Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Exploring

They call this small town Wang Temple, or ??. Why it was given such a name, I don't know, because there is no ancient shrine here. Just ugly buildings, honking trucks, and the dust that clings onto my lips.

I came here on a whim, wanting to explore Xi'an more. So I boarded a bus and went westward, randomly picking a place to get off. Unfortunately, Wang Temple smelled a lot like shit that day. Workers were digging up sewage in this small industrial town, leaving trash littered the side of the streets.

Not far is an area designated as the historical ruins of Epang Palace. While there, I saw no actual remains of the 2,000 year-old structure (According to historians, peasants burned it to the ground when China's Qin Dynasty fell). But in its place, a replica of the palace was built.

The replica was built only in the last decade, but it tries to create that grand feeling the original palace likely would have had. Statues of ancient nobles and soldiers guard the place. And since everything is new and essentially fabricated, you can touch it all. In that sense, it sort of makes everything feel more like theme park (While there, I even saw some funhouse mirrors). I couldn't help but feel something was missing from the place, like it needed an extra coat of paint or something. One can't simply replicate that intangible feel of history.

Lately, I've been reading about its history. The funny thing is that the palace may have just been a legend. Archaeologists continue to excavate around the area, but can't find the original remains.

So in a way, I may have visited a place that doesn't exist at all.