China: Dinner and a Show

Okay, one thing I have to recommend while in Xi'an is the "Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show". A little expensive, around 300 Yuan per person, but well worth the cost. Our guide asked us if we wanted to see it since it was considered the big thing for tourists at night. My mom and I thought about and said sure. We went back to the hotel for a nap, still was feeling a little jet lagged from flying over and the beds were definitely not western style, and we were picked up in the evening and taken to the show.



The whole thing was highlighting the local cuisine and culture, especially from the Tang dynasty era. Lots of steamed dumplings, and other goodies.

Forgive the pictures, the colours aren't exactly up to par. I was caught a little flat footed and I couldn't rescue the images really. I may try some other time.







If you notice the food is in different shapes in colours. The one that looked like a duck had duck. The red one that looks a little like a snout, is pork, green one shaped like a cabbage...well you get the point. The food was very nice.

On stage during dinner a lady was playing a typical harp from the region. More on that a little later. The hall was like a old style music theater, very fancy, and a good look.





I didn't bring my wide angled lens with me that night, I figured that it would be too dark for it and would be prone to too many bad shots.

Now, on to the show. The whole premise was to give a glimpse into the time, people, and culture of the Tang dynasty that ruled Xi'an. It was mostly a dance spectacular with explanations between scenes about what they were showing us. Alas, I have forgotten what most of the scenes were, I will try my best though. In fact I will be going back through my photo stream to relabel what I can. So, we have the introduction scene, the "Fossil Music" scene (a lot of musical instruments in Xi'an are played nowhere else, in fact their origins go back thousands of years.), a martial scene, a scene acted out from a story, 5 scenes referring to the main countries and kingdoms that interacted with Xi'an, and I think I am tapped out for the moment. Anyway, less talking more pictures, right?



















Actually, I will leave off here and return to the rest of the show next week. Have a great weekend all.

China: Xian Old City Wall

It's been a few weeks since I have posted any pictures of my trip to China, so I better get at it. One of the attractions in Xi'an is the old city wall. It enclose the old city where the Drum and Bell tower are located and the muslim market. I passed through and under it several times while we were going about sight seeing other locations. On our return from the terracotta warriors our guide asked if we wanted to go up it and look around. By this time my mom was getting tired, but I still had some energy. So on the return to our hotel I got out and looked around. Talk about large and massive. Since it is entire and complete you could walk the whole thing if you had the time, like a day to walk around. Or if you wanted to, you could rent a bike to tour it that way. I didn't have the time or the energy to do either so I just amused myself by looking around the court yard and upper part of the wall.

Grab Bag of Randomness

Since our photo walk was so rudely interrupted this weekend I have been left with a lack of material. So to speak. Time to go digging in my photo archive and to see what else I have taken and haven't posted. Random days, random things. Fun stuff.