Our 'Royal Dinner' - Xian

As soon as we reached the hotel, we freshened up as quickly as possible so that we could get to know what was in store for us that night.I am sure you remember me telling you that we were told that we were to have a 'Royal Dinner'.

Again we piled into the bus and it took us to the Tang Dynasty show that our guide Kelly had organised for us!!We were so excited to see a theater filled with people...

Just as we took our seats, the lights dimmed and the show began....

Displays take you through the program....

The orchestra....

While the program was going on , we were served some delicious food, and there was vegetarian food as well,thanks to our guide who knew our food preferences...

Yummy dumplings served in bamboo steamers....

The dancers moved gracefully to the tunes. 

It was an absolute delight to watch the show....

Monk Zuanzang under taking his journey...

The monks..In the backdrop is the Wild goose Pagoda....

A dance depicting the 'Spring Outing'...

A scene from the 'Beautiful Dream'....

Yet another dance sequence....

It was indeed a Royal dinner.We enjoyed it immensely.


Just as we climbed into the bus to get back to the hotel, I clicked this pic of the place where the Royal dinner was hosted...

Time to rest now.. We have a big day tomorrow. Going to visit the famous Terracotta warriors and some other places before we head back home........


Until we meet again....

Huaqing Hot springs-Xian

After a quick lunch at a Chinese restaurant where all we ate were some stir fried greens,vegetarian cold dishes and some soup, we sped off to see the Huaqing Hot Springs...

This place is very famous for its scenery and it has a romantic history.This place was the setting place for the love story of Emperor Xuanzong and his concubine Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty. She was supposed to be extremely pretty!!!

The palace here is said to be the temporary dwelling of the Royals and it was later widened by the Tang Dynasty to house swimming pools, hot springs etc.

The board at the entrance of the Huaqing hot springs gives us an intro of the place...

Huaqing hot springs also called the Huaqing Palace , located about 30 kms east of Xi'an, is a major cultural and historic site under state protection.It is a key scenic site and rated as a AAAAA national tourist attraction.It is well known for its romance between Tang Dynasty Emperor Xuanzon [712 AD - 756 AD] and his concubine Yang and the Xi'an incident of 1936 .

Huaqing is known for its history and natural beauty.Famous sites include the remains of the imperial pools of the huaqing palace, display of the eternal youth palace, nine dragon lake, lotus garden, five room house where the Xi'an incident took place.Because the hot spring here is regarded as the best on earth, emperor's from different Dynasties built palaces, resorts and bath houses here.An open air elevating theatre in water was built for the 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow'.A luxurious hot spring hotel and bath houses with top quality facilities is built for tourists to enjoy the Tang Dynasty royal banquets with the excellent services from guides and other staffs.

We are now inside the hotsprings area....

A famous theater inside the campus.The board nearby reads that it is the ruins of the Liyuan gardens.The place that Xuanzong and his concubine carried on the exercises of song and dance in the Huaqing palace of the Tang Dynasty, it is in an imperial palace.Tang Xuanzong was thought to be the fore father of opera. In 1995, the ruins of the Liyuan garden was discovered here.

The wall of the buildings at the entrances houses photographs of the dignitaries who visited this place....

A dance program was in progress when we reached there...

The dancers moved gracefully to the tunes of the soul stirring music....

Wondering what this photo is?

While we were going around this place, everyone around there were fascinated to see an 'Indian Baby' and soon we were surrounded by a group who were so eager to see Lil Angel!!!

Behind the palace is the impressive mountain.You can reach it through a cable car,which you can spot as tiny specks in the click...

We spotted a shrine, and this statue at the entrance...

And the deity...

A view of the statue of Yang, the concubine and behind it is the hot spring....

There was a huge crowd around that staute to click pics standing along side Yang[you can see the number of people in the above click].but by the time we got there ,the crowd had dispersed so we too had space to click a few shots..

The hot spring...

The source of the hot springs....




Hot spring mouths are found at the Northern Xixiu ridge and warm water runs off the hill fractures as a result of geological movement. As early as 6000 years people at the Jinagzhai village began to use the hot springs and till today it is still being used.Therefore it is known as the 'First  hot spring under heaven'.The three spring flow the volume of 144 tons per hour with a temperature of 43 degree C or 109 degree F.The water contains minerals like Sodium carbonate and Sodium sulfate that are good for bathing ,health care, irrigation,and bredding and therefore is praised by the public...


So said the board in front of us...

We walked to the Royal Bath pool...

The crown prince pool..

The Crab apple pool...

