On September 13, 2005, my life changed. I watched as six babies were carried into my apartment. They all came from the Xi’an orphanage and had some special medical needs. The oldest was 4 months and the youngest just 42 days. That morning I had been single, and by evening time I was the caretaker of them all. What a change that was.
A little bit of background might help. I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a few years after graduating from high school, I got a chance to go and study in the US. After this, I moved to Taiwan and taught English there for seven years. While I was there, I started learning Mandarin Chinese. I thought that coming to Xi’an for a year would be a great idea because there is so much history here, and I could also learn some more Mandarin. It was while I was here that I started volunteering at the Xi’an orphanage. I was so moved by the plight of the babies. One thing led to another, and I was offered a contract to open a foster home, signed with the Xian orphanage. I am so grateful that they have trusted me enough to allow me to help them with the children. I have now been in Xian for four years and counting.

So February is upon us and those of us living in China know exactly what that means…while other countries are busy buying chocolates, picking out flowery cards and plunking down money for long stemmed roses we are busy stocking upon fireworks, breaking out the red packets, and readying our stomachs for a two week gorge fest. That’s right it’s Chinese New Year.

Of the 6000 km long Silk Road, half of it is in modern day China. One had to travel on the Silk Road for half its distance before one even got out of present day China. The Silk Road started or ended in Chang’an or modern day Xi’an. However, lesser routes went east to Louyang, Kaifeng, and Anyong, three of the other ancient capitals of China. Kaifeng had a Jewish synagogue until 1850. Traditionally, Jews have not been home grown in China. They must have come down the Silk Road.

For centuries tea has been an important part of Chinese culture. In ancient times, tea was called ‘tu’ and during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) the word took on the pronunciation we are familiar with today, ‘cha’. Research on the history of tea has been made more difficult as the ancient Chinese character also means a type of bitter vegetable.
The tea plant originates from China and was described by the Tang Dynasty writer Lu Yu, as ‘a grand tree from the South, tall … with [a] circumference [of] up to two metres’.

If you walk through the streets of Xi'an, especially in the city centre near the South Gate, you will find a lot of nice artefacts related to the culture of Shaanxi Province. We want to explain one of them because in our humble opinion, it represents the old culture of Shaanxi Province best. Origin There are some different theories about the origin of the Chinese shadow-play. ⅰ. Some people think the first shadow-play figures were invented to illustrate Buddhist sermons, first made of paper, then later of leather. You can find, for instance, a whole set of shadow-play figures in the “German Leather Museum” in Offenbach showing very detailed depictions all the tortures of the “Buddhist Hell”. ⅱ. Others think it has its origin in the marionette theatre of Shaanxi Province. The unintended shadows of the marionettes gave the players the idea to create a two-dimensional theatre. ⅲ. The next opinion about the origin of shadow-play is that the shadow-plays were invented by people who used the “lantern of galloping horses”, a paper drum with a candle in the centre, projecting the shadows of the figures onto the screen. ⅳ. Another theory says the hand shadow-play of Southern China might be the origin, until now we can find this form of shadow-play in Guangzhou (Canton).

Xi’an is famous all over the world not only for its unique ancient cultural history but also for its fantastic Chinese souvenir shopping. Some excellent offerings specific to Xi’an include: Chinese calligraphy rubbings, Tang pottery replicas, Terracotta Warrior replicas, Folk paintings and Folk paper cuttings .