Xi'an - Terracotta Army, Hot Springs & Mosques

"Rome in the West, X'i'an in the East." The starting point of the legendary Silk Road, Xi'an is one of the most ancient continuously inhabited cities in China. In fact, it has been a royal capital for 11 dynasties since its semi-mythical beginnings some time around BC 2200. Both Nara and Kyoto, the original imperial capitals of Japan were styled after Xi'an.

Most visitors come here for the UNESCO World Heritage Terracotta Warriors, but there is infinitely more to the city and it surroundings than that. The lofty Ming walls - ones of the few remained in China - surround the inner city and you can have a walk on top of them around the whole city without ever having to climb down. The Forest of Stelae Museum houses a large array of stones with ancient engravings - best enjoyed with some initial knowledge Chinese history and calligraphy, yet quite impressive with a good explanation by a knowledgeable guide.

In the heyday of the Silk Road Xi'an was the proverbial melting pot of nations. Islam arrived here at a very tender age in 650 with Prophet Mohammed's uncle. Nestorianism - a heretical Christian school - made its début there even earlier, in 635, inspiring the later medieval tales of the Prester John's mythical Christian kingdom in the East. Its only vestige nowadays is the Nestorian Stele, but Islam is well established and thriving.

For a very "un-Chinese" experience, stroll through the Moslem Quarter and sample the delicious lamb skewers, roasted carp and mutton bread soup - heavy on tangy herbs and ground coriander seeds, delicious but nothing like Chinese food you would expect. In the market you can find another local speciality famous throughout China - various dried fruit and exotic nuts galore.


For a time of peace and serenity linger on in the tranquil Great Mosque that looks very little like a mosque. Its garden is full of exquisite stone carvings that, in break with the Islamic teachings, are not shy of animal motifs. Foreign concepts need to be translated into Chinese by way of explanation, and very often the Chinese renditions grab the essence of their subject sharply and succinctly. Islam in Chinese is Pure Religion, describing concisely the purest form of modern monotheism.


To get the biggest possible kick from the Terracotta Army, you need to read on its historical background. It is a very poignant story of the country's mightiest man who was scared of death and thousands of his subjects who slaved decades to build his tomb only to be all slaughtered so as the secret of their ruler's grave remained hidden. And it very well did for over 2 thousand years, until not such a long time ago. Even now, the emperor's tomb itself - said to contain mercury rivers and gemmed ceilings - is yet to be excavated.

Apart from the Terracotta Warriors, there are many more worthy sites in the vicinity - like the palatial Huaqing Hot Springs, the place where back in the 7th century Tang emperors indulged in sensuous luxury with their concubines and where centuries later in 1936 the course of modern Chinese history was turned around in the infamous Xi'an Accident. These days, it is a venue for grand costume performances harking back to the dynasties of the yesteryear.

On the way to the magnificent Hua Shan, one of the 4 most important mountains in Taoism and reputedly gods' favourite abode, there is the unjustly overlooked Xiyue Temple. Built for exclusive avail by the Imperial Court for important Taoist sacrifices and ceremonies, it uses the breath-taking backdrop of the Hua Shan Mount in the Chinese technique of "borrowed landscape" - with a truly ravishing result.

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Nanjing - The Swanky Capital of The South >>>

Nanjing - The Swanky Capital Of South

Nanjing - the Southern Capital, as opposed to Beijing - the Northern Capital - combines antiquity and modernity with a panache. This happy marriage is perhaps best epitomised by the ... Scenic Spot - a tiny if nicely laid out park, with fine Ming-style tea pavilion-come restaurant, set amidst the looming skyscrapers of Beijing Road.

Nanjing's modern avenues are broad, clean and nicely laid out, with a very human-friendly atmosphere rare in world's big cities. The shiny clean ultra-modern metro - if still with only one line - beats mass transit systems of most Western cities.

City's entertainment hub - the Fuzimiao Area - is clearly geared towards tourists with gilded dragon-shaped boats and scores of souvenir shops. It is, however, a very lovely place to hang around as it is in authentic Ming-style quarters full of very picturesque sights. Sample a piece from each of the food stalls dealing in tasty Chinese titbits and you will not need a dinner.

One of the most dramatic points of Nanjing's turbulent history is presented just around the corner in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum. The Taiping rebellion - one of the deadliest conflicts in human history - was a reaction to China's humiliation by Western powers in the mid-19th century. Peasant rebels with Utopian ideology aimed at creating an egalitarian society only to create their own elaborate hierarchy an get bogged down in inner strife for power. Arguably, it was world's first Socialist state and Nanjing was its capital.

