Xi'an Shaanxi History Museum

The next day we went to the Shaanxi History Museum, which displayed the history of the Province for the last several thousand years. That seems incredible to say when American history, not including Native American history which, unfortunately, no one seems to care about, is only a few hundred years old. Anyways, the museum is free, but they only give out a certain number of tickets every day to prevent overcrowding, so we had to wait in quite a queue that morning to get our free tickets. 

The Chinese are credited with inventing numerous items, including alcohol, the mechanized clock, tea production, iron and steel smelting, porcelain, the compass, and moveable type printing. The most notable are silk, paper, and gun powder. Imagine how different this world would be if the Chinese had used gun powder more for weaponry and less for fireworks! Below are remnants of some of the earliest silk. A journey on the silk road anyone?

Remember, Chang'an, or Xi'an in ancient times, was the start, or end!, of the Silk Road. 

These are remnants of early paper. This invention alone propelled the entire human race forward, as records could now be made with ease and ideas more easily shared. It's interesting to think about how China had such a monumental impact with all of its inventions in ancient times, but in recent times China is known for copying items instead of creating them. Where did all of those creative juices go?



This was another emperor's miniature version of the Terracotta Warriors. Not as impressive, sure, but still interesting as, again, all of the statues are individual.

This is a wooden mold for making metal coins.

The thing on the left is an ancient counting devise, pre-abacus. The thing on the right is a right angle tool, used to ensure accuracy in building. This tool is from 206 BCE. My dad has one just slightly larger in his garage right now. That's one reason why I love mathematics. It transcends time and never loses its importance.

The Chinese have also been steaming their food since 5000-3000 BCE. Steaming food? I'm pretty sure my ancestors were only capable of skewers and stews back then. 

Apparently the first form of money in China was sea shells. Drew immediately thought of the problem with this. If you lived by the sea, you'd automatically be rich! So, I guess this monetary system only worked in Xi'an, which was nowhere near the sea.

After the museum, we went to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, another famous landmark in Xi'an built in 625 CE.  There was a lovely park around this landmark as well, including the largest outdoor fountain in Asia.

This is a view of the fountain right before a water and sound show. All of these people kept running across from one side to the other, trying to make landfall before the waterworks. I don't think they'd get wet anyways, but it was funny to watch them scurry across.

Let the show begin! It actually lasted about 30 min and including all kinds of music, from ancient Chinese songs to songs from the Nutcracker. 

On our way out, we stopped by a noodle shop and had the Xi'an famous biang biang mian noodles. Delicious!

That afternoon, we walked over to the famous Xi'an city wall. This city wall is the largest, complete city wall in the world. They've renovated it, of course, but you could still get a really good feel of what it felt like in ancient times.

This is a shot of new Xi'an built outside of the city walls. These big buildings need more room!

The city wall came complete with a moat and drawbridge!

We also rented a tandem bicycle and rode around the entire top of the wall. For the majority of the time, Drew rode in front. I also gave it a try, but it was WAY harder than I expected! Not sure about the physics of it all, but having more weight in the back than the front made it REALLY hard to balance. I almost tipped us over several times. It almost felt like slacklining. 

Gorgeous sunset views from the top of the city wall!

These were volunteer guards of the city wall. Every few hours they'd have a guard change and do this cool little procession around the gate checking things out.

Back to Riu Min Jie for dinner! Drew was the artist for this shot! Good work babe!

These little half moon shaped dumplings are called jaozi, while the circular ones are called baozi. Drew loved these little jaozi in a spicy soup. There were three ladies making the jaozi right next to us; I bet they made thousands per day!

The next day, or last day in Xi'an, we stopped by a street vendor or a Xi'an taco. This guy was frying our tortilla thing in oil, delicious!

Then we were off for a walk through the Daming Palace. Originally it was the summer palace of the emperor, but they liked it so much they made it their permanent residence. I thought this was strange considering the palace was actually outside of the city walls. So the emperor, all of this staff, and all of the precious goods had to be moved from the palace inside of the city walls every time there was an attack? Sounds like poor planning to me. Unless there is a tunnel! Secret tunnel... secret tunnel.... Of course, everything on the huge site burned down ages ago. Now only this stone foundation and a few others remain of the buildings. Today it is a huge park that people use for relaxation and festivals. 

This was a very interesting looking playground filled with fake gold drums.

And this little guy was making a break for it. Run away, run away!

The old wall around the palace. Only the gate remains.

Finally, we we flew away from Xi'an, we realized that it has a similar pollution problem to Denver or LA. The mountains trap the polluted air on top of the city, creating this bowl effect. Above the bowl is beautiful clear skies!