This is my third full day in Xi’An. Such a long stay is not so common during my trip. At the end of this, when the circle I’m drawing around the world will be completed, I’m sure there will be not so many places ahead Xi’An in this ranking and I can also tell you for sure, that I will regret I’ve spent here only three days. If I’m doing this introduction is because yesterday I was reviewing the list of places to see and I realised that surely I have to keep something important out of my list. After bell and drum towers, terracotta army, today I’ve decided to spend my time mostly visiting two wild goose pagodas the small and the giant one.
Small wild goose pagoda
The first pagoda I’m going to visit is the small one because is closer to my flat. The first question that it came to my mind was why “goose”? So, I found this info on some Chinese source. It is all based on a legend. We know that nowadays most of Buddhists are vegetarian but it seems that at that time, during 7th century, for some of them, eating meat was normal. A group of non-vegetarian was praying Buddha to have some meat to eat for the day and something happened. A wild goose (…) broke its wings and crashed exactly in front of the monks. The story doesn’t end with a juicy roast. The monks got this event as a sign of the will of Buddha being more friendly to the animals or maybe they were just impressed by the sad death of the poor bird. The conclusion is that also those “heretics” became vegetarian and, what it is more interesting for us, they decided to build a temple here. Now… I know… As I said already, there are two goose pagodas in Xi’An. I don’t know if this legend applies to both temples and, in this case, what was happening to geese while they were flying over Xi’An in middle ages but now is time to tell you about my visit. The pagoda is located in a very pleasant area, quiet, full of greenery and water. Originally the building hosted the texts and images of Buddha that were brought from India. It had several problem during its life. Due to an earthquake is now lower than a couple of floors but it still impressive with its 43 meters height even if the damage on the top of the pagoda is still visible. One of the biggest attraction of the area is the huge bell that can be tolled with a big red trunk. The vibrations made by the bell’s sound create small waves in a basin. You can see better the process in the short video at the end of this chapter.
Continuing to walk around the pagoda I came across something quite unexpected in a buddhist temple: a couple of beautiful pictures of Audrey Hepburn, including one taken from the movie Roman Holiday with the actress driving a Vespa. No idea why…
Now, it’s time to leave, there is still more to see in Xi’An…
Bicycles, robots and torture instruments.
The sites of the two pagodas are at a significant distance. It is a hot day and I don’t want to walk several kilometres on foot to reach it so I decide to take the metro. Next to station there are hundreds of parked bicycles. Actually, more than parked it should be better say chaotically stacked. In China’s bigger town it is becoming very popular the service of bike-sharing and, differently from Milan and other European towns, the bicycles can be left in any place because there are not pre-defined racks. Of course, this means that, close to metro station, the situation is pretty crazy as you can see in the small picture in this page. Talking about craziness, I don’t know if it belongs to the category but for sure the strange tool, almost a torture instrument, that a small but powerful lady employee of the Metro company is using in the metro to push people in the crowded cars, looks weird. It’s only me or she has a kind of sadistic smile painted on her face? Before reaching the site of the giant wild goose pagoda I stop by the a temporary exhibition called “Saluzi Robot Experience”. I know that China is more and more technologically advanced and therefore my expectations are very high but in the end I don’t see anything that really impresses me. For sure children like this place and they love playing with robots. Well, to be honest, one thing that draw my attention exists and it is just at the exit of the exhibition: a huge specimen of a Transformer, I think at least 5 meters tall. So, if I wanted to see an impressive robot, my curiosity was satisfied. And now: the giant wild goose pagoda.
The giant wild goose pagoda.
As you may imagine, the giant wild goose pagoda is bigger than the small goose pagoda, the one I’m going to visit is 60 mt. tall. This is not the only difference. The other site I’ve visited in the morning was quiet, green and secluded instead this is big, located in the middle of a big modern square with fountains, columns and statues of Chinese characters. Both pagodas were built under the Tang dynasty, in the seventh century but this one is the oldest one. Also the giant goose pagoda was damaged during the earthquake of 1556. Within the site, the atmosphere is more traditional. There are statues of buddha and the usual altar. Here I also saw a sign explaining (for those ones able to read Chinese language) how to use the incense stick. I can only understand that the stick should be put on the front and held with both hands as I’ve seen done in other temples. I keep walking around the temple area doing as much photos I can also because I know that this is the last site I’m visiting in this fantastic town. Tomorrow morning I have to catch a train to Shanghai. The Chinese leg of my trip around the world goes on.
Below you can find some picture taken at the pagodas.
