Dafo, the great stone Buddha at the convergence of the Min, Qingyi, and Dadu rivers in Leshan is largest remaining Buddha statue in the world, now that the Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's giant Buddhas. He stands 71 meters high, and has shoulders as wide as a basketball court. The statue was begun in 713, and work ended in 803 CE. This 90 year long project included a highly sophisticated drainage system that has allowed Dafo to remain in such excellent condition for 1200 years. The statue was built in the hope that the Buddha would calm the river and prevent fatal boating accidents. Oddly enough, it worked, though only because the rubble from the massive carving filled in the river bed, slowing the course of the rivers near Leshan. The project was initiated by a monk called Hai Tong who reportedly gouged out an eye rather than surrender the funds he'd raised to pay for the Buddha to government officials.
I began my path toward enlightenment at 9am at the hostel. There, I, along with Maria (Budapest); Tim (Australia); Marisa (Netherlands); and Claudia (Florida)boarded a hostel minibus out to Leshan. The drive took 3 hours and passed in painfully cramped positions due to the true mini-sized-bus' lack of leg room. We arrived at the site at noon and arranged to meet our driver at 3:30pm for the ride back to town.
First, we took the boat ride past the Buddha. Supposedly, it's possible to get a local fisherman to take you there for 1 yuan and an enhanced experience. When we got there, there was a dearth of fishermen and a queue to buy 50 y tickets for the cruise ship. We joined the queue and made the most of our position at the railing to see the Buddha. The best views are from the river, and he really is an amazing feat. Speaking of feet, I love his toes!!! They are humongous, as tall as a Westerner. So adorable!
After the boat, we decided that we really had to still make the climb down and around and up the other side of the statue. A trip to Leshan wouldn't be complete without that experience. First though, we stopped in one of the temples and took oodles of pictures and continued our quest for enlightenment. I took a step along the path right off of one of the temple steps when a Chinese man shoved me off the stair in his effort to pass me. I must say that though I know he is only an illusion, that illusion has pretty solid elbows, and the illusion of the bruise on my knee reminds me of him every day.
From there, we went toward the set of stone steps carved into the cliff. Oops, I guess that we shouldn't have spent so long in the temple, the line was enormous. We were there at peak time. We got in line at 1:30, and finally got down to the Buddha's feet at 3 o'clock. The intervening time was spent fighting not to be passed by the pushing mass of people behind us. Chinese people in general are very nice. One odd quirk is their disinclination to wait in line. Instead, those who can do it push to the front of the line. They don't give up either. I spent the entire hour and a half fighting the constant shoving of one particular woman. Her favorite trick was to press the entire front of her body against me. Ick! Finally, Marisa came up with the idea of keeping our umbrellas open regardless of whether it was raining or not. These served as effective shields, and we were delivered from queue jumpers.
Eventually, we'd climbed down all of the stairs and were standing between the legs of the Buddha. It was worth it. Barely, but worth it. The wait, the struggle, they were all just bumps along the 8-fold path.
After all of that striving, once we achieved the Buddha, the only thing left was to climb back up the cliff and rendezvous with our driver. It was a little past 3:30, closer to 4, and none of us had eaten since breakfast. We'd been too busy, and then there wasn't anything to eat. We unanimously asked the driver to please stop at a restaurant. He vetoed us. I'm not quite sure why. We returned to the hostel at 6pm without having eaten since 8am. We were ravenous.
Tim declined to join us (he wanted a massage instead), but the rest of us headed out in search of food. When I'd visited the Wenshu monastery the previous day, I'd seen a sign that said the restaurant was open 'til 7:30pm. Lonely Planet disagreed, but I was going with the sign. We got there, found the open side gate with a monk to take our 5 yuan entrance fee. We even found a helpful nun from the nearby Buddhist convent who verified that the restaurant was open. What we didn't find was an open restaurant. They'd closed early that night. I've no clue why, but they did. We spent another hour fruitlessly roaming the district, finding only fancy tourist restaurants specializing in frog legs and pig's feet, or grotty looking noodle shops that none of us felt like patronizing. Eventually, we lucked onto another vegetarian restaurant. Amazing. Of course, the food there was not nearly as delicious as the monastery food, since they were serving just tourists, not a combination of holy monks and tourists. It was still good. We tried a wide variety of dishes and enjoyed about 30% of them. The rest were 'interesting'.
After dinner, on our way out of the restaurant, we encountered a scale. Just for the hell of it, I stepped on. People who've commented that I look thinner in my photos are quite perspicacious. I've lost 15 pounds. Crap! I knew that my clothes were loose, but I had no idea how much weight I'd lost. I've found the perfect weight loss diet. First, ride the TransMongolian train as a vegetarian. Second, hike all day, barely eating anything for weeks on end. Third, regularly eat food that you don't particularly like so that you don't eat very much of it.
I now have permission to eat as much ice cream as I want!
That night, Marisa and I spent some time hanging out, then I needed to pack my bag to be ready for my flight to Guilin. Jasper and Pauline (the people who'd booked the airport shuttle) were booked on the same flight out, so we planned to share a cab in the morning. Funny traveller coinky dink. I had a wonderful time in Chengdu, despite rain and starvation. I recommend it highly if you find yourself in this part of the world. Thank you, Mix Hostel!
You can find my Chengdu/Leshan photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandasOhAndTheWorldSLargestBuddha and a special addition panda album at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandaFlipbook
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Changing my luck through the power of the Panda
My flight to Chengdu was uneventful. Though I still would have preferred to have taken the train and seen the scenery, I have to admit that it is pleasant to board a plane, and cover in a little over one hour what it would have taken me 16 hours to traverse by train. I even had no problem claiming my window seat! Best of all, after I'd picked up my bag, I literally ran into a man holding a sign that said Mix Hostel. I had been planning to take the airport shuttle and then have the joy of trying to get a cab driver to understand my mangled Chinese to get me to the hostel. Instead, I took advantage of the foresight of Jasper and Pauline, who had actually arranged for airport pickup, and hitched a 20y ride in the hostel minibus. Perfect! Clearly, all that was required by fate was that I leave Xi'an.
At the hostel, I booked my Panda Breeding Center tour, showered, did laundry, ate a huge mound of vegetable fried rice, watched a couple of minutes of Shrek III in English with (I kid you not) Chinglish subtitles, and luxuriated in my first private room of the trip. Ahh, blessed privacy. Silence, security, the ability to sleep knowing that no one is watching me drool. All in all, it was one of the best afternoons of my trip. It's funny how after a month of traveling, what I appreciate the most has shifted from seeing some fabulous UNESCO World Heritage site to washing my clothes in a real washing machine. Priorities.
After a rare 8 hours of sleep, I got up at 6:30am to prepare for our 7:30 trip out to see the pandas. Feeding time is at 9am, and as it is the only point in the day when the pandas will move at all, we didn't want to miss it. Somehow, the rain in Xi'an had followed me to Chengdu, but with the purchase of a 10 yuan umbrella and the attitude of an intrepid explorer, the kind not bothered by a little damp (or drench as the case may be), I set off to see some panda bears.
Fortunately, pandas are far too lazy to be all that bothered by a little rain. An animal that is too lazy to breed really doesn't worry too much about sleeping in a puddle. In all, including the newborns, I saw 11 pandas during my time at the breeding center. This included two newborns (the "season of love" aka artificial insemination was in May), 2 kindergartners, 1 cub, 3 subadults, and 3 adults. After watching these huge cuddly sweethearts, I have to agree with the Chinese government that the giant panda really is the "National Treasure". I went away from the center with an ear to ear grin despite the rain and the lack of photo op for the day. Normally, one can pay about $60 to get a picture taken with an adult giant panda. The day before I went, it was canceled because the pandas had just had shots and were agitated; and the day that I was there, it was canceled due to the rain. So, I can't speak from personal experience as to the viability of the panda photo, but I have seen other people's photos, so I know that it can be done!
We got back from seeing the cuddly creatures at 11. I also really appreciated that they didn't drag it out into a full day tour, like the terracotta tour in Xi'an. Though, where would they have taken us for the factory section? A genetics lab?
