Dubai Day 3 and 4

The next day, while waiting for his excellency, we had the opportunity to see some Easter Island inspired art work from Chile:

In the meantime the rest of the family did stupid things:

On the next day we wanted to go up the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. However, the elevators were not working properly and everybody got a refund for their tickets. Well, at least we had been on last year's highest building, the Taipei 101. And there is always a next time. To be honest, I wasn't too desperate. I got already seasick on that swaying tower in Taipei. Actually I felt a bit relieved, because the tower seemed to already swagger when I looked high up at it's needle-like summit.

Instead we strolled through the nearby Dubai Mall, enjoying the view of the ice rink and the water art:

Dubai Day 2

The next day I attended the ICAS Dubai 2010, the 'ancient studies' conference and had the honour to wait for his Excellency H.H. Sheikh Hashr Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, the director of the Dubai Information Department to appear late in the morning. Well, who wants to start at 9 o'clock anyway...
In case you are interested in reading an Arabic map, here is a map of Dubai, with the hosting uni (the red square), and even roughly our hotel (the red dot):

Here a picture of the Zayed University in Silicon Oasis:

While I was waiting for his Excellency the rest of the family enjoyed a dessert tour with Arabian Adventures (http://www.arabian-adventures.com/):

They experienced a flat tyre in the middle of the dessert:

a lazy camel:

Fossil rock:

a non-fossil rock with dessert:

and last but not least, just dessert:

In short, a succesful day for all of us :)

First Impressions from Dubai

Ski Dubai, a ski resort in a shopping mall! There are over 22,500 square meters of indoor ski area, complete with slopes, lifts, après-ski bars, and 30 tons of fresh snow every day. The best thing is, you need only 11,000 l of oil each day to create this abomination:

Star Bucks in Arabic:

The old Souk in Dubai:

In the afternoon we set out for a dinner cruise along the creek. Superb views, divine food, a nice ship, and a friendly captain!

Dinner is ready:

Our captain:

We were lucky not to have been squeezed in into one of those tourist boats:

And thanks, but no thanks! Camels are such adorable animals. Why would I want to eat them?

A Winter Break

Although the snow quickly melts away now (thanks to the rain) I would like to show you some pics of the hightide of snow up here in W.feld. Here the view from our balcony down the valley:

View from our kitchen window, my poor Cruiser doesn't like the cold either :(

And a marvellous night view (thanks C.):

Last day in Xi'an

Since we didn't have enough archaeology up to now we (or was it me?) decided to visit theShaanxi Provincial History Museum.

This scene depicts the daily life of Dali Man, a kind of Chinese Homo neanderthalensis. As you can see, the gym and weight lifting was already important 200,000 years ago, while the woman was obviously not interested in male show-offs and concentrates on her child instead:

This Neolithic chained double-ring was found in Jiangzhai, Xi'an City:


This Western Zhou Dynasty Chariot with horses was found in Zhangjiapo village near Xi'an. The chariot togehter with its horses was buried in a pit near the big main grave of a Western Zhou noble man:

And look at these birds! Aren' they just beautiful? From the Late Shang Dynasty (13th to 11th cent. BC):

This gilded bronze dragon is from Caochangpo in Xi'an (Tang Dynasty, AD 618-907):

The City God Temple in Xi'an

Nearly every town in china has a city god or Ch'eng-huang. The belief in such a protector god preceeds Taoism but the idea was eagerly taken up by Taoist theology. The city gods are protecting the town or village and its inhabitants. During droughts they brought rain, they let the sun come out again after storms and heavy rains, they protected the crop, regulated birth, and, and, and..

 

The city god temple of Xi'an was built in 1387 (Ming dynasty) and was one of the largest city god temples of its time. It was also called the Capital City God temple, because the city god of Xi'an ruled over the city gods in northwestern China.


In 1966 the Red guards stormed the temple and turned the temple area into a flea market. Although the temple re-opened in 2004, there are still a lot of stalls and little shops in and around the temple. Since it was neglected during these nearly 40 years, it has an air of decay and eerie beauty about it, which actually is something very positive in this case. A bit like a haunted ghost town, you feel the burden of years and you can only imagine how splendid it must have been 600 years ago.



