Miscellaneous Xi'an

 In the city center of Xi'an, there is a fabulous museum with the finest of artifacts from the area.  The pieces date back thousands of years.  The displays include the most exotic finds from the Qin Dynasty tombs (aka the terracotta warriors) as well as from the Han and Tang dynasties.  Bronze, clay, jade, and gold.  These are things I've seen in National Geographic Magazine, but never expected to see in real life.  In truth, it's just a bunch of old stuff.  But it is really, really, interesting old stuff.

 But forget the old stuff.  One of the more interesting things was our tour guide.  He was a young fellow, maybe 25 year old at most.  We picked him up at the train station and he was with us for the entire two days of our visit to Xi'an.  He was able to tell us the history of all the ancient sites.  But his stories of contemporary times, of his lifetime, were just as interesting. 

 Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi province, on the loess plains of the Yellow River.  In Shaanxi province, it is estimated that  40 million people live in caves.  Earth-Sheltered-Dwellings would be the more modern term.  But by any definition, these are people living in caves.  Farmers dig the caves into the cliffs and hillsides.  We saw a few of them from the train as it approached Xi'an.

The land around Xi'an is devoid of timber and stone.  In these parts, a dug-out home makes as much sense as does an igloo to an Eskimo.  You make do with what you've got.  So a cave home is not as primitive as it might at first appear. 

Our tour guide was a farmer's son.  He was not originally from Xi'an, but came to the city from the surrounding countryside to go to University.  Once there, he stayed because the economic prospects in Xi'an were better than in his home village.  His degree was in international business.  His hopes are to land a permanent job with an international bank. For now, he seems happy to work as a tour guide for the Western visitors who come to see the terracotta soldiers.

 Our tour guide said he didn't live in a cave, but he had plenty of friends in college who did.  He reassured us that the cave houses these days are fully modern....wired for electricity and Internet.  The floors are no longer dirt, but rather covered in tile and carpet.  But the people are mostly poor....living on an annual income of one or two thousand dollars per year.

 Our tour guide has two brothers.  This made life rather complicated for his parents, given the "one child" policy of China.  The one child policy became law back in the late 1970s.  But at first it was applied only to urban families and it took a while to be rolled out to the rural areas.  Our tour guide was born in the late 1980's as the second son to his parents.  Since they were farmers, they were allowed two children at the time.  A few years later, his third brother was born.  For his parents, this was a big problem.  They were forced to pay a fine of 3000 RMB, about half their annual income.

Our guide said that his father accepted these circumstances with a sense of humor.  He said that when ever his youngest brother was disobedient, his parents would tell him....'it is OK for your older brothers to disobey, since we gave nothing for them.  But you should obey, since we paid good money for you."

 He said that many farmers still have more children than officially allowed.  But to avoid the steep fines, they simply do not report the birth of their children.  (Even though it is legally required to report the births to the local police station.)  In secluded areas, this works out well...for a while.  But the age of 17 or 18 is the time when adolescents have to obtain their national identity cards.  This can be a real problem if your birth was not registered.  These young adults become illegal immigrants in the only country they've ever known.

 Speaking of immigrants, Xi'an has been a magnet for immigrants for 2000 years.  Chang'an, ancient Xi'an, was the largest city in the world and the Eastern terminus of the silk road.  The lure of profits brought many a merchant to town.  In the old days, many of the immigrants were Muslims from Arab lands of Turkey or Iraq.  These Arabs settled in Xi'an and maintained their religious traditions in diaspora. 

In Xi'an today, there is still a Muslim quarter.  The Muslims have lived in Xi'an for several generations, but they still retain their traditions and beliefs. You can recognize the observants by their circular head coverings (for men) and by their scarves (for women).

 The Muslim quarter also gives Xi'an a famous line of cuisine...grilled lamb and mutton and goat.  The rest of China eats pork.  The Muslim restaurants serve up a welcome alternative to the barbecued pork ribs and stewed bacon.

 The photos in this post show a variety of scenes from the Xi'an museum and from the streets of Xi'an itself.  You can see that everybody is hustling.  Even the tricycle taxis, below, are conspiring as they wait for the next client.