My favorite noodle place will have to be revisited the next time I return to Xi’an. I settled for a nearby food stand that made stuffed fried bread. I liked the fennel and dill stuffing and when it is freshly made, hot and crispy on the outside, soft-chewy and juicy on the inside, oh it is just so good. They were 1 yuan each. I bought three. I ate one there and took two for the road.
The train was full, packed with people. This train’s final destination is the capital of Xinjiang. After getting settled in, thoughts of worry and fear ran through my mind. It scares me that I will be arriving at night. I have to watch out for thieves who cut through bags. I have to watch out for cabs without official license. Then the train broad casts things to be aware of when you are asleep. Aside from your belongings, one of it was getting needled injections that puts you out so the thieves can search through your things on your body. This scared me even more. I realized my new hot pink stuffed donkey travel companion was not going to be enough. I decided I better lean on my Buddhist practice of reciting mantras, sutras, meditation as my most reliable traveling companion and insurance for assurance.
A lady from Hangzhou who has been traveling in Xinjiang told me when traveling by myself in this part of China that it would be best for me to just visit the Mogao Cave paintings and leave Dunhuang and skip the Jade Gate and others for a different time when I am not traveling by myself. Jade Gate, Yumen is the historical sight where it separates China and the rest if the Silk Route nations. She tells me it’s rough out there and she encountered problems of being cheated.
Fear of being cheated, what’s this about? Its just a loss of money. How about safety? What am I afraid of? Fear of being preyed upon? What’s this about? How about being in the dark, alone at night? All these fears, what is it all about? When was Ven. Hsuan Hua scared? What did he do? Was Hsuan Zhang of the Tang Dynasty scared? What did he to with his fears? I guess it is my journey in this journey to overcome my fears somehow.
This was my first train ride experience in China on hard sleeper berth. I had top sleeper berth. I heard it is better for getting rest. On the lowest bunk, the good side is you get to sit up and have a table by the window. The draw backs are it’s too close to the track, very loud, noisy, and bumpy. During the day people may just sit in your bunk like a seat. On the top, the most expensive berth, no one will want to climb that high and it’s obvious when your things are being stolen or when you are being searched. People will have to climb over two berths to get to the top. I like the hard berth. I thought it would be direct plastic or metal or wood contact. But it is cushioned just the way I like it. It’s like a futon consistency. The soft berth has actual mattress and doors to close the berth like a room to keep the noise down. Some trains have TVs in each bunk of 6 but this train doesn’t have one.
I got plenty of rest on the train. I didn’t realize how tired I was from my travels so far and in general from my life. The bus rides were too rough and long for me. Here I can lay down, sit and walk around. There is even a restaurant on the train. The restrooms are locked whenever the train stops. I have to time my restroom runs according to the line and the stops.
There is a deep yearning within me for my life to be simple. To wake up each day and do martial arts, drink tea, attend to my garden, practice my Buddhist studies, cook a fun healthy meal, read a book, do art work, do community service, have more tea with friends, watch the green humming birds fly and enjoy nature, go on a nice hike , bake some goodies, and call it a day. Anything and anyone that is not in alignment to support this rhythm makes me tired and I just repel from it all.
The momentum of this year has been pushing me to be on this journey in Asia that I have been resisting and delaying. Somehow this was the only way for me to set everything aside and put all my energy on changes I would make during this trip and it would require all my attention. What are these changes? I don’t know yet. If I did ahead of time, I may outsmart myself and ruin it all and avoid it completely.
I’ve been in China for only two weeks and I feel like it has been a long time. A part of me wants to be done with my journey and go home. But then what? I would just be back and I’d have to do this all over again because it was left incomplete. I am only two weeks in and I know somehow I have to go all the way to February of 2007. Until then, my journey will be incomplete. That is a long time from now. Although I have comforted myself and given myself plenty of permission to turn around and fly home whenever I decided to call it, I hope to somehow make full use of this unique opportunity one step at a time. I am aware the two places I am not to miss are Tibet and India and everything else is just a warm up, icing on the cake. I don’t know if I can make it into Tibet and I don’t have the courage to do India by myself.
