Gazing West to Chang'an, East to Luoyang: Tracing the Origins of Chinese Civilization (Part 3: Xi'an West Route – Famen Temple)

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——A Family Road Trip Diary in the Great Northwest, July 2020

Day 4 (July 8): Visited the Shaanxi History Museum and Famen Temple. Overnight at the Bell Tower Novotel Hotel.

The Shaanxi History Museum is an incredibly popular place. Admission is usually free, but booking a slot is a real hassle. Ever since arriving in Xi'an on the 5th, I hadn't managed to snag a reservation. On the afternoon of the 5th, I called the museum to ask about ticket bookings. The staff told me there was no other way – you just have to book online yourself. I pressed a little: "When do you open up reservations?" They said it starts at midnight each day, for visits up to two days later. Right then and there, I resolved to stay up until midnight and book online.

Who would have thought that when midnight on July 6 finally rolled around, and I clicked into the Shaanxi History Museum's official app, a line of text popped up: "System maintenance from 0:00 to 4:00." Hah! Looks like I was just going to have to tough it out tonight.

Joking aside – I set my phone alarm and went to bed. The alarm went off promptly at 4 a.m. I crawled up, quickly opened the ticket reservation system on my phone, and booked tickets as fast as I could for July 8, both for the kid and for adults. Those were the tickets that had just been released. Only then could I finally sleep easy.

I woke at 6:45 a.m., curious, and checked my phone to see how many tickets were left. The first time slot, 9:00–10:30, was already fully booked. The other time slots still had availability.

The Shaanxi History Museum is grand and imposing, with an enormously rich collection of cultural relics – a staggering 1.72 million artifacts. The exhibits range from simple stone tools used by early humans in the Paleolithic era to all sorts of objects from daily life before 1840, spanning over a million years of time.

The relics here are not only numerous and diverse, but also of exceptionally high value. The Shang and Zhou bronze vessels are exquisitely crafted; the pottery figurines of successive dynasties come in a thousand postures; the gold and silver wares of the Han and Tang dynasties are unmatched across the country; and the Tang-dynasty tomb murals are truly one of a kind – a dazzling collection of masterpieces.

The land of Shaanxi has been a key region where the Chinese nation lived and multiplied, and where Chinese civilization was born and developed. Thirteen dynasties, including the most glorious Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang, all established their capitals here. A wealth of cultural remains and a deep cultural heritage have shaped Shaanxi's unique historical and cultural character.

My kid loves reading "The Treasure Hunt in Shaanxi," so the stories about the province are very familiar. When we talked about the "Golden Monster," one of the Shaanxi History Museum's crown jewels, I happened to snap a photo of it and read the description – turns out it was a belt ornament worn by a Xiongnu king, symbolizing his noble status. I shared this tidbit with the kid, and we both got a kick out of it.

From the origins of the Lantian Man, to early pottery jars of the Neolithic and Paleolithic eras, to the rise of bronze ware in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, then Han-dynasty stone reliefs and murals, the brilliant emergence of Tang sancai pottery, and the painting and ceramic arts of the Song and Yuan, right through to Ming and Qing blue-and-white porcelain – each of these splendid chapters of history shines brilliantly in the long story of Chinese civilization.

Still, a kid is a kid. Stay too long in a museum packed with ancient relics and historical sights, and it's bound to get a little tedious. So the little one started speed-browsing, then kept coming back to hurry me along. As noon approached, we finally finished seeing the Hejiacun Hoard: Treasures of the Great Tang exhibition. Then we hopped in the car and drove off to Famen Temple in Fufeng County, Baoji.

I had originally wanted to take Little Dragon Prince to visit the Mao Mausoleum first – to let him feel the grandeur of Emperor Wu of Han's majestic spirit, and the unparalleled military exploits of General Huo Qubing and General Wei Qing. But as it turned out, the Little Dragon Prince is a boy with a mind of his own, and he wouldn't budge: he just said we're going to Famen Temple.

I had no choice but to oblige. After a drive of just over an hour, we entered the scenic area at 2 p.m. After health code checks, ID checks, and ticket checks, we began our visit without a hitch.

Compared to over a dozen years ago, Famen Temple has undergone a massive upgrade. The towering architecture, the majestic temple halls, and the tall stupa with its two hands pressed together in reverence that enshrines the finger-bone relic of the Buddha Sakyamuni – everything here radiates the honor and grandeur of what was once a royal monastery.

Famen Temple was first built in the late Eastern Han, during the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling, and has a history of more than 1,700 years. It is known as "the ancestor of pagodas and temples in the Guanzhong region," and the name "Famen Temple" was bestowed by Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of Tang.

The weather was scorching – it felt like 38 degrees, roasting the earth. Grandma wasn't feeling well and walked slowly, so we strolled along at a leisurely pace. Across the expansive square, tall statues of bodhisattvas sit facing one another: Manjusri, Samantabhadra, Avalokiteshvara, Mahasthamaprapta... It was nearly 4:30 p.m. and we still hadn't reached the main gate of Famen Temple. Suddenly we realized the scenic area was about to close.

So Little Dragon Prince and I left Grandma behind and strode briskly through the temple's main gate. In less than half an hour, we'd covered the entire temple complex. The treasure exhibition at Famen Temple holds many rare and valuable artifacts, from gold-and-jade Buddhist statues to porcelain, from ceremonial staffs to all kinds of ritual implements – and even some Tang-dynasty glass vessels, so thin and pure, that were a real eye-opener.

After touring the temple, Grandma and Little Dragon Prince opted to take the last tourist shuttle back. I headed alone toward the Buddha's Finger-Bone Relic Stupa. In the distance stands a towering, colossal structure shaped like two hands clasped in prayer. Right at the very top is where the real finger-bone relic of the Buddha is enshrined.

The relic stupa is only open to the public on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month. Unfortunately, today wasn't one of those days, and it remained closed.

I knelt in reverence before the stupa, offered a prayer, and then turned around and entered the inner hall to look at a historical photo exhibition about Famen Temple.

When I came out of the scenic area, Xiao Bao and Grandma had already been waiting quite a while. In my hand was a red-bean milk tea I'd just bought. Little Dragon Prince ran over, delighted.

After finishing our milk tea, we drove back to Xi'an. Little Dragon Prince kept complaining of a headache – maybe the heat over the past few days was getting to him; could the kid be suffering from mild heatstroke? I settled him into bed first. That evening, we picked a nearby restaurant and had some oil-splashed noodles. To ward off germs and boost immunity, I've been eating a raw garlic clove every day.

After yet more rounds of arguing past each other, the car rental company finally agreed to send someone to the hotel to talk with me and arrange on-site maintenance. Now that was the right way to solve the problem. Pity it took so much trouble to get communication and service efficiency to this level.