Daming Palace in National Heritage Park
This place is big, a very huge park with nothing much except some miniature of the palace built at one corner of the park. There are some ruins or base of the ancient palace left in this huge area.
The palace was destroyed, and currently there is only a section with archaeological discoveries, and the rest is a park. You can use your imagination to visualize the palace.
Since this is a big place and many empty space, you can see people fly kites in this huge space.
3 D movie in Daming Palace IMAX
I watched a 3 D movie about the Daming history in the IMAX located inside the Park. Some background story about Daming history. Daming Palace is also known as “Palace of Great Brilliance” was the imperial palace built in the Tang Dynasty/ 唐朝 and served as imperial residence for more than 220 years. In the movie, you will see the high point in Chinese civilization and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture in the Tang Dynasty.
Peasant Painting and Paper Cutting in Huxian
Huxian is located 40km southwest of Xian City, this place is famous for the Peasant Painting. I had a lesson on the Chinese peasant painting and some paper cutting with a local artist called Pang Xiao Ling. Her name is stated on top of the door of her art studio. Peasant Painting portray every aspect in the farmers life, feeding livestock, local operas, ducks swimming, old people playing Chinese chess, young children playing and many others.
Pang Xiao Ling is a famous artist for Peasant Painting in China, she has her own studio in the village and students around the world came to learn the traditional arts from her. She often get invited and travel abroad to showcase her work.
First, she taught us how do the Chinese paper cutting which is one of the most important types of Chinese folk art. Papercut always symbolizes luck and happiness. Completed 3 big red paper character ‘Xi’ (happiness) which is a traditional must on the newlywed’s door.
People find hope and comfort in expressing wishes with paper cuttings. There are more complicated paper cutting but since I am the beginner only, I could only do the easiest “Xi”.
We also learn the Peasant drawing from Pang Xiao Ling, drawing some fishes with the watercolors. After that I had a walk around the village and their garden.
New Village in Huxian
The village is divided into new area and old area. First we explore the new area, known as the ‘Xing nong chun’ and all rural house was built in bricks with good facilities.
We had our village lunch in the teacher’s place and I had a chance to look around inside the house. House is well equipped with good lightings, clean toilets with hot water system and big and comfortable bed with mattress and pillows. Last but not least, there is a comfortable sofa sitting in the living room with a huge flat TV. She also provide home stay for foreigner students.
Old Village in Huxian
Later we walked across the street to check out the old village, many people has moved out, either to the town or to the other side which is the new village, just across the street.
I managed to walk into one of the house and there is still people living in such bad condition. I saw chickens and ducks are walking freely and sharing the living room together with their owners. Saw a pig was locked behind the house.
Inside the house, there is no cement floor, so it is quite dusty. Everything is really basic. I wonder how they live in the cold winter? Shaanxi Winter can be quite harsh.
Lavender and Cosmos Park
The big garden was planted with cosmos and lavender. May be different seasons there are different type of flowers. This place is also surrounded by mountains.
Unlike the Botanica Garden in Xian city, this garden does not have tall building as the background which make this garden more relaxing and more beautiful.
Sha Sha River
Sha Sha River is a little outskirt of Xian city, this is the first China River Street. You can have the 45 mins boat ride along Sha-Sha River. There are many locals in this place.
There are many photo taking shops in this areas and the shops provide a range of outfit for you to choose from. There are variety of qipao and some traditional outfits but I choose the Chinese Army green uniform and had some fun in the photo taking session.
There are also many souvenirs shops but I did not find anything interest me to buy. This place is nice to walk around if the weather is a bit cooler. There are also many games stalls for kids to play. Well, you can skip this place if you only have few days in Xian.
Dumpling Dinner
We had dumpling dinner at the restaurant called Defachang, which is very famous in Xian city. Many locals came here to taste the different kind of dumplings so this place should be good.
We tasted almost 20 different type of dumplings and most tasted very nice.
Lastly, we tasted the smallest dumpling for the night, very colorful also.
Night walk at the Xian City and Muslim Street
I walked at the Huimin Street or Muslim Quarter after my dinner, the street was full with tourists. The Muslim Quarter is consider the tourist scenic spot.
Biang Biang noodle
One of the most famous noodle is called Biang Biang Noodle, the word Biang also has the most strokes in the Chinese characters, total of 58 strokes. The white noodles is very wide and flat and it is served with a lot of oil and some vinegar.
Summary
- Daming Palace in National Heritage Park
- 3 D movie in Daming Palace IMAX
- Peasant Painting in Huxian and Paper cutting in Huxian
- New Village in Huxian
- Old Village in Huxian
- Lavender and Cosmos Park
- Sha Sha River
- Night walk at the Xian City and Muslim Street
- Biang Biang noodle – must try