Today is the anniversary of Japan's invasion of China (why o why?) so there was apprehension that demonstrations could get out of hand. There had been senseless vandalism of Japanese made cars yesterday so we saw virtually none on the roads today. This tends to happen each year on this day. There were a lot of police around for which we were grateful. They do not worry about providing police with pursuit cars.
First visit today was to a mosque, noting that muslims have been in China for over a thousand years.
Later in the day Kathy received word that police had closed off the mosque shortly after we had left it.
It was a tough time for police on long shifts.
We wandered around the nearby markets for a while and we liked this family statue:
When we got back to our van we found our driver had been taken ill and had been replaced. He could not really afford to miss the work and we heard that he was taken to hospital with neck pains.
Next we proceeded to the Forest of Stones.
This did not mean much to us at first but we soon realised that this collection of stones was one of China's most important heritage collections. There were about 300 granite stones, all 8 foot by 2 foot by 12 inches thick. You can imagine that they weigh several tonnes each. They contained writing of Confucius and other early wise men and are studied extensively by historians and religious people. We could not get a good photo of the writing because the stones were in glass cases which reflected surroundings.
So we were fascinated to see several young men making copies from the original stones by using a rubbing process.
We went to a theatre restaurant for a buffet lunch, along with several busloads of other tourists.
No concert was put on but the surroundings were very pleasant.
The next stop was the Chinese Historical Museum which was on the schedule for Wendy Wu, Helen Wong, etc.
Once again we felt privileged to have a guide dealing with 4 people while most other tourist were in groups of 30 or more. The displays included sections on the BanPo and Warrior displays we had already seen but many more sections dealing with early Chinese tools, crafts and ideas which showed the important discoveries that framed their culture and civilisation. Wherever we went there was always a tiger. In the Stone Museum
In the Historical Museum
Last visit for the day was to the Buddhist Wild Goose Pagoda which was a major construction and contained much valuable materials and craftsmanship.
Again there were many police around.
And some VIPs judging by the cars.
We were quite tired when we got back to the hotel.
We packed up and said farewell to Pam and Ken, who had been a huge source of support to us over the last months on our travels and had been so easy to spend so much time with. Another guide met us at 6pm and did an excellent job of getting us to Xi'an station and onto our train back to Beijing. We shared our compartment with two mature gentlemen who were very respectful and we enjoyed the trip back.
First visit today was to a mosque, noting that muslims have been in China for over a thousand years.
Later in the day Kathy received word that police had closed off the mosque shortly after we had left it.
It was a tough time for police on long shifts.
We wandered around the nearby markets for a while and we liked this family statue:
Next we proceeded to the Forest of Stones.
This did not mean much to us at first but we soon realised that this collection of stones was one of China's most important heritage collections. There were about 300 granite stones, all 8 foot by 2 foot by 12 inches thick. You can imagine that they weigh several tonnes each. They contained writing of Confucius and other early wise men and are studied extensively by historians and religious people. We could not get a good photo of the writing because the stones were in glass cases which reflected surroundings.
So we were fascinated to see several young men making copies from the original stones by using a rubbing process.
We went to a theatre restaurant for a buffet lunch, along with several busloads of other tourists.
No concert was put on but the surroundings were very pleasant.
The next stop was the Chinese Historical Museum which was on the schedule for Wendy Wu, Helen Wong, etc.
Once again we felt privileged to have a guide dealing with 4 people while most other tourist were in groups of 30 or more. The displays included sections on the BanPo and Warrior displays we had already seen but many more sections dealing with early Chinese tools, crafts and ideas which showed the important discoveries that framed their culture and civilisation. Wherever we went there was always a tiger. In the Stone Museum
In the Historical Museum
Last visit for the day was to the Buddhist Wild Goose Pagoda which was a major construction and contained much valuable materials and craftsmanship.
Again there were many police around.
We were quite tired when we got back to the hotel.
We packed up and said farewell to Pam and Ken, who had been a huge source of support to us over the last months on our travels and had been so easy to spend so much time with. Another guide met us at 6pm and did an excellent job of getting us to Xi'an station and onto our train back to Beijing. We shared our compartment with two mature gentlemen who were very respectful and we enjoyed the trip back.
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