Dream Destination: China, pt. 1

My wildest dreams came true in the summer of 2017, when I got the incredible opportunity to travel to China for an archaeological field school.  The trip was by far one of the best experiences of my life.  In my five weeks in China, I took over 3,300 photos (!), so narrowing them for blogging purposes has been quite an undertaking.  Needless to say, I will be breaking up the trip into parts.  The first part, this post, will cover my first week in the wonderful land of China.

 Before this trip, my only international travel had been to Mexico.  I had never crossed an ocean, much less plopped myself 7,000 miles away from home.  There's a first time for everything, and what a life-changing first time this was.

I flew from Los Angeles to Beijing on Air China airline.  The flight was about twelve hours, headed for a (supposed to be) brief layover in Beijing, then onto my final destination, Xi'an, in north central China.

 Air China has a strict policy where all mobile phones must be completely off during flights, so I was quickly scolded by a flight attendant and made to turn off my phone after taking this photo.

Twelve hours later, this very tired solo traveler found herself stranded in Beijing, having just barely missed my layover (my initial flight out of LA was delayed).  Not only was I by myself, but I was also in a country where I did not speak a word of the language other than "Hello" and "I do not speak Chinese."  After hours of confusing back-and-forth with many airport employees who spoke very limited English, I was put up in a hotel for the night and scheduled to fly on the first flight to Xi'an in the morning. 

I made a few friends in the airport who were in a similar situation, so we all got together in the hotel where we were placed and had a late night beer.  Tsingtao is the typical staple beer I came across in China.  This cost 5 yuan, the equivalent of about $0.70 USD.

The morning sun rose red in the grey Beijing sky.  I had never seen a place with such thick pollution in the air.

I made my flight to Xi'an (and met my soon-to-be best friend in the program at the Beijing airport!), a huge victory after a weary night of barely any sleep.

The first photo I took in Xi'an.  I had never seen a squat toilet before, I was so excited!  These became much less exciting after I realized how difficult it is to aim.

Students of the Xibei Institute picked us up at the airport and escorted us to our hotel, where we met our program directors.

The view from my hotel room.  On the table, some *delicious* rice crisp-filled chocolate, kind of like a Chinese crunch bar.  I would come to learn that chocolate in China was a limited commodity, and that dark chocolate was nowhere to be found.



I was so intrigued to find out what was below the tree-filled view out my window, so I gathered a couple of friends and we went to explore.  We stumbled upon this abandoned Daoist water feature.

The yin/yang represents balance, the contrast between dark and light, night and day, moon and sun, female and male, all opposing elements of life.  One cannot exist without the other, so they are inherently interdependent, consummately interfused.  A favorite line of mine from the Dao de Jing (central Daoist text): "Being and non-being create each other."





To my chagrin, I did not wear insect repellent on my first evening in China, and I paid for that dearly.  My legs were covered in upwards of ten dime-sized bug bites after this.  I couldn't sleep for days.

The breakfast buffet at this hotel was to die for.  Warning: there will be a significant amount of food pictures, as the food here was SO good.  I still miss the food from China every day.

On this day, we began our week of classes at Xibei University.  This statue of Confucius overlooked the building where our classes took place.

For most of my time in Xi'an, the weather was upwards of 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit, with extreme humidity.  Here, my fellow student caught me shamelessly taking a shower in the university sprinklers.

Dinner was huge bowls of noodles, in the style of the province.  Food in China is quite regional, and varies between provinces.  Each province is quite proud of its own style of food.  In northern China, the diet is heavily based on wheat and vegetables.

The next day on campus, we found a wonderful petrified log and a collection of statuary.

I quite enjoyed this mushroom sculpture.

Class that afternoon focused on pottery styles from Neolithic China (circa 5000 to 3000 years ago).  This was the time period my archaeology dig aimed to investigate.  We got the chance to explore the university's pottery reconstruction rooms.

A peak into my notes.

Later, we visited the institute museum.  One of my program directors proclaimed about this formation, "That's an impressive calcite.  And I've seen a lot of calcite."

We got to see more complete Neolithic pottery pieces, including a sarcophagus used to bury infants (second to left).

Yes, these are what you think they are.  We saw many of these phallic ceramic pieces during museum visits; they were sometimes labeled "ritual fertility objects."

