We arrived in Xian at 8am. It was pouring rain. Our guide, David, greeted us and walked us quite a distance to the van. We all got soaking wet. David gave us two hours at the hotel to get “refreshed”, before he brought us to a Chinese “hot pot” lunch. Lunch was excellent, and all the kids loved cooking their meats, vegetables and eggs in hot, bubbling, individual hot pots. David showed the adults how to make a spicy dipping sauce. Yum!
After lunch, David decided, given the rainy day, to head to two museums. One (ShaanXi Provincial Museum) provided us with a quick (90 minutes) and short history of Xian. Xian is the first of the several capitals of China. It was a capital city for 1,062 years (13 dynasties and 73 different emperors). The most famous dynasties were the Qin, Tang, and Han.
Then we went to the Xian Art Museum. The Museum guide gave us a very informative tour of several periods of Xian art. Then the girls were provided with paper, brush, and ink and taught a few strokes of calligraphy. Then they wrote several characters. Very interesting! We then reviewed many student artist paintings for purchase (we succumbed!)
That evening we went to dinner (more dumplings – “jiaozi”), and to a dance demonstration that presented various dances done for the emperors during the Tang dynasty. It was excellent! However, it lasted 90 minutes, and we were all very tired after a somewhat sleepless night on the train.
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| Tang Dynasty Dance |
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| Tang Dynasty Dance |
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| Tang Dynasty Dance |
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| Tang Dynasty Dance |
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| Tang Dynasty Dance |
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| Tang Dynasty Dance |
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