Silk Road Tour 4 - Xi'an - Abigail Washburn & The Village

After Hohhot and Yinchuan, China's ancient capital of Xi'an 西安 felt like a cosmopolitan metropolis. The ancient city wall, shadow puppets and terra cotta warriors seemed out of a movie set. There was also a good gig at the Xi'an conservatory of music where Abby sang old favorite Kangding Qingge with some beautiful student musicians. After that gig we had the most incredible dumpling feast any of us could imagine, basket after basket.

Xi'an was the site of the ancient capital of Chang An 长安, "everlasting peace." In the Tang dynasty (618—907) it was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, as art, goods and religion flowed across the Silk Road. Chang An housed Arab, Turkish, Persian, Jewish and Christian traders, and Central Asian musical instruments were played in the imperial court.

The current city walls date from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and one day at sunset the Village decided to have a little jam on the wall as locals and tourists enjoyed the show.

The first night in town we stumbled into a shadow puppet theater on the old Muslim street that runs down from the old Drum Tower 鼓楼. Xi'an and it's surrounding province of Shaanxi have traditionally had strong traditions of shadow puppetry, though like many folk traditions, it has weakened in the wake of the cultural revolution and modernization. But the old puppeteer at this tiny theater had us cracking up with a tale of forbidden love.

‪http://abigailwashburn.com‬

Full Silk Road Tour Playlist:
‪http://www.youtube.com/user/AbigailWashburn#grid/user/8A4BE13075AAFBDF‬

Tour Map:
‪http://g.co/maps/dnh73‬

Shot & Edited by Luke Mines

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Silk
• Road
• Xi'an
• Guitar
• Music
• banjo
• diplomacy
• fiddle
• shadow puppet
• China
• banjo diplomacy
• 西安
• 陕西
• xi'an
• shaanxi
• erhu
• pipa
• 二胡
• 琵琶
• 康定情歌
• city
• wall
• terra cotta warriors
• silk road
• travel
• adventure
• Asia
• music

[fredkoning]

Interesting journey and music, but some context now and then would be helpful.

[heybej]

太棒了!

[Marrrfahhh]

Awesome!