#import "/template.typ": *
#doc-template(
title: "A Trip to Northwest China",
date: "January 14, 2026",
parindent: 1.2em,
body: [
#set heading(numbering: none)
At the beginning of December I travelled to the northwestern provinces, mainly to Xi'an and to Linfen in Shanxi (although Shanxi is more often classified as North China). The Seagull 4B twin-lens reflex camera I had bought earlier had never found a use; I had only taken a few black-and-white photographs around West Lake and near my home. This journey was also the first occasion on which I used colour film.
As for transport, my power bank is rather old and carries no 3C certification, and I did not want my film to pass through an X-ray machine, so once again I chose the high-speed railway. The train journey lasted eight hours in total. It crossed the Yangtze and the Yellow River, traversed the Central Plains, and passed through Hangu Pass into the Guanzhong basin — one may call it a classic route of "entering the pass". I arrived at Xi'an North station after dark.
At first I assumed Xi'an would be quite cold, but I had not visited the north China for so long that I had forgotten how tolerable its dry cold actually is; my down jacket was almost entirely unnecessary. The guesthouse I had reserved was at a place called "Nanshaomen", reasonably close to several of the nearby attractions. After meeting SiliconNeko at the metro station, we had ice-boiled mutton hotpot nearby. So ended a full day of travel.
= Day 1
I had originally intended to visit the Xi'an Museum and the Shaanxi History Museum that day, but the reservations were completely full, so after lunch I decided to proceed directly to the Xi'an city wall.
The city wall is absurdly expensive: it consumed more than fifty yuan. Yet once on the wall, I discovered that there is in fact little to see. One mainly walks along it and perceives the historical atmosphere.
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The wall was crowded with visitors photographing themselves in hanfu, and the scene was very lively. Among them were both men and women, but the men's hanfu often resembled a costume from a xianxia television series, which harmonised poorly with the austere form of the wall and rather broke the illusion.
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The present wall of Xi'an is a Ming dynasty wall, and the Ming wall was itself constructed largely upon the imperial city wall of Tang dynasty Chang'an. For this reason one section holds a museum devoted to the remains of the Tang wall. The centuries have been unkind, however, and only a fragment of ruined rampart survives.
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After descending from the wall, two metro stops brought me to the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, which must count as the centre of Xi'an. The Bell Tower is rather beautiful, but I made an error while operating the camera and produced a double exposure, so only a faint afterimage of the tower remains.
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After dinner we wandered through the streets near the Bell Tower. SiliconNeko noticed an escape room with a horror theme and proposed that we try it. I was, predictably, so frightened that I was still trembling long after we emerged. Since I do not enjoy such experiences, I would rather not recall it. In fairness, though, their execution was genuinely impressive, and I can understand why so many people love this sort of entertainment.
Such was the first day.
= Day 2
The principal plan for this day was a visit to the Museum of the Terracotta Army of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. Having learnt from the previous day's failure to reserve museum tickets, I made a reservation well in advance — though tickets for the Terracotta Army did not appear to be scarce, and a reservation was not actually necessary.
The market for paid guided commentary at the Terracotta Army is fiercely competitive. From the moment one leaves the metro and boards the bus, organisations of every kind begin to promote their guides. The most authoritative commentary, however, is probably the one delivered by museum staff at the entrance to Pit One. Pit One is the classic Terracotta Army pit, and it conveys the presence of a vast army:
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The other two pits are comparatively small, but they permit a close view of the warriors displayed in glass cases, where the abundant detail is clearly discernible.
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The site also contains an auxiliary museum, which exhibits objects excavated in the vicinity.
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One display board even carried a reconstruction of the original colours of the warriors, which I found quite beautiful. Unfortunately the chemistry of those pigments is unstable: they oxidised as soon as they were unearthed, and so were not preserved.
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Nearby there is also the Lishan Garden site, which is the true location of the First Emperor's tomb, but I left the Terracotta Army rather late and therefore did not go, taking instead a direct bus back to central Xi'an.
= Day 3
Today was devoted mainly to the sites I had missed on the first day within the city. Because it was a working day, tickets for the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and the Xi'an Museum were less scarce and easy to reserve. The Shaanxi History Museum remained unavailable, however, and this time I had to abandon it.
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda was originally a temple, but no trace of Buddhist activity appears to remain; it is merely a historical monument. Despite its name, the pagoda is not small at all.
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Besides the pagoda, some of the small ancient sculptures on the grounds are also interesting.
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Beside the Small Wild Goose Pagoda stands the Xi'an Museum, which exhibits chiefly ancient artefacts.
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After the Xi'an Museum, my next stop was the Great Wild Goose Pagoda. It lies very close to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, and a taxi cost only five yuan, which rather embarrassed me; presumably the platform subsidises the fare, and I hope the driver received more than that. The Great Wild Goose Pagoda stands within Ci'en Temple, the very place where Xuanzang translated the scriptures after his return from India.
