Saturday, November 06, 2004
sweet and sour chicken
if ever there was a place where you were guaranteed to earn your Blue Peter badge then surely it must be the Terrocota Warriors. i almost expected simon groom (assuming he'd dragged himself away from the bloody farm in derbyshire) and sarah green to greet me at the door, gushing with excitment as they excavated yet another soldier from the earth.
many centuries ago, a leader of the rather unfortunately named ming dynasty, decided that he'd like to make his mark on the world. to this end, he employed 720,000 people to build ornate replica soldiers, horses and carriages. these were then supposed to guard his tomb once he was dead. you can tell i listened hard all those years ago during blue peter. quite what purpose this served is anyone's guess, but as the other half of the population were constructing a 20ft wall at the top of a mountain, it'd be churlish to questions further.
anyway, as luck would have it, the emperor was busy inspecting his prospective tomb and stone soldiers one day, when he fell over and died. there is no record of whether peter sissons wore a tie to announce this one. now dead, the mings busied themselves with covering up his tomb and all the soldiers they'd spent the last god knows how long making, with earth. and there they lay, undiscovered till Blue Peter came along on one of their summer adventures and found them. or something like that.
if creating these soldiers was a bit, in my eyes at least, of a waste of time, then 3,000 years later they are certainly serving a purpose. an entire tourist industry surrounds them with as many minature sovenirs as you (and even courtney) could possibly ever want to buy. maybe this was what drove those ancient mings on, the knowledge that they were creating a perfect revenue source in 3,000 years time. who knows.
anyway, blue peter and simon groom aside, you can't deny that there's a big 'wow' factor as you enter the main hall and see all the warriors stood there. certainly enjoyed that one. enjoyed it even more because we made the great decision to not go on the expensive guided tour (by all accounts absolute bobbins) and did it 'independently'. i read the rough guide out to courtney and she seemed happy with that.
other excursions in xi'an involve climbing the hua shan mountain. without boring everyone with the detail, it's a famous mountain if you're chinese. you can either climb the entire 2,000m (which is what all the westerners do) or get a cable car up to 1,700m and stand and take a few photos (which is what all the chinese do). so we dutifully conformed and climbed the whole way. very steep in parts, with hand rails etc. quite surreal indeed to get to almost the top (having seen almost noone all day) to then find the cable car has delievered literally millions of chinese to the top to buy sovenirs and get their photo taken.
tonight - well, while palace beat arsenal, we'll be on a train to guiyang in the south. a mere 28 hours. unfortunately first class train tickets in china sell out months in advance (or so it seems) and we're slumming it in second class - or hard sleeper as they call it here.
oh - and christmas shopping. all done and dusted and it's only 6th november. and they cost twice as much to send home as they did to buy. don't get too excited folks, we are on a budget remember...
thanks to nick for helping us beat the communist censorship and posting all the stuff to the site. only 17 days till we regain control again.
many centuries ago, a leader of the rather unfortunately named ming dynasty, decided that he'd like to make his mark on the world. to this end, he employed 720,000 people to build ornate replica soldiers, horses and carriages. these were then supposed to guard his tomb once he was dead. you can tell i listened hard all those years ago during blue peter. quite what purpose this served is anyone's guess, but as the other half of the population were constructing a 20ft wall at the top of a mountain, it'd be churlish to questions further.
anyway, as luck would have it, the emperor was busy inspecting his prospective tomb and stone soldiers one day, when he fell over and died. there is no record of whether peter sissons wore a tie to announce this one. now dead, the mings busied themselves with covering up his tomb and all the soldiers they'd spent the last god knows how long making, with earth. and there they lay, undiscovered till Blue Peter came along on one of their summer adventures and found them. or something like that.
if creating these soldiers was a bit, in my eyes at least, of a waste of time, then 3,000 years later they are certainly serving a purpose. an entire tourist industry surrounds them with as many minature sovenirs as you (and even courtney) could possibly ever want to buy. maybe this was what drove those ancient mings on, the knowledge that they were creating a perfect revenue source in 3,000 years time. who knows.
anyway, blue peter and simon groom aside, you can't deny that there's a big 'wow' factor as you enter the main hall and see all the warriors stood there. certainly enjoyed that one. enjoyed it even more because we made the great decision to not go on the expensive guided tour (by all accounts absolute bobbins) and did it 'independently'. i read the rough guide out to courtney and she seemed happy with that.
other excursions in xi'an involve climbing the hua shan mountain. without boring everyone with the detail, it's a famous mountain if you're chinese. you can either climb the entire 2,000m (which is what all the westerners do) or get a cable car up to 1,700m and stand and take a few photos (which is what all the chinese do). so we dutifully conformed and climbed the whole way. very steep in parts, with hand rails etc. quite surreal indeed to get to almost the top (having seen almost noone all day) to then find the cable car has delievered literally millions of chinese to the top to buy sovenirs and get their photo taken.
tonight - well, while palace beat arsenal, we'll be on a train to guiyang in the south. a mere 28 hours. unfortunately first class train tickets in china sell out months in advance (or so it seems) and we're slumming it in second class - or hard sleeper as they call it here.
oh - and christmas shopping. all done and dusted and it's only 6th november. and they cost twice as much to send home as they did to buy. don't get too excited folks, we are on a budget remember...
thanks to nick for helping us beat the communist censorship and posting all the stuff to the site. only 17 days till we regain control again.
// posted by courtney and pete @ 09:21 
Comments:
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Is there anybody else out there who has no clue what a Blue Peter badge is???
The Muskoka Mom
P.S. Must say I'm with Janet on the business of pulling a fast one on your Chinese hosts. Shame on you two wealthy Western Capitalists!
Love you, anyhow,
Mom
The Muskoka Mom
P.S. Must say I'm with Janet on the business of pulling a fast one on your Chinese hosts. Shame on you two wealthy Western Capitalists!
Love you, anyhow,
Mom
# posted by 
: 3:00 am
: 3:00 am
I was wondering the same thing!! Please, for the sakes of those of us over in the "Colonies", what is a Blue Peter badge? And who are Simon Broome and Sarah Greene? Enquiring minds need to know!
Love, live from "The Other London",
The Canadian Aunt
Love, live from "The Other London",
The Canadian Aunt
# posted by : 12:00 pm
: 12:00 pm
Just while we are on the subject - would someone please translate "bobbins" for us Colonials? (I'm assuming something along the lines of "tacky")
# posted by : 9:47 pm
: 9:47 pm
They (Blue Peter badges) were also dished out to anyone who abandoned his principles gaily if it made life easier........
Sounds like The Landlord doth protest too much - are you still bitter that they rejected your design for Peter Duncan's suit?
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