Ceramic soldiers

A day off, and luckily for me a beautiful sunny one, so decided to cycle round the city walls in the morning. False start with the first bike – after 500m the pedal fell off – but the second one just about lasted the distance. It was an exhilarating if boneshaking ride: 15km of elevated, cobbled dual-carriageway, and absolutely deserted.

But today was really about the Terracotta Warriors. The Xian Art Museum kindly offered to take me there and lay on a guide, a return favour for the dinner on Saturday. The site is just east of Xi’an, between a steep range of hills and a river. In 1974 some farmers were drilling for water when they came across pottery fragments. Archaeologists were called in and it turned out that the whole area was a treasure trove of life-size terracotta figures made around 230BC (each unique and originally multi-coloured) to accompany Emperor Qin into the afterlife. Qin is generally acknowledged as the first person to unite what is now China. It's estimated there are around 8,000 soldiers, 670 horses and 130 chariots in the three pits so far excavated. 'Estimated' because they haven't unearthed everything, even in these pits - and there may be many thousands more nearby, as evidenced by some exquisite half-size bronze horses and chariots found in a completely different spot.

All-in-all, it was kind of what I was expecting. There's the big 'wow' when you first enter Pit no.1, but actually there aren't that many complete figures. Pit no.2 is pretty much unexcavated. And Pit no.3 is very small and deep with just a few figures. On the other hand, the detail is amazing and if you can imagine what else is lying underground, then it really is an incredible place.

Fooooom!!

Our Made in Britain exhibition opened this afternoon at Xi’an Art Museum. All went smoothly. Delphine & team did a great job on the installation, Linda organized the opening ceremony, Yan Ying the press, Lucy & Li Ning everything else, and we got a very big turn-out. So much so that Delphine was worried about the artworks. Our special guest was artist Matt Franks, whose Fooooom!! (2000) attracted a lot of attention, and his talk a full house with people sitting down the aisles. I did a TV interview in the gallery, which started with: “Tell us about contemporary art in the UK”. Anyway, all good stuff and a relief after two months of difficult negotiations.

Roundtable Etiquette

Back in Xi’an. In advance of tomorrow’s exhibition opening, we hosted a dinner for around 15 local VIPs. Formal dining is a big round table in a large private room in a posh restaurant (often in a hotel). The room will have a receiving area with sofa and a few armchairs. There will be a large painting of a Chinese landscape, usually misty hills with waterfalls, portrait format. It will have a private toilet, cloakroom and a TV for karaoke, two waitresses and a kitchenette. Dishes will be placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table which you take with one pair of chopsticks but eat with another. Wine is served, usually red and never more than quarter full. The host gives a fairly short speech at some point and glasses are clinked, drained and re-filled immediately. The most important guest may reply. The host will then make their way round the table clinking glasses and exchanging small talk, tailed by the glass-replenishing waitress. More dishes are served, ending with fruit. Then there’s a final toast, coats on and the host escorts everyone to the front door. It rarely varies and I’m always hungry at the end of it, usually for chocolate.

Bookworm

The annual Bookworm Literary Festival kicked off tonight. Bookworm is a great bookshop-cum-library-cum-café-cum-events space in central Beijing, run by Alex Pearson (who hails from Emsworth, five miles from my hometown of Chichester). There are sister branches in Chengdu and Suzhou. And every March they run the fantastic Bookworm Festival. This year has 100 events involving 70 writers, both Chinese & international. We always help bring over some Brits.

Tonight’s opening party featured some taster readings by Hong Ying, the poet Xi Chuan, and an incredibly moving piece by Fergal Keane addressed to his son which he wrote one-handed while cradling him as a baby while reflecting on less fortunate children he’d come across over many years as a war correspondent.

I had to sneak out after that to pick up my own little one who was having pillow fights at a playdate round the corner. But expect regular posts over the next fortnight.

Watching the news in German

Interesting evening at the German School watching a public screening of China news reports by the Beijing bureau of ZDF, where our friend Diana is one of their reporters. (Actually there are only two, so it's a tight ship). Two hours of investigative, hard-hitting news items about the environment, migrant workers, Liu Xiabo etc, interspersed with a few lighter pieces, including a great one on Japanese capsule hotels. Hats off to them and the school for putting this on. Although I struggled with the German, it was pretty obvious that it was no-holds-barred stuff.

Spring...

...has sprung. All of a sudden it's noticeably warmer. Still snow on the ground in places and the lakes remain frozen, but looks like the worst of the winter is over. And the wind has come back to blow the smog away. Happy days.

St David's Day

As a child I used to get five shillings on St David's Day. My father's side were from the coal-mining Valleys of Wales. Newbridge to be precise, home of boxer Joe Calzaghe, Steve Strange once of Visage, and a half-decent rugby team. I have vivid memories of visiting the grandparents in a typical terraced house with an outside loo and tobacco hanging in an upstairs bedroom. We also spent a lot of time around Llantony where my uncle and his wife converted an old, burnt out smithy: a lovely area.

Anyway, St David lived in Wales some 1,500 years ago where he founded a monastic community at Glyn Rosin in Pembrokeshire which is where St David's Cathedral now stands. It's recorded that he died on 1 March in (probably) 588. Although less famous than St Patrick's Day, there are parades, balls and parties around the world. There was a Welsh Ball in Beijing last night (we didn't go) and this week is Wales Week in Chongqing of all places. The city is twinned with, not Cardiff, but Wales the country, possibly in a brave but futile attempt to achieve parity in population.