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Upon entering Ci'en Temple I noticed loudspeakers everywhere, endlessly repeating "Namo Amitabha" — an entirely Pure Land practice, which struck me as somewhat incongruous. Consulting the sources afterwards, I learned that the Faxiang (or Ci'en) school which Xuanzang founded after his return from India lost its lineage after Emperor Wuzong's persecution of Buddhism in the Huichang era, and most of its scriptures were dispersed. The present Ci'en Temple emphasises the figure of Xuanzang, and behind it stands a rather unattractive pseudo-Tang building called the "Hall of the Tripitaka Master Xuanzang"; but for the reason just given, this is really a new temple erected on the site of the old Ci'en Temple, and from the perspective of Buddhist transmission it has no remaining connection with Xuanzang.
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The road at the gate of Ci'en Temple is the "Great Tang All Day Mall". By daylight it is an ordinary commercial pedestrian street; the buildings on either side have some character, though their texture is a little plastic. After eating something at a KFC, the light began to fade, and SiliconNeko and I watched a flying dome-screen film at the roadside; the effects were beautiful and in no way inferior to Disney's. By the time we emerged it was completely dark, and the lights of the surrounding pseudo-ancient buildings had all been illuminated, which looked magnificent. Apparently only their nocturnal appearance had been considered, and not their appearance by day. Xiaohongshu had claimed that various performances take place here in the evening, but perhaps because it was the low season, several passes along the street revealed none; only a few influencers' livestream stages looked lively. So we took a taxi home from the other exit of the pedestrian street.
= Day 4
SiliconNeko had other arrangements that day and departed for a time, so today I wandered alone. I chose a rather desolate site: the ruins of Daming Palace.
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The site has nothing particularly attractive about it. The core of Daming Palace consisted of its three great halls: Hanyuan, Xuanzheng and Zichen. Historically these were far more magnificent than the Forbidden City in Beijing, but times have changed: Daming Palace was destroyed by fire during the rebellions of Huang Chao and Zhu Wen, and today no more than a few rammed-earth platforms survive. One comes here chiefly to contemplate the past.
#myquote[
The painted carriages and embroidered wheels have all dispersed; \
of the mansions with vermilion gates, not half remain. \
Foxes and hares walk upon Hanyuan Hall; \
thorns fill the ground before Huae Tower. \
The splendour of former days lies buried; \
the eye meets desolation, and nothing that once was. \
The inner treasury burned to ashes of brocade; \
the imperial avenue is trodden over the bones of nobles. \
(_Qin Fu Yin_ by Wei Zhuang) \
]
#image("015.jpg", width: 65%)
= Day 6
The fifth day held no arrangements: I merely travelled from Xi'an to Linfen and settled there, so I omit it. Today's excursion was the main event. I had planned to spend it with SiliconNeko, but owing to circumstances beyond our control SiliconNeko departed early, so once again I travelled alone.
The first stop was Guangsheng Temple in Hongtong County. Its glazed-tile pagoda is a famous sight, and the CCTV television series #emph[Journey to the West] was filmed here. Compared with the plain and austere pagodas of Xi'an, the glazed pagoda of Guangsheng Temple is extraordinarily ornate. Unfortunately I had wasted too much colour film in Xi'an, and only black-and-white film remained by the time I arrived.
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Guangsheng Temple is divided into an upper temple and a lower temple. The glazed pagoda stands in the upper temple, while the lower temple is best known for the Yuan dynasty murals of the Water God's Temple. The murals appear to have been painted with remarkable pigments: after several centuries their colours remain exceedingly vivid.
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Beside the Water God's Temple stands a Yuan dynasty theatre stage. From here one may view the glazed pagoda in the distance.
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The halls of Guangsheng Temple also contain suspended sculpture, a form of sculptural art peculiar to northern Buddhist temples, positioned mainly in the air. The finest suspended sculpture, however, was at the second stop of the day: the Thousand Buddha Temple in Xi County, popularly known as the "Little Western Heaven". It is a Chan monastery, and its buildings are small and exquisite. More than a thousand elaborate and splendid Buddha images are gathered within a space of roughly a hundred square metres, and the effect is beyond description. Whatever the many criticisms directed at #emph[Black Myth: Wukong], the game deserves great credit for carrying such excellent ancient art from an obscure Shanxi county into public view. Because the hall was dimly lit and film photography was impractical, I could only take a few casual photographs with my phone as souvenirs.
#image("019.jpg", width: 65%)
The final stop was the Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River. Although it was already winter, there was no sign of low water, and the weather was not cold enough for the river to freeze; the waterfall therefore retained its usual form, and one could perceive the grandeur of "the wind howls, the horses cry". Both banks of the Yellow River have viewing platforms for the falls — Yan'an in Shaanxi lies opposite — but the angle from that side seemed inferior to the Shanxi side.
#image("020.jpg", width: 65%)
= The Return
After resting a night in Linfen, I took the high-speed railway back the following day. The route continued north to Taiyuan, then left the Taihang Mountains to the east, passed Shijiazhuang, reached Dezhou in Shandong, and there I changed trains and travelled south to Hangzhou. On the way I encountered the first snow of that winter in North China, and the Taihang Mountains under snow were exceptionally beautiful.
Thus ended a week of travel.
])