Xi'an
Brad's host mother and cooking teacher, Xi'an City,
Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China
(July, 2008).
A Hui (Muslim) retired architecture professor, who witnessed the Cultural
Revolution, demonstrating the art of Chinese calligraphy in his home,
Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China (July, 2008).
Drums at the Drum Tower, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's
Republic of China (July, 2008).
Team members Bill Herrington, Jessica Lamb, and Brad Houk with
hosts Lion, Gary, and Louise outside a cave home in the Loess
Plateau, north of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic
of China (July, 2008).
Millions of people in China, especially in the Shaan-Gan-Ning
Region, live in caves homes dug out of the loess. Loess is wind-
blown silt and China has a lot of it -- swept up from central Asia.
The loess then buried this landscape under hundreds of feet.
Thanks to the salts, loess has a vertical cleavage. So walls
dug out from it can stand for decades or even centuries. One
danger regarding loess is heavy rain, which can wash the salts
from the soil. That's when the loess has a tendancy to collapse.
Therefore, one does not want to stand on the edge of a 600-foot
vertical loess cliff during or following a summer shower.
Nevertheless, these cave homes are used by millions and have
been for thousands of years. They are the ultimate earth-sheltered,
green, sustainable homes. They are warm in the winter and
cool in the summer. They also have a tendency to collapse during
earthquakes. This one is about 100 years old. Above, team
member Bill Herrington is sitting on a kang (a brick bed heated
by a fire beneath on cold nights), in a cave home, on the Loess
Plateau north of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic
of China (July, 2008).
Bill Harrington, Jessica Lamb, and members of our host families
enjoying lunch in a cave home on the Loess Plateau, north of Xi'an
City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China (July, 2008).
Louise, one of the team's hosts, enjoying lunch in a
cave home in the Loess Plateau, north of Xi'an City,
Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China (July, 2008).
A hide-away hole in the back storage room of a cave
home on the Loess Plateau (from a time when a band of
murderers roamed), north of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province,
People's Republic of China (July, 2008).
Qin Shi Huangdi, unified China in 221 BCE, and became her first emperor. He
connected and constructed a system of great walls, great roads, great standardizations
(e.g.: weights and measures, money, and language), and, later, a great mausoleum
or necropolis only recently discovered and yet to be completely exhumed. (The Chinese
archeologists are proceeding cautiously not only due to their thorough attention to
detail but signs of a lake of mercury.) This empire was centered north of present-
day Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China (July, 2008).
Brad's hosts teaching him the art of making jiaozi (dumplings),
entertaining friends, and those many other important cultural-
and human-commonalities that connect us all to each other, Xi'an
City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China (July, 2008).
Artchitectual details to a mosque's entrance in
Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of
China (July, 2008).
Brad ordering a meal for the team at a Mongolian firepot restaurant,
Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China, July, 2008,
(photo courtesy of Bill Harrington).
All photographs, drawings and prose by Brad Houk unless otherwise noted.
Copyright © 2008 by Brad Houk, All Rights Reserved
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