After getting dropped at the hostel, I set straight off for the Wenshu monastery (one of the top four zen monasteries) and its Buddhist vegetarian restaurant. Oh my buddha! It was amazing. Hundreds of choices. I wanted to try them all but settled for three wonderful dishes and a glass of gooseberry juice that blended the flavors perfectly and had herbs to aid digestion. Mostly, eating Chinese food day in and day out has reminded me of why I usually only eat Chinese once a month or so. I don't really like it. This meal made me realize that Chinese cuisine really is amazing, the fact is that most fine chefs don't waste their true abilities on tourists. I'm sticking to the monasteries from now on!
After the best meal that I've had in China, I ambled home via the grocery store and then along the river. I love shopping in China. Things are so odd. For example, the grocery store is called TrustMart and is pretty much a Walmart. It's in a 3-story building and in no way resembles a grocery store. At street level, all you see are jewelry and shoe booths inside the building. However, if you penetrate further into the building, you'll find a second entrance in to the grocery section. The fruit is abundant, though I walked quickly past the durian. The bread is a blessing. Western travellers are unanimous in missing bread the most. I miss real whole grain bread. Even the wheat bread here has the texture of white bread at home. Seeing the food that a people buys is as valid a sightseeing adventure as is seeing a monument made 2000 years ago. Even more fun was heading upstairs to the dry goods area. I regretfully decided that the shipping on that duvet cover was going to be too much, looked over the really nice electronics section, and headed back for toiletries. There, I learned that all Chinese face creams seem to have bleach in them - white is in - yet it's very hard to find a day cream with sun screen. Strange. Odder yet is the complete lack of availability of an antiperspirant. There are deoderants. Roll-on liquid deoderants. Ones with the scent of roses, oranges, or mango. Somehow, I've never imagined myself with mango scented underarms. I settled for "fresh scent" and rued the stick deoderant that I'd left at home.
Shopping done, I headed by the Bank of China to find that my ATM card still wasn't working. Then, I settled into my private room to enjoy Diana Wynne Jones' sequel to Howl's Moving Castle which I'd found in the hostel book exchange. Do you know how hard to find that book is??? I swear, hostel book exchanges have the best books. Mostly 'cause they've been left to sit for years on end. No one will ever throw one out, in the hope that someday, some crazy foreigner will buy the shredded up book. This practice also preserves some real gems.
After finishing my book, I watched some Chinese soap opera with two fellow single female travellers, and booked my ride out to the Leshan Buddha for the next day. The soap was set during the revolutionary war. It was interesting to see what's considered romantic in China.
Then, Christine was tucked all snug in her beds (I had 2 twin beds in my room) while visions of panda bears danced in her head.
You can find my Chengdu/Leshan photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandasOhAndTheWorldSLargestBuddha and a special addition panda album at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandaFlipbook
At the hostel, I booked my Panda Breeding Center tour, showered, did laundry, ate a huge mound of vegetable fried rice, watched a couple of minutes of Shrek III in English with (I kid you not) Chinglish subtitles, and luxuriated in my first private room of the trip. Ahh, blessed privacy. Silence, security, the ability to sleep knowing that no one is watching me drool. All in all, it was one of the best afternoons of my trip. It's funny how after a month of traveling, what I appreciate the most has shifted from seeing some fabulous UNESCO World Heritage site to washing my clothes in a real washing machine. Priorities.
After a rare 8 hours of sleep, I got up at 6:30am to prepare for our 7:30 trip out to see the pandas. Feeding time is at 9am, and as it is the only point in the day when the pandas will move at all, we didn't want to miss it. Somehow, the rain in Xi'an had followed me to Chengdu, but with the purchase of a 10 yuan umbrella and the attitude of an intrepid explorer, the kind not bothered by a little damp (or drench as the case may be), I set off to see some panda bears.
Fortunately, pandas are far too lazy to be all that bothered by a little rain. An animal that is too lazy to breed really doesn't worry too much about sleeping in a puddle. In all, including the newborns, I saw 11 pandas during my time at the breeding center. This included two newborns (the "season of love" aka artificial insemination was in May), 2 kindergartners, 1 cub, 3 subadults, and 3 adults. After watching these huge cuddly sweethearts, I have to agree with the Chinese government that the giant panda really is the "National Treasure". I went away from the center with an ear to ear grin despite the rain and the lack of photo op for the day. Normally, one can pay about $60 to get a picture taken with an adult giant panda. The day before I went, it was canceled because the pandas had just had shots and were agitated; and the day that I was there, it was canceled due to the rain. So, I can't speak from personal experience as to the viability of the panda photo, but I have seen other people's photos, so I know that it can be done!
We got back from seeing the cuddly creatures at 11. I also really appreciated that they didn't drag it out into a full day tour, like the terracotta tour in Xi'an. Though, where would they have taken us for the factory section? A genetics lab?
After getting dropped at the hostel, I set straight off for the Wenshu monastery (one of the top four zen monasteries) and its Buddhist vegetarian restaurant. Oh my buddha! It was amazing. Hundreds of choices. I wanted to try them all but settled for three wonderful dishes and a glass of gooseberry juice that blended the flavors perfectly and had herbs to aid digestion. Mostly, eating Chinese food day in and day out has reminded me of why I usually only eat Chinese once a month or so. I don't really like it. This meal made me realize that Chinese cuisine really is amazing, the fact is that most fine chefs don't waste their true abilities on tourists. I'm sticking to the monasteries from now on!
After the best meal that I've had in China, I ambled home via the grocery store and then along the river. I love shopping in China. Things are so odd. For example, the grocery store is called TrustMart and is pretty much a Walmart. It's in a 3-story building and in no way resembles a grocery store. At street level, all you see are jewelry and shoe booths inside the building. However, if you penetrate further into the building, you'll find a second entrance in to the grocery section. The fruit is abundant, though I walked quickly past the durian. The bread is a blessing. Western travellers are unanimous in missing bread the most. I miss real whole grain bread. Even the wheat bread here has the texture of white bread at home. Seeing the food that a people buys is as valid a sightseeing adventure as is seeing a monument made 2000 years ago. Even more fun was heading upstairs to the dry goods area. I regretfully decided that the shipping on that duvet cover was going to be too much, looked over the really nice electronics section, and headed back for toiletries. There, I learned that all Chinese face creams seem to have bleach in them - white is in - yet it's very hard to find a day cream with sun screen. Strange. Odder yet is the complete lack of availability of an antiperspirant. There are deoderants. Roll-on liquid deoderants. Ones with the scent of roses, oranges, or mango. Somehow, I've never imagined myself with mango scented underarms. I settled for "fresh scent" and rued the stick deoderant that I'd left at home.
Shopping done, I headed by the Bank of China to find that my ATM card still wasn't working. Then, I settled into my private room to enjoy Diana Wynne Jones' sequel to Howl's Moving Castle which I'd found in the hostel book exchange. Do you know how hard to find that book is??? I swear, hostel book exchanges have the best books. Mostly 'cause they've been left to sit for years on end. No one will ever throw one out, in the hope that someday, some crazy foreigner will buy the shredded up book. This practice also preserves some real gems.
After finishing my book, I watched some Chinese soap opera with two fellow single female travellers, and booked my ride out to the Leshan Buddha for the next day. The soap was set during the revolutionary war. It was interesting to see what's considered romantic in China.
Then, Christine was tucked all snug in her beds (I had 2 twin beds in my room) while visions of panda bears danced in her head.
You can find my Chengdu/Leshan photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandasOhAndTheWorldSLargestBuddha and a special addition panda album at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandaFlipbook
Friday, September 14, 2007
Hua Shan and the Great Disaster
Hua Shan is one of China's five holy Taoist mountains. It is made up of North, South, East, West and Central peaks of varying heights - all around 2,000m. It's about a 2-hour drive outside of Xi'an. Sounds good right?
Well, I followed the Bible's advice (backpackers refer to the Lonely Planet guide as the Bible) and went to the train station to catch a minibus to the mountain. I succeeded in finding the right bus, with the right characters in the window, and an English boy loitering nearby. Great! Then, the English boy told me that he had been there for an hour and a half. At one point, there had been 10 people assembled who all wanted to go to Hua Shan. The driver wouldn't go without 20 people. Period. It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest that this meant it was likely that he wouldn't make any money that day. He was happy sitting in the shade of his van, smoking cigarettes. After waiting for an hour, everyone but the Brit boy left, yelling at the driver as they decamped.
