China - 1st Visit - 1990

Year 1990 was a great year for our travels. We visited several exciting places - but our first trip to China takes the cake. I am inserting a small map to give you a better perspective of where all we went

Most of my journeys in over years are connected to my husband’s meetings in Echocardiography. So when we heard that there was an APCDE meeting being held in Beijing in end September we were excited.

Via Hongkong we arrived in Beijing - but to our surprise there was no one present at the airport to receive us. Communication was not so easy in those days so this happens often. As per earlier information we proceeded to the hotel where we had booking. It was a gorgeous hotel like a palace in East Europe. I don’t remember the name of the hotel. We checked in but before we even unpack there was a phone call from the desk that the venue has been changed and someone will come to pick us up. The new venue was the first tallest multi story modern hotel in central Beijing.

In the afternoon over the lunch we met other delegates who also had come from various countries. Luckily we also met the doctor who was from Bombay and we knew him well. This was a good opportunity to learn few things from him. Most important questions were related to food. We wrote down some names on paper but most important thing was to ask for chilly sauce before we start the meal.

The conference was held in the same building.

Once the conference was over we did some sight seeing in the city. Royal palace and Tinaman square in front of it were very impressive. we spent some more time and saw the following places.

1. Forbidden City

This is the heart of old China.

• Home of emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties

• Nearly 600 years old

• Vast courtyards, red walls, golden roofs

• Symbol of imperial power

2. Tiananmen Square

One of the largest public squares in the world.

• Historical political events

• Mausoleum of Mao Zedong is located here

• Close to the National Museum

3. Great Wall of China

You cannot go to Beijing and miss this.

There are different sections:

• Badaling Great Wall (most famous, restored)

• Mutianyu Great Wall (less crowded, very scenic)

👑 Forbidden City

That must be the palace you are referring to.

You pass through the big red gate with Mao’s portrait, and inside — courtyard after courtyard after courtyard. It feels endless.

Unlike Japanese palaces which feel intimate, this one feels imperial and powerful. It was the political heart of China for 500 years.

🔵 Temple of Heaven

Very different mood.

That round blue hall — perfectly symmetrical. Emperors prayed there for good harvests. The surrounding park is beautiful and peaceful. Even today elderly people sing, exercise, and play traditional instruments there.

🏘 Hutongs (Old Beijing lanes)

These are the traditional narrow alleys with courtyard homes.

In 1995 many were still untouched — not touristy yet. You would see:

• Bicycles everywhere

• Small grocery shops

• People sitting outside chatting

• Coal stoves in winter

After we finished local sight seeing we travelled by train to other cities. In China they have  separate compartments for tourists. If you don’t get a reservation for this than you travel with locals. And one can choose hard seat or soft seat compartments.

Next was SUCHOU city of gardens.It’s known for Bonsai gardens. It is relatively a small town. But beautiful.

Next we flew to Xian - the ancient capital in China in days of silk route.

From Beijing to Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Xi’an — that’s a beautiful route.

• Hangzhou

• Suzhou

• Xi'an

First we went to HANGZHOU, city of lakes. A Chinese doctor whom we met at the meeting was from this city and he took us around the vast lake and garden around.

Hangzhou for natural beauty, Suzhou for gardens and refinement, and Xi’an for ancient imperial power.

The Chinese say, “Above there is heaven, below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou.” It’s such a poetic comparison.

Hangzhou

That “big lake” — West Lake. Wide, open, almost like it’s breathing. Soft hills, mist, willow trees dipping into water. Hangzhou is not overwhelming. It persuades you gently. The Chinese have painted and written poetry about that lake for centuries. It’s beauty that is meant to be contemplated — not conquered.

Suzhou

Suzhou — known for it's bonsai gardens all over.

Miniature worlds carefully composed:

• Twisted trees

• Rock formations like frozen waves

• Small bridges

• White walls framing green leaves

Unlike Hangzhou’s openness, Suzhou is intimate. Controlled beauty. Almost like nature disciplined into art. Suzhou gardens feel scholarly — like they were designed by poets and officials.

Xi'an

Heavier. Older. Imperial. Grounded.

