LITTLE WILDGOOSE PAGODA

 

Before leaving Xian for our flight to our next destination at Chonquin, we walked up the 100 steps to the top of this old city wall. This preserved section of the wall has wonderful views of the modern city in a very affluent section of Xian.

 

This view of  the street below is curious for how little traffic you see.  Budding new capitalists in China now want to own their own car, but they have yet to find out about  real traffic jambs.

It is a city in transition, with bikes and rickshaws mingling with autos.

 

On top of the wall, are  businesses, not yet open as we arrive early in the morning. We walk  and take in the view.

These very modern apartments have few cars parked outside.

An old walled enclosure now serves as a parking lot. In America it would be jammed full.

If you build a gate, why not make it beautiful?  We spend an hour on the wall before moving on to the Little Wildgoose Pagoda which is an old Tang Dynasty Temple with a huge city bell.

The grounds here resemble the Temple Of Heaven. It is the gathering place for exercise that all Chinese do each morning.

Chinese people do not have meetings in their small homes. They have a meeting and take care of business at the Temple or Park.

Tai Chi with swords.

These stone posts are left over from the old days when people tied up their horse or donkey to visit the temple.

The Little Wildgoose Pagoda is named for the wild goose because a starving monk, (monks cannot ask anyone for food,) was hoping to find some meat when a wild goose flew into the pagoda and couldn’t get out. It died, (they don’t kill), and he ate it and named it the Wildgoose Pagoda. Pagodas were used for the monks to study. Buddhism was brought to this particular Pagoda by a monk who walked the scrolls from India to China.

On the grounds is a famous bell. All of our big strong guys tried to ring it and could not. It takes about ten men to ring the bell as a way to warn the city that invaders were coming. It is hard to ring deliberately so naughty boys would not ring and run, it is speculated.  The Temple grounds had numerous craftsmen with shops, paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, glass, etc.  It is a lovely, serene place in the morning.

In the afternoon, we packed our suitcases and then visited a Jade Factory.  I couldn’t help but notice the poor working environment provided for their craftsmen.

The work they turn precious, works of art.

Factory visits on tours are designed to expose you to a quiet shopping environment of China’s best crafts.  We visited a pearl factory, rugs, and now jade. They are also expensive places to shop, and interesting.

Our final dinner before our flight was a special 23 dumpling dinner, traditional food for the area. Normally the huge center turntable is filled with individual dishes. In this case, a waiter dished out the dumplings, helping after helping in the little glass bowls. It was superb.

NOODLES AND THE WILDGOOSE PAGODA

Before leaving the Terra Cotta Soldiers, one must visit the Provincial Shaanxi History Museum nearby. It gives visitors a timeline of Chinese civilization from homo erectus to modern China.  But, the real reason to visit the museum is for their fabulous noodle lunch. I’m not kidding. In fact watching them make the noodles is almost better than eating them.

The long noodles are made by a strong young man who grabs this huge rectangular hunk  of dough, separates it in the middle forming a dough circle, and then he stretches and stretches and stretches the dough until it’s about four feet long and it suddenly breaks into noodles. Then he plops the whole mass  into a boiling pot of broth.  It defies reason. The guy was mobbed and one could barely get close enough to get a picture as you jostle in line to get your food.
Flat noodles are made by another strong fellow. He begins with a roll about twice this size in diameter and rapidly slices noodles off with a special tool directly into a pot of boiling broth.

The other best reason to visit, in my opinion, was their exquisite ceramics. The facial expression of the driver and the posture of the camel-so realistic. (Click to enlarge pictures.)

In this glazed piece, the accoutrements and the horse’s hooves are particularly stunning.

Only in China would you find a dragon handled pot.  I took 19 photos and uploaded them at:   https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/200610XianPottery

After lunch we visited the Small Wildgoose Pagoda.

This small, plain Pagoda survives  from the Tang Dynasty. The monks studied and copied manuscripts here. One monk walked them all the way from India. A monk here was starving. (They are not allowed to ask for food.) A wild goose flew into the pagoda and couldn’t get out. When it died, he ate it. Thus the name. A Pagoda serves as a temple. The grounds are very spacious and we saw people meeting here, and exercising here. Many shops line the area selling home crafted paintings, jade, glasswork and beads. Rings to tether horses are seen about the place from the old times.

Typical of China, the public areas are beautiful and very useful for multiple functions.

In this complex is a beautiful bell. We all took a turn trying to push the heavy timber to ring the bell. It barely made a sound. It takes about ten strong men to make it ring. It was used to send messages high up into the mountains and surrounding forests.

We left the grounds and visited a Jade factory.

The jade was beautiful, but we couldn’t help but notice the workers uncomfortable working conditions.

Lunch was 23 different dumplings cooked in this hot pot. Meals are typically served  at these round tables with a turntable in the middle where dishes are shared around the group. Dinner at our hotel was a special Thai meal of two curries, fruits, meats, stir fry and bread pudding. We were so full we couldn’t do our dinner justice.

For more information about the Wildgoose Pagoda click the link: http://www.china.org.cn/english/TR-e/43175.htm