I'd been there for about 15 minutes when a group of 3 more tourists showed up. We were now: Christine (30, US); Michael (18, UK); Barbara (27, US); Kristof (21, Germany); and Alon (21, Israel). Kristof had been in China for a year studying the language and after some group discussion and 20 minutes of fruitless waiting, he went off to research: trains, taxis, and private minibuses. In the end, he found a minibus that would hold 7 and cost 350. Now, we needed 2 more people. Kristof went into the bus and came out with a young Chinese couple who also were tired of waiting for the world's laziest bus driver. By then, there were 11 people waiting to go to Hua Shan, but the driver didn't seem bothered in the slightest to be losing another set of customers. I did feel bad for the 4 people left waiting to be joined by 16 others.
The drive was fine, passed in general discussion. I think that most young backpackers get a huge kick out of being able to be a temporary expert on their country. The information exchanged in these chats is suspect, but it's still fun to hear someone else's worldview. At the site, we were dropped off at the Western entrance, to climb the mountain. First though, the Chinese couple invited us to lunch. Hah! Another life goal crossed off of the list. I have been invited out to eat in China. There was loads of food and tea. Many vegetarian options. I also learned that it's considered rude to stick your chopsticks in a bowl of rice. Who knew?
With heavy bellies, we set off to be holy seekers after wisdom. The first hour or two was a nice, gentle, easy ascent on a paved road on the side of a stream that became a gorge. There were plenty of shops/cafes along the way, each of which had its own dog or cat. There were also temples, caves, and other points of interest. Then, we slowed down. Barbara is quite petite (short legs) and a smoker, so she did not move very fast. The delay at the station and then our banquet had pushed us back so that we'd only started at 4. There was no question, we'd be hiking at night. Not to worry though, many locals prefer to walk at night, starting at around 11pm and arriving in time for the sunrise.
The path became steeper. Stairs and stairs and temples and more stairs. We made it to the north peak. It was around 8 and fully dark and we decided that we all (Barbara voted with the group) felt like continuing on. We made for the Central Peak as the closest hostel site. After 2 and a half hours in which we went up stairs so steep and treacherous that we had to use all four limbs to ascend them, and many smoke breaks for B, we arrived at the hostel to find it no longer operating as a place of rest. It was 10:30 and we were no longer feeling quite so perky. We trudge off to the East Peak, hitting even steeper stairs along the way. Luckily, all of the stairs had chain railings to hold onto during the climb.
We finally made the peak. Of course, we'd been aiming for a hostel, not the peak. Obeying the "no jumping" sign at the top, we all collapsed and waited for Kristof to go find the hostel and report back. He really got a huge kick out of being the go-to guy. He wouldn't allow anyone except our Chinese friend to accompany him. Anyway, they found the temple/hostel and we arrived, had dried noodles, and were all asleep by one o'clock.
This was quite late considering that the main thing that one climbs a Taoist mountain to do is watch the sunrise. Sunrise was at 6am in early to mid-September. We got up at 5:30, had a wet wipe bath or not as each individual preferred, and headed back to the peak.
There are 4 factories grouped around Hua Shan. This results in a permanent haze around the base of the mountain. This made for a slightly disappointing sunrise. It was beautiful - I was thrilled to be there experiencing that moment, but man, as sunrises go, that one was a dud. I did get some great cloud pictures though, so all was not lost.
After the main event, we settled in for a breakfast of crackers, mooncakes, and dried kiwi. The discussion turned to a blanket condemnation of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and Michael started raving about political prisoners. Yes, you're supposed to be passionate when you're 18. No, you're not expected to be precisely well-informed. It was still incredibly boring to listen to at 30. I've had those discussions. They were about the Middle East, but same difference. I found that I had no desire to engage and instead, I bid adieu to my chums of the climb. I was heading back early anyway to catch my 8pm train from Xi'an. They planned to stay all day, hiking and possibly staying another night, so we would have separated soon in any case.
Within 10 minutes, I'd found a toilet and a cup of coffee, decision affirmed. I made it down to the north peak, and lingered there, climbing the whale at the top of the peak and posing for pictures. I really wonder what people are going to do with all of those pictures of me. Then, I took the cable car back down the mountain, arriving at the eastern entrance. From there, I got the shuttle bus to the visitor's center, took a taxi to the Xi'an bus location, caught the bus going to Xi'an and snoozed for an hour and a half while being stared at by a local farmer who found my every breath fascinating. The other bus riders were much more polite about staring, and snuck peeks when they thought I wasn't looking.
The bus let us off somewhere in the north of Xi'an. As far as I know, it was nowhere near the train station, my only landmark. I wandered. I tried my bank card, to find that my account was still frozen (questionable activity). I found a woman who spoke English who found a bus for me that went to the South Gate which was where my hostel was located (oh yeah, central Xi'an has city walls, with cardinal gates and streets).
My afternoon was a bit trying, especially on such a limited amount of sleep. OK, back at the hostel, I showered, talked to Greg, went online to make sure that the world hadn't ended, and then, at 4 o'clock, went to pick up my train ticket. I'd booked through the hostel and they hadn't received the ticket until the night before. Since I was hiking the mountain, they held it for me along with my pack. When I asked for my ticket, the girl at the counter located it, looked at it, asked me what time I was supposed to be going, and then started screaming in Chinese to her associates. Finally, she turned to me as said, "I think you'd better hurry!"
"Why, what time is the ticket for?"
"2:30!"
"Umm, then there's no point in my hurrying, is there?"
"Oh."
"What do you suggest that I do? I booked an 8pm soft sleeper, here's my receipt."
It turned out that there were no sleeper train tickets to be had for the next three days. The girl tried to convince me to buy a hard seat ticket and upgrade on the train. Hah! No one can upgrade on the train. It's a myth created to get annoying tourists out of travel agent's hair. I've spoken to quite a number of travelers who've been told to upgrade on the train only to spend 20 hours sitting in a seat in a carriage filled with Chinese people staring at the crazy foreigner who doesn't know enough to get a sleeper ticket. I declined the hard seat and asked what my options were, emphasizing that this was their fault.
In the end, I got a plane ticket for the morning, using my deposit for the train ticket toward that, and a comped dorm bed for the night. I tried for a single, but the best that I could do was a dorm. I quietly stated, repeatedly I'm afraid, "I am not happy." That was my experience with Shuyuan Hostel. I'm afraid that I absolutely would not recommend it to anyone. Crappy rooms, awful tours, and inept travel booking services.
I slept, felt a little better in the morning, had a big breakfast, and set off to reboard the airport shuttle and head off to Chengdu. Hopefully, a change of scenery will change my luck.
For my pics of Xi'an, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/XiAn
Well, I followed the Bible's advice (backpackers refer to the Lonely Planet guide as the Bible) and went to the train station to catch a minibus to the mountain. I succeeded in finding the right bus, with the right characters in the window, and an English boy loitering nearby. Great! Then, the English boy told me that he had been there for an hour and a half. At one point, there had been 10 people assembled who all wanted to go to Hua Shan. The driver wouldn't go without 20 people. Period. It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest that this meant it was likely that he wouldn't make any money that day. He was happy sitting in the shade of his van, smoking cigarettes. After waiting for an hour, everyone but the Brit boy left, yelling at the driver as they decamped.
I'd been there for about 15 minutes when a group of 3 more tourists showed up. We were now: Christine (30, US); Michael (18, UK); Barbara (27, US); Kristof (21, Germany); and Alon (21, Israel). Kristof had been in China for a year studying the language and after some group discussion and 20 minutes of fruitless waiting, he went off to research: trains, taxis, and private minibuses. In the end, he found a minibus that would hold 7 and cost 350. Now, we needed 2 more people. Kristof went into the bus and came out with a young Chinese couple who also were tired of waiting for the world's laziest bus driver. By then, there were 11 people waiting to go to Hua Shan, but the driver didn't seem bothered in the slightest to be losing another set of customers. I did feel bad for the 4 people left waiting to be joined by 16 others.
The drive was fine, passed in general discussion. I think that most young backpackers get a huge kick out of being able to be a temporary expert on their country. The information exchanged in these chats is suspect, but it's still fun to hear someone else's worldview. At the site, we were dropped off at the Western entrance, to climb the mountain. First though, the Chinese couple invited us to lunch. Hah! Another life goal crossed off of the list. I have been invited out to eat in China. There was loads of food and tea. Many vegetarian options. I also learned that it's considered rude to stick your chopsticks in a bowl of rice. Who knew?