Less known is the fact that until 2002 Nanjing was also the official - if on paper only - capital of Taiwan, the Republic of China. When the Kuomintang Government had to escape to Taiwan, they never left the hope of coming back with vengeance and thus Taipei was regarded as only the provisional capital.

The much touted Xuanwu Lake area is a sprawling city park set on five connected islands encircled by the city walls - world's longest. It offers great views of Nanjing's modern skyline across the water but apart from a few historic rocks is of little interest for a foreign visitor.

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Yangzhou - The Treasure Box Garden >>>

Suzhou - The Silk Capital Of China

Suzhou's heyday as a silk trade centre has left behind a several nice sights scattered around the city. We used the city as the hub for travelling in the area and our short stay did not justice to the Silk Capital of China. I hope to spend more time there some time soon.

Just a side note: the much touted Humble Administrator's Garden is rather bleak compared with what you find elsewhere in China but I hear many other gardens in the city are very beautiful.

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Tongli - The Water Village >>>

Yangzhou - The Treasure Box Garden

Yangzhou is worth visiting if only for the tremendous Slender West Lake Garden. It is huge, so reserve a whole day for your visit. Despite its size, it's so exquisitely planned and executed, you feel yourself inside a jewellery box - every inch is finely tended, every few steps provide a view to yet another haunting vista with arched bridges, toy-like tea pavilions, elaborate rockeries and quizzical ponds full of turtles and brightly-coloured carps.

Unfortunately, the ungainly colourful night lighting turns this amazing feat of horticulture into a gaudy monstrosity so make sure to leave before the dark lest the magic is rudely destroyed.

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Suzhou - The Silk Capital Of China>>>

Tongli - The Water Village

Tongli is a twee fishing village on the Tai Lake criss-crossed by cutesy canals lined with characteristic houses and crossed by picturesque bridges. In fact, the whole setting so photogenic that it could have very well been set up on purpose as a tourist bait but in fact the village is authentic. Once a fishermen's settlement, nowadays it derives most of its income - surprise surprise - from tourism as well as serving the daily catch in the numerous canal-side restaurants. Its status, deservedly so, is so close to an open-air museum that you cannot even enter without a ticket, that fortunately includes entrance to all the museums - except for the intriguingly named Chinese Sexual History Museum.

As seems the order of the day in all canal cities, take Venice or Amsterdam, the food turned out universally bland and overpriced but Tongli is nevertheless a very pleasant and laid back place, well worth at least an overnight stay . Most tourists seem to come on a day tour, so you will be spoilt for choice of available accommodation. The best bet then would be the museum-come-hotel furnished with authentic period furniture and overlooking a charming garden with carp-filled ponds.

Surprisingly affordable, it is adjacent to the Wooden Carving Museum brimming with truly astonishing carvings featuring famous Chinese tales and historical episodes, many with very handy English explanations that allow you to appreciate just how rich, diverse and much more ancient than anything you have encountered Chinese civilisation is. Another star attraction in the museum are hand-made Ming canopied beds assembled from thousands of separate pieces of redwood and mother of pearl in a mind-boggling feat of craftsmanship.

Another worthy tourist stop is the Dendrite Museum, where fanciful dendrite cuts are arranged according to the themes - Seasons, Poetry, Life, Natural Disasters, etc. They were collected over many decades by a couple of aesthetically inclined railway construction engineers and finally donated to the nation to establish this museum. Many of the captions are beautiful quotes from ancient Chinese poetry that greatly augment the overall experience, provided your mastery of Chinese has reached a certain level.

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Tunxi - The Breezy Gateway to Huangshan >>>

Tunxi - Breezy Gateway to Huangshan

The modern and pleasantly laid town of Tunxi is more widely known as Huangshan City, named so after the major tourist attraction to which it serves as a transportation and accommodation hub. It has a very well restored old quarter, which in fact is a very long pedestrianised street with scores of back lanes lined with fine local Anhui style houses and all sorts of craft, curios and tea shops.

Many of them specialise in calligraphic scrolls and related paraphernalia for Tunxi City has been since long ago widely renown in China for its skilled calligraphers. It comes as no surprise that world's largest inkstone, weighing over 12 metric tons, is housed in a museum here.

