Xian Museum Plan B

Monday, October 20th, 2008. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you fly half-way across the world, make a plan to see one of China’s finest history museums, get up early to arrive as soon as the door opens, and then find out that the museum is closed on Mondays! Ever see that scene in “National Lampoon’s Family Vacation” where “Wally World” was closed? At least we could laugh about it. Maybe next year kids…

Xian’s Shaanxi Museum, one of the main attractions in Xian, was closed. Bummer.

So instead of visiting the history museum, we walked over to see the 1500-year-old Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was very pleasant – while the weather was dreary, the pace was slow and for the first time in a few days we didn’t feel like we were stuck in a tourist trap. We bought some cool souveniers and gifts for not very much money before heading over to Xian’s historic city wall.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a landmark built nearly 1400 years ago in Xian, the ancient capital of China.

The city wall, originally built in 582 AD, is one of Asia’s treasures. It represents one of the oldest standing city walls in the world, and it’s an insight into ancient civilization. It’s impressive, it’s inspiring, and it’s a wall! Nothing more. Yet just like the Great Wall north of Beijing, I was proud to have been their. Patton said something like “fixed fortifications are a monument to man’s stupidity,” and while that might be true I find them to be a monument to a very basic, human desire – “Don’t touch my stuff while I’m gone.”

We finished up the day visiting De Fa Chang, Xian’s most famous dumpling restaurant. For 250 yuan (about $40), we enjoyed an 18-course meal of fried, steamed, and boiled dumplings along with soup, tea, and appetizers (including some delicious snap peas). If you’re in Xian, you have to go.

One of the more interesting aspects of Xian – at least for us – was the near total absence of westerners. We might have seen a dozen white people during our day in the city, as compared to Beijing where westerners (of all colors) are a dime-a-dozen. At the dumpling restaurant, as we were being escorted to our table, the entire room shifted their focus to us. Just for a moment, the crowd went quiet and everyone looked our way before returning to their meals. During dinner, as each course was brought, people would make a point to watch us. Would we like what we were served? Would we eat it all? Would we drop dumplings on the table because we didn’t know how to use chopsticks? What did we order, anyways? These seemed to be the popular questions.

It’s an odd feeling to be the focus of the crowd, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked it a little. While I realize it’s got absolutely nothing to do with me, my personality, or my “famous profile,” it’s fun to pretend that I’m a famous and/or important person. If only that were true…