Monday in Xi'An

We went to sleep last night listening to the thunder of fireworks celebrating the last night of the New Years festivities. Just like the Fourth of July, there were a few remaining pops of firecrackers this morning, but for the most part, everyone was back to work and back to school. The huge red and gold lanterns were being taken down from the fronts of shops, homes, lamp posts, everywhere they have been brightening this city that is waiting for Spring.


We met our students at school this morning, and were off on a bus to the outskirts of the city to view the terra cotta warriors. An hour's drive brought us to what was a farm, and is now a huge complex of buildings that protect the warriors, chariots and horses that were discovered in 1974. A farmer, digging a well, found not water, but broken pieces of pottery. He had stumbled upon the site of Emperor Qin's terra cotta army of more than 8000 elaborately decorated life-sized figures created over three decades in 200BC. The figures had been carefully arranged and covered over with wooden beams, woven rush mats and fine soil. After the Emperor's death, his Dynasty was overthrown, and the chambers were heavily damaged by angry peasants. Two thousand years later, what remained were huge piles of smashed terra cotta figures- a mind boggling three-dimensional puzzle. In the decades since the discovery, hundreds of figures have been reassembled, but more await repair. Putting all the king's horses and all the kings men together again takes upwards of a year per figure. It was sobering to be in the presence of such magnificent craftsmanship, on such a huge scale, from so long ago.

We stopped on our way to the museum to see a studio where small and large scale terra cotta reproductions were being made in the same manner as the ancient ones. At this same shop there was a woman making a handmade silk rug. At two hundred knots of silk thread per inch, we were mesmerized. She made each knot and cut the silk so quickly we couldn't see her do it!


It was a cold, raw day, and the buildings are unheated, so after three hours of museum going, we were ready for something hot to drink, and our guide brought us to a tea house where we were introduced to the tea ceremony. We sat at two round tables, and our host had us select three types of tea per table. Our table chose lychee, jasmine and ginseng. Tiny cups were warmed, the tea was placed in the pot, hot water was poured over, and then off, to "open the tea leaves." More water was poured into the pot, steeped briefly, and then our tiny cups were filled. We first smelled the tea, held the cups just so, then sipped the tea. We tried each of the three teas, had a rest and then left the tea house. We all agreed that the process not only warmed us up, but relaxed and refocused us.

After lunch we returned to school and met with about 150 students for English corner. This is an opportunity for Chinese students to practice their English with native English speakers, and this time, it was us. Each of the students and faculty from Gould spread out in the huge courtyard in front of the school, and the Xi'An students gathered around us in groups of 10-15. They asked us questions, we asked them questions, we sang songs, told jokes ( many of which were completely lost in translation!) and had a great time for about 45 minutes.

After English Corner we went to the fourth floor of one of the classroom buildings to a gymnasium space where a Physical Education teacher taught the students Tai Chi. He spoke no English, but he got his ideas across, and in a few minutes, students were moving very gracefully. He was the only one who could lace his fingers together and touch his palms to the floor in a standing position, but not for lack of trying. Then it was on to table tennis. Ping pong balls flew around the room, we found out who gets competitive with a paddle in their hand, and there was plenty of laughter.

The students departed with their host families for the evening, and we had dinner in the school dining room.

Jan Baker