Another merchandise prominently featured in the Old Town is fine green tea grown in the adjacent mountains. Some sorts are so prized that jars of those are used as state gifts to foreign dignitaries. We bought a bag of the same tea that Chinese President presented to Vladimir Putin on his state visit. Local tea is equally popular with more regular folks - from dawn till very late busloads upon busloads of Chinese tourists descend upon the street all walking away with shopping bags full of tea tins.

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Huangshan - Mountain Range From A Classical Chinese Poem >>>

Huangshan - Mountain Range From A Classical Chinese Poem

The beauty of this mountain range is of an epic level and defies any camera or verbal description. A 10-minute cable car ride - or a 6-km walk up the steep stairs - whisks you inside a classical Chinese poem painted in ink on silk paper. Precarious looking if sturdy walkways clinging to the sides of precipitous cliffs lead you from one to another stunning view of exquisitely shaped lofty peaks most aesthetically covered with twisted pine trees.

With a bit of luck, you can see the famed yunhai - "the sea of clouds" - spreading beneath your feet to the horizon with fairytale-like rocks protruding from below like islands in the ocean. If that view was not breathtaking enough, wait for the sunset!

Everything at the top - from water and food to laundry and souvenirs - is hauled on the shoulders of sinewy porters who climb up and down the exhausting thousands of steep steps a few times a day, never without a load. Their labour, close to human right abuse in the presence of the ultra-modern cable car whizzing over their heads, is largely underappreciated, yet makes possible your poetic pleasures of nature appreciation. Please eat up every bit on your plate when yo are there as a gesture of respect!

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Hongcun - Water Buffalo Shaped Village >>>

Hongcun - Water Buffalo Shaped Village

Known as a "village in a Chinese painting", Hongcun is another UNESCO World Heritage site. It has gained gained international fame as a location for the martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

The village is laid out in the shape of a water buffalo. A nearby hill is interpreted as the head, and two large trees standing on it mark the horns. Four bridges across the stream can be seen as the legs and the houses of the village form the body. Inside the “body”, the many small canals can be seen as the intestines and the moon-shaped ponds as the stomachs.

Hongcun's 150 or so houses are the famous fortified Huizhou courtyard houses. Built to withstand earthquakes as well as attacks by bandits, the tall whitewashed walls with high windows protect the fine carved wood interiors.

Hongcun has a nice dreamy quality about it and its gentle beauty attracts hundreds of Chinese art students who clutter every walkway and open space honing their en plein air sketching skills. A few kilometres away, there is a Painters' Village where artists from all over China are gathered to supply Western hotel chains with industrial quantities of masterly copies of famous European paintings.

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Shanghai - Carnival Of Life >>>

Shanghai - Carnival Of Life

Brash and bold, China's second biggest city has always been about money. It sprang up to sudden fame as a concession port in the 19th century and by the 1930s it became world's third largest financial centre. Its re-birth in 1990 as a Special Economic Zone, brought it back to the ranks of major international cities.

The two banks of the river are testament to Shanghai's two highest historical peaks. The Bund side, the heart of colonial Shanghai, is rich in nostalgic European splendour of grand Art Deco buildings. Across the river, Pudong is an ethereal city of the future, looking more like computer graphics.

As is the case with material success oriented cities, like New York, Hong Kong, Casablanca or Moscow, the atmosphere in Shanghai is electrifying. And as ever, in a truly miraculous way, on the rich soil of greed, ambition and vanity grow fine flowers of creativity, innovation and independent thinking.

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Back to Grand Tour Of China >>>

Previous entry: Alpine Adventure: Austria-Italy-Bavaria 2007 >>>

Alpine Adventure: Austria-Italy-Bavaria 2007

Vienna to Munich via the Adriatic was the route of our late summer trip in 2007.

This time we had with us two New Russians who spent most of time glued to the shop windows and stuffing their caravan with all kinds of Western goods. When it was full, they bought a roof rack and mounted sacks of goodies there. To top it off, they also seem to have jinxed the weather, and that affected the quality of the few pictures we still managed to take in between Russki shopping sprees.

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The trip kicked off in the resplendent Vienna - the bon vivant capital of the bygone Austro- Hungarian Empire. Curiously called Bécs by Hungarians - there must be some hidden resentment behind it - it preserves all the trappings of a refined imperial culture that we went to explore and enjoy last year.

