Cuihua Mountain, Xi'an, China

We spent a lovely Saturday at Cuihua Mountain, which is part of the Qinling Mountain range. This area was only about ten minutes from our house, but because of holiday traffic it took over an hour to get there.
The name of the mountain means Jade. This area was an imperial garden during the Qin, and Tang Dynasties. A period of time from 220 BC to 907 AD.
According to historical documents, the unique topography formed during an earthquake in 780 BC.
The kids were troopers and hiked with us around the lake and up the mountain to a Daoist temple. We tried a local venison dish for lunch and the kids got to play in a gerbil looking ball on the water.

                                                                View of the reservoir from the
                                                                 top of the temple.

Qingming Festival 清明

Qingming Festival is also known as Tomb Sweeping Day and Ancestors Day.

Joss Paper

Joss Paper

This holiday is celebrated by visiting the grave of ones ancestors to clean the grave site and to offer food, tea, wine and or joss paper.
Joss paper is also referred to as ghost money. It has fake money, food, clothes, houses, phones, etc. printed on it. People burn the joss paperto their ancestors. They believe their ancestors receive the things on the paper and it is used in heaven to provide all that the spirits want and need.

Springtime in Xi'an

                                        

I love spring. I love the bright colors, the warm weather and the sense of excitement and rebirth. I took these pictures around my neighborhood.
I have wanted to plant a garden and haven't been able to find soil, seeds, or plant starts anywhere. I have found house plants, but the garden markets don't sell vegetables or flower plants. So I asked a few people where to buy soil and plants. They asked why I would want to buy it, when there is free dirt everywhere in China. I was told the Chinese go to a park, side of the road, or any other communal place and take what soil they want. They do the same thing for plants and flowers. If they see something they like in a park or other communal area, they dig it up and take it home. My friends all said that everything in China belongs to everyone, so they all feel comfortable helping themselves.
Being an American where we take property rights seriously, I thought this was a funny suggestion, and there is no way I am going to go around Xi'an digging up dirt and plants. So my garden is going to have to wait.

Chinese Weddings

Spring time has arrived in Xi'an, bringing warm breezes, tree blossoms and weddings. While we see wedding car caravans often, it seems we have seen more of them lately.
To set the stage, the men must meet certain requirements that Chinese society and women have mandated. He should be earning at least $635 USD a month, have his own house and his own car. Most times, the parents of the groom will use all of their savings to buy him house and or car. Because of these strict requirements, many men don't get married before their thirties, and you can understand why mom and dad move in with him in their later years.
Women tell me that when dating, the man will treat the woman with a lot of respect and buy her many gifts, but once they are married, verbal and or physical abuse is normal. Because of these circumstances, many women want to date a perspective husband for many years.
Before a wedding takes place, the couple will get engaged. This is a big deal, as both families will present their credentials to each other and the families agree on the betrothal amount the boys family must pay to the brides family.  Depending on the families circumstances, this is usually a large sum. Because of this, and because the grooms family covers the cost of the wedding, many of my younger friends want to have daughters.
The Chinese want to be married on a lucky day, so the families will consult a fortune teller that will tell them a lucky day. He or she consults a book that has information about the sun, birthdays and years of the couple and other formulas to figure out the best day to get married.
When driving to the wedding ceremony, the families of both the bride and groom decorate their cars with wreaths and flowers.



Chinese weddings typically are huge celebrations. We have not been invited to a Chinese wedding, but I have been told a lot about them. If you are a guest, you are expected to give moneyin a red envelope as a gift. Giving $400 RMB is bad luck, because the number 4 is unlucky as it sounds similar to the word death. My friends say that you give as much as you can, but giving $600 RMB or $800 RMB is considered very lucky.
Before the wedding, the bride and groom get their pictures taken and make extensive wedding photo albums. For these albums, they will wear a lot of different costumes and wedding attire from different cultures. Many brides will also choose to wear a white western style wedding gown for the photo shoot.  While many pictures are taken before the wedding, pictures are not taken of the wedding or reception.
During the wedding, the bride will wear a western white wedding dress and change into a traditional Chinese red wedding dress, The bride and groom will go to each table and toast their guests. The banquet meal has six of more courses!
Many weddings will decorate with a symbol that means double happiness. This is considered lucky and they want to wish the couple happiness.

                                                                  Double happiness

To celebrate the wedding people will shoot off firecrackers and confetti cannons that have cut outs of the double happiness.

Picking Strawberries

One thing I like about Xi'an are the local fruit orchards, vineyards and strawberry fields that let you pick your own fruit. The strawberries were grown in huge greenhouses. Not only were the strawberries delicious, but I think the green and red plants contrasted against the black tarps were beautiful. 

Shaolin Monastery 少林寺

An hour drive outside Luoyang is the Shaolin Monastery, credited as the birthplace of Shaolin and Kung Fu.
The monastery was built on the north side of Mount Song, one of the sacred mountains of China by Emperor Xiaowen of the Wei Dynasty which was about 447 AD.
The monastery has a long cyclical history of flourishing then being destroyed by bandits or rebels fighting against the dynasties that supported the monastery. More recently, during the Cultural Revolution (1966) the five monks in the monastery when the Red Guards attacked where shackled and paraded through the streets where people threw trash at them. The Red Guard destroyed many of the relics the monastery once housed.
More recently, martial arts groups all over the world donate money for the upkeep of the monastery. At the temple we saw many monks and many people of all ages taking martial arts classes.
The monastery had a really beautiful pagoda forest which are pagoda tombs for monks. The pagodas were built from 791 AD through 1917.
We also went to Shaoshi Mountain which is a sacred Taoist mountain. We rode a pagoda up half of the mountain but didn't hike up the mountain where we could cross a hanging bridge and go to a monastery at the top of the mountain.

Shaolin Temple

Pagoda Forest

Luoyang, China 洛阳

We took a day trip to Luoyang, China which is east of Xi'an. Luoyang was an ancient capital of China and sits where the Yi and Luo rivers meet.
Luoyang is the home of the Longmen Grottos. over 23,000 caves were carved into the hillside and 100,000 Buddhas were carved into the caves and surrounding stone, making this one of the most exquisite examples of Buddhist art. The Buddhas ranged in size from 1 inch to 57 feet. The caves also had 2,500 in scripted stilles and 60 pagodas carved into the rock. Unfortunately, many statues were looted by the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War (they are housed in Japanese museums) and the statues that survived the Japanese invasion had most of the heads chiseled off the Buddhas during the cultural revolution.
My kids thought it was boring and hard to walk up and down the stairs, but I thought it was breath taking and worth the hike.