Can you see the coins that people have tossed into the pool.
I believe it is to bring good luck!!!


The Crab apple pool or the lotus pool was built in 747 for Lady Yang. 
It was also called the concubine pool.
The bathing pool was constructed with lime stone and appears like a crab apple flower in full bloom,small and exquisite.


The star pool was built for the Emperor Taizong in 644 during the 18th year of Zenguan period of the Tang Dynasty.The walls of the star pool were constructed to emulate mountains and rivers so as to create a magnificent view .This bathing pool looks like the Big Dipper along with the Kuixing star Pool to its South...

The Mistress used to stand in this tower and enjoy the scenic beauty of the surrounding gardens and the massive mountains at the back drop...

A beautiful pool...

A beautiful mural....

A board beside it says...


The mural of Yang Yuhuan instructed to Hot spring palace
Yang Yuhuan was instructed to Hot Spring Palace in Tang Kaiyuan October of 28 year 740 and it opened Tangxuanzong and Yangyuhuan love prelude of romantic experience from then on.In 1986,,famous expert of calligraphy and painting Mr.Zhang Yiqian created this large scale mural painting.


As we walked around the gardens, Lil Angel enjoyed herself running around the courtyard...

One other interesting thing here is that you can hire costumes portraying the different dnasties for a small fee and you can click pics of yourself in different Chinese costumes.... 

We were asked to hurry back to the bus so that we had ample time to freshen up to attend the Royal dinner. Kelly gave us no other clues..The term 'Royal dinner' did sound exciting and fun. 

Want to know what happened later that day? Come back next week and I will tell you what it is....

Until then....

Banpo Matriarchial Village-Xian

It's almost a year now! I never imagined I would leave you all half way through our journey.I am now ready to continue our tour of the ancient Chinese City of Xi'an...So here we go.....

After a busy day visiting the Wild goose pagoda and Emperor's tomb in Xian , we were bone tired after dinner.No sooner we fell asleep, I was awakened by the alarm signalling the dawn of another day.Hurriedly, we  got ready to go out and explore more of the city's charm.

The Ibis hotel that we stayed in provides breakfast but I could not find anything to eat other than treat myself to a large cup of coffee.And with it we had some breads and biscuits that I had packed for the trip.

The decor in the lobby brought back the thrill of the trip,housed there were replicas of the terracotta warriors....

We got into the bus and headed to the spot for the day - Banpo matriarchal Village that is situated in the Easters side of the city...

We crossed this statue to enter the village....

This, we clicked at the entrance.....

Since we arrived there quite early the place was still to be filled with tourists....

Instead of climbing those stair, we wanted to walk around to the entrance of the building and here is what welcomed us...

A beautiful path that leads to the entrance of the building...

At last entered the building...

Before we enter, a small intro about this place....

This place is an excavated habitation site of a matriarchal clan of the Neolithic period.This museum was actually built in 1958. This site has within it the whole village in a sprawling area of 4500 square meter.This place gives us the feel of an aboriginal village.This viallage belongs to the Yangshao culture and dates back to about 6,000 years.

At that time,the people used wood and stone to make their tools. It was a matriarchal society.Women made pottery,spun cloths and did the house hold chores as well as raising the family. Men spent most of their time fishing in the nearby river.

Now let us walk around this place...

There is a moat built around the village to keep it safe from wild animals.

The board near the moat reads...

The great moat around the dwelling area was used for guarding.It is totally 500 meters in length,6.8 meters in width at the top and 1.3 meters at the bottom and 5.6 meters in depth.

The board nearby this place says...

                             

The foundation of the house tells us that the house has  been built at least 3 times.The intact circles of the post holes on the foundation of the wall is left by the first time construction.

In this way, by reading the boards we were able to get to know history of the site. In addition to these boards, our guide,Kelly, also answered our questions and thus we really enjoyed this trip to this place.

A portion of the village...

The burial area.....

A burial site...

82 burial jars were found at this site. Most of them were situated near the houses.Each jar buried a child.Usually a hole was made at the bottom of the pottery vessel that was put on top of the burial jar.

A board that explains the burial sites...

Lets walk around the area......

A small stand housed some souvenirs inside the museum..

At the entrance of the souvenir store outside the museum....

Inside the souvenir shop, there was a whole bunch of handicrafts and other stuffs that made you want to stay there forever..They were ,of course, quite expensive...Here are a few to see and enjoy....

I wish I could but this jade ship....

We still had to visit another place after lunch ,so off we ran to the bus......

Catch up with you in my next post, where we will be travelling to the huaqing hot sprigs after which we were treated with a Royal Dinner....