The day pack I used in my last European backpacking trip fell part. I replaced it in Xi’an for 25yuan. It is quite flimsy but it will do for now. My internal pack of 10 years is holding up. I hope it hold up all the way. I have used it for all sorts of travels and camping trips in the last decade. I thought it was over priced when I bought it but now it has been well worth it. I had to buy it because it was the only pack that fit my body frame, everything else was made for taller larger built western bodies.
I am learning it is really important for locals to know where each other is from. Natives think I am from Zhejiang. This was fine with me because it’s also where Putuo Shan is home of Guan Yin Bodhisattva in China. In the cities, the young people are hired for jobs at the airport, stores, etc… The older aged people are sweeping the streets, cleaning toilets, hauling carts.
My neighbor is a 21 year old girl from Xinjiang capitol of Uremoquoi. She sings professionally in Ge Wu Tuan, Song Dance Group. She has a beautiful voice. It looks like she has had very little formal education. She relies mainly on her conventional wits to get by. She went to visit her friends in Baoji and appears to be nervous about getting back. We had various conversations and kept each other company. She was curious of everything about me down to the lotion I was using for my hands. She had never seen ear plugs before and I let her try my ear plugs and my lotion. She didn’t directly ask me of things she wanted to know and learn from me. Maybe it wasn’t in her habit to do so. She just watched and learned instead. She was a very nice person. I handed her a piece of seaweed, her eyes lit up and smiled like a little kid in receiving. She's never had it before and I ended up giving her the whole pack even though I was very hungry. She must have had to fight hard for everything in life. Just a little sharing of seaweed made her light up like a Christmas tree. I felt sad that she had very little formal education training and that from her profession her best bets are to go single and run a small business like a shop or marry a n+ divorced old man. That's too bad she's lovely sweet and talented just not in a great field or in a very prosperous city where woman can climb the social ladder. When we parted there was sadness in her eyes that our paths would not cross again this life.
I landed in Liu Yuan train station and I ended up sharing a taxi with three other local women heading for Dunhuang. It took one and half hours and we each paid the local price of 30yuan. I was happy to be sharing a taxi with local women we chatted the whole way about everything, they were good company to have. On the taxi they cleared away any possibility of getting ripped off and being in any physical danger with the driver. They each had stories like mine of getting dropped off middle of nowhere at night and the driver demanding more money etc…
My taxi driver offered his service of driving me around for a day for 150 yuan. I felt 100 yuan was doable but not 150 yuan. I was dropped off at my reserved hotel for 146 yuan for a double bedroom in a so called three stars hotel. It’s quite nice for Chinese standards and clean too. They promised hot shower but there wasn’t any. I really like getting hot drinking water in a canteen delivered to my room. I like being able to make tea in the morning. The driver told me there was a train line that opened up in August from Dunhuang to Lan Zhou and it leaves 6:45pm tomorrow. It is very dry and cold here in this region and I was not prepared at all for this weather
Showing posts with label China Beijing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Beijing. Show all posts
Forbidden City
With the rest of the afternoon I decided to go to the Forbidden City. It 's really not that big now. It’s only a fraction of what it’s original design. I find it amazing that it even stayed in tact through the revolution. I was a bit disappointed because it seems grander in the movies. There are some very nice artifacts. Just imagine the ones that are lost, robbed, destroyed, must be even better. People fight and die for this stuff,.. stuff, stuff, all stuff. But they were beautiful, intricate and delicate, wow.
The courtyards for the court women were tiny, it looks like a boring life to me to be stuck in a tiny room having only certain access of mobility depending on your status. I guess that's why they have to create their own TV drama to pass the day. I think it's all the foot bonding thing that they can't move around much on their own and do tai chi or yoga to balance their chi. I also enjoyed the functional and artistic designs of the gutter spouts. I like it when things are not only functional but beautiful too.
