Seamstress Mystery
As rush hour clogged the Bell Tower area of Xian’s old city this evening, a handful of women stood shoulder to shoulder in the middle of a busy sidewalk. They shouted from their military-like formation at young, smartly dressed women who passed by.
The scene was puzzling. Had the modesty militia shown up for a rumble with the mini skirt set? Was this beginning of a popular protest, had these women at the bottom of the economic ladder finally had it? I scanned the plaza for security personnel helping each other don riot gear.
I found an English speaker waiting in a long line for his bus. He explained that these were seamstresses … hawking their wares, so to speak, at women passing by who might need sartorial aid.
Though bummed I wouldn’t see riot gear, it was still a revelation.
These are the images from our recent adventure through history in and around Xian, China — from a visit to see the famous terra cotta warriors and a visit to see Xian’s lesser known Nestorian stele.
You may remember how Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified a warring China, started construction on the Great Wall, forced all his subjects to start using the same written language … and built a tomb for himself that was packed with terra cotta warriors who would serve him after death. Farmers stumbled on the tomb structures in 1974 while digging a well … and the Chinese government has since built a sprawling facility to house the warriors and ensure their preservation.
The Nestorian stele is a calligraphy-covered limestone slab more than 9 feet tall tucked in to the “Second Display Room” of a less imposing museum in Xian’s old city. It is said to have been erected by 8th century Christians, perhaps the first in this part of the world, who were celebrating their new roots in imperial China after fleeing persecution from the Catholic Church in Rome.
We’ve starting watching slideshows of photographs from our journey each evening, averaging a show a night from each country we’ve visited. So far, we’ve made it through Iceland and France, Part I.
It’s a slightly arduous experience to sit through e-v-e-r-y-s-i-n-g-l-e-p-i-c-t-u-r-e taken in these places …some blurry, some overexposed, some under exposed, many repetitive, many repetitive … but we’ve also had blissful oh-yeah! moments.
Sure, the milestone photographs of things like the terra cotta warriors and the Nestorian stele jog our memories about important places we’ve visited … but the images that generate the most excitement on our sofa are the random photographs of our journey’s everyday happenings that jog our emotions.
Like … the picture of W, H, and E walking through various light sources at the terra cotta warrior museum.
Like the image of street seamstresses hawking their wares.
Or the picture of J and S’s room in their Xian apartment.
These are our journey’s real revelations.
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