China (中国)
3 years ago, my family visited China and we took a train from Chengdu to Beijing on the way back to Canada. At first, the landscape was flat. We passed many farmers who owned acres of land. All I could see was fields and fields of crops. Every two minutes, we would pass a farm. Day faded into dusk as the flat surface of the plains turned into mountains, jutting out from the ground, towering above us. Soon, we began tunneling. One tunnel followed another. The time to get through the tunnels took longer and longer, from seconds to minutes and even longer. Hours passed and dawn came. The mountains all disappeared and were replaced by an endless prairie. After about 32 hours, we finally reached the capital city, Beijing.
In Beijing, beside the famous Forbidden City (故宫) and the Great Wall of China (长城), the place that struck me the most was the Temple of Heaven (天坛). It was used for the Emperor to pray to heaven and perform special rituals in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Circular Mound (圜丘), one of the altars and was used to pray for favorable weather, is 532m in perimeter and 5.2m tall. It is 450 ft in diameter which represents a multiple of 5 and 9, numbers commonly used by emperors as a symbol of authority. The Circular mound is decorated with lavishly carved dragons. The altar has 3 layers with terraces, each with nine slates. The bottom layer has 180 slates, the middle has 108 slates and the top has 72 slates. In all, that is 360 slates, which is a circle and represents the circumference of heaven. On the top terrace, one round tile, the Heaven Heart Stone, is slightly taller than the rest and sits in the center while nine other tiles surround it. Then, another circle of tiles, this time, with eighteen tiles encompasses it and so on until the ninth circle with 9×9 tiles. In all, that is 3402 tiles. Each terrace has four entrances and the number of steps in each entrance is also nine. Since it strongly emphasizes the number nine so much, I call it the “Alter of the Great Nine” for myself.
In Chengdu, a subway was being constructed when some workers found several odd objects in the ground like a rectangular prism made out of jade and several elephant tusks. After much research and investigation, it was determined that the objects were from 1000 BC. Before we went to Beijing 3 years ago, we visited a grand, modern museum called Jinsha Site Museum (金沙遗址, translation: Gold Sand). The museum was built over the ruins. These primitive people mostly made all their gold into foil, spending hours on the precious metal, purifying it as much as they could and engraving mesmerizing designs. Some archeologist found gold foil, crumpled into a ball. With much care they unraveled it, revealing a large sun in the middle of the circular sheet of gold and several birds flying around it. Surprisingly, even after thousands of years, the piece of foil was in excellent condition, signifying that the gold was very pure.
I had a dream to see the Terra Cotta Warriors since the first time I read it in a school text book. It made me extremely disappointed that we had to cancel our trip to see them three years ago, due to a tight schedule. This summer, we specifically planned 2 days in Xi’an (西安), where the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses (秦始皇兵马俑) site is located. The Terra Cotta Army is a tomb for Emperor Qinshi Huang (秦始皇, 259 BC – 210 BC) and the soldiers were meant to protect him in the afterlife. The warriors were made and placed with painstaking care. They were in proper military order and each one of the warriors was life-size and the stomachs were hollow to help balance the statue. Each warriors face is distinguishable from another and had human counterparts. The statues were painted in vivid colors which have now faded due to oxidization and the warriors had been equipped with real weapons which were stolen by peasants in a rebellion. The carriage buried for the royal family was artistically designed. It was equipped with everything, from a bed for long journeys and benches. The umbrella that was attached to the carriage, giving the driver some relief had many contraptions and every detail was thought through.
Contrasting to the ancient world, when I stepped into the Beijing Capital International Airport this summer, I was awed. It had a high ceiling with orange bars and polished spotless white tiles. There were shops at every corner selling souvenirs, books, clothes, food, anything you could think of. There were people everywhere, rushing to their terminals, their voices echoing around the cavernous room. The airport had 3 terminals. The first was built in 1980, the second was added in 1999 and the third, in 2008. The only way to reach each terminal gates was by a mini subway.Remembering: China • Chengdu • HuangTianBa Part 1 China
Remembering: China • Chengdu • HuangTianBa Part 2 Chengdu
Remembering: China • Chengdu • HuangTianBa Part 3 HuangTianBa
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