Cheng the Underground Buddhist
Yesterday I stopped by the bookstore of Fa Yuan Shi and saw a flyer selling tickets for Buddha Tooth Relic exhibition. This event is only available once a year to the public for 5 to 7 days. I am glad I came across the flyer. Guess, I lucked out.
I got onto the metro system for the first time today to go to LingGuang Shi and bowed to the Buddha Tooth Sharira. I stood and waited for a seat to open up and sit down. An opening showed up in front of me, as I leaned forward for the seat, a man one seat over slid over to my seat and blocked my seat by claiming it for himself even though he already had a seat. He strategically performed this smooth act to make sure I couldn’t sit but everyone else could. This grandfather looked away nervously as if he knew nothing of such a maneuver he just performed. I laughed to myself and continued to stand. I wondered what kind of life this person must have gone through to have to develop such a habit in order to make room to take care of his own.
I ended up sitting across from the blocked seat. I watched these elders who have facial feature of abundant blessings. Yet they are unhappy people. Their faces were grey and lacked light. What are blessings without wisdom? It is like having access to a pantry of unlimited top quality baking supplies to bake perfect goodies,
this is blessings. And without the recipe, wisdom, the potential of these ingredients are not able to be put to its full potential use.
As I exited the metro I asked other passengers about what bus to take to get to Ling Guang Shi. A woman who happened to be going to the same place told me to follow her. I told her I was there to bow to the Buddha’s Tooth Relic. She was happy to have met me and disappointed she didn’t know about this, otherwise she would have pulled her son out of school to do the same. She had just decided on a whim this morning to visit the monastery because she really wanted to read the Surangama Sutra and hopes to locate one for her to take home to read. The interesting part was she was illiterate.
On the bus, I told her stories I remembered from the sutra to encourage her interest in continuing to read the sutra all the way through. I quickly realized the entire bus was attentively listening in and decided to invest in this opportunity, so I just kept sharing bits and pieces until it was my stop to get off.
This local Beijing woman’s name was Cheng. She decided on her own to be my tour guide for the monastery. The place was filled with people of all sorts of backgrounds, it was quite a circus scene. They make the viewing possible publicly once a year this time of the year. While waiting in line for the viewing Cheng asked me about my practice. I told her, my basic practice is done twice a day, after waking up and before going to bed. It involves recitation of sutras, mantra, and meditation. To me, the important part isn’t how much, and that more isn’t better. Or even what, every dharma door is the best if it works for you.
She complained of how difficult it is to come across dharma talks, books, etc… It takes special connections just to learn something. She gets her information from friends who know friends of friends of this or that particular province in the south who is able to access dharma teachings from teacher in Taiwan. Oh, what long complicated journeys just to get a tiny access to dharma. I felt so sorry for her. She wanted to share her very special blessed pendant with me if I cared to receive it. Cheng said, it’s limited in quantity because it has to be snuck in and it is of popular demand.
I learned she specifically wanted to request Shurangama Sutra to read and wanted to read commentary by Ven. Hsuan Hua. She was a bit illiterate so I called my friend Victor in Shanghai and he recommended sound files for her to listen to downloadable off the web. I was glad for her because how was she going to read when she can’t? She said she’ll listen while she works around the house.
Cheng had beautiful ears but her face had sharp lines of anger. I think when she gets going, she can strike intense lightening. She envied that I was single. She said if she had encountered Buddhism earlier in her life she would probably not be married with children right now. I reminded her that we all have our life lessons to grow into with the affinities we laid out for ourselves and in the end we all get there. That grass if often seen greener on the other side of the fence.
Cheng insisted to buy me lunch and I think her budget was a bowl of noodles and not anything else. Honestly I really wanted to have some dumplings for $1 more, but since she felt the needed to show me hospitality, I was not going to upset her by paying on my own because dumplings were out of her budget. She also insisted I bow to every image and light incense to everyone. I just politely followed her and smoked myself to death by stepping close to the burner, lovely just lovely. On tope of it all, they blasted these so called Buddhist songs over the intercom but it was more like china slow love song. It was not centering or grounding.
