Xi'an Local Lunch

This is M&M here and I am going to tell you about our experience at the Xi'an city Bell tower, shopping, and the local lunch. Before our tour guide took us to lunch at a local's house, she took us to the Xi'an city Bell tower. We had to walk a little ways from the car to get there but it wasn't too bad. We were able to see drums lined up against the walls of the tower. The designs were gorgeous and we were amazed at the beauty of the tower.

After walking past the tower and taking a couple of pictures, our tour guide, Celine, took us to a market. We told her on our first day that we wanted to go shopping  sometime during our trip in Xi'an because our other tour guide in Beijing didn't let us have a lot of time to shop. He was like "hurry up" or "we need to hurry ".  Celine took us to the start of the market and told us she would wait at the beginning untill we got back. After she told us some directions, we left and went inside the market. We don't have any pictures but it was very fun. After we shopped for about an hour, we got back to Celine and went to the car to go eat lunch. 

She took us to a local lady's house. The local lady's house was a tourist favorite spot because she taught us how to cook dumplings and made us a big lunch to eat. Right after we arrived at the house, someone knocked on the door and Celine answered it. A girl that looked about 18 came in. Celine told us that this was Vera Yu, our travel consultant.  Mom told me that Vera was the lady that we email a million times with questions and requests for our trip.  She helped plan everything for our China trip. 

We all really liked Vera. She was really nice and we had lots of fun with her. Everyone took lots of pictures together and had fun joking around.

The next thing we did was learn how to make dumplings. The lady whose house we were in showed us how to make the dumpling insides, outsides, how to cook them, and many other things. She started by making dough from just flour and water.  Then she made it into a snake and cut super tiny pieces.  I thought that we were making dumplings for dolls they were so small.

After she cut them, she gave us wood sticks and showed us how to use the stick to flatten out the dough into a round circle.  We all had a wood stick and we all had the chance to roll out the dough.  Even Little Monster could do it.

She had prepared inside stuff, so after we had flat circles, she showed us how to stuff it and close it tight.  The closing tight and sealing it was the hardest part.  Celine, Vera and the lady all had different ways that they learned to seal the dumplings.  It was fun to learn from all three of them this Chinese cultural experience and meal.

After we made all the dumplings, the lady took them into the kitchen to cook.  We were all excited to taste what we just made.  But we didn't just get dumplings, we got a whole huge lunch too. We loved the lunch so much and understood why it was a tourist favorite. We were all seated at a table, our family in one room and the Walkers in another room.  They brought out our dumplings all cooked, and we ate them and they were so delicious.  Then they kept making food and kept bringing out food.  We had chicken, and noodles, pork, rice and vegetables, and so much more.  The food just kept coming and coming, but it was all so amazingly delicious.  Even us kids liked the food. One of the most best part of the lunch was when Mom said, " I am stuffed " We only had a couple things on the table and Celine and Vera kept bringing more plates of food. Mom said, " I think that was the last plate." after we had like 15 plates on the table and Big Sis said, " Nope, I hear sizzling." And sure enough, they brought out another plate. We had lots of fun and we were glad Celine brought us here. 

It was Quinn's birthday and after we all ate Vera surprised her because she brought a cake with her.  We all thought is was the nicest thing.  And the cake was super delicious. It was a special way to celebrate her birthday.

Xi'an, China: Small Wild Goose Pagoda & Calligraphy

We had the chance to see the Small Wild Goose Pagoda today.  I loved this one so much better then the Big Goose Pagoda, because it was more authentic and way less of a tourist spot.  The Small Goose Pagoda is owned by the locals and it is mostly locals that are found around the grounds.  It also has a more warm, homely and loving feel from the people here compared to the Big Goose Pagoda. When we entered the Pagoda, Celine took us to the left past the pagoda with promises of the best view of the pagoda.  Sure enough, we found ourselves in a gorgeous garden.

As we were walking around the gardens, we were able to watch many Chinese locals as they did their morning Tai Chi on the sacred temple grounds.  There were so many people dressed in black or white or red clothes finding their inner peace.  Celine took us to one side of the garden to show us some stone work.  Some of the stones were used for the royal horses and were made to tie the horses.  They had hooks and little holes around the creature.  As we marveled at the stone we were able to sneak a picture of one of the locals doing Tai Chi.

After passing through the gardens, we made our way through the grounds.  There were some gorgeous doorways, windows and plants all around the property. One of the cools plants that we saw was a tree that is 1300 years old.  It was bent and windy and so cool looking.  We learned from Celine that instead of the government taking over this temple and the pagoda for tourism, the locals in the village around the temple came together and purchased the land, so the temple and pagoda are owned by the locals.  This was why we had a more authentic Chinese experience here and why it felt so real.  

We saw some pretty neat buildings around the pagoda.  I'm not sure what the names are of these different buildings, but they were pretty neat.  You can tell the locals love this temple and the temple grounds because it was kept up so beautifully.

The two buildings I do know are the bell tower and the drum tower.  The bell tower houses a bell that was made in 1192 during the Jin Dynasty.  This bell originally belonged to another temple, then went missing.  It was found in a river bed and then moved to the bell tower here by the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. For a small fee, we were able to ring the bell.

