Our Beautifully Ordinary Life

Sorry for the interruption in posts. We’ve had a very busy couple of days with finalizing the adoption in Wuhan and then getting to Guangzhou so we can finish up the immigration stuff with the American consulate. It doesn’t help that we’ve managed to catch Ava’s cold (me more so than J) so I’m absolutely miserable. I did remember to bring whatever cold medicine we had in the medicine cabinet so that’s helped a little.

I’m backtracking a few days here to keep the posts in order.

Wuhan – Day 11

We didn’t have anything official that we had to do, although Eric was pretty busy on our behalf. He was still making sure the paperwork was correct for the official documents (very important as they have to match up with our info at the American consulate exactly) and this involved yet another trip to the adoption affairs building. Eric did take us to visit the Hubei Provincial Museum and go to a local Chinese restaurant for lunch before embarking on his official duties.

The Hubei Provincial Museum, established in 1953, contains the most important collections of artifacts in the province. We were not able to see the entire museum as it would take at least a couple of days to fully explore. The museum itself is 40,000 square meters and it is home to more than 140,000 pieces For obvious reasons (like 4 babies) we could only see a portion of it so we focused on their crown jewel, which is the mausoleum of Yi, marquis of the State of Zeng (Zenghou Yi in Chinese), and the bells that were discovered in the tombs.

In 1977 the military was preparing to build on a site in Hubei and discovered what appeared to be an undisturbed tomb. Upon excavation, the inscriptions on some of the bronzes indicated that it belonged to Zenghou Yi and dated to about 433 BC. The existence of the State of Zeng was unknown until this time and little beyond what was discovered in the tomb is known even now. The tomb was 21 meters from west to east and 16.5 meters from north to south, covering about 220 square meters. Around 15,000 articles were unearthed, including bronze ritual vessels, musical instruments, weapons, chariots, jade, lacquer wares, and bamboo articles.

The tomb was originally 13 meters deep and was packed with charcoal and the shaft filled was with clay, wooden beams, stone slabs, and earth. The durability of these materials, and the fact that the tomb became waterlogged, left it in a remarkable state of preservation, enabling archaeologists to determine precisely how goods were distributed in the four chambers. These chambers mirrored the arrangement of the marquis’ palace during his life.

The eastern chamber, representing his private quarters, contained his own lacquered double coffin, the coffins of eight young women (the youngest only thirteen years old) who were probably concubines or musicians to entertain Yi in the afterlife, and a dog buried in its own coffin. The chamber also contained weapons, a chariot, and many personal items, including furniture, a zither, silk, and vessels — though not bronze vessels. The central chamber seems to have corresponded to the ceremonial hall of Yi’s palace. Inside, was a large set of bronze bells and other instruments, together with bronze ritual vessels. The northern chamber served as an armory and storeroom, the western chamber, where thirteen more young women were buried, as servants’ quarters.

The most well known item discovered were the very large bronze bells. These were removed from the ceremonial chamber in 1978. It is the largest set of bronze bells ever excavated and is made up of 65 bells in various sizes, with each bell producing two different tones when struck. There are three levels, with the smallest bells suspended on the highest level and the largest ones on the bottom section. The bells cover roughly 5 octaves and the middle 3 octaves produces 12 semitones each. There is an inscription on each bell that records events, musical theories and the sound the particular bell products. From historical records and other materials, it is concluded that there are probably five performers involved in the playing of the bells, with two standing in front of the set playing the larger bells with long poles and three behind playing the smaller bells with smaller sticks. The bells are very elaborate, are absolutely huge, weigh 5 tons and have only been played twice in modern times. We were able to purchase a recording of the original bells and to see a performance using a replica of the original bells.

J did get tagged by the clothes police while waiting to go into the performance. Ava’s pants leg had pulled up and was sticking out from under the blanket so J was chastised (in Chinese) for allowing that poor baby to freeze to death. Let’s not mention she had on 3 full layers of clothes and was covered by a blanket. I also had my first experience with someone telling me what a lucky baby she is. A Chinese lady approached me in the lobby after the performance and asked me if Ava was Chinese baby. I said yes and she asked if I’m her mom. I said yes again and she asked where her other parents were. I told her that Ava’s parents left her and we were taking her to the USA. The lady smiled so wide and just kept on telling me how lucky the baby was because she now had parents and was going to America. I tried to tell her that we were the lucky ones, but our limited Chinese/English communications could only take us so far. I also had to change Ava in the ladies bathroom in the museum, which attracted a number of little old Chinese ladies who were offering their opinions (I guess that’s what they were doing) on how the baby changing operation should proceed. I got it done as quickly as possible (remember that the buildings have minimal central heat) and got out of there before I was mobbed.

Lunch was at a local Chinese restaurant of Eric’s choice. It was good, although different from what we know in the States and even from what we had in Beijing. There are a number of foods specific to Hubei province and their use of spices and herbs are very different from other provinces. There’s one really yummy vegetable that’s only grown here in the winter (something like asparagus but it doesn’t have a translated name in English) and they eat lotus root in a number of different ways. We had it deep fried, wrapped in sticky rice, and in soup.

We have very few pictures (if any) of Wuhan to post. The weather has been nasty so we haven’t been anywhere to take any pictures. We’re hoping to get some from the other families who were snapping shots through the bus windows. Unfortunately the weather also made sure we didn’t get out to any tourist sites beyond the museum. I’m okay with that, we’re already bringing the most important thing from Wuhan home with us.

Next up – last day in Wuhan and first night in Guangzhou.

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