Huangshan - Yellow Mountains

Sea of mists

Ever since I have seen those Chinese ink paintings of impossibly steep mountains and gnarled pines I have wanted to go to Southern China to see the landscapes that inspired them. It turned out that art meticulously copied nature, Chinese painters actually travelled to Huangshan and draw what they saw. The place would be practically inaccessible to humans (I do not consider mountain climbers to be completely human), but over ages, staircases were hewn in raw rock and smooth walkways built, so that 4 people can walk in breadth in most places - totally unlike any mountain hike we have ever seen. It is a strain on your knees, but you could walk in flipflops.

We decided to spend a night on the mountain, for several reasons. One was that it usually rains there, so two days gave us more of a chance to see anything, the other that seeing the sunrise or sunset is a must according all the guidebooks. We were lucky to see the mountain tops rising out of the mists, all of a sudden making clear why a parts of the mountain was called Northern Sea.

Huangshan is considered by Chinese to be one of their top attractions, right there with the Great Wall, but is all but unknown in the West. Even on a weekday, the main paths were teeming with Chinese tourist groups and tourguides with megaphones, but we met only a handful of westerners. Many of the Chinese must have been rural people, because we were repeatedly asked to pose in photographs with them.

Spot the odd man out

Tourist view

Given the popularity it was not strange that the few hotels on the mountain charged five times more than the hotels below. They have to have everything delivered on carriers back - no roads, only the walking paths. The lack of western clients probably also explained that the proudly announced western breakfast at 16 EUR offered the choice of egg or no egg and two kinds of bread, with no butter.

Much easier than
taking pictures outside

The Terracotta Army

 The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses
The next day our student guides took us the terracotta army east of  Xian. Although we actually saw a few of the warrior statues when they were touring the world in the 80 ies the seemingly endless rows of life sized generals, infantrymen, archers, cavalry,strongmen and musicians depicting the army of the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang who also built the Great Wall, were really a once of a lifetime sight.
This amazing world heritage site was hidden to the world until 1974. There had been previous reports about pieces of terracotta found close to the tomb of the first Chinese emperor Qin  but no excavations had been performed. It was incidentally discovered by a farmer drilling a well. Several drilling attempts had been made but all had been terminated just above the pits containing the army and the farmer who did not give up literally struck gold. He is still alive, and signs the official guidebook in a huge museum store, which also sells overprized warrior replicas in all imaginable materials and sizes 

We were assigned a competent guide, a Chinese woman speaking reasonably good English but we were amazed that at first she seemed to be prouder of the grandiose museum building and the celebrities whO had signed its guestbook than of the terracotta army itself. When we came into the first exhibition room her voice was drowned out  by an unbelievable  cacaphony as the place was swarmed with enthusiastic, loud  Chinese tourists.

The statues were placed in more than 200 m long pits divided into corridors with wooden ceilings. When the pits were first excavated the statues were found in pieces; it is said that the emperor´s enemies found the army after his death and smashed it on purpose. So far, only one soldier was found intact.  Remnants of burnt rafters were found and some of the statues had also been damaged by fire. Probably the wooden constructions were burnt by looters, supported by the fact that most weapons are missing. The few which have been found show impressive bronze metallurgy capabilities,  i.a. chromium surface plating for hardness and corrosion resistance. Surprisingly, iron was only found in tools, not in weapons, perhaps it was not considered good enough for an emperor. A not restored part with cruched statues can be seen in pit number 1 (there are 4 pits, the 4th one however unfinished and empty) Pit number one is actually said to contain more than 6000 statues.We were told that 40 archeologists work on the site, and 2000 assemble the pieces.The figures were made in separate parts that were assembled, which explains that some of the soldiers lack their head. As for those who dont you can see that the facial features differ. It is believed that eight different face moulds were used and then additional clay was used to sculpture the individual faces and facial expressions. Also the head gear and intricate hairstyles differ and indicate rank and arms of service, officers usually wearing hats, whereas warriors  have their hair tied into a knot. A few statues were on display in showcases and remnants of colour could still be traced on some.

China Xi'an

At Xi'an Normal University

Bank power

The Terracotta Army is the reason why everybody goes to Xi'an. Having seen an early exhibition of the prize pieces in the Luisiana Museum, back in the nineties, I was doubtful whether we should join our friends going there. I am glad we did. Paul had an invitation to a university there; and once we decided to go, we got the invitation too. For the price of giving one lecture, we were taken care of for two days. It turned out that Xian is an 8 million city, with 40 universities - with all the external attributes of a fully modern place, so we were suprised to run into a power outage, which everybody else took in their stride, most shops just started up their gasoline generators (and put them out in the street, to avoid the noise inside). One striking difference between Shanghai and Xi'an was the air quality. It is absolutely horrible in Xi'an, buildings a few hundreds meters away are in haze.