With heavy bellies, we set off to be holy seekers after wisdom. The first hour or two was a nice, gentle, easy ascent on a paved road on the side of a stream that became a gorge. There were plenty of shops/cafes along the way, each of which had its own dog or cat. There were also temples, caves, and other points of interest. Then, we slowed down. Barbara is quite petite (short legs) and a smoker, so she did not move very fast. The delay at the station and then our banquet had pushed us back so that we'd only started at 4. There was no question, we'd be hiking at night. Not to worry though, many locals prefer to walk at night, starting at around 11pm and arriving in time for the sunrise.
The path became steeper. Stairs and stairs and temples and more stairs. We made it to the north peak. It was around 8 and fully dark and we decided that we all (Barbara voted with the group) felt like continuing on. We made for the Central Peak as the closest hostel site. After 2 and a half hours in which we went up stairs so steep and treacherous that we had to use all four limbs to ascend them, and many smoke breaks for B, we arrived at the hostel to find it no longer operating as a place of rest. It was 10:30 and we were no longer feeling quite so perky. We trudge off to the East Peak, hitting even steeper stairs along the way. Luckily, all of the stairs had chain railings to hold onto during the climb.
We finally made the peak. Of course, we'd been aiming for a hostel, not the peak. Obeying the "no jumping" sign at the top, we all collapsed and waited for Kristof to go find the hostel and report back. He really got a huge kick out of being the go-to guy. He wouldn't allow anyone except our Chinese friend to accompany him. Anyway, they found the temple/hostel and we arrived, had dried noodles, and were all asleep by one o'clock.
This was quite late considering that the main thing that one climbs a Taoist mountain to do is watch the sunrise. Sunrise was at 6am in early to mid-September. We got up at 5:30, had a wet wipe bath or not as each individual preferred, and headed back to the peak.
There are 4 factories grouped around Hua Shan. This results in a permanent haze around the base of the mountain. This made for a slightly disappointing sunrise. It was beautiful - I was thrilled to be there experiencing that moment, but man, as sunrises go, that one was a dud. I did get some great cloud pictures though, so all was not lost.
After the main event, we settled in for a breakfast of crackers, mooncakes, and dried kiwi. The discussion turned to a blanket condemnation of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and Michael started raving about political prisoners. Yes, you're supposed to be passionate when you're 18. No, you're not expected to be precisely well-informed. It was still incredibly boring to listen to at 30. I've had those discussions. They were about the Middle East, but same difference. I found that I had no desire to engage and instead, I bid adieu to my chums of the climb. I was heading back early anyway to catch my 8pm train from Xi'an. They planned to stay all day, hiking and possibly staying another night, so we would have separated soon in any case.
Within 10 minutes, I'd found a toilet and a cup of coffee, decision affirmed. I made it down to the north peak, and lingered there, climbing the whale at the top of the peak and posing for pictures. I really wonder what people are going to do with all of those pictures of me. Then, I took the cable car back down the mountain, arriving at the eastern entrance. From there, I got the shuttle bus to the visitor's center, took a taxi to the Xi'an bus location, caught the bus going to Xi'an and snoozed for an hour and a half while being stared at by a local farmer who found my every breath fascinating. The other bus riders were much more polite about staring, and snuck peeks when they thought I wasn't looking.
The bus let us off somewhere in the north of Xi'an. As far as I know, it was nowhere near the train station, my only landmark. I wandered. I tried my bank card, to find that my account was still frozen (questionable activity). I found a woman who spoke English who found a bus for me that went to the South Gate which was where my hostel was located (oh yeah, central Xi'an has city walls, with cardinal gates and streets).
My afternoon was a bit trying, especially on such a limited amount of sleep. OK, back at the hostel, I showered, talked to Greg, went online to make sure that the world hadn't ended, and then, at 4 o'clock, went to pick up my train ticket. I'd booked through the hostel and they hadn't received the ticket until the night before. Since I was hiking the mountain, they held it for me along with my pack. When I asked for my ticket, the girl at the counter located it, looked at it, asked me what time I was supposed to be going, and then started screaming in Chinese to her associates. Finally, she turned to me as said, "I think you'd better hurry!"
"Why, what time is the ticket for?"
"2:30!"
"Umm, then there's no point in my hurrying, is there?"
"Oh."
"What do you suggest that I do? I booked an 8pm soft sleeper, here's my receipt."
It turned out that there were no sleeper train tickets to be had for the next three days. The girl tried to convince me to buy a hard seat ticket and upgrade on the train. Hah! No one can upgrade on the train. It's a myth created to get annoying tourists out of travel agent's hair. I've spoken to quite a number of travelers who've been told to upgrade on the train only to spend 20 hours sitting in a seat in a carriage filled with Chinese people staring at the crazy foreigner who doesn't know enough to get a sleeper ticket. I declined the hard seat and asked what my options were, emphasizing that this was their fault.
In the end, I got a plane ticket for the morning, using my deposit for the train ticket toward that, and a comped dorm bed for the night. I tried for a single, but the best that I could do was a dorm. I quietly stated, repeatedly I'm afraid, "I am not happy." That was my experience with Shuyuan Hostel. I'm afraid that I absolutely would not recommend it to anyone. Crappy rooms, awful tours, and inept travel booking services.
I slept, felt a little better in the morning, had a big breakfast, and set off to reboard the airport shuttle and head off to Chengdu. Hopefully, a change of scenery will change my luck.
For my pics of Xi'an, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/XiAn
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Xi'an - The Terracotta Army, the Muslim Quarter & the Big Wild Goose Pagoda
The terracotta army in Xi'an. A 2000 year old collection of over 8000 warriors protecting China's first true Emperor. I can't tell you how many classes I've taken that have referenced this 8th wonder of the world. The terracotta army has to be right up there with Egypt's pyramids as the most elaborate necropolis ever. The sheer wealth of the emperor, to be able to force his subjects to create on such a grand scale. Amazing.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/XiAn
So, there was no question about whether or not I'd be going to Xi'an. Some locations are maybes, some are nos, Xi'an was an unquestioned yes. I flew in, collected my bag (first off the plane), and jumped on the shuttle bus. There, a funny thing happened. Some girl tried to elbow me aside to get a ticket for the bus - there are always more people than tickets for the shuttle bus, so elbowing is required - and I said, "Hey! no shoving me aside!" She spoke a little English and thought that this was hysterical, so she saved me a prime seat at the front of the bus. We talked during the hour long ride into Xi'an's center. Assertiveness really is a positive trait in China.
I was dropped off at the end of the shuttle line in front of the Melody Hotel. I had an address and directions to Shuyuan Hostel, but no clue as to the distance involved and it was sprinkling, so I tried to get a cab. No luck in getting a cabbie to understand where I wanted to go. I swear, I was pronouncing everything correctly. I think that cab drivers just can't understand anything coming from a Westerner. They're distracted by our strange colored hair. So, I set off on foot. This was actually quite nice. I was walking along South Street on a Friday night. There was lots of neon, loads of people and amazing things to look at.
I found my hostel, and it was a lovely 3 story 3 courtyard complex. Beautiful. Before even dumping my bag, I got myself booked onto a Terracotta tour for the next day. Priorities. :) Then, the trouble started. I went down to my $3/night dorm room. Down, because the room was in the basement level. That's fine, I'm only sleeping in my room, I don't really need natural light. However, walking down the stairs, I was met by overpowering varnish fumes. They were remodeling the hostel and the fumes were intense. OK. I can handle it. I open the door to find two sets of bunk beds, a desk and a concrete floor covered in a 2-5 mm thick layer of sediment and old cigarette butts. Yuck. OK, I'm still dealing. I settle in to go to sleep. That's when the swarm of mosquitos struck. Crap. I was too tired to deal with changing rooms that night, so I suffered through it, arising at 8:30 for my tour with relief. I vowed not to spend another night there. This was reinforced by my need to climb upstairs and down a courtyard to use the toilet in the middle of the night. Horrid.