The intricate wooden carvings are still astonishing to look at.




I found it to be one of the most beautiful temples in Xi'an. Another day I utterly enjoyed.

Xi'an's ´drum and bell tower

The Xi'an drum tower was built by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. The 34 m two-storey tower was built without using a single nail!
In China drums were not only used as an alarm in emergency situations, but also to signal the time. Along the north and south side there are 24 drums each one symbolizing a period of the ancient solar calender:


Here a close up:

Not only was there a small museum inside (you can see a stone drum here):

but we were also lucky enough to enjoy some musical performances:

Not far from the drum tower, in the heart of Xi'an, is the bell tower. The bell tower marks the geographical centre of the ancient capital of the Ming dyndasty. Main streets to the East, South, West, and North connect the tower with the four main gates of the city wall. Whereas the drums were beaten at sun set, the bell int the bell tower was struck at dawn. When the Tang dynasty bell fell silent (for whatever reasons that happened - I'm at a loss here and we didn't go to see the old Tang bell in the 'Forest of Stone Stelae Museum' so I just have to believe the story) a new one was cast during the Ming dynasty:

Here, too, a small museum could be found inside the tower and musical performances went on:

Enjoy a video the drums and bells of Xi'an:

Xi'an's city wall

Xi'an's old city wall was built during the Tang Dynasty, in the second century BC when Xi'an was still called Chang'an. It measured more than 25 km in lenght and encircled a city of 36 km². The wall you can see today originated in the Ming dynasty (14th century) and encircled a much smaller city of only 14 km². The wall was built of earth; what you see today is an even later add-on of brick cladding.
The existing wall has four city gates and we entered through the southern Yongning gate, the gate of 'eternal peace':



Here you can see the top of the wall:



And a look below into a front yard:



It was cold this day. At first we wanted to cycle the 13 odd kilometers, then I voted for taking the little electric bus (a suggestion which wasn't received all too well). Then we considered taking a rickshaw, but a glimpse down and we saw a nice tea house. Well, if this isn't fate. So we decided to walk to the next little tower and then have a nice hot tea.

Pa opted for his usual jasmine tea which was remarkably beautiful:

Banpo

A little bit outside of Xi’an you can find the Neolithic Banpo (半坡) site. The site which belongs to the Yanshao culture has two phases, the earliest (Banpo phase) dates between 4800-4300 BC. Banpo was a village surrounded by a moat and consisting of 46 houses, a pottery making area with a kiln, and a cemetery with 174 burials. It was also the first large scale excavation in China, covering nearly 10,000 m².

Banpo was an agricultural community with millet its main staple, but hunting and fishing had been an important part of their life, too.

I was very excited about this site and was not disappointed at all. Although excavated in the 1950s the museum site was well laid out with sections of the moat, the kiln area, the houses (postholes) and some skeletons from the cemetery, all exhibited under a huge roofed area.

Here is the entrance area ot the museum, seen from the inside:

And a fountain showing a Banpo woman fetching water:


Typical vessel ornaments are black decorations in the form of fish or antropomorphic heads combinded with fish:

But there are also simpler vessels for cooking like this coarsely tempered pointed one:

Reconstructions of the huts and houses:

And a glimpse of their burial rites. Most burials were rich in grave goods, although some carelessly thrown in bodies also appear. A single burial:

A multiple burial:

There were even English descriptions (I am glad the little girl enjoyed her coffin uniquely):

The visit had its drawbacks though. In my blissfull strolling through the exhibition I was totally oblivious of modern things like stairs etc. which had the unwelcome consequence that I fell down a couple of steps, badly squeezed my ribs, ruined my face (luckily they are quite often wearing face masks in China, so I went unnoticed), broke my camera, and was completely covered in dust and loess. The loess part was quite interesting.

Anyway, they had books in English at the museum, so I was happy :)

On our way back we stopped at the 'Big Wild Goose Pagoda', a Tang Dynasty (7th century AD) Bhuddist pagoda:

Originally built with 5 stories, it was topped up to 10 stories during the Ming Dynasty, but an earthquake reduced it again to the now visible 7 stories:

And this is just for the beauty of it and to celebrate a splendid day in Xi'an: