To medieval Europe and Marco Polo, the country the Chinese thought of as the Middle Kingdom, was called Cathay. Marco Polo's journey on the Silk Road took him there but there is much controversy over exactly what he saw. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, founder of the Qin dynasty and the first ruler to unify China, had ordered the Great Wall to be built a thousand years before the Venetian trader's arrival. He is said to have seen that spectacular creation and since the ancient city of Xian was the western end of the Silk Road, he must have been there.
Even if he saw the Yangtze, "the river of golden sands", or "the river to Heaven", as it was named near its source in the mountains that ring Tibet, he would not have sailed through its three magnificent gorges. The account of his travels however, roused interest in the western world about the mysterious East and about far Cathay.
Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, and Gualin were all to be visited on the 1993 journey to China for which I signed up, but the main attraction was a three day cruise on the Yangtze River from Ichang to Chongking, through the storied Three Gorges. Our tour group flew from San Francisco to Beijing and after recovering from that old devil, jet lag, we proceeded to enjoy ourselves. Our first dinner was at the same restaurant where I had dined on Peking duck the year before. It was just as delicious the second time around. One of our study guides was a Chinese-American woman who was really interested in food. Mary was probably fifty-something, not quite five feet tall, and weighed about ninety pounds. She ate like the proverbial bird but the subject of Chinese food was her passion. She knew what the best things were on menus, she knew how to prepare them, and often knew their history. Mary's comments added unexpected spice to the tour.
We went to Netanyu for our walk on the Great Wall, a superb experience. It was a hot, steamy day but that didn't matter. To walk along the Wall, to look over its top or through one its openings and to see it snaking its way over hills and valleys into the distance is as awe inspiring as the Wall itself.
Begun two thousand years ago by Emperor Qin Shi Huang as protection against Mongols and Manchus, it extends to the Yellow Sea in the east. There was an incredible cost in human lives during its construction. The emperor and his nobles lived luxuriously while slave labor piled stones upon stones to build it. It has sometimes been called "the long graveyard" because so many workers were said to have been buried under it. This may not be literally true but thousands died while working on it.
As we drove through the country from Netanyu to the site of the Ming tombs, we passed places where millet was spread out to dry, watched over by farmers but this seemed not to be a rice paddy region. The winding road took us to the Tombs. In the time of the first Min emperors, commoners were not allowed to enter this sacred area but today countless tourists, among them many native Chinese, go through the grand gateway:
and pass by the huge stone statures of mythical beasts that guard "the spirit walk". It's common knowledge that ancestor worship is an important part of Chinese culture. The Ming tombs are an example of the reverence with which family lines were regarded.
We toured Beijing on the following day. En route to a parking, we drove past Tiananmen Square and Mary said in a loud, clear voice, "Here is where those innocent protesters, all those young people, were gunned down in 1989".
We all gasped at her boldness in making such a criticism about the government but the two local guides who traveled with us and who spoke good English, seemed not alarmed. Beijing in 1993 was hoping to host the next Olympics so maybe tourists could say what they liked. For the second time, I admired the colorful Forbidden City, the beautiful Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven. Then we flew on to Xian, a city that dates from the Stone and Bronze Ages.
Centuries ago Xian was the capital of China. Here Emperor Qin Shi Huang had held forth, ruling his country for thirty seven years. Now Xian in Shaanxi Province, has become famous for the terra cotta army which Qui ordered to be created for his mausoleum. This army is as awesome as the Great Wall. We looked at it, utterly spellbound though we saw only the first divisions of the more than eight thousand warrior figures, life-size and in battle dress. There are no clones--each man is unique. The faces we could see were carefully and artistically molded. There is nothing slipshod about this army.
It was designed by Qin to protect him after his death by guarding the road to his mausoleum. The artists and artisans who made this stunning, incredibly splendid marvel were said to have been buried alive when it was finished in order to keep it secret. Besides the army, Xian has its "stone forest", of carved steles, and a wonderful four-gated wall. It has the land marks, Big Wild Goose and Small Wild Goose pagodas and a remarkably fine museum.
A few miles away, archaeologists are at work on what may prove to be the earliest settlement in China. Xian had more to offer than we could possibly see in a two day visit. At dinner the night before our departure, we discovered something else for which the city is famed--Xian dumplings. As we sat at tables in a restaurant, bowl after bowl of these delectable delicacies were brought to us. They were not only good to eat but also good to look at, in beautiful flower and in funny animal shapes.
We gobbled them up, laughing at the contents of each new bowl. The servers, obviously pleased to see our enjoyment of their fascinating and tasty offerings, were laughing too. It was a grand farewell to a grand old city. The remembrance of that evening of pure serendipity still makes me smile. I could never forget the terra cotta warriors but I won't forget Xian's dumplings either.