The horrendous night behind me with only 2 mosquito bites to show for it (thank you citronella), I set off with singing spirit for the Terracotta Army. The tour left at 9:40am and I couldn't believe that I was really going to be there in person. Well, I wouldn't actually get there for another few hours. This was a tour in the classic sense of the word. This wasn't transit to the site with a guide once we were there, this was an actual tour. For those who are fortunate enough not to have taken a tour, these fabulous itineraries always include 4 things: 1) the major draw, the thing that people book the tour to see; 2) a lesser draw, something kind of interesting but that you wouldn't go to see if it wasn't included in the tour; 3) a factory/folk art site, the place where people still practice traditional craft relating to the major draw; 4) the restaurant, someone's cousin's place that offers an incentive to the tour company to bring in the tourists.
This tour started out visiting the lesser site, Ban Po village. It's an Neolithic archaeological site near Xi'an that is vaguely interesting. Some nice old pottery, local farmer's art and strange depressions in the ground that we were told were actually the location of houses and ceremonial sites. There were also some graves containing skeletons from 4000 BCE. Cool. That was relatively painless. Our guide, Jia Jia was also a complete sweetie and made the whole thing almost fun.
Next was the Terracotta factory, where modern day Chinese workers churn out Terracotta warriors for people's shelves and gardens. They range from a couple of inches high to larger than life sized. This was slightly interesting. We were taught how the original figures were made, molds for the body, air drying of the Li mountain clay, kiln firing, hand smoothing and painting, and then the insertion of the separate head. The heads were made individually because each was unique, whereas the bodies are only in 4 types: officer, soldier, archer, horseman. All of this was good background info, but we were ready to go see the real thing. Then came the hard sell. We were led into the warehouse of warriors and lacquered furniture and let loose to hopefully be tempted into buying a keepsake at their inflated prices. They misjudged their targets. We are BACKPACKERS! We're cheap. Not one of us was likely to drop $2,000 US on a lacquered table, or $10,000 US on a larger-than-life-sized terracotta general.
Next on the agenda was lunch. This was when the revolt happened. Led by a likely fella from London, we collectively declined to go to lunch and requested immediate relocation to the Terracotta Army. Flushed with victory, we were quite happy during the one hour drive to the location. Until...we pulled into a hotel parking lot. Hmm, I could have sworn that the tour site didn't have a hotel. It turns out that 2 of our number had quietly indicated that they were hungry, and those 2 outvoted the remaining 8. That was a pitiful revolt. Most of us settled into our nice buffet like proper tourists. The Londoner and a man from Malta were hold-outs, eating their crisps in the lobby until we were done.
Finally, at 2pm, after hours and hours of being driven around and being force-fed both knowledge and lunch, we arrived at the site.
Wow! The army is certainly not up there with the Wall in terms of staggering works of mankind, but I think that #8 in the list is just about right. First, we watched a movie shown in a 9 screen 360 degree cinema. This was a full historical, costume adventure story of the first emperor of the Qin dynasty and his creation of the terracotta army. We were told that the reason he was so cruel was that he ate mercury to extend his life. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect along with the impairment of his mental faculties. Having been insane and cruel, possibly necessary qualities in a man who would conquer and unite the 6 states that became China, Qin Shihuang decided that he would need some back-up in the afterlife. Thus, the Army. It is unbelievable.
The figures were partially ruined and thoroughly smashed only 2 years after the emperor's death when General Xiang Yu led/participated in a peasant uprising that took out part of its aggression on the funerary arrangements of the emperor. It's interesting that Qin Shihuang had his people so terrorized that it took them 2 years to recover enough spirit to wreck his clay army. It's interesting that I never knew the army was found in pieces. All of what we see today has been painstakingly assembled by the shattered remains left behind after the rioters had finished. Also, originally the figures were painted. There is enough chemical residue to know that the faces were pink, the clothes blue and green and the arms were brown, but no visible paint survived the passing millenia. So cool!!!
I could enthuse some more, but I'm sure you get the point. It was quite nice. :)
After getting back (5ish), I agreed to meet Julie and Andrew (from Dublin) in the hostel lobby at 8 to go see the water and light show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Even after showering and changing, that still left loads of time. I made the most of it by heading off to the Muslim Quarter. There's an area of Xi'an that has had a Chinese Muslim (Hui) population since the late 8th century. It contains a great mosque and numerous street food vendors. Seeing ethnic Chinese women wearing head scarves is very odd. Nothing wrong with it, just odd.
The street food was primarily meaty. I did have a delicious sticky rice hemisphere on a stick with fruit syrup, and then had to head back to the hostel to meet my Irish friends. We took the bus out to the Big Goose Pagoda; yes, there is in fact also a Little Wild Goose Pagoda, but not a medium-sized one. There, we dawdled, trying to get a picture of the pagoda at night. Tricky. I had to use my kids & pets setting with no flash and even then, it blurred. Suddenly, the show was starting and the pavilion was packed. We'd left it too late and without a display of incredibly adept shoving, there was no way we'd get the spot we'd intended to watch the show from. Instead, we went around the side.
Imagine a football field. Now divide it into sections. Each section is about 20' long and runs the width of the field. These areas are divided by a 4' wide strip on which people are crowded. Each section is filled with water jets, at the base of which are multicolored lights. At one end of the field, there is a massive main fountain area which is an extra 20 feet wide on either side. There are huge loudspeakers playing instrumental music, and looking over the whole extravaganza is a seven-story Buddhist temple dating to 652 CE and anecdotally linked to the religious merits of vegetarianism. Sidetrack: the story goes that a group of Buddhist monks ate meat regularly. Then, one day they couldn't find meat and so a monk said, "I hope the merciful Bodhisattva will give us some meat." At that moment, a wild goose flying by broke his wings and fell at the monk's feet. Now, a Christian would have taken that to be an answer to prayer and cooked that goose quicker than a wink. This group of monks instead decided that Bodhisattva was ordering them to be more pious. They started building a pagoda where the goose fell and they all stopped eating meat.
All in all, this was an event made to appeal to me. After hanging by the sidelines for a bit, I noticed that the center pedestrian strips were emptying out. Apparently, the locals didn't feel like getting splashed by the fountains. This was a Saturday night and everyone in the city seemed to be here, so finding that empty spot was miraculous. The three of us headed out and watched the remainder of the show from the midst of it. People, especially children and teenagers were daring each other to run through the fountains, trying to time it to avoid getting splashed. It was a giant party.
The party eventually ended and then I was off to Pizza Hut for dinner. Yes, I know. Pitiful. By now, though, it's a tradition. I visit a Pizza Hut in every country that I spend more than a few days in. It's my comfort food. It's the one thing I can count on to taste the same no matter where I happen to be. Also, I hadn't eaten since my forced buffet experience and was starving!
After gulping down my pizza, I went back home to change rooms (my new room was right above the bar, but I have earplugs), go to sleep and get ready for climbing one of China's five Taoist mountains, Hua Shan.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/XiAn
So, there was no question about whether or not I'd be going to Xi'an. Some locations are maybes, some are nos, Xi'an was an unquestioned yes. I flew in, collected my bag (first off the plane), and jumped on the shuttle bus. There, a funny thing happened. Some girl tried to elbow me aside to get a ticket for the bus - there are always more people than tickets for the shuttle bus, so elbowing is required - and I said, "Hey! no shoving me aside!" She spoke a little English and thought that this was hysterical, so she saved me a prime seat at the front of the bus. We talked during the hour long ride into Xi'an's center. Assertiveness really is a positive trait in China.
I was dropped off at the end of the shuttle line in front of the Melody Hotel. I had an address and directions to Shuyuan Hostel, but no clue as to the distance involved and it was sprinkling, so I tried to get a cab. No luck in getting a cabbie to understand where I wanted to go. I swear, I was pronouncing everything correctly. I think that cab drivers just can't understand anything coming from a Westerner. They're distracted by our strange colored hair. So, I set off on foot. This was actually quite nice. I was walking along South Street on a Friday night. There was lots of neon, loads of people and amazing things to look at.
I found my hostel, and it was a lovely 3 story 3 courtyard complex. Beautiful. Before even dumping my bag, I got myself booked onto a Terracotta tour for the next day. Priorities. :) Then, the trouble started. I went down to my $3/night dorm room. Down, because the room was in the basement level. That's fine, I'm only sleeping in my room, I don't really need natural light. However, walking down the stairs, I was met by overpowering varnish fumes. They were remodeling the hostel and the fumes were intense. OK. I can handle it. I open the door to find two sets of bunk beds, a desk and a concrete floor covered in a 2-5 mm thick layer of sediment and old cigarette butts. Yuck. OK, I'm still dealing. I settle in to go to sleep. That's when the swarm of mosquitos struck. Crap. I was too tired to deal with changing rooms that night, so I suffered through it, arising at 8:30 for my tour with relief. I vowed not to spend another night there. This was reinforced by my need to climb upstairs and down a courtyard to use the toilet in the middle of the night. Horrid.
