An Evening in the Tang Dynasty

Des Moines, Iowa is a nice enough place.  But not too many people include Des Moines on their "bucket list" of places to visit.  Xi'an is, in many ways, a lot like Des Moines, Iowa.  But Xi'an has a 2200 year old army of terracotta soldiers buried in its backyard.  Des Moines can't top that....not even with the World Pork Expo.

Tourism is an industry in Xi'an.  A big industry.  The terracotta army brings people in from all over the world.  Once they've seen the clay soldiers, most of the tourists still have a little time and still have a little money.  And all over Xi'an there are tourist attractions that compete for the visitors' time and money.

 On our Saturday night in Xi'an, our tour group whent to a dinner theater.  The dinner was a noodle and dumpling extravaganza.  (Remember the wheat thing?)  Following the dinner was a performance to highlight traditional Tang Dynasty culture.

 The Tang Dynasty was one of the high points of Chinese history...a bit of a golden age.  It was a period of stability and prosperity.  It was the time of perhaps the biggest gap between the height of civilization in China and the depths of the Dark Ages in the West.  It was a time of silks and music and poetry.  Or so they told us in the after-dinner show. 

 Anyway, the photos here are all from the after-dinner performance.  Whether authentic or not, the performance was a lovely display of colors and music. 

 The top photo is the only one not taken during the performance.  It was taken before, and shows the performers waiting in the lobby to take the stage in the role of palace guards.