The Jianfu Temple has been turned into a museum, so we were able to go in and learn about the history of Xi'an and about the Pagoda.  The temple was beautiful and displayed beautiful big red lanterns.

So this pagoda was built about 707 AD and had 15 stories.  In 1487 a big earthquake hit causing the pagoda to crack down the middle and then in 1555 another earthquake hit and since there was already a crack, the pagoda lost two stories in the earthquake.  The inside of the pagoda is completely unsafe and not open to the public or privately.  But it still stands today and is such a beautiful piece of architecture and history. The missing two stories were my favorite part and what I felt brought charm to the entire thing.

There are actually many trees on the property that are hundreds of years old.  Each tree was crazy looking and the girl enjoyed finding the older trees.  The ones that were super old had plaques with the type of tree and the age of the tree.  Here are a few of them.

One of the highlights of the Small Goose Pagoda was taking a calligraphy class.  We all got to sit down and write "Eternal" and "Happiness" on rice paper.  We had an instructor who taught us a little bit about calligraphy and the Chinese characters, then showed us how to write the characters.

We used ink, like the real deep black stuff that stains, and real calligraphy brushes to make the characters. All the kids did such a good job listening to the instructor and then using the brush to make the characters.  Even little Monster was trying to write on the rice paper.  I was keeping close to make sure he didn't decide to paint his shirt, face and shorts permanently black.

After our calligraphy class, while we waited for the ink to dry, we walked around the little art shop and admired the paintings.  There was a calligraphist on site, that for a fee would write all the kids names and a Chinese character on a painting.  We decided to have the three girls names written with the symbol 'love'.  The girls got to stamp the painting with the official and authentic red Chinese stamp.  They were so nervous and each took a practice turn, then it was decided that Kylee would stamp the real paining.

Since the Small Goose Pagoda was not a tourist attractions and was mostly locals, there were so many people taking pictures of the kids.  Unlike touristy places, these people were super respectful and would ask to take pictures.  Our girls are probably in about a hundred pictures, they were very popular here.  As we were getting ready to go, a group of young boys came shoving each other towards Kevin.  When one of them finally had the guts to talk they asked for a picture with Kevin.  I loved it!  He said yes and even busted out the big guns for the pictures, the boys all went crazy.  It was a fun way to leave the Small Goose Pagoda.

Xi'an, China: Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Welcome to another cool site in China! Today we decided to visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and contrary to what you think, there really isn't any giant goose here: bums. This is one of those rare places you see and realize your standing next to something that is 1400 years old! We did this trip with the Walkers, and it was so awesome. 

It was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty and originally had five stories. The structure was rebuilt in 704 during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, and its exterior brick facade was renovated during the Ming Dynasty. One of the pagoda's many functions was to hold sutras and figurines of the Buddha that were brought to China from India by the Buddhist translator and traveler Xuanzang. Today, the interior walls of the pagoda feature engraved statues of Buddha by the renowned artist Yan Liben, but  unfortunately we never got to see that. Our tour guide, Celine, told us that the reason it is called the 'Wild Goose' Pagoda is because while Xuanzang was in India and was very hungry, he prayed to Buddha and he saw a big wild goose in the sky, so he followed it and was lead to food.

So your eyes are not throwing you off: the pagoda hangs out with the leaning tower of Pizza and tilts to the west. In 1556 there was a massive earthquake that toppled the top three stories and then made it lean, and after extensive restorations done throughout the century, it has been supported and repaired, and standing at 210 feet tall it remains to this day off kilter: just like Little Monster!

As with all places in China so far, there has be an amazing huge door in which Heather knocks! Open sesame? The tree of life stone artwork was amazing, makes me appreciate such skilled craftsman.

The pagoda itself sits within the Daci'en Temple, which is translated into Mercy and Kindness, and was constructed in 646.

This picture highlights the tilt to the west of the pagoda, the main centerpiece. However, what I didn't appreciate that is the Daci'en temple complex is really just a conglomerate of Buddha shrines that you can go too, pay your money, bow to your Buddha god and flavor, and petition for your needs.  Here you can see the outside entrance to the complex.

So, I wanted to highlight some of the interesting aspects to their religious ceremonies, which here was so very apparent. You start the temple experience with starting with incense stick, like you see here. Then you go and place the incense stick at the location of the type of Buddha you are praying too. 

I particularly loved this part. People would take their incense sticks and light them further from these rainbow colored candles that all represented different prayers. 

Once your done with your incense, you go to different Buddhas, leave your money in the box, deposit your stick of incense and pray. I wanted to show a few of them, but the crazy thing was that the most popular one of them all was the Buddha of money and financial stability. There was a line of people there, but the others only have a few people visit periodically. This showed me what was a common concern among them.

This is the Hall of the God of Wealth, which is symbolized by a whole room of golden buddhas, and a rocking Go-T.

This dude was rocking. The following is just some other ones that I thought were pretty amazing, but it just represented the simple notion that Buddhism is really like the Apple company: there's a God for that, so download the app and your covered. 

So finally when we're done we snapped this picture which demonstrated what our trip was like: a daily occurrence of people taking pictures of our family every where we went! So this shows just the fun of what we went through. 

-Kevin