Its squares never fail to impress and its public buildings are vast and imposing. People here are clearly into real quality of life. Smartly dressed urbanites laze around in swish coffee-houses enjoying most exquisite cakes well into the wee hours. Manicured lawns in the parks teem with picnickers. The Viennese Opera, grand and steeped in tradition, is one of the best in the world. There are enough youngsters in this city who can dance the waltz to stage such Old World events like the annual Opera Ball.

There is no trace of backwardness in this old-fashioned elegance. Public phones have internet access, trams look out straight out of a (granted, 80s) sci-fi flick, policemen use PDA's as writing pads. Everything is well organized and maintained with a dogged Germanic efficiency. There is no way of blaming Austrian wealth on colonial plundering, these people have worked hard to build their country after their own heart and now they are enjoying it.

To me, Vienna is the Germanic answer to the Italo-Gallic raffinement: no one has come up with a more sophisticated lifestyle east of Paris and Rome. Viennese contributions to the world's haute culture include among others Sachertorte, Strauss' operetta, Vienna Secession architecture, the introduction of coffee-drinking to Europe, waltz and an early gay icon, the tragic Empress Sissy. Even such staples of French culinary pride as croissants and baguette were actually invented in Vienna.

Historically, Vienna was the defender of conservative values in Europe so here you won't find that effervescent la-di-da charm of Paris. However, what it lacks in light-heartedness it makes good in imperial elegance and quality of life. As an original Kulturmacher, Vienna in its heyday reigned over Europe's second largest empire after Russia and extended its influence from the Ukrainian plains to the Adriatic and from the Czech mountains to the forests of Bosnia. It was the gathering point and melting pot for the talented and ambitious of the Central Europe, creating a milieu where arts, literature, sciences and fine living flourished for centuries - as well as making sure that all good burgers were in bed by 10 PM.

That said, there is something unmistakably Mediterranean and festive about Vienna, the kind of enjoyment of life you see only among wine-growing Catholic folks. Even the insides of the cathedrals here are colourful and bright. Austrians are a Germanic people but south-facing ones: their rivers flow into the warm Black and Mediterranean Seas. Better climate, as it goes, warmed their hearts for life's best pleasures and helped develop a mentality very unlike the one of their northerly Teutonic cousins. A good manifestation of that sprightly spirit is sun-kissed genius Mozart who composed his jovial Le Nozze di Figaro nowhere else but in Vienna.

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Even more shopping and a long dash down the highway - bypassing all the sights but so happy about the full trunks - and we were in Italy, God bless her balmy shores! The gems of the area between Trieste and Venice that we visited are Udine and Grado.

Udine is known as "Sienna of the North", and rightly so, it is a true eye-candy. It was second largest city of the Venetian republic and it is still evident in its architecture - the town hall on the charming Piazza della Liberta looks like a shrunk yet nonetheless graceful Palazzo dei Dogi (the building that an Afro-American friend of mine lovingly calls "The Dawgs' Cribs"). The city castle on top of a cypress-covered hill dominates the city skyline. As a reminder that Venice was a republic, it houses one of Europe's oldest parliament buildings.

Grado also known as Little Venice or the Sunny Island sits on a group of islands connected to the continent by a long narrow causeway. It started off as a Roman port, whose shiny white ruins you can admire in the nearby Aquileia. Nowadays it is situated quite a way inland as a result of the gradual silting of the lagoon.

In more modern times Grado dragged on for centuries overshadowed by its illustrious big sister Venice. After Austrian annexation in 1815, it was proclaimed the Official Health Resort of the Hapsburg Empire and to this day the majority of visitors speak German with an Austrian accent. The sand on its beaches owes its reputed therapeutic qualities to high iodine and oxygen saturation levels - I could not taste the difference though. The city's two austere Romanesque basilicas dating from the 5th century remind of the town's venerable age but for more mindless fun head to the huge water park, the lovely beaches or the thick brambles in the outskirts where we picked wild blackberries to our heart's content.

On one of our exploration trips we stumbled upon a local cooperative supermarket - the kind where local farmers fruit of the soil is sold on their behalf - and, boy, it was nothing short of revelation!

In Northern Europe we feed on fruit and vegetables that ripe inside the ships and trucks on the memories of the sunshine they saw in their childhood. Fresh produce sections in Amsterdam's supermarkets are full of anaemic edibles that spend their formative months on bed of rockwool sucking on liquid fertilizers. They are perfectly shaped, stay fresh for weeks and are available all the year around but smell and taste only vaguely of what they should.

