Forest of Stelae 碑林

 If you keep walking down Shu Yuan Men, you will come to the Forest of Stelae, or Bēilín in Chinese.  Many of our Chinese friends from Xi'an say this is their favorite museum to visit in the city. It's not as high on our list of sites, but that's because we can't enjoy it fully because it requires a good level of Chinese if you want to understand what any of the stelae actually say. 

Here's the entrance and some other shots we got from walking into the museum.

The museum is housed in a former Confucian Temple and it has housed a growing collection of Stelae since 1087. It has nearly 3,000 stelae and it is the biggest collection of stelae in China. Most of its exhibits are stelae of the Tang Dynasty. Some parts of the collection are books written by Confucius along with many other kinds of writings and books.  Some unusual examples of stelae include an 18th-century one depicting a Yangtze River flood control project and another that appears to be a bamboo forest, but after looking closely you can see that the leaves and branches form a poem. 

These are some typical examples of what you can see there.

The famous Nestorian Stele was moved to the Stele Forest in 1907, after the local authorities learned that a Danish adventurer was trying to "obtain" the ancient monument and take it out of the country.  This stele was constructed in 781 and documents 150 years of early Christianity in China.

We couldn't get a great picture of it because of its glass (plexiglass?) covering, and it was being monopolized by a young boy. But here you go.

Although we couldn't read the stelae, it was interesting to see the older characters on some of them. You can see these characters are quite different and much more round in their shape. They look more pictographic than both modern traditional and simplified Chinese characters.

Shu Yuan Men - Cultural and Art Street

Just inside the south gate of the city wall of Xi'an there is a street called Shu Yuan Men. You can find many artists in this area. Many types of traditional arts and crafts are sold on this historical street - calligraphy, paper cuttings, paintings and antiques. Many buildings on this street have been restored in the style of the ancient architectures of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, so it's quite nice to take a stroll down.  Historically this was an important area because it was the location of a famous school during both the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Here's a view of the city wall just outside the south gate.

This is the entrance to Shu Yuan Men.

Walking down the street and surrounding area it looks something like this:

 

You can find lots of paintings and calligraphy and along with other items. These are some of the peasant paintings from nearby Huxian County that we are fascinated by.

These are the signature stamps that are used by Chinese artists. You can get one carved with your own signature on it, but I'm not sure how that works with long western names...

 

 Like just about everywhere in Xi'an you get some of your very own terracotta warriors. 

 

Terracotta Warriors and Horses 兵马俑

After living in Xi'an for almost a year, we finally made it to the number one tourist site.  The Terracotta Warriors is usually what we use to identify the city in which we live. Conversations usually go like this...

"Where do you live in China?"
"Xi'an."
"Ummm... where is that?"
"It's where the Terracotta Warriors are."
"Ohhhhhh! Right. Cool!"

You can guess that there was quite the crowd there, as we went in July with Yellow's brother visiting from France. We literally had to push our way through lots of pushy people in order to get some beautiful pictures to share with you. You're welcome.

Here's a close up of some of the soldiers.

So what is it? It's an army made out of terracotta. What's the big deal? Well, it has been placed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  It's real name is actually the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.  Qin Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of China and had what's estimated to be 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses buried with him in order to protect himself in his afterlife. I'm sure he's really not excited that some of his army has been disturbed.

Most of these figures remain buried in their pits and the tomb of the emperor remains unopened, given concerns about preserving its artifacts. For example, after their excavation, the painted surface present on some terracotta figures began to flake and fade. The lacquer covering the paint can curl in fifteen seconds once exposed to Xi'an's dry air and can flake off in just four minutes. Work on the mausoleum began in 246 BC soon after Emperor Qin (then aged 13) ascended the throne. The project eventually involved 700,000 workers.

Most of the pits look something like this. 

But others have been put together quite nicely.

 

We heard an funny story about a German student who posed as a Terracotta Warrior at the museum. Click here for an article about if you are curious.

Lots of famous people have been there of course. American presidents and their wives like Reagan, Clinton, and Michelle Obama (just last March!); French presidents Jacques Chirac and Sarkozy; British Queen Elizabeth II; and Russian Putin have all made stops here.

So what are you waiting for? Come and visit us in Xi'an!

Xi'an City Wall

So far this summer we've had a number of visitors come to Xi'an and quite the international mix, one from France, one from Ecuador and five Chinese from Wuhan. That means we've finally hit some of the big tourist spots of the city, so get ready for some major blogging (we'll try our best).

The city wall in Xi'an is definitely one of the top attractions to visit, and it might be one of our favorites depending on the weather. We've visited it twice already within one week and both days were beautiful with clear blue skies, something that is not very common in Xi'an.

Here's just a short description and brief history of the wall. As you might know, Xi'an is one of the oldest cities in China and once was the capital city during several dynasties. Construction of the first city wall first began in 194 BC, but the current wall was started by the Ming dynasty in 1370 and is 13.7 km (8.5 miles)  long. It's one of the oldest and best preserved city walls.

 This is a view of the fancy business and shopping district that is just outside of the south gate of the city wall.

This is a view of the opposite side. This area is called Beilin and is just inside the south gate of the city wall. It's a neighborhood filled with artists and calligraphers.

 

We think next time we'll rent some bikes so we can explore all 14 km of the wall. 

 

 Like most sites in China the wall is very beautiful at night, as it is covered with lights and lanterns.

 

 This is the view of the Bell Tower that you can see from the south gate of the wall.