The city walls. The sense that dynasties rose and fell here. And of course, the Terracotta Army — thousands of silent soldiers still standing guard after two thousand years. Xi’an does not whisper like Hangzhou. It does not decorate like Suzhou. It stands. Xian of course at the top of this.

The Terracotta Army — hidden underground for over two thousand years. And the Egyptian Pyramids — standing under the open sky for over four thousand.

One buried. One towering. Both built for immortality. The Terracotta Army feels almost intimate when you stand there. Row after row of life-sized soldiers, each face different. Silent. As if they were just paused. You don’t see it from far away — you discover it as you look down into the excavation pits. It feels like uncovering a secret.

Bronze Chariots and Horses

Those are extraordinary — finely detailed bronze chariots discovered near the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Smaller than life-size, but incredibly intricate. The metalwork, the umbrellas over the chariots, the harness details — that must be what you mean by “glamorous.”

We also saw some smaller Pit 2 or Pit 3 depending on layout where we saw fewer soldiers, sometimes more spaced out, sometimes just partial excavation. Compared to the vast first pit — rows and rows stretching into the distance — the smaller one can feel almost empty.

China does scale very well. They show you magnitude first, then craftsmanship.

And you noticed the difference.

When you stand before the Terracotta Army for the first time, talking feels almost inappropriate. The scale absorbs you. Row after row of soldiers — each face different, yet standing in disciplined formation for over two thousand years.

Silence is a natural reaction. It’s not like admiring a painting or even a temple carving. It’s something else. It’s confronting ambition — an emperor preparing an entire army for the afterlife. That kind of vision is almost unsettling. Not spiritual. Not communal. Not devotional. It was imperial permanence. You simply watched.

Another surprise was that when we were in Japan, there was an exhibition area close to Ohnuma lake in Hakodate. I should say we went to Ohnuma twice. First time it was just a short stop over during a long train Ōnuma Quasi-National Park — near Hakodate, in Hokkaido. Calm lake. Small islands. Mt. Komagatake in the background.

Ohnuma museum we had a chance to see intersting shows, one of that was terracota warriars.

I knew already a little bit about Terra cotta Soldiers. There were also two structures resembling Japanese pagoda.  

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Small Wild Goose Pagoda

Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

• Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

• Small Wild Goose Pagoda

They do resemble Japanese pagodas — tiered, rising gently upward, but in fact they are much older in origin. The architectural style traveled from China to Japan with Buddhism, not the other way around. So in a way, when we saw them, we were looking at an ancestor of the pagodas we later saw in Japan.

Xi’an carries a different kind of pride. It was the starting point of the Silk Road. Capital of multiple dynasties. The eastern end of ancient global exchange. When you walk there, you feel layers — not just beauty, but weight. The Terracotta Army shows ambition. The pagodas show faith and scholarship. The city walls show defense and strength. Xi’an doesn’t try to charm you like Hangzhou. It stands and says: We were central once.

After Xian we went to one more city - there all the Chinese people were Muslims. In Xi'an there is a very famous Muslim quarter, and at its heart stands the Great Mosque of Xi’an. It’s one of the oldest and most unusual mosques in China. What makes it special is that it doesn’t look like a typical Middle Eastern mosque from the outside. It looks almost like a Chinese temple complex, with courtyards, wooden pavilions, carved beams — but inside it functions as a mosque.

The Muslim community there are mostly Hui Muslims — Chinese by ethnicity but Muslim by faith — and they have lived in that region for centuries, especially since the Silk Road days. Traders from Central Asia settled there long ago.

It’s quite striking, because after the imperial grandeur of the Terracotta Army, you suddenly encounter this living, everyday Islamic culture woven into Chinese architecture.

After the solemn stillness of the Terracotta Army, you suddenly step into narrow lanes full of life — food stalls, flatbreads being baked, skewers grilling, Arabic script on signboards, people in white caps. It feels like a completely different cultural layer inside China. And then the mosque itself — so unusual. No big domes like in Delhi. No towering minarets like in Istanbul. Instead Traditional Chinese-style roofs, Wooden beams and courtyards, Calligraphy blending Arabic and Chinese aesthetics. It’s such a quiet example of civilizations meeting. Islam arriving through the Silk Road, adapting to Chinese architectural language.