For my starved palate Italian melons and peaches, even lowly cucumbers and tomatoes, offered veritable explosions of half-forgotten sensations. My Russki friends stayed unfazed though - tomato-tasting tomatoes and strawberry-smelling strawberries are still widely available in Russia, even if supermarket chains are working hard to put an end to that too.

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All the shops were closed in Italy so crestfallen we continued straight to the very beginning of the Deutsche Alpenstraße - the route designated in 1927 to showcase all the beautiful spots of the Germans Alps. It can be quite narrow and in parts barely navigable for larger cars like ours but it does accomplish its main task. I would gladly spend weeks and weeks on this road, slowly trudging on, admiring the views, making stopovers every now and then.

The easternmost point of the route lies in the Berchtesgaden National Park - home of the Königssee Lake and Berghof - Hitler's residence given to him by the Nazi Party on the occasion of his 50th anniversary. This rather sinister landmark is situated in arguably one of the most scenic spots in Europe, but we traded it for shopping for a portable diesel electrogenerator in Salzburg, something that city is most famous for.

The Königssee (KUR-NICK-ZAY) is a sheer delight though. It is breath-taking from the top of the nearby mountain, well worth a long cable car ride and a steep climb up. It's just as lovely from below: a lovely ride on an electric powered boat delivers you past magnificent scenery that does not even fit into the camera to the very picturesque red-domed St. Bartholomä Church.

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The flat Chiemsee Lake - perfect for windsurfing and other water sports - is rich in sights such as the unfinished folly of Herrenchiem- see Palace, an onion-domed Benedectine monastery on an island and the cutesy narrow-gauge Bockerl railway - all of which we missed because we were rummaging Munich suburban malls for the car spare parts one just can't find in Moscow.

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The almost unbearably twee Lüftlmalerei village Neubeuern sits on the spot where the Deutsche Alpenstraße suddenly wanders into the steep mountainous areas and becomes precariously narrow and quirky. The nerve-wrecking trip rewards the intrepid traveller with the magnificent sights of the Samerberg, Schliersee and Tegernsee lakes. It was there that Emperors Alexander I of Russia and Franz of Austria met in 1815 on their way to the Congress of Vienna where the fate and borders of Europe were decided for the next 100 years. As you drive on down dozens of hairpin turns, the Alpine lake-apalooza continues with the surreally turquoise Sylvensteinpeicher, the diver's paradise Walchensee and the eerily deserted Kochelsee.

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Thanks to the 20-foot-long caravan we had in tag, we camped out in a national park right on the Austrian- German border.

Nothing beats ostrich steaks, lamb chops in Provençal herbs and rainbow trout grilled on charcoal and washed down with delicious Austrian wine under the starry Alpine sky - even if you have to squeeze yourself into a trailer bunk bed afterwards.

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Next morning snubbing the fog, drizzle and heavy clouds we moved on to visit the dignified Baroque Ettal Monastery that is surprisingly unashamed Rococo on the inside, giving the impression of a sexually adventurous coquette wearing priest's garments. Not far away the unfinished folly of the Linderhof Palace (which is more of a pavilion size) was meant to be a piece of French grandeur in heart of Bavaria. Its owner, Bavarian king Ludwig II mysteriously drowned in the Chiemsee Lake before his plan came to fruition.

His fulfilled plan, however - the epitome of histrionic gay kitsch, the Neuschwanstein Castle became the finishing highlight of our trip. The flamboyant Disneyesque extravaganza sits perched on a high wooded outcrop overlooking a breathtaking Alpine lake scenery. It was designed by the same man who designed sets for Wagner's operas. Throngs upon throngs of visitors are rushed through the parlours and dining rooms of the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle. As if by order of the Royal Bavarian family that still owns both properties, thecastles kept hiding from us in the clouds but the Hopfensee on whose shores we put up our camp, rewarded us with a long Technicolor sunset.

The tourist hub of the area, the town of Füssen is the southern terminus of the famed Romantic Road as well as, in a shocking contrast, the former home to a Dachau sub-camp where thousands people were exterminated during WWII. Füssen's major claim for fame is its nice medieval castle covered with trompe-l'œil paintings. As everywhere else in Bavaria, the streets are lined with rows of Lüftlmalerei houses, making you feel inside a gingerbread fairy tale.

On the way back home we dropped by Hanover whereto the current British Royal family traces their origins. Unfortunately, the proud trading city was razed to the ground in WWII bombardments, but some original landmarks like the Neue Rathaus and the Staatsopera have been lovingly restored to their full glory.

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