My first encounter with an ancient Buddhist artifact, this one from the Tang Dynasty (c. 600 CE).  I am Buddhist myself, so seeing this in person was a very emotional experience.

This photo was taken mid-cry.  I was so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for being here.  Xi'an (ancient capital of China, Chang'an) is the location where Buddhism arrived in China on the Silk Road around the turn of the common era.  I had found my dream destination, and I was so incredibly happy to be there.

That evening, my friends and I set out to explore the city of Xi'an.  Our first stop was the Drum Tower.

Birds circled the tower, dotting the evening sky with movement.

The view from the Drum Tower.  The Bell Tower is visible at center, not too far away.  Each Drum Tower I saw on this trip was accompanied by a Bell Tower, and vice-versa.

 As this sign indicates, this Drum Tower was originally constructed over 600 years ago.

Large drums line the outside of the tower.

 Beautiful art pervades the architecture in China.

The performance stage of the Drum Tower.  Unfortunately, we were not there at a time when the drummers were performing.

We descended the Drum Tower and began to explore what would become one of our favorite places, the Muslim Market.

The Muslim Market is a bustling outdoor marketplace that runs throughout the day and night, every day of the week.  Shops and vendors sell foods and goods characteristic of the culture.

Gorgeous landscape painting scrolls for sale.

 Another shot from the same shop.

 I purchased these sweet little jade Buddhas from an outdoor vendor.

This shirt cracked us up.  "Oba Mao," the lovechild of United States President Obama and People's Republic of China leader, Chairman Mao.

 We next paid a visit to the mosque in the Muslim Quarter, the Great Mosque of Xi'an.



Islam has been one of the main religions in Xi'an for centuries.  Muslim Central Asian traders on the Silk Road settled in Xi'an hundreds of years ago, and their unique community still thrives in Xi'an today.

I was given a zip-up cover to wear over my shorts and tank top, for modesty.

 "The Retrospection Tower."

The architecture in the mosque was very geometric, reflecting the belief in Islam that geometric shapes are endowed with divinity.  The perfection of geometric shapes, in Islam, parallels the perfection of Allah, or God.

The prayer hall.  My best friend from the program is Muslim, so he taught me how to pray here.

Me taking a photo of aforementioned friend - meet John!

Me with John and Faith, another dear friend from the program.

 I picked up this three-sided Sakyamuni statue from another vendor at the market.  He is one of my favorite possessions.

 A shot from deeper inside the market.

 Some typical food found at the Muslim Market.  Pictured here are fried potato spirals (left) and sticky flower cakes (right/back).

 The Muslim Market food scene would not be complete without a hefty amount of meat!  Here is a butcher working on multiple lambs. 

A bit of perspective: the market was packed full, bustling with people by the evening.  It was Ramadan the first time we came here, so many of the Muslim individuals were fasting during the day.

The next day, we had class in the morning, followed by a visit to the Banpo Village Neolithic archaeological site.  

 Statue outside the site, surrounded by a pond of lily pads.

 My favorite flower, the lotus.

 Some Banpo pottery, featuring a pattern created by fingernail incisions on the right pot.

 The "fish man," the iconic figure of early Neolithic Chinese art.  This piece is about 5,000 years old.

Here are some photos of the actual site of the Banpo Village, a 5000 year-old settlement.  In Chinese archaeology, much of the goal often centers on education.  The archaeologists excavated and preserved this site so that it could be turned into a museum, so that the public may visit and learn from the incredibly rich history of this place.

House foundations from five thousand years in the past.  Homes at this time were usually built out of wattle-and-daub, building material made with mud, plants, and other organic material.

*WARNING: photos of burial sites, please scroll past if this makes you uncomfortable.*

This burial shows a group of four adolescent females from the Banpo Neolithic era.  The girls were buried with many ritual vessels.

 An adult pair with their accompanying pottery.

 An individual burial.  Interestingly, it was uncommon in this village for individuals to be buried independently.  This single burial may indicate that this person was of high status.

A map of the burials at Banpo Village, showing the directions of the buried individuals.  Almost all of their heads face directly west, an allusion to the characteristic Chinese belief that the western direction - the direction in which the sun sets - is symbolic of death.

