The last Xi’an post, I promise. We were not quite ready to leave this city, which we found to be friendlier than Beijing, more relaxed and its food tastier. For our last day, we spent the first part of the day at a quiet, privately-owned museum, the Tangbo Art Museum (唐博), housing Chinese folk art and traditional paintings of the Tang dynasty. It was so quiet, in fact, that they opened the museum just for us, where our English-speaking (very rare in China) docent, Sherry, led us on a private tour of the holdings. We loved the vibrant colors of the ‘farmers’ paintings,’ and we were amazed by the intricacies of the paper cutting. As a person who is absurdly spatially challenged, I still can’t understand how an artist can take a piece of paper and visualize the final outcome once the paper is unfolded, considering the fineness of the details in the paper cutting designs.
Jules’ favorite part of the tour was the calligraphy lesson. Cindy guided us through a basic calligraphy lesson, which was such a nice reminder of the art of writing. Simply by holding a brush a certain way, dipping it into ink and seeing how the paper absorbs the ink, it just makes the process of writing seem so much more purposeful and romantic. I think that it’s always fun, too, to see the origins of Chinese characters, since they are essentially pictograms. I think that this has helped Philip a bit with his Chinese learning as well.
After a very relaxing morning, it was back to the Muslim Quarter one last time for a final bowl of biang biang mian, the iconic dish of the Shaanxi province. The Chinese character for “biang” is the most complex character seen in modern Chinese language, and there are some funny stories (too long to get into in this blog) behind the origin of this most ridiculous character. It’s called ‘biang biang’ mian (or noodle), because of the sound the dough makes when it’s whacked against a table to create the super long, wide-as-a-belt noodle. It’s paired with a chili-laden meat and veggie sauce, somewhat like a bolognese sauce, and the flavor is salty, tangy and spicy. The heat from the chili, however, is not a painful one. Rather, it leaves your lips slightly tingly and then a bit numb. I couldn’t believe how much Jules loved those noodles, since he doesn’t usually like hot foods. What a perfect way to end an amazing trip.
