rivestchinatrip

Sat Oct 29 Xi'an

Beautiful agate drinking vessel in shape of antelope head from Tang dynasty (618-907AD).

Earliest known fragments of paper, from around 100 BC.

Magic square from approximately 1300AD.

Shaanxi History Museum has a superb collection. This statue is from Western Han dynasty (206BC-9AD).

Fri Oct 28 Xi'an

Xi'an has a large Muslim community. The Imam talks with a colleague.

Horses and chariots were included.

Some portions of the site are shown as they were found. The tomb was destroyed soon after it was finished, by a peasant uprising. It takes much work to reconstruct the solidiers.

Close-up of a soldier.

Each solider is unique.

We are given a wonderful tour of the site by Professor Zhang, a curator of the museum.

Hall of the Terra Cotta soliders is huge.

Gail rings large bell near Little Goose Pagoda, built in 700's to house Buddhist scriptures brought back from India.

Gail and Ron rode bicycles on top of the city wall surrounding Xi'an, the ancient capital of Xi'an.

Thu Oct 27 Jiayuguan

A peasant woman walking near Jiayuguan. Note the hay piled up on top of her house...

Goats are common near Jiayuguan...

Onions get piled up too...

Farmers dry harvested corn ears everywhere: in piles on the road, on top of their houses, and in the fields.

We were surprised to find snow on the ground outside of the fort. Gail throws a snowball.

Ron hits "attacker" in the neck...

For five yuan (i.e. 5/8 of a dollar), you can shoot arrows from the top of the inner wall at a scarecrow "attacker" caught between the walls.

From the western gate, you are on your own onto the Silk Road, beyond the protection of the empire.

A large watchtower dominates the center of the fort.

Fort has an outer wall and an inner wall.

The fort was impregnable defense against Mongols.

Map in fort of various segments of the "Great Wall", which were built at various times. Blue line is Ming wall. Blue dot (photoshop!) gives approximate location of Jiayuguan.

A pavilion near the fort looks beautiful in front of the Qilian mountains, which are over 5000 meters tall.

The Great Wall (as built in Ming dynasty) ends here, in Jiayuguan, at a fort defending the narrow pass between the mountains, a key point on the Silk Road.

Wed Oct 26 Dunhuang Jiayuguan

Jiayuguan is a steel-making town. This is the view from our hotel window.

Muslim woman on train seemed to like Gail a lot. There were many migrant farm workers on train returning to their homes in Sezhuan. They were very friendly and helpful when we thought we had lost our guide...