Corey wanted to climb the very steep Hua Shan today but the pollution was terrible like a thick fog that there could be road block and we may risk spending the entire day stuck on a bus. So we decided to visit the Calligraphy street and tour the Steles Museum.
We both wanted to take home a hand crafted mask but we didn’t know how to lug it home. We settled on a traditional local hand sown stuffed donkey. I bought a bright hot pink one for 5 yuan. I enjoy the craftsmanship and detailed artistry of illuminated theatre puppet dolls and wanted to take few home but they were made with ox skin, not vegan at all. In fact there were many things I wanted to buy but I didn’t have room in my pack and I really couldn’t carry any more weight. I bought a hand blown caramelized candied tiger on a stick from a man who would create your request on the spot in three minutes. It’s like glass blowing but with caramel instead of glass. Very cool all for one yuan. I was not interested in eating the caramel candy, I just wanted to have one to hold onto all day long.
Steles Museum has a large collection of stone tablets and plates with ancient inscriptions from famous calligraphers of China of all styles. It was quite a treat to see the different styles of calligraphy. I also watched the ancient method of how works of art was being reproduced on paper there from the stones.
Afterwards Corey and I parted, she went to hunt down non-vegetarian food she has been craving to eat but was somehow uncomfortable to eat it in front of me and I went to Xi’an Museum. I feel that the entire Xi’an is an excavation archeological sight. There is so much artifacts still being discovered today. At the museum, I enjoy gold, silver, porcelain, and jade works of art. The details and colors were amazing. I found it interesting to find an entire section on tea. There was a display on how tea was made, kept, and served on intricate tea ware. I am somehow not all that interested in the element bronze and anything made from bronze. Since bronze was a heavily used element that I zipped through all bronze work.
