Luxembourg City, they are a subterranean defence system of kms of tunnels.  They were initially carved in the 17th century, under Spanish rule, and twice extended.  Apart from the wonderful views, it's hard to imagine what it would have been like living in these underground fortifications protecting the city.