ADHVAGATI

My most favorite tickets are from CHINA . Colourful, large, glossy and in a couple of instances, quite unique. 1. This is the ticket to the famous BEIJING ZOO that successfully breeds pandas in captivity. 2. A longish, banner like ticket for The Temple Of Heaven , in Beijing : 3. A laminated card ticket for The Mausoleum of the Qin Emperor, in Xian, which contains the famous army of Terracotta Warriors: 4. Front and back of the Souvenir Card Ticket to Ding Ling Museum , also known as the Thirteen Ming Tombs in ChangPing County. 5. A six inches long ticket for The Forbidden City ( Aka: Palace Museum in Beijing), with coppery gold border. 6. Front and back of the ticket card to Dayan Pagoda, popular as " Big Wild Goose Pagoda " in Xian, Shaanxi province. ____________________ 7. The ticket to see a portion of The Great Wall , the Badaling section, is in the form of a booklet. The front cover can be detached and sent as a post card ( prepaid) . The middle page ...

Has any primary school child in our country ever escaped the travails of getting right the spelling and pronunciation of the famous Chinese name that has been popping up without fail in all history text books since British times ? Huen Tsang . Hyuin Zang . Hsien Tsiang etc etc. From Nalanda to Mauryan cities to Deccani civilization, most of what we know bear the stamp of veracity, because this ubiquitous Tang Dynasty Monk from China made meticulous notes about whatever he saw on his visit to India. When I learnt that The Wild Goose Pagoda in Shaanxi province ( China ) listed in our itinerary is a monument to that amazing textbook character, Huein Tsang, I was thrilled ! It is not known what his parents named him, but he was known as Xuan Zang ( meaning, The Venerable Tang Monk) which later got twisted on different tongues as Huen Tsang, Hyien Sang etc. Ordained into monkhood at the tender age of 13 , he was inspired by Fa-Hian's visit to India and made it his mission to trav...

China was high on my Must-See list, mainly because I wanted to see The Subterranean Army of The Terra Cotta Soldiers in Xian. Year 1974. I remember being zapped by a news item in our papers about an amazing archeological find. Three farmers of Lintong County in Shhanxi, had unearthed a life size terracotta figure of a warrior , broken but with all parts intact, while digging a well. Intrigued, they had turned it over to the state officials. In no time at all, archeologists started excavating and discovered what was long rumoured, in ancient writings, to be underground, but never before found - a vast subterranean vault teeming with whole battalions of warriors, horses, officials, musicians and acrobats, all lined up in formations in honour of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China, who had died. The age of this Necropolis was established as 250 BC. Today it is a UNESCO notified World Heritage Site . When we started planning a trip to China, the only place I was very kee...

The Chinese New Year was ushered in recently ; with the usual pomp and pagentry, no doubt, in all "chinatowns" scattered across the globe. Having lived in the Far East, I have always loved the spirit of joy and merriment that erupts among the sizeable Chinese communities there. This is the season when the Markets turn red . Red + gold baubles , amazing varieties of the red "Chinese Sweet Box",( a speciality gift for the season ) and the red Hong Bao,( pretty little envelopes used for gifting money to children) . Its the season of firecrackers and dragon dances , Fruit preserves and rice cakes. China was always linked mentally with images of courtly mandarins, gong and drum sounds and celestial dancers in flowing, billowing silk robes. But in reality, China today is something quite different altogether , as I discovered on a trip, three years ago. Beijing was a stunner . The modern metropolis that has risen out of , what in early 20th. century was just a...