Xi'An China Traveler

Traveling to Xi'An China.

It was sometime around 2003 or 2004, my daughter was a still a baby, and stayed with my in-laws in Shanxi Taiyaun (up in the Manchurian Region in the North) and I believe it was March or April. Spring came abruptly in China that year, and was VERY hot even up in the North since the end of February, even tho' there had been a ton of snow all January & Early February.

Xi'An isn't really that far away from Shanxi, I believe it's in the Shaanxi province, which isn't that far away. And, I can speak and understand the general dialects of people, because it's similar.

My mother-in-law gave us umbrellas. I didn't understand why, because the forecast was lots of sunshine during the time we went... but, when we went to climb the mountains, and note worthy tourist attraction landscapes, it was SO HOT as if it was summer. The heat, and humidity was so much. It was actually hotter THERE in early Spring, than it was the time I went to Guangzhou which is pretty tropical.

Luckily, we had the umbrellas to shade us from the merciless sun. And, EVERYONE else had umbrellas also. Everyone used umbrellas in the summer in China. I still do.  IN fact the word Umbrella means "opening shade" in Olde Italian.

Climbing the Pyramid of Emperor Qin Shi Huang

The Lucky Shen Shou. if you rub them you are supposed to get luck.

The Court Yard on Qin Si Huang.

I don't know why, but some of my travels end up having terrible dramas. An incident happened with some local bumpkins, in which my husband had a major fight with them. They were sort of like real-life spammers, but pesky short human beings wanting you to buy something. My spouse lost his temper, so badly, and for whatever reason, which I don't comprehend, it embarrassed him so much. I still have no idea what he was so angry about, because the entire argument went down in English. And, it wasn't as bad as all the huffing & puffing, and he even got some cops, who stood there and did nothing...

So, I was forbidden from talking about MOST of EVERYTHING that we did, or happened when I was there... since I wasn't allowed to really talk about it, I have mostly forgotten all of it. Tho' I know I wrote about some of it in a paper journal, somewhere around my house.

I also almost got jumped by a gang of thieves. My spouse told me to wait outside, alone, by myself, because if they saw my face, and that I was a foreigner they would overcharge us for anything. He told me he would be right back, but as the sun was starting to set, I noticed some people standing around, and they seemed suspicious. As, I kept looking around, and noticed the people were closer than they were before, but still standing strangely....

As it started to get darker, the men, started to close in on me, and got nearer, and nearer, and I began to panic. What do I do? Where is my husband? Did something happen to him?
Not only that, but I was holding & carrying many bags of stuff.

Then, finally, my husband came, just before it was dark, and there are no street lights. We scurried of to a Huo Guo place to eat.

Apparently, some other odd thing occurred.... whilest we were on the tour of the many rushed things to "sight-see" in the tour group, we FINALLY got to see see The Underground Terracotta Soldiers. The ones on display are are supposedly the ones left over from a fire, which is why they are plain brown. But, we saw large scale photos of the ones not on display which were painted with lacquers, or paints, and colors. (So, if you watch movies about these things, and they are just ordinary brown, then you know they didn't do their due diligence homework)

But, it was at this point, where we went to the largest most wide open areas, I was very captivated, and  taken by the beauty of these marvelous works of art, and craftsman ship, since each one was unique, and different, with a distinct personality, even the horses were all unique!

I thought it strange that my husband wasn't as into the experience like I was, because he very much wanted to see these also... he is also an artist, and loves sculpture, and so on...

As it turned out, his very first lover, or ex-girl friend, was THERE. Apparently they "saw each other" but no one said anything... Sometimes, I swear I DO NOT understand some things about the older generations' Chinese cultural things... I had met many other women he palled around with, yet I did not understand why he couldn't introduce me, or even say hello to her, or whatever...

He told me about this weeks later... he seemed really bothered, or upset, as tho' he'd done something guilty, wrong, or immoral. But, he did nothing wrong. I told him I didn't see what the big deal was, nor why it bothered him. He says he was bothered because I'm his wife. I still don't understand. We're married, so what's the problem? And, why does it bother him? It's not like anyone asked us to go to a sex club, rob a bank, or do something totally weird.

Also, at that time, whenever I hugged my husband, people would gasp, loudly, and felt shocked about it, that I openly would just hug my husband.

But, the last time I went there, the culture had shifted so much, and so rapidly, that many people would go to the KTV with us and openly grab, fondle, grope, and kiss the KTV singing hookers ("Xiao Jie"). And, for us WE felt that was strange! Actually, a lot of things shock me about China today. Full on depravity.

Anyways, they had good tea in Xi'An.