Dinner was dumplings, of course accompanied by Tsingtao beer.  Sitting to my left are my soon-to-be trenchmates, Mi and Sal!

That night, we ventured out to the Xi'an City Wall, a thousand year-old wall surrounding the perimeter of the ancient capital city.

The structures on the wall glow with colored lights, giving the wall a luminous beauty at night time.

 Another structure from atop the wall.

Lookout posts stationed on the wall, which stretches 14 kilometers around.

Another view of the lookout structures.

Unparalleled ornateness.

Breakfast the next morning was the beloved hotel buffet.

A typical breakfast food in China is fried dough (to the right on my plate), sometimes dipped in sweet soy milk for flavor.  Yum!

Lunch at the university.  My staple here was the rice bowl with spicy tofu, sweet eggplant, and fresh steamed broccoli.

 That afternoon, we got to visit the Shaanxi History Museum.

 The displays of Buddhist artifacts at this museum were wonderful.  Most of these date to the Tang Dynasty, or to around 1300 years ago.

 A reconstruction of a Tang Dynasty cave temple.

Dinner was at a new restaurant, with many dishes from this region.  Pictured are variations of *very* spicy tofu and egg and tomato, with beer.

This night, we returned to the Muslim market for another chance to experience the unique place.

The entrance to the Muslim market.  This is a very accurate representation of the market - packed tightly with people at all hours - even late at night; very hot, and full of exciting foods, sounds, and goods.

Outside the Great Mosque.

One of my favorite things from the Muslim market (and from my trip to China): this dried fruit.  Packs of mixed dried fruits like this cost about 10-15 yuan, less than $2 USD.  Dried everything, from kiwi to coconut, melon to cherries, plums to who-knows-whats.  I was in heaven.

 The following day, we visited the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi. 

 Meet my archaeology field school, with our field directors!  What a great group, through and through.

 We had fun.

The day was hazy, leaving a translucent shadow of the mountains on the horizon.  The spirit of the First Emperor was here with us.

We first visited the part of the mausoleum that is directly adjacent to the First Emperor's tomb mound.  The tomb mound itself has never been excavated.  The mound is thought to contain the actual tomb and remains of Qin Shi Huangdi.

In this pit, terra cotta chariot drivers were found with actual skeletons of horses.  The tomb complex contains a mixture of stone and organic remains.

A better view of the horse skeletons as they appear, today.

A fun praying mantis friend joined us to explore the mausoleum!

Sitting by the pillar marking the First Emperor's tomb complex.

Lunch was noodles and roujiamo, a meat sandwich typically made with pork.  This sandwich is a delicacy of the region.  My Muslim friend and I had ours with egg instead of pork.

Ice cream for dessert!  Crushed nuts and chocolate inside vanilla ice cream, then dipped again in crushed nuts and chocolate.  What could be better on a 100 degree day?

The imposing statue outside the entrance to the Terra Cotta Warrior complex.

On WeChat (Chinese messaging app), they have a feature where you can scan your face and it will tell you which warrior you look most like, and where you can find that warrior inside the complex!  This was mine, an 80% match according to the app.

The most famous hall of the Terra Cotta Warriors.  The sheer size of this infantry is hard to wrap the mind around, especially because the pictured hall only represents a fraction of the total army.

Another shot of the largest hall.

The same hall from a different angle.  In the upper left corner of this photo you can see the mass of people visiting the Warriors; to be quite honest, the crowds combined with the heat were more overwhelming than the soldiers, themselves!

Soldiers with their terra cotta horses.  Apparently the Qin Emperor wanted horses that would last for an eternity, as well as some that would perish and turn to dust in his tomb complex.

Another hall, with many headless warriors.  Where their heads went is a mystery to me...

This is a more accurate representation of what the Terra Cotta Soldiers looked like before they were painstakingly reconstructed by incredibly talented restoration archaeologists.  The famous hall we know today would be nothing without these heroes!

On the way out of the mausoleum, my friend and I found stamps of the Terra Cotta warriors for kids to stamp in their souvenir books.  Mine (bottom) immediately after application, and my friend's (top) a few minutes after stamping.  Thank you, Xi'an, for your sweltering heat and absurdly high humidity!

This concludes part 1 of my China adventure.  This blog post documented the first week out of five, so keep an eye out for more to come!