More From Xi'an

July 13-15, 2013

We enjoyed riding the city perimeter on the wall.  It's an 8-mile trek and is a fantastic was to enjoy city views.  There was a music track playing, and that made the ride even more fun. 

 Another highlight is Xi'an was visiting the Big Goose Pagoda at night.  There was a water show with lights.  Enjoy.

 While staying in Xi'an, our Fulbright groups made an overnight trip to Hu County.  This is where we stayed with rural families for dinner, a relaxing evening, and a trip to the local hot springs for a dip.  My pre-conceived idea about hot springs meant that I picture us trekking through the hills to find an isolated but totally wonderful natural hot spring.  It turned out to be an indoor swimming pool  :)

Dumpling-making ingredients

The real cooks in the kitchen

Part of our dinner in Hu County

Learning to make dumplings

In Hu County, we met a famous artist.  He is known for his peasant paintings.  During the Cultural Revolution, it was not good to be a scholar, professional, or skilled artist.  Those kind of folks needed to go "underground" if you will.  Mr. Tong began to paint the scenes of the daily lives of peasants along with others who could not deny their creative drive.  Peasant painting has become a sought-after genre.  I was honored to meet him and to tour his gallery and home.

Mr. Tong shows us some of his work.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

July 12, 2013

Following a presentation about the development of acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, and the clinical applications of each (Dr. Wang Ruihui, Deputy President of Shanxi University of Chinese Medicine), Fulbrighters visited the Chinese Medicine History Museum and a hospital where we observed the practice of these TCM methods.  The museum included the largest catalog of items used for treating a variety of ailments.  Some reported benefits of these treatments are that they are suitable for a range of applications, they are inexpensive, and they are easy to perform. The practices originated in the age of clan communities in primitive Chinese society. 

Acupuncture is the inserting of needles at points on the body along meridians.  You might be interested in knowing that the first acupuncture needles were made of stone.  They evolved over time into bone and then metal.  Some were even made of earthenware and bamboo.  There are nine kinds of needles for different functions.

A model shows the meridians
along which needles can be
effectively inserted.

A volunteer gets acupuncture.

Primitive people also discovered the healing effect of warming the body.  A common burning material is moxa (purified mugwort leaves) and wool.  This mixture ignites without flames and is placed near the body at specific points to affect healing.  Since this seemed like a low risk treatment, I tried it out.  The warmth and aroma of the burning herb is, indeed, relaxing.

This Moxibustion patient is complaining of stomach pain.

Cupping comes from primitive societies as well.  It is the application of a cup-shaped vessel to the body that traps hot air, which pulls the skin into the cup.  In the beginning, cups were made of horn.  Now they are made of glass or plastic.  In fact, since this visit, I have seen a cupping kit in a pharmacy/beauty store that they were perfectly willing to sell to me.  I guess I could hang out a shingle and go into practice.

Relics

July 11, 2013

With a refresher course on the Silk Road behind us, a visit to the Shanxi History Museum came next on our itinerary.  There were amazing relics of the past on display.  They represented Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qin Dynasties.  Here are some examples:

Tri-Colored Male Horse Rider, Tang Dynasty 

Painted and Gold Traced Figure of Heavenly
God, Tang Dynasty  

Tri-Colored Figure of Tomb Guardian
Tang Dynasty

My Bucket List and The Silk Road

July 11, 2013

Maybe a bucket list is not such a good idea after all.  By its very nature, it’s limited.  My bucket list is a living, intangible, imaginary document. I could never have dreamed up some of the adventures I have been blessed to have so far.  Instead, it seems that being open to taking advantage of opportunities, and willing to do the work involved is what’s molding a life story beyond my creative ability.  I am staying in the Chinese province of Shaanxi, in the city of Xi’an.  Xi’an is considered the beginning of the Silk Road, the most important trade route linking China, Central Asia, Persia, western Asia, and Rome.  From Xi'an, there were three roads west, the north, the middle, and the southern routes of the what we know as the Silk Road.  It ended in Constantinople, current day Istanbul.  

The Chinese did not originally use that name.  In fact, they didn't use any name.  Their country was the world; heaven.  They were the center of the world.  It didn't need a name.  The name, Silk Road, was coined by German, Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877.  Silk, porcelain, metal wares, rare animals, spices, precious stones, were exported from China.  The Chinese didn't, at first, feel the need to import goods.  The route became an important network of cultural changes as ideas about technology, religion, philosophy, art, and more were exchanged by traders along the profitable but treacherous way.  Professor Zhang Honglu said Zhang Qian (2nd Century B.C.) the "Lewis and Clark of the Silk Road."  He went west on a mission to seek allies against the Xiongnu under Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty.  China opened to both exporting and importing goods especially during the Tang and Yuan (Mongol) Dynasties.

You can still find markets and merchants by the 1,000s here in Xi'an.  Today, though, the wares are souvenirs, fruit, vegetables, and art.  Though the government’s primary interest in reconstructing the modern Silk Road is oil and other resources, and national safety.

Here are some modern day scenes at the starting point of the ancient Silk Road:

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda at Night

At the Lama Temple

One of the Buddhas.  Actually, the wall has thousands of them.

Incense burning outside the Temple