China, November 1988, Part 8

Barb and Bill take their first tour of China together, along with Kate Garrett and her Mom, Mary. This post covers our third day in Beijing and travel to Xian.


Sunday, November 13, 1988

We elected to forego the tour group’s visit to the Temple of Heaven in favor of spending the morning with Mary Ellen and Jim Ireland.

The Irelands, long-time Fisher family friends from Fred’s Chinese language school days in Taiwan, were posted for several years to the American Embassy in Beijing. They were the only folks we actually knew in China at that point and we were delighted they made time to see us. Being good foreign service types, they were very used to playing tour guide for a day with various visiting friends and dignitaries.

Since we had seen the basic tourist sites, Mary Ellen suggested a shopping tour to one of Beijing’s newly sprouting street markets. This particular market focused on silk and clothing. Mary Ellen guided us to her favorite stalls, and even helped us haggle. But not too much — after all, she would be coming back soon with some other visitors.

After a fine couple of hours shopping and commiserating, we returned to the hotel, joined back up with the group and prepared for our flight to Xian.

Our bus deposited us at the Beijing Airport where we waited for our CAAC flight. The waiting room at the airport felt something like a large dentist’s office, and the wait was long. In the years since 1988, China has invested billions in airport infrastructure around the country. It was needed. The airports we’d seen so far in Shanghai and Beijing seemed like something out of Casablanca — very spartan and not at all appealing.


Note: Here, dear reader, our photo albums of the trip end…I thought I had gotten further back in the day. There was a small stack of photos in the album waiting to be organized, included below. The rest of the journey will have to be recounted from whatever photos and notes I am able to find in boxes from the attic, and some detective work, when I get to it.


Our flight to Xian was uneventful in itself, though it was interesting to see the land getting drier and browner as we went west. Xian itself was a dry, dusty town, much smaller than Beijing or Shanghai. There was less evidence of Western buildings (aside from a number of low Soviet style concrete housing), more of a feel of a Chinese provincial city.

During that first afternoon, we visited the Shaanxi History Museum and saw an interesting display of dinosaur fossils, including one I’d never seen before.

The main excitement of the museum was getting our first glimpse of the Terra Cotta Warriors excavated near Xian. We would see the main dig tomorrow, but this was a chance to get close to some of the finer examples.

The Museum was on grounds of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, where we also visited a garden for a quiet interlude.

We made a stop at a cloisonne factory and saw the fascinating and intricate process of decorating the pieces by hand. The factory also did inlaid furniture work.

Later, we shopped at the Friendship Store.

Strolled by a night market, but I don’t think we ate anything. Some of it looked quite good, or at least interesting.

Next day, drove out to see the Terra Cotta Warrior dig site. Along the way, we passed by a hill which the guide almost off-handedly said was likely the actual tomb of Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor.

Not quite sure where this statue of a bare-breasted woman was. The quonset hut-style building looks like where the Terra Cotta Warriors were being excavated, but she was not one of them. Regardless, she made for a photo op.

Some interesting signs seen on the way.


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