China in your hands
jotting down phone numbers, checking out CVS. There didn’t seem to be any actual lonely hearts in attendance. And I really didn’t blame them.
The People’s Park was a fascinating microcosm of a culture that was alien and familiar all at once.
Yes, some of the customs seem strange to us, but what was clear is that family is at the heart of everything.
Elderly people are revered and listened to. There’s no sitting at home waiting for the weekly duty phone call here.
GLADRAGS
Whatever their age they expect to put on their gladrags, go out and enjoy themselves. I loved it.
It was a real wrench to leave Chengdu behind, but it was time to check out of our hotel and board the bullet train.
The whole thing was a masterpiece of engineering, and that was only the luggage transfer.
While we toured temples and drank tea, Max, our wonderful Mercury Holidays tour guide, had arranged for three separate teams of porters to pick up our luggage at the hotel, transfer it to the train, collect it at the other end and deliver it to our Xi’an hotel. It was all included in the price of the tour, and ran like clockwork.
Unfortunately, so did the bullet train. Our cameras were poised ready for the speedometer to hit 300kph, but it didn’t nudge much above 230kph.
But four hours later we were on a transfer bus passing by the Ming Dynasty city wall of Xi’an, a small metropolis by Chinese standards. Just 12 million people, steeped in the colourful culture you’d expect from the starting point of the Silk Road trading route.
Food tends to be hot and sour here, and there was no better place to try it than the Muslim market in Huimin Street.
There are 70,000 Muslims living in the city, and their street food is a big draw for locals and tourists. Squid on a stick is a popular choice.
But the biggest draw, the reason most come to Xi’an, is the Terracotta
Army, one of the world’s greatest archaeological finds, unearthed in 1974 by farmers trying to dig a well.
Most of us have read about how China’s first Emperor Qin had thousands of warrior statues built to protect his tomb and guide him to the afterlife.
But nothing can quite prepare you for visiting the site and
entering the vast space of pit one, the biggest of three, to see row after row of lifesize soldiers, 6,000 of them, lined up in trenches, stretching 750ft into the distance.
There are more in the two smaller pits. Every one is distinct… different ranks, different faces, different jobs. There are cavalrymen, archers, infantrymen and chariot drivers. Some sit on horses, other kneel to aim bows. It’s believed there are even more still buried. Much of the site is yet to be excavated.
To us, it was awe-inspiring. To anyone planning on stopping Emperor Qin’s journey to the afterlife back in 210BC, it must have been terrifying.
So it’s fitting that our next and final stop was Beijing, where China’s modern-day rulers were setting up an equally imposing show of strength for their republic’s 70th anniversary.
The preparations meant the famous Forbidden City of ancient palaces was off-limits that week. It was touch and go getting past the checkpoints for a quick stroll around Tiananmen Square.
This 109-acre space is impressive
enough when it’s not filled with tanks, missiles and massed armies. Home to many of China’s most revered monuments and museums, including Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, it’s where the People’s Republic was founded on October 1, 1949.
But missing out on the Forbidden City was more than compensated for by our time at the huge Summer Palace, a gorgeous complex of mansions, gardens and lakes that was home to many of China’s rulers.
Chief among them all was the 19th century “Dragon Lady” Cixi, who could have inspired Cersei Lannister from
Bullet train and warriors Game of Thrones – because this place so calm and peaceful was was a woman who certainly paid steeped in so much blood, and her debts. Handed to the heir to ironic that its high point is called the throne as a lowly concubine, Longevity Hill. she ruled through her husband, But when it comes to symbols then her son, of imperial power, China’s Great and killed Wall takes some beating. many rivals. Stretching around 5,000 miles,
She is even it dates back more than 2,000 thought years and incorporates the to have natural defences of rivers and poisoned her mountains. son and then Some parts are little more than her nephew, who was imprisoned rubble, others have been so well at the Summer Palace until restored not much of the original his death. It’s hard to believe a remains. And the original was about as effective as Donald Trump’s 21st century equivalent – Genghis Khan just marched around it. And no, he didn’t pay to build it either.
But the millions of soldiers who toiled on the wall certainly did. Their bones are entombed within it.
SPECTACULAR
We visited the accessible Mutianyu section, about 45 miles from Beijing, which was pretty user-friendly.
The scenery was spectacular,
and the views from its watchtowers were giddying, but there was a cable car to get us up there, handrails to grab and a Subway café at the bottom. (Don’t knock it… we’d had Chinese food twice a day for two weeks by that point.)
A few days after getting home, I watched China’s 70th anniversary celebrations on TV – huge armies, fearsome leaders, and a people whose history has taught them, above all, how to endure.
I wouldn’t want to live there. But I’m SO glad I’ve seen it.
windows and outdoor terrace, the Langton Room restaurant exudes warmth, friendliness, sophistication, charm and character and is the right option for something more sophisticated.
RELAX IN COMFORT The modern rooms in the hotel are ideal for relaxing in comforting after a day checking out the sights and sounds of the marble county or a place to lay your head after enjoying a bespoke wedding at the venue.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE The hotel is just a stone’s throw from the bustling Macdonagh Junction Shopping Centre if you fancy some retail therapy in the lead-up to Christmas. Kilkenny lies at the end of the street and the Smithwick’s experience is not be missed.
Dinner plus bed and breakfast from €70pp.
Soldiers’ bones are entombed in the Great Wall