The horrendous night behind me with only 2 mosquito bites to show for it (thank you citronella), I set off with singing spirit for the Terracotta Army. The tour left at 9:40am and I couldn't believe that I was really going to be there in person. Well, I wouldn't actually get there for another few hours. This was a tour in the classic sense of the word. This wasn't transit to the site with a guide once we were there, this was an actual tour. For those who are fortunate enough not to have taken a tour, these fabulous itineraries always include 4 things: 1) the major draw, the thing that people book the tour to see; 2) a lesser draw, something kind of interesting but that you wouldn't go to see if it wasn't included in the tour; 3) a factory/folk art site, the place where people still practice traditional craft relating to the major draw; 4) the restaurant, someone's cousin's place that offers an incentive to the tour company to bring in the tourists.
This tour started out visiting the lesser site, Ban Po village. It's an Neolithic archaeological site near Xi'an that is vaguely interesting. Some nice old pottery, local farmer's art and strange depressions in the ground that we were told were actually the location of houses and ceremonial sites. There were also some graves containing skeletons from 4000 BCE. Cool. That was relatively painless. Our guide, Jia Jia was also a complete sweetie and made the whole thing almost fun.
Next was the Terracotta factory, where modern day Chinese workers churn out Terracotta warriors for people's shelves and gardens. They range from a couple of inches high to larger than life sized. This was slightly interesting. We were taught how the original figures were made, molds for the body, air drying of the Li mountain clay, kiln firing, hand smoothing and painting, and then the insertion of the separate head. The heads were made individually because each was unique, whereas the bodies are only in 4 types: officer, soldier, archer, horseman. All of this was good background info, but we were ready to go see the real thing. Then came the hard sell. We were led into the warehouse of warriors and lacquered furniture and let loose to hopefully be tempted into buying a keepsake at their inflated prices. They misjudged their targets. We are BACKPACKERS! We're cheap. Not one of us was likely to drop $2,000 US on a lacquered table, or $10,000 US on a larger-than-life-sized terracotta general.
Next on the agenda was lunch. This was when the revolt happened. Led by a likely fella from London, we collectively declined to go to lunch and requested immediate relocation to the Terracotta Army. Flushed with victory, we were quite happy during the one hour drive to the location. Until...we pulled into a hotel parking lot. Hmm, I could have sworn that the tour site didn't have a hotel. It turns out that 2 of our number had quietly indicated that they were hungry, and those 2 outvoted the remaining 8. That was a pitiful revolt. Most of us settled into our nice buffet like proper tourists. The Londoner and a man from Malta were hold-outs, eating their crisps in the lobby until we were done.
Finally, at 2pm, after hours and hours of being driven around and being force-fed both knowledge and lunch, we arrived at the site.
Wow! The army is certainly not up there with the Wall in terms of staggering works of mankind, but I think that #8 in the list is just about right. First, we watched a movie shown in a 9 screen 360 degree cinema. This was a full historical, costume adventure story of the first emperor of the Qin dynasty and his creation of the terracotta army. We were told that the reason he was so cruel was that he ate mercury to extend his life. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect along with the impairment of his mental faculties. Having been insane and cruel, possibly necessary qualities in a man who would conquer and unite the 6 states that became China, Qin Shihuang decided that he would need some back-up in the afterlife. Thus, the Army. It is unbelievable.
The figures were partially ruined and thoroughly smashed only 2 years after the emperor's death when General Xiang Yu led/participated in a peasant uprising that took out part of its aggression on the funerary arrangements of the emperor. It's interesting that Qin Shihuang had his people so terrorized that it took them 2 years to recover enough spirit to wreck his clay army. It's interesting that I never knew the army was found in pieces. All of what we see today has been painstakingly assembled by the shattered remains left behind after the rioters had finished. Also, originally the figures were painted. There is enough chemical residue to know that the faces were pink, the clothes blue and green and the arms were brown, but no visible paint survived the passing millenia. So cool!!!
I could enthuse some more, but I'm sure you get the point. It was quite nice. :)
After getting back (5ish), I agreed to meet Julie and Andrew (from Dublin) in the hostel lobby at 8 to go see the water and light show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Even after showering and changing, that still left loads of time. I made the most of it by heading off to the Muslim Quarter. There's an area of Xi'an that has had a Chinese Muslim (Hui) population since the late 8th century. It contains a great mosque and numerous street food vendors. Seeing ethnic Chinese women wearing head scarves is very odd. Nothing wrong with it, just odd.
The street food was primarily meaty. I did have a delicious sticky rice hemisphere on a stick with fruit syrup, and then had to head back to the hostel to meet my Irish friends. We took the bus out to the Big Goose Pagoda; yes, there is in fact also a Little Wild Goose Pagoda, but not a medium-sized one. There, we dawdled, trying to get a picture of the pagoda at night. Tricky. I had to use my kids & pets setting with no flash and even then, it blurred. Suddenly, the show was starting and the pavilion was packed. We'd left it too late and without a display of incredibly adept shoving, there was no way we'd get the spot we'd intended to watch the show from. Instead, we went around the side.
Imagine a football field. Now divide it into sections. Each section is about 20' long and runs the width of the field. These areas are divided by a 4' wide strip on which people are crowded. Each section is filled with water jets, at the base of which are multicolored lights. At one end of the field, there is a massive main fountain area which is an extra 20 feet wide on either side. There are huge loudspeakers playing instrumental music, and looking over the whole extravaganza is a seven-story Buddhist temple dating to 652 CE and anecdotally linked to the religious merits of vegetarianism. Sidetrack: the story goes that a group of Buddhist monks ate meat regularly. Then, one day they couldn't find meat and so a monk said, "I hope the merciful Bodhisattva will give us some meat." At that moment, a wild goose flying by broke his wings and fell at the monk's feet. Now, a Christian would have taken that to be an answer to prayer and cooked that goose quicker than a wink. This group of monks instead decided that Bodhisattva was ordering them to be more pious. They started building a pagoda where the goose fell and they all stopped eating meat.
All in all, this was an event made to appeal to me. After hanging by the sidelines for a bit, I noticed that the center pedestrian strips were emptying out. Apparently, the locals didn't feel like getting splashed by the fountains. This was a Saturday night and everyone in the city seemed to be here, so finding that empty spot was miraculous. The three of us headed out and watched the remainder of the show from the midst of it. People, especially children and teenagers were daring each other to run through the fountains, trying to time it to avoid getting splashed. It was a giant party.
The party eventually ended and then I was off to Pizza Hut for dinner. Yes, I know. Pitiful. By now, though, it's a tradition. I visit a Pizza Hut in every country that I spend more than a few days in. It's my comfort food. It's the one thing I can count on to taste the same no matter where I happen to be. Also, I hadn't eaten since my forced buffet experience and was starving!
After gulping down my pizza, I went back home to change rooms (my new room was right above the bar, but I have earplugs), go to sleep and get ready for climbing one of China's five Taoist mountains, Hua Shan.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Best of Beijing
Fitness Oriented Populace:
Everywhere I went, there were people exercises, playing physical games, dancing etc. I saw:
Cricket, croquet, tennis, dancing, hacky sack, tai chi, cycling, jogging, kung fu practice, handstands, and just people walking.
Many methods of Cycling:
My fave were the people riding pillion on bicycles. You'd see young couples out for a date on one bike with the girl riding sidesaddle on the back of the bike. Parents ride with children in back, people transport all manner of goods using their bikes. They wear slickers in the rain and visors in the sun. There are crowds of bicycles everywhere you go. It's wonderful.
Driving:
Cars, bicycles and pedestrians all share the streets. There are many dedicated bike lanes but crossing the street is a bit difficult. Cars will start turning despite the pedestrians and bikes still crossing. The cars and trucks will just slowly edge their way through the crowd. Cars don't stay in lanes either. Lanes are just suggestions. Whoever is biggest gets the right of way. Buses are faster than cabs because they just bully their way through traffic. Drivers just assume that other cars will get out of their way.
