Mid Autumn Festival 2012

Singapore loves a festival and we are coming to the end of the Mid Autumn Festival or sometimes called the Mooncake or Chinese Lantern festival which is celebrated from the 15th of September to the 14th of October. The main day falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar which was Sunday the 30th of September when the moon was at its brightest. This is the second most important festival for the Chinese after the Chinese New Year. It is a time of the year for the family to get together and celebrate the moon.

Mooncakes are very popular to eat and to give away as gifts during this time and each year different hotels and bakeries try to outdo one another with a new flavour and also the nicest packaging. Many shopping centres have a Mooncake stalls with the various hotels setting up temporary stalls for tastings as well as sales.Traditional Mooncakes consist of a thin pastry skin covering a sweet, dense filling, and may contain a whole salted egg yolk in their centre to symbolise the full moon. Many mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity or "harmony" and flowers, vines, or a rabbit (symbol of the moon) may surround the characters for additional decoration. Mooncakes are considered a delicacy as production is labour-intensive and few people make them at home. The prices for four cakes can start around $30 and can go up to over $100.

In Chinatown and along the river at Clarke Quay the areas are decorated with lanterns and these vary from small traditional lanterns to very large lantern displays. On the night of September the 30th, families gathered with friends and children walked through the streets with small paper lanterns which are illuminatedby a small candle or a LED light inside.

Schools lantern competition in Chinatown

New Bridge Rd Chinatown

Lanterns above the street in Chinatown

Chinatown

Schools lantern competition

Lanterns available to buy in Chinatown

Lanterns at the Buddha  Tooth Relic Temple

Lantern display Chinatown

Lantern display Chinatown

Lantern display Chinatown

Fruit lanterns Chinatown

Chinatown

Lantern tree Chinatown

Lantern display in Clarke Quay

Lantern display in Clarke Quay

Lantern display in Clarke Quay

Mooncake promotion in shopping centre

Mooncakes

Army of Terracotta Warriors

Reading about how a group of farmers discovered the Army of Terracotta Warriors as the farmers were digging a well cannot prepare you for the scope of the find.
We caught one of the many buses that take you about an hour or so out of Xian into an area which contain countless orchards and the side of the road contained many stalls to buy fruit from.
 We left about 8 am so we could be at the Warriors before the countless tour buses arrived.
 The first thing that struck us is how the area around the ticket stand is built up with hundreds of souvenir shops trying to sell you a replica of the warriors in every size and form.  Also was a stand with the "so called farmer" that found the warriors autographing a book on the subject. The farmer on this day looked a little bit to young to be the original farmer and further research found that the original farmers are close 80 years of age and the farmer sitting signing books looked around 40 years old !
Once past the commercialism of the area the grounds are set in nice parkland heaps of room to move.

There are 3 main pits and pit 1 being the largest with over 6000 warriors although archaeologists  believe there are so many more to discover in the many other pits. Pit 2 contains the cavalry and chariots and pit 3 is a command post with high ranking officials.
 The warriors are life size and all vary in terms of facial expressions and also the clothing and hairstyles depending on their rank in the army.
Fires years ago in the pits has caused the roof structures to crush many of the warriors so it is a slow task for archaeologists to piece them back together.

No blue sky to be seen today 

Pit 1 which is the largest

Battle Robe General Warriors

Stephen and friends

Pit 1 

Armour Knight Warriors 

Pit 1

Pit 1

Broken Warriors

Chariot wheel

Pit 1 which is the largest

Pit 2

Armour Knight Warriors 

Pit 1

Pit 3

Xian

We were very fortunate to have reality smog free days in Beijing but when we flew down to Xian which is a two hour flight from Beijing we were greeted with very heavy pollution in which we did not see blue sky once and made Xian a gloomy city.
The language barrier was stronger in Xian and getting around in a taxi was hard work as little public transport is available for a spread- out city. Even with the directions written in Chinese, the taxi driver had to ring people to find directions and at times, I felt that this also helped them to increase the cab fares.
Our main reason for visiting Xian as well as the plane load of tour groups was to see the Terracotta Warriors which are located about an hour out of the city and we could catch one of the many buses that stops off there.
Xian has a thriving Muslim quarter that was founded in the 7th century and now is a thriving area full of market stalls and places to eat. Along with countless noodle shops there were many sweet and snack sellers and we tried a sesame and peanut brittle which was very moreish.

View from our hotel room

Bell Tower

Drum Tower

Muslim Quarter

Muslim Quarter

Making the Nut brittle

Ready to cut into strips

Dim sum on the street

Mung Bean cakes 

Delivery of bones for stock

Summer Palace, Beijing

The Summer Palace was built as a retreat from the summers in the Forbidden City. It has being rebuilt twice after destruction by the French and later after a rebellion. Set on over 290 hectares the gardens and lake are popular with the locals for boating and the gardens for family gatherings . The grounds contain a recreation of a shopping street built for the Qianlong Emperor called Suzhou Street
The Tower of  the Fragrance of the Buddha is an octagonal four eaved tower which gives fantastic views of the lower pavilions and the Kunming Lake.
The lake was busy with boats that take you for cruises and with pedal boats that you could hire.

Off season is now the slack season !

Stupa at the Four Great Regions

The Tower Of the Fragrance of the Buddha

Detail on the Corridor

Kunming Lake

Dragon ferry boats on Kunming Lake

View from The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha

The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha

The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha

Hall of Dispelling Clouds 

Suzhou Street

Realm Of Multitudinous Fragrance

Such detail 

Temple of the Sea of Wisdom

Glowing Clouds  and Holyland Archway