The pagoda for viewing of the relic was filled with people. We were instructed on how to hold the incense and how to bow and what to recite etc… There were so many rules to worry about carried out on military tempo that it was very difficult to enjoy the whole supposedly sacred experience.
Cheng and I parted with her inviting me to stay with her next time I am in Beijing and that if I should have any difficulty in Beijing airport, I should call her husband who works there.
"Not Here"
After an entire evening of stinky muddy rain, I could actually see blue sky instead of grey fuzz. It took me all day to learn that the people of Beijing will not tell me no, they don’t know, when it comes to directions. When asked, “where is this place and how do I get there from here,” I learned the typical answer is, “not here.” This means they don’t know and they are afraid to tell me they don’t know. They are being very polite in taking the time to respond but this creates foggy communication and vagueness in directions means lots of time spent going in circles. As a rule of thumb when it comes down to asking for directions, I always ask three different people and when all three gives me consistent answers, it’s a go. Asking others for directions was easy but the directions given were confusing. I often find myself taking detours. I just have to give myself a lea way of an extra 2+ hours for taking detours. It's a good thing I am not on any time constraint I can adjust my own schedule.
I went to Fa Yuan Shi where they have an excellent collection of Buddhist Images that goes way back. It was such a treat for me. It’s better than most museum displays. I really enjoyed details on the sculptures and stone tablatures. It is interesting to see the old and the new. The new guardians for the doors are a pair of bronze lions of the new modern world. They look like robotech lion guardians. The new fish bell replacing the old also has similar feel of strength and power that screams “Look at me, I am here, hear me roar, better not mess with me.”
As I wondered around taking my time to look at each artifact closely, residents kept a distant close watch of me. A lay female volunteer chewed me out for taking my jacket off in front of a sacred image. She could have used such an opportunity to educate me but instead she decided to use the Dharma as a whip and I ran as far away as I could from her. Knowledge is power, she hung onto it herself so that no one can question her knowledge and no one else can have knowledge to correct, to change, to adjust but to remain stuck, ignorant making the same mistake over and over again. In a monastery of male monks, I guess this was how she hung onto measuring of her self worth through. I didn’t count this against the monastery or the Buddhas. This episode did not tarnish my joy in visiting the artifacts.
I was given directions Tiantan, a.k.a. Temple of Heaven where Emperor Qianlong made sacrificial offerings and prayers for behalf of country's well being. I ended up going in circles. During one of my detours I came across a high school just out on a break for lunch. There were two Islamic veggie wrap stands outside the front gate. I stood in line for a wrap and watched how the students waited in line while school staff cut in front of them without any questions or struggle. It was a right, a kind of exercise of authority without “excuse me, or thank you”. The students kept their eyes on me and their body language closely huddled in around the vendor. They were prepared to let me cut in if I choose to inflict authority based on age, but if I didn’t they weren’t going to give in and offer to let me to go first. They maintained their stance and worked around circumstances. I decided to stir things up by communicating to the female vendor what my order was and putting 1/2 yuan for me order into the coin can. I watched how she being a good business person politely acknowledged my order while repeating the students order to them to affirm their daily relationship. It was all very smoothly handled. It was fun for me to watch this and learn from it. For lunch I had a veggie Islamic wrap without the fermented tofu paste. It was very delicious.
Having eaten my fill, I walked around trying to locate the site. I found myself walking in circles. An hour plus later, I was back at where I started. I came across a street sweeper. He was a nice middle aged man with crooked teeth who helped me locate the right bus to get on and also the right bus stand to wait in. He stopped sweeping and trained me on how to physically walk in a crowd, ride on buses alone as a single female from out of town. He made sure my day pack was in front of me. He tipped me on how to stand in a crowd and pay attention to all my belongings that was on me. I felt the Heavens put me on this detour so I can come across this nice man who gave me a quick training on travel safety. He stayed with me until I got onto my bus. Even through the window he was still running through the drills he just trained me on. It was a heart warming scene to part in.
