It's A Wonderful World

The last three days have been amazing. Let me tell you all about it.

Wednesday was the 11th November, 11-11, a day that in most countries has some significance. In Germany it is the beginning of carnival. In the UK it's Remembrance Day. And in China? It's Singles' Day. Because hey, we need some celebration too. Who needs Valentine's Day anyway? This day is mainly celebrated by shops offering crazy discounts on everything. So naturally, after classes ended I went to a nearby mall to check them out. There were in fact a lot of things on discount, mainly shoes, the problem was that it was impossible to find a pair that fit me. So, momentarily beaten I returned to my dorm. But I am  not one to give up so easily, so I took to the Internet. Sites similar to Amazon and Ebay are very common in China and you can get practically anything online. Also, delivery usually only takes two days. So I logged into my 淘宝 account and started my search. And bam, like magic, I found shoes and a coat, both for around 10 Euros. Pretty insane, right? The shoes have already arrived, turns out I accidentally ordered two pairs, but I don't really care because they're amazing and I love them. So much for online shopping in China.

Me and my new shoes.

Thursday and Friday my university took us Chinese language students on a class trip. We started our trip Thursday morning at 7 o'clock. A little early for my taste but luckily we had a two hour long bus ride for sleeping. Our destination was Baoji (宝鸡), a "small" city of 3.7 million inhabitants. There we visited the Baoji Bronze Museum. They have bronze ware from as early as the Zhou Dynasty, which lasted from around 1000 BC to 256 BC. There are mainly household articles, like bowls and cups exhibited there, but also some weapons and of course ritual vessels. The bronze findings are especially valuable because in ancient China they were also used for writing on (paper only appeared in the Han Dynasty). They hold historical records and also show the development of Chinese characters. Although it wasn't always easy to understand the Chinese guide, ,it was a very interesting place. So here, have some pictures!

Cool architecture, right?

中国, China. This word first appeared on bronze that is exhibited here. At the time it meant "middle land", it was only used to name the country later.

Alcohol containers. Bronze household articles were mainly used by families of high social status, the common folk used pottery, which I guess is exhibited in some other museum.

For all the Sinologists - ge! A kind of Chinese halberd.

After the Bronze museum we went to the Jintai temple of Baoji, a Daoist temple on a beautiful little hill. It was a lovely place and we were once again shown around by a Chinese guide. There were sadly so many statues of holy figures that I now don't remember any of them. Also no pictures, because I always feel like it would be rude to take pictures of these places of worship.

Okay, you get ONE picture.

Also look at these Ginkgo trees. So pretty.

We were still not done with our day of sight-seeing, so we hopped on the bus again and were taken up the hill on a street of questionable safety and arrived at the mausoleum of Tang emperor Qin and his wife. The two are buried in seperate graves which both have their own entrance tunnel. One 20m underground, the other one 18m. So down we went, to admire the statues and bronzeware that were left to accompany them into the world of the dead. No pictures allowed though.

A sign that shows how the spot where the mausoleum is built is in accordance with Fengshui principles. The mausoleum itself is the snake (not pictured), there is a turtle in the North (a hill), a dragon in the East (also a hill), a tiger in the West (a hill that is smaller than the dragon) and a phoenix in the South (a river). I recommend you inform yourselves if you're interested in this, I can't really make this caption any longer.

Then it was time to get back on the bus and be taken to Tianshui (天水) in Gansu (甘肃) province, another small city of 3.9 inhabitants. We drove through 34(!!) tunnels and the journey took about three hours. Unfortunately it was already quite late, thus impossible to appreciate the landscape. Instead I spent the busride marvelling at the dark night sky and the stars. It had been too long since I've seen them. I even saw a shooting star :) We spent the night in a very fancy hotel with not so fancy KFC for dinner. (We didn't choose to be fed this, it was bought for us by the travel company, just so you know. I would never choose to eat at KFC voluntarily.)

So after a night's rest in the most comfortable bed ever, we were on our feet again at 8 in the morning. We visited the 伏羲庙, Fuxi temple of Tianshui. Fuxi is a legendary figure who is said to have created humankind from clay, together with his wife, who was also his sister. Also he taught humans how to hunt, fish and cook. What he is most famous for is that the 8 trigrams (八卦) were revealed to him in the form of a dragon horse with markings. These trigrams are combinations of three continuous or broken lines, which represent different natural phenomena, directions, body parts...They represent a lot of things. A broken line here stands for yin 阴, the female/passive and an unbroken line stands for yang 阳, the male/active. These, according to Daoism, are complementary forces that interact in the world and always need each other to exist. Basically everything contains both yin and yang, which are always influencing each other. So, everything is constantly in flux, nothing ever constant. The trigrams were then combined to form 64 hexagrams which were and are used for predicting the future (see Yijing 已经, also known as I Ching, the Book of Changes. Traditionally thought to have been written by Fuxi.) Basically Fuxi was a pretty great guy. Thanks.

This tree was planted in the Tang dynasty, even before the temple was built (Ming dynasty). According to our guide, it has been hollow for a long time and because people would put offerings into the hole, there were 40 valuable pieces of ancient art found inside it. Also it survived being struck by lightning.

In the middle, the eight trigrams, around them the 64 hexagrams.

Nature vs. Architecture.

Our last stop on this trip was also the most spectacular one. We went to one of the four Buddhist grottoes of China, Maijishan (麦积山) grottoes. These are 194 caves carved into Maiji mountain, most of them have a Buddha/Bodhisattva statue inside of them. The statues range in age from the Northern Wei (386-534) to Qing (1644-1912). Because of this, visiting the grottoes gives one an overview of over 1000 years of art history. We learned that during the Wei rule, it was common to make Buddha statues very slim, they turned fatter during the Sui dynasty. We also saw a statue of a Western Bodhisattva, who according to legend brought music to China. It was a wonderful place and the air was clean!! It smelled of snow, almost brought me to tears. A perfect end to our trip.

For those who don't like to walk.

Beautiful landscape. Note also the loudspeakers in the tall tree. Which we suspect to not be entirely natural.

There it is :)

Face to face with the giant Bodhisattvas.

Looking down. What a great view these statues have.

Slim.

Fat. Also this is the Westerner, recognizable by his beautiful wavy hair.

These cute little puppies.

They decided to follow us down the mountain, hoping for some food. They were adorable.

So those of you who are still with me, thank you for reading this slightly longer than normal post. Love from me!

Also, here are a few more oddities.

Rules for waiters. The seven "no"s of bringing food. Don't give the food to customers if: the ingredients aren't correct, the plates aren't clean, the temperature isn't high enough, the colour isn't correct, the quantity isn't enough, the name isn't right, the number of the chef isn't provided. These lists of don'ts are quite commonly seen in China.

They quite often get the "unrecyclable" wrong. Frequently with hilarious results.

"Wonderful circumstances"

Chinese Word of the Day: 导游 daoyou, tour guide.