My Feelings

In our one day trip, the culture of West Xia deeply impressed us. It is stunning that West Xia created such magnificent culture in the short time of 190 years. We spent more time on the culture than other aspects of West Xia history. The characters, relics and murals were all great treasures in our eyes, though we had seen pictures on the websites. Especially the West Xia characters, they are the symbol of West Xia transforming from a tribe into a kingdom.

During our visit, we kept talking about the protection of West Xia Kingdom Tombs.

The current tombs were rather hillocks piled with loess than the Eastern Pyramids called by media. In fact they were not properly protected from the bad weather in western China, strong wind bringing sands, sunburn and rains. There was only a short iron fence of around 1 meters high surrounding the tombs and there were no supervisors. Going across the fence is not a difficult thing. If it continues like this, one day there will be only pictures and articles about it left for us.

We hope the relating authorities pay more attention to the protection and maintenance.

I saw an article about the traffic to the tombs several weeks ago. It said in 1984 some scholars wanted to have research on the tombs and could not find any vehicles, finally the Major helped to solve the problem.

While after 20 years, nothing has changed. We thought traffic should be convenient for the tombs' fame. But we no bus went there after we waited for an hour from 8 in the morning. Seeing my students' dark blue face for cold, I decided to hail a car and pay for the driver. When coming back we waited for a bus for half an hour.

I don't how many people want to see the tombs have been hold back by the inconvenient traffic. When we visited those historic sites, I found the environment was badly destroyed. Since the sites were all in suburb areas, there were a lot of factories discharging heavy black smog making the blue sky grey. And on the way to the tombs, scum could be seen everywhere. The worse thing was some people drew and engrave on the pagodas' walls. These historic sites are great treasures for us and we should take best care of them.

I am Growing up, So is Our Team

Although we never left Ningxia, we knew little about West Xia. The project gave us a good opportunity to change that.

Because there was no bus to West Xia Kingdom Tombs, we had to hire a car in high price. When I saw the tombs I could not help taking pictures. In the exhibition hall, we kept looking for all the information valuable for us. We listened carefully to the guide explaining the history, culture and politics of West Xia. I felt sad and regret for its short history and the massacre of Dangxiang clan ordered by Genghis khan. I wrote down everything the guide told us and I had a better knowledge of West Xia.
It was really a trouble to transform the recording from WAV to WMA. I spend a lot of time looking for the transforming software on the internet, but it turned out a failure. Fortunately, Town and Talent offered us help.
As we marshaled all the material, the term final exam was coming. The pressure made us suffocated. We were busy in typing before the computer while worrying about the math exam in the next day.
Despite all the difficulties, we finally finished our project. I am growing up so is our team.