At the Temple of Heaven, I was told the most important sight was the sound wall which was under construction. I visited the sacrificial offering preparation site, I found it to be odd that the Emperor goes into a fast and then kills all these animals at the end of the fast. Didn’t anyone have the brains to say, “this doesn’t make sense?” Well, I walked all over the site and found myself a bit bored. Having walked so much that day I had to stop to give myself foot massages under beautiful pavilions.
I noticed that native Chinese people like to go to the park to play instruments and sing classical Chinese opera. I can't quite say I enjoy it. It sure is interesting to watch and has a distinct sound. They bring tea, fruits, and seeds to munch on during their performance breaks.
Afterwards I visited the Hong Qiao tourist market. Wow, if Beijing was my last stop, I’d stop at these markets and buy lots of gifts.
On the way to dinner I stopped by a travel agency to buy a plane ticket to Datong, Shannxi to visit the Yungang Grottos. I didn’t check the change that was given to me, it was only later right after I left I realized the young male agent kept an extra 30 yuan to himself. I had wondered why he was going all out to be extra nice to me. He had counted the change correctly back to me except there was the shortage of 30 yuan I didn’t catch. I was paying too much attention to the confusion in trying to figure out what his body was communicating to me and I didn’t understand then but it was all new to me. I later learned it was about, “I am going to keep some of the change for myself and this will be our silent agreement.” I didn’t go back to demand 30 yuan from him. I decided to let this be a 30 yuan lesson of checking my own change in the future.
For dinner I found an Islamic Sichuan Sour Spicy noodle stand. It stood in front of a Islamic eatery that was empty inside and had posting of, “not Islamic, no entry”. I was shocked. This little noodle stand was busy, people ate here and ordered packed food to go. I watched the ingredients for this dish and new I could eat it. I asked for no pungent or meat ingredients incase there were grounds or shredded meat added that I didn’t detect. One of the worker decided to make a scene of it with what I requested by screaming my order out loud. There was only one other worker in this tiny little stand and she was standing right next to her. Then I saw her eyes communicating something to the other worker and at the corner of her lips grew a smirk. I was a bit worried, “What will they add to my food? No, they’re not that lame to take the time to do that.” My order showed up topped with two tiny little pieces of meat. I knew this was made especially for me since this style of noodle is vegetarian. I understood the smirk. I could have request for them to remake my food but with such a sign of pride to not serve anyone who is not Islamic inside, I would give them an excuse for being their entertainment for the evening and their trash can. They both stood and stared at me waiting for me next move. I decided to remove the two pieces of meat off my noodles and ate the noodles. “What’s the sound of one hand clapping.” The noodles were delicious and authentic. I think I will pick up the courage to come back for more tomorrow night and request the same order
Today was filled with lessons in learning how to ask for direcitons and also receive directions from others, it was also a day of physical training in walking on foot with all the detours I took, all and all, I end up running into people who taught me something with their kindness or hardness.
Black Cabs
I left for Asia with a round trip ticket and the remaining thousand dollars in my account for me to stretch as long as possible. I heard it was cheap to travel in Asia. I brought one internal backpack, one day pack, two sets of clothes, gloves, hat, lotion, ear plugs, two journals, one pen, a jacket, a camera, lots emergency of medicine.
I sat on the compact seating arrangements of UA flight direct from San Francisco to Beijing. My neighbors were two middle aged Beijing women in their 40’s. When they speak they prefer to use their broken English than their fluent Mandarin with each other. I found it to be cute and funny. They think I am in my early 20’s. Maybe I look so, maybe I act so, maybe they assume single, traveling means so. They were a funny bunch and chatted away whenever they weren’t napping. They gave me advices on keeping my valuables on my body at all times and how not to get into “hei che”“Black Cars”. Black cars are unlicensed, illegal tricycle motor bike taxi cabs. When I ate the plane food, I told myself that it would be the last western meal I would have in a long time. I did not sleep on the plane, the chair was too uncomfortable in the tight economy class or maybe I am just getting old. This was my first time in China. I had heard so many terrible stories from so many people, I really didn’t know what to expect. I was excited, nervous, scared and way overdue for a fun adventure. I told everyone who bid me a safe and fun journey that they may not miss me too long, they may see me back in a week.