Accent:
The Beijing accent is wonderful. Everyone sounds slightly cartoonish, as if they are tightening their vocal cords while speaking. The arrrrr sound is particularrrly distinctive. It's actually very pleasant to hear.
My rock star status:
Tall and blond, I am an object of interest to people. On the street and on the bus, people take pictures of me with their cell phones. On the wall, they'd request photos with me. I'm not sure what they will do with those photos, but I've been immortalized. Nice.
Everywhere I went, there were people exercises, playing physical games, dancing etc. I saw:
Cricket, croquet, tennis, dancing, hacky sack, tai chi, cycling, jogging, kung fu practice, handstands, and just people walking.
Many methods of Cycling:
My fave were the people riding pillion on bicycles. You'd see young couples out for a date on one bike with the girl riding sidesaddle on the back of the bike. Parents ride with children in back, people transport all manner of goods using their bikes. They wear slickers in the rain and visors in the sun. There are crowds of bicycles everywhere you go. It's wonderful.
Driving:
Cars, bicycles and pedestrians all share the streets. There are many dedicated bike lanes but crossing the street is a bit difficult. Cars will start turning despite the pedestrians and bikes still crossing. The cars and trucks will just slowly edge their way through the crowd. Cars don't stay in lanes either. Lanes are just suggestions. Whoever is biggest gets the right of way. Buses are faster than cabs because they just bully their way through traffic. Drivers just assume that other cars will get out of their way.
Accent:
The Beijing accent is wonderful. Everyone sounds slightly cartoonish, as if they are tightening their vocal cords while speaking. The arrrrr sound is particularrrly distinctive. It's actually very pleasant to hear.
My rock star status:
Tall and blond, I am an object of interest to people. On the street and on the bus, people take pictures of me with their cell phones. On the wall, they'd request photos with me. I'm not sure what they will do with those photos, but I've been immortalized. Nice.
The Summer Gardens, Kung Fu & Massage
On Thursday, I spent a lazy morning online, then had Indian food (delicious) with Fergus before the two of us headed off the the Summer Palace and Gardens. Fergus is the rugged sort of backpacker, so there was no question but that we'd take the bus, or buses as the case actually was. We caught the first bus, under my admirable leadership, with no problem. Then Fergus took the reins firmly in hand, decided that the directions given at the hostel were inadequate and proudly used his 20 words of Chinese to find a different bus than we were told to take that would get us to the palace. Great work! Or, it would have been if he hadn't landed us on the local bus that took an indirect route to the Palace rather than the express bus that we were told to take. ARGH! I had been enjoying the experience of not being the one to research and figure things out and deal with talking to people, but this was a good reminder that when I screw up, I'm only mad at myself. When someone else screws up, it's much more aggravating.
We finally got to the gardens at 3:30. We needed to be on a bus back to the hostel at 5 for me to catch my kung fu show, so we did a whirlwind run up the Hill of Longevity. The Gardens are a huge complex of wilderness and lakes with pagodas and palaces scattered throughout the grounds, hidden from each other. Each spot seems isolated from the world, though there were also wonderful views of modern Beijing in the distance.
Fergus and I wandered as much as we could and then started back. We'd taken photos, run into two more people from the train - I'd also run into some at the Wall, my hostel, and the Forbidden City. Really, it's like each train and plane disperses a horde of insectoid tourists who all follow the scent markers that previous tourists left along the trail. We all go to the same places, generally in the same order.
Anyway, we started back toward the bus. Fergus still stopped to take pictures, though we were in a hurry. This prompted my photo composition of Fergus taking a photo of a pagoda as two points of a triangle, with a giant rock making up the third point. A stinging commentary on his stubborness. :) We eventually got back to the hostel, an hour late for my kung fu show. Fergus had been a decided hindrance the entire way. I was supposed to be there at 6, instead arriving at 5 to 7. When I ran into the hostel, and pantingly asked if I was too late, the girl at the desk laughed and said yes, it was too late. I asked what time the show started. She replied that it started at 7:30. I asked how long it took to get there. She said 45 minutes. I said, great, I don't mind being late. That was that.
I actually arrived 5 minutes before the show started and was so glad to have gone! The kung fu show was really almost operatic. It was the story of "The Pure One", his boyhood, young manhood, descent into temptation, repentance and ascension to the position of abbott of the temple. It was amazing!!! These guys are all much better acrobats than the acrobats. I absolutely loved it. If you're in Beijing, it's at the Red Theater and is truly amazing. Skip the acrobatic show and go straight for the kung fu.
The next day, I was even lazier and spent the whole morning lounging before going to the spa for my $12 80 minute massage and $5 best pedicure of my life. It was so great. I want to have $12 massages at home. Why can't we? Let's issue work permits for more masseuses rather than for computer scientists.
At 4, I needed to leave to get to the airport. I had waited too long to book my train ticket to Xi'an, and all that was left was standing tickets. That was not going to happen. 1st class is the soft sleeper; 2nd is the hard sleeper, still good; then comes the never category of hard seat (just a chair crammed in with the locals) and standing (what it sounds like - if you're lucky, you can try to sleep on the floor). I decided to fly.
The airport is fabulous. Everything is in English and Chinese, and most personnel speak English. I saw lots of monks, including one with a head tattoo talking on a cell phone. I also met a business man from Houston who'd been to 3 cities already that day and was on his way to inspect a 4th steel mill. He told me about the pleasure of eating cockroach and live eel soup. He said that between banquets, he always stopped at McDonalds or KFC.
Beijing airport shuttles passengers out to the tarmac. I loitered, watching the planes, and was one of the last ones to board. I got back to row 24, only to find my precious window seat occupied by a middle-aged Australian woman. I double checked my ticket and said, "Hi, I think that's my seat." Pause, no response. Triple check the ticket. "Yes, 24A, that's my seat." Pause, husband in the center seat glares, woman scowls, "Yeah, but I can still sit here. Right????" This said very pugnaciously as if by sheer force of personality she could quash me into the aisle seat. "Yes, except, that's my seat and I like to sit by the window." Victory. It was funny, she and her husband both acted as if I was entirely rude and unreasonable to want to sit in my own assigned seat that I'd been smart enough to request in advance. Loons.
That victory under my belt, I watched the surprisingly dim lights of Beijing fade into the distance and made my way to Xi'an.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/Beijing
We finally got to the gardens at 3:30. We needed to be on a bus back to the hostel at 5 for me to catch my kung fu show, so we did a whirlwind run up the Hill of Longevity. The Gardens are a huge complex of wilderness and lakes with pagodas and palaces scattered throughout the grounds, hidden from each other. Each spot seems isolated from the world, though there were also wonderful views of modern Beijing in the distance.
Fergus and I wandered as much as we could and then started back. We'd taken photos, run into two more people from the train - I'd also run into some at the Wall, my hostel, and the Forbidden City. Really, it's like each train and plane disperses a horde of insectoid tourists who all follow the scent markers that previous tourists left along the trail. We all go to the same places, generally in the same order.
Anyway, we started back toward the bus. Fergus still stopped to take pictures, though we were in a hurry. This prompted my photo composition of Fergus taking a photo of a pagoda as two points of a triangle, with a giant rock making up the third point. A stinging commentary on his stubborness. :) We eventually got back to the hostel, an hour late for my kung fu show. Fergus had been a decided hindrance the entire way. I was supposed to be there at 6, instead arriving at 5 to 7. When I ran into the hostel, and pantingly asked if I was too late, the girl at the desk laughed and said yes, it was too late. I asked what time the show started. She replied that it started at 7:30. I asked how long it took to get there. She said 45 minutes. I said, great, I don't mind being late. That was that.
I actually arrived 5 minutes before the show started and was so glad to have gone! The kung fu show was really almost operatic. It was the story of "The Pure One", his boyhood, young manhood, descent into temptation, repentance and ascension to the position of abbott of the temple. It was amazing!!! These guys are all much better acrobats than the acrobats. I absolutely loved it. If you're in Beijing, it's at the Red Theater and is truly amazing. Skip the acrobatic show and go straight for the kung fu.
The next day, I was even lazier and spent the whole morning lounging before going to the spa for my $12 80 minute massage and $5 best pedicure of my life. It was so great. I want to have $12 massages at home. Why can't we? Let's issue work permits for more masseuses rather than for computer scientists.
