| A blog from China: Level 7 – Ancient China? | |||
|
|||
The choice of picture will be explained further down the page, don't worry. Our day was deliberately planned so that we would visit tourist attractions and thus not experience those big emotional tests on our last day. But they were there... First off, we went to the Mausoleum of Xixia Dynasty, which was about a half-hour drive with Mr. Chen - most others should calculate at least 45-minutes for the trip. There was a museum and we got loads of pictures of clay things and old stuff from ancient China. Funny talk
They said all kinds of stuff in a sweet mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and English. They were smiling and laughing all the time, so it didn't matter that we didn't understand much. It was a breath of fresh air for our impression of the stereotypical Chinese tourist. On to Zhen Bei Bu scenic area, which is a movie set - it is also the site of some ruined fortresses from some 600-odd years ago. Upon our arrival we were immediately perplexed by the way authentic artefacts were mixed with fibreglass props. It made it more challenging to photograph the countless well-preserved relics there. One example of oddly placed items was in the Cultural Revolution section. Along with authentic publications from the 60s, we found tin cigarette boxes adorned with Grace Kelly, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Saddam Hussein!!! The white box has a young Iraqi president wielding an AK-47 and smiling sweetly. I'm looking at it right now, because naturally I bought this item that would be considered politically inappropriate in most places. Strong emotional stuff, again
As if that was not scary enough, many were clearly amused by this game. Only the plastic garlic that was hanging to dry along the windows reminded us that this was all for show. For the rest of the day at Zhen Bei Bu, we wandered around and experienced various things and were truly amazed with most of them. One was a man who operated a real wood fired distillery. As the spirit was distilled, he bottled the fine wine, corked, sealed and labelled it. He even personally signed the bottles that we purchased. And then there was the Terminator. China can surprise you in many ways, but seeing a Cyberdyne Systems model T-800 among ancient emperors probably tops them all. It is well known that Skynet sent several assassins back in time to terminate Sarah Connor and, in other ways, make it impossible for John Connor to create the resistance. They must have sent one back to Dynasties' China. There can be no other explanation. Safe back in town After all this we returned to Yinchuan for a long-awaited tour around town. We visited many places and bought a great deal of stuff: Stone, plastic, electronics and fur. After trying on about 700 vests, Zhanna even managed to get herself something. Finally we had dinner with Mr. Huang's boss Mrs. He. She is such a friendly woman, and very influential in Yinchuan and the whole of Ningxia. She asked if we had had a nice time and promised that, if there was anything of any kind, we could always come to her. She presented us with a lovely collection of Gouqi-berry products. And, as I promised to write, she spoke very highly of Zhanna's improvement in chopstick skills from the first dinner, six nights ago, to now. And yes, her observations are true: No more knives and forks. She invited us to return to Yinchuan and promised to welcome us any time. With the amount of melancholy there is with leaving, we might just accept that offer at some point in the future.
|
| Tools: Save | Print | E-mail |
|
| Comment |