At the airport I exited in search of a bus to drop me off near my hostel. I was nervous, I didn’t know what to expect, what I would get. A young man in his early 20’s was at the post and sold me a ticket for the airport shuttle into HuTong District of Beijing where my hostel was. I quickly noticed how most of the people working at the airport were young professionals and quite new at their job. People were all very polite, helpful, gentle. I hopped onto my bus and starred out the window. I watched the workers interact with each other. I saw in their 20’s there was still a sort of kind innocence preserved within them. It was beautiful to see and I knew I was in Asia. From the outside in, a passerby would find a big smile on my face pasted to the clean window. The other passengers were all local Beijing young adults, dressed fashionably. I quickly noticed how their attentions were all on their cell phones. People had hip new models, no one was carrying a two year old model. Everyone was busy text messaging, something I haven’t grown a habit to because my phone plan charges me complicated charges for this service.
As the bus drives through Beijing the bright orange red sunset illuminated through the air of thick grey pollution in the air. It has been so grey for that even the foliages on the trees were coated in thick grey dust. I felt like I was traveling through a “Dark City” scene but in Beijing. With this pollution there is lack of clarity, it all felt very surreal and beautiful in it’s own way.
I arrived in Beijing on a Friday when the entire city was getting off work. The bike lane is bigger than the car lane. A typical scene is a man riding a bike and a lady sitting in the back behind him side ways with one hand gently place on his belly, not wrapped, not hugged, placed. There is a classical gentleman feel to this model that is not often seen in the west now a days.
I got off at the Xican station and by now after slow Friday traffic jam the night has fallen and all the lights were on. I tried to flag a taxi down with lots of trouble due to my inexperience. While I scouted around, I was approached by sharks of the “Black Cabs” inviting me to get onto one right out in the open. Yes these cabs are black. They were persistent in promoting and selling the cabs to me, but not once did I feel I was physically in danger. I did the no eye contact thing and look off in a distant. I tried to share a taxi with another stranger just to get onto a cab. The man jumped in while I was still standing outside asking the driver if he would drive me to my hostel. The passenger yelled at me, “you’ll never get onto a taxi this way, get in the cab first and don’t get out until he drives you to the place you want to go with the proper agreed price of meter or set price!” The driver didn’t know where my hostel was, this man was kind enough to call with his cell phone to get directions for me. Then he kindly got out of the car and waited to get onto another cab because we were heading in different directions. I later learned where I was staying, the streets are tight and hardly any driver would risk driving through those streets in fear of damaging their car and so they pretended to not know where the hostel was. We approached a dark, old run down neighborhood with streets barely wide enough for the compact car. Then he pointed to the Youth Hostel sign, ah…. after 12+ hours on the plane and 3 hours in Friday night traffic, lots of time spent getting a cab, I have arrived in my Far East Youth Hostel. What glorious light in the dark in an area like a dismal part of the world. I gave the driver 11yuan for the trip. It's a youth hostel with European room standards. It's clean with white sheets. Asian system of shower and squatting toilet bowls, and yes must provide own paper. At least it has free unlimited internet access. It is $8 a bed per night. I think I will stay here for my entire Beijing stay. The exchange rate is good at the airport, even better at the hostel. The shuttle was $2.50 and then the taxi was $1.4 to get here. I bought a map of Beijing and will do ancient architectural tour tomorrow. Being so tired, I found it a hassle to eat out. I ended up locating a delicious Sichuan Spicy Source vegetarian instant noodle from the store next door. My first meal in Beijing was not the most healthy or nutritious, but it was quick and easy, this meant more time to sleep.
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