At 4, I needed to leave to get to the airport. I had waited too long to book my train ticket to Xi'an, and all that was left was standing tickets. That was not going to happen. 1st class is the soft sleeper; 2nd is the hard sleeper, still good; then comes the never category of hard seat (just a chair crammed in with the locals) and standing (what it sounds like - if you're lucky, you can try to sleep on the floor). I decided to fly.
The airport is fabulous. Everything is in English and Chinese, and most personnel speak English. I saw lots of monks, including one with a head tattoo talking on a cell phone. I also met a business man from Houston who'd been to 3 cities already that day and was on his way to inspect a 4th steel mill. He told me about the pleasure of eating cockroach and live eel soup. He said that between banquets, he always stopped at McDonalds or KFC.
Beijing airport shuttles passengers out to the tarmac. I loitered, watching the planes, and was one of the last ones to board. I got back to row 24, only to find my precious window seat occupied by a middle-aged Australian woman. I double checked my ticket and said, "Hi, I think that's my seat." Pause, no response. Triple check the ticket. "Yes, 24A, that's my seat." Pause, husband in the center seat glares, woman scowls, "Yeah, but I can still sit here. Right????" This said very pugnaciously as if by sheer force of personality she could quash me into the aisle seat. "Yes, except, that's my seat and I like to sit by the window." Victory. It was funny, she and her husband both acted as if I was entirely rude and unreasonable to want to sit in my own assigned seat that I'd been smart enough to request in advance. Loons.
That victory under my belt, I watched the surprisingly dim lights of Beijing fade into the distance and made my way to Xi'an.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/Beijing
The (insert superlative here) Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is just that, GREAT! It was unbelievable. I booked a trip to hike the wall from Jinshanlin to Simatai. It was definitely the best way to see the wall. The old-style way for tourists to see the wall is to go to Badaling which is closer to central Beijing. From people I've spoken to, that is a little disappointing. The hike was more than I'd hoped for, so I'd really recommend the hike.
At 7am, I caught a shuttle bus with the other 15 people booked on the tour. I was the last one on the bus, so got the "undesirable" seat in the back of the bus, in the aisle, sandwiched in with three guys. There was nothing to stop me from flying through the windshield in the case of an accident - no seatbelts or seats in front of me. However, I did have an hour to chat up my seatmates and made friends to hike with. Bonus! It would have been awful to have no one to share my raptures over the wall with. The boys were: Motohiro "Hiro", a controller for a French company in Tokyo; Fergus, a PhD candidate in theoretical astrophysics - also a mountain climber in his spare time; and James a solicitor in London.
At the wall, we discovered that we'd arrived on the day of the Great Wall Marathon! So cool. There were runners doing loops back and forth along the wall. It was amazing. For any marathoners reading this blog, try it! It's the marathon I'm doing if I ever go insane and decide to run a marathon. You just need strong ankles to get you over the rough bits on the wall.
First, my little cadre encountered a problem when we arrived last at the wall to find our group gone and two directions to go in with nothing to indicate which was correct. The map that we were shown before leaving the bus seemed to say go right, while Hiro was sure that we were told to turn left at the wall. Eventually, we ran into other people who all agreed that Simatai was to the left. Just to be contrary, we still hiked right to a tower with a great view of the path we were not taking, then turned around and went toward Simatai. Every time we passed a marathoner, we'd stop to clap and whistle and say, "come on, you can do it!!"
We hiked 6 kilometers of the wall, passing 30 towers. Some bits were restored to smoothness and ease, other patches were a little rougher and even dangerous. One woman had an intense fear of heights and had problems with that. What the entire stretch had in common was breath stopping beauty. Every step was the view of a lifetime. It was unbelievable. I still have to give Petra the top spot for my favorite place ever, but the wall is firmly ensconced in the number two spot. I might be influenced by the endorphin release of the hike and the adrenaline bursts when traversing a tricky descent from a tower, but it was truly amazing. The best bit was, all 4 of us agreed that this was a moment that would never come again, and so we took our time, stopping for photos or just a quiet moment whenever we wanted with no one getting impatient at the stop.
At the end of it all was the zip line down to the car park. AWESOME! It actually didn't go very fast, but the views of the wall and the river were amazing. At the bottom, we caught a boat to take us across the river to the car park to get back on the bus back to Beijing. We were the last to arrive and unapologetic for it.
In Beijing, we all took much needed showers and then went out to an Asian Fusion restaurant for a huge spread of food. Everything was delicious. The asparagus with white water lily buds and carrots there is amazing. We also experienced baiju for the first time. Baiju is the local hard alcohol. At 56% alcohol, it's akin to drinking paint thinner. I took one whiff and declined to partake. The men (after climbing the great wall, a male is allowed to call himself a man according to Chairman Mao) all tried a sip and then Fergus kept the bottle to try washing his shoes with.
Over dinner, we chatted about this that and the other, but kept circling back to the wall. Most things, you can learn about from home. You can visit museums, do interactive tours of the Louvre online, etc. Hiking the Great Wall of China is one of those things that you really need to actually go do. It is an experience that I don't think would be possible to regret.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/Beijing
At 7am, I caught a shuttle bus with the other 15 people booked on the tour. I was the last one on the bus, so got the "undesirable" seat in the back of the bus, in the aisle, sandwiched in with three guys. There was nothing to stop me from flying through the windshield in the case of an accident - no seatbelts or seats in front of me. However, I did have an hour to chat up my seatmates and made friends to hike with. Bonus! It would have been awful to have no one to share my raptures over the wall with. The boys were: Motohiro "Hiro", a controller for a French company in Tokyo; Fergus, a PhD candidate in theoretical astrophysics - also a mountain climber in his spare time; and James a solicitor in London.
At the wall, we discovered that we'd arrived on the day of the Great Wall Marathon! So cool. There were runners doing loops back and forth along the wall. It was amazing. For any marathoners reading this blog, try it! It's the marathon I'm doing if I ever go insane and decide to run a marathon. You just need strong ankles to get you over the rough bits on the wall.
First, my little cadre encountered a problem when we arrived last at the wall to find our group gone and two directions to go in with nothing to indicate which was correct. The map that we were shown before leaving the bus seemed to say go right, while Hiro was sure that we were told to turn left at the wall. Eventually, we ran into other people who all agreed that Simatai was to the left. Just to be contrary, we still hiked right to a tower with a great view of the path we were not taking, then turned around and went toward Simatai. Every time we passed a marathoner, we'd stop to clap and whistle and say, "come on, you can do it!!"
We hiked 6 kilometers of the wall, passing 30 towers. Some bits were restored to smoothness and ease, other patches were a little rougher and even dangerous. One woman had an intense fear of heights and had problems with that. What the entire stretch had in common was breath stopping beauty. Every step was the view of a lifetime. It was unbelievable. I still have to give Petra the top spot for my favorite place ever, but the wall is firmly ensconced in the number two spot. I might be influenced by the endorphin release of the hike and the adrenaline bursts when traversing a tricky descent from a tower, but it was truly amazing. The best bit was, all 4 of us agreed that this was a moment that would never come again, and so we took our time, stopping for photos or just a quiet moment whenever we wanted with no one getting impatient at the stop.
At the end of it all was the zip line down to the car park. AWESOME! It actually didn't go very fast, but the views of the wall and the river were amazing. At the bottom, we caught a boat to take us across the river to the car park to get back on the bus back to Beijing. We were the last to arrive and unapologetic for it.
In Beijing, we all took much needed showers and then went out to an Asian Fusion restaurant for a huge spread of food. Everything was delicious. The asparagus with white water lily buds and carrots there is amazing. We also experienced baiju for the first time. Baiju is the local hard alcohol. At 56% alcohol, it's akin to drinking paint thinner. I took one whiff and declined to partake. The men (after climbing the great wall, a male is allowed to call himself a man according to Chairman Mao) all tried a sip and then Fergus kept the bottle to try washing his shoes with.
Over dinner, we chatted about this that and the other, but kept circling back to the wall. Most things, you can learn about from home. You can visit museums, do interactive tours of the Louvre online, etc. Hiking the Great Wall of China is one of those things that you really need to actually go do. It is an experience that I don't think would be possible to regret.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/Beijing
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