In Paradise

The city seems to be immensely proud of being the capital of China (Chang'an) during the Tang dynasty. On our first day, it was not considered wise to go into city center. Antijapanese demonstrations were expected, which would lead to the center being cordoned off by the police, so we were taken to Tang Paradise, once the grounds of the palace of a Tang imperial concubine. A huge outdoor park with a replica of Tang palace, complete with wall paintings and famous litterary scenes recreated as groups of lifesize figures. One of these shows a scene with the emperor, varius court officials, foreign ambassadors and the poet Li Bai (Li Po). Li Bai has been asked to write some mundane text for the emperor, and requests in his turn that the prime minister should prepare his ink, and the first imperial concubine rinse his brush. Whetever the truth of this story, history books record that Li Bai drack a lot, and was expelled from the court. Another story says he drowned trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in a river.



Poetry is literally written large in Xian. In the park, there is a huge rockery with poems chiselled in the rocks everywhere, and especially Tang poetry is in the highest esteem - but so are politbureau generals, to judge by the fans on the souvenir stand.

Rock poems

Poetry written large



There are genuine old buildings in Xian as well. Ming period walls enclose the old city - with Ming Drum Tower and Bell Tower in city center surrounded by traffic and illuminated by night. A labyrinth of souvenir and food bazaars stretches from the Drum Tower into the Muslim part of the city -  we did some lighthearted shopping and serious haggling there.

The 65m Great Wild Goose Pagoda going back to 652 stands spectacularly in the center of another large park outside the Ming city, but it used to be within what at Tang time was world´s largest (84 km² ) city. Big and spectacular would be the words for a lot of other things things in  China - eg a shopping mall which changes colour.

The students who took care of us spoke very good english (many of the teachers did not) and we could discuss a variety topics. I was surprised to hear that for Chinese mothers to leave their child to study or postdoc abroad, something we often seen in Sweden, was far from being considered acceptable.

China - Shanghai

The Chinese authorities block foreign blogs, Picasa (and lots of other sites), so we could not write live when in China. The memories fade but we will gradually sift through our notes and pictures and post.

Maglev train

The overwhelming impression of Shanghai was that of a thoroughly modern and prosperous city, eons apart from our memories of Peking 20 years ago. The very beginnig of the trip, a wheelless, magnetic levitation train running from the airport to the city at 300 km/h showed a prestige investment that few places in the world could afford. Even the Metro was absolutely world class, with enclosed platforms like the newest ones in Tokyo - but very crowded even on a Sunday morning - Annika could not squeeze herself in the same carriage as I and had to wait for the next train..

 

In the skylines of both the city center and the opposite river bank, Pudong, grandiose buildings, tall, round, pointed, angular, solid, with "fly through" openings, you name it - jostle for attention. Malmö's pride, Calatravas Turning Torso looks provincial in comparison..

We did not expect that Shanghai would make so much of its Western heritage. But all those massive bank palaces and hong headquarters on The Bund are well preseved and renovated, and the huge  customer halls with mosaic ceilings and Art Nouvaeau chandeliers still serve they purpose.



The Bund

HSBC lion

Entrance hall mosaic
Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation

Shanghai Museum, shaped like a ding,
an ancient bronze cooking vessel

We spent an afternoon in Shanghai Museum, which in truth can compete with the world famous National Museum in  Taipei. To do it justice, we should have taken a few days at least.  I was taken in by the bronzes at the ground floor, many archaic looking massive pieces with strange animal designs, cast using advanced  techniques, and spent too much time there, so we only managed to have a look at the ceramics and run through the rest. Of course there were magnificent Tang half-lifesize horses and camels but the piece I would have taken home was a later one, a 12th century celadon plate or flat bowl of a style called Jun ware. Of course an ancient chamber pot would be more of a conversation piece.

Water vessel of king Fu Chai,
Late Spring and Autumn period,
6-5th century BC

Wine heater,
Late Spring and Autumn period,
6-5th century BC



Tang dynasty camel rider,
obviously the source of inspiration for
Swedish illustrator Jenny Nyström when
she created the image of the Swedish "jultomte"!



Jun ware

For gentlemen only
Celadon Chamberpot, Western Jin AD 263-317



After closing hours we walked in the park of Peoples Square, tasting food from different street stalls and we run into a 100m wide poster exhibition, which turned out to be missing persons (mostly young women) notices. Most were of the same bold red and black design - some enterprising person set up a printing stall at the spot..

Jade Stone peak

There is a Chinatown in Shanghai, and its main attraction is the Yuyuan garden, built in the 16th century by the governor of Sechuan province to provide comfort for his aging father. It is a fascinationg creation - thousands of tons of stone were used to build grand rockeries, caves and stone passages between bridges, ponds and pavillons (bankrupting the family). Ancient China just as you imagined (but you would not have imagined the Chinese tourist crowds).


Yu garden opera stage

Shishi, guardian lion, with moving pearl in mouth

In the neighbourhood there is a Tempel of the Town God, a Taoist shrine, the original starting point  of town festivals. We were surprised to see many people worshipping in earnest, from gandparents learning their grandchildren to offer coins, to young couples burning incense and praying in front of different holy statues. What virtues brought holiness to the man in the bowler hat was not explained anywhere.