Last Day in Xi'an

Today was the official last day in Xi’an for both of us. Corey has a flight home to Shanghai tomorrow and I bought a train ticket to Dunhuang through the hostel. I didn’t want to bother with cramming with hundreds of locals at the train station during holiday week to buy my train ticket. I paid an extra 30 yuan for the service. At times like this, its money well spent. The ticket cost 228 yuan in the end. It is a 26 hour sleeper train ride to Dunhuang the very north west of Gansu province. My ticket takes me to Liu Yuan and it will be another 120 kil to Dunhuang. My ticket tells me I arrive 8:20pm and I will have another 120 kil to go on a taxi. It is a bad idea to arrive so late at night, alone in an unfamiliar place. Somehow I was unable to get the train ticket goes directly from Xi’an to Dunhuang.

In preparation for the train ride I decided to travel like the locals and carry a snack bag. I went to the local supermarket chain store and bought food and water for my 26 hour journey. I forgot to bring something very important from US, my head lamp so I added a small handy flash light to my daily pack.

Hand Blown Candy Tiger

Corey wanted to climb the very steep Hua Shan today but the pollution was terrible like a thick fog that there could be road block and we may risk spending the entire day stuck on a bus. So we decided to visit the Calligraphy street and tour the Steles Museum.

We both wanted to take home a hand crafted mask but we didn’t know how to lug it home. We settled on a traditional local hand sown stuffed donkey. I bought a bright hot pink one for 5 yuan. I enjoy the craftsmanship and detailed artistry of illuminated theatre puppet dolls and wanted to take few home but they were made with ox skin, not vegan at all. In fact there were many things I wanted to buy but I didn’t have room in my pack and I really couldn’t carry any more weight. I bought a hand blown caramelized candied tiger on a stick from a man who would create your request on the spot in three minutes. It’s like glass blowing but with caramel instead of glass. Very cool all for one yuan. I was not interested in eating the caramel candy, I just wanted to have one to hold onto all day long.

Steles Museum has a large collection of stone tablets and plates with ancient inscriptions from famous calligraphers of China of all styles. It was quite a treat to see the different styles of calligraphy. I also watched the ancient method of how works of art was being reproduced on paper there from the stones.

Afterwards Corey and I parted, she went to hunt down non-vegetarian food she has been craving to eat but was somehow uncomfortable to eat it in front of me and I went to Xi’an Museum. I feel that the entire Xi’an is an excavation archeological sight. There is so much artifacts still being discovered today. At the museum, I enjoy gold, silver, porcelain, and jade works of art. The details and colors were amazing. I found it interesting to find an entire section on tea. There was a display on how tea was made, kept, and served on intricate tea ware. I am somehow not all that interested in the element bronze and anything made from bronze. Since bronze was a heavily used element that I zipped through all bronze work.

Mocked in Death

Went to see the Tang Dynasty Tombs of Empress Wu Dze Tien but the tomb was not accessible. The government had a few concerns on preservation. Well, in general the Chinese culture has a taboo in breaking into tombs even caskets. The public word is that they fear the water may flood the tombs in the process of excavation. Second, they are not equipped in preserving the excavated artifacts. I didn’t mind, I support preservation.

Upon the long wide walk towards the inaccessible tomb, tourist will come across rows of mystic animal stone figures who guard and greet all visitors. There is also a section of human figures toward the top. The empress wanted to these figures in her burial sight to document the political stately achievements she made as a ruler. These figures were heads of states. Story goes, the local were furious to begin with of having a female ruler and then by such a display as honoring a female ruler that they chopped off the stone heads to mock her in death.

Today Corey asked me about depression and suicide. We talked quite a bit. She as a typical person educated after the Cultural Revolution maintains the stance that she does not believe in spirits or ghosts and yet she was asking about them.

We decided to catch a movie at night called “The Banquet”. I found it to be uninteresting or original. I did like the costume design. It was my first movie experience in public theatre in China.

Big Goose Pagoda

Went to Big Goose Pagoda where Tze En Shi was, where Tang Hsuan Dzang translated for 11 years there. Everything was remodeled or fabricated, the only thing that didn’t change was the exact location of the sight. I don’t care for the new making up for the old. Maybe 500 years from now people will have a more cherished view than my currently ones.

Xi'an is full of people visiting from all over the world. The night is lit by all sorts of light like Christmas and Chinese New Years. It is very festive here and I am really enjoying my time.

We located a delicious noodle place next to an ATM. It had the best selection of noodles. The cost of the noodels ran from 2-3 yuan. Side dishes of vegetables were 1 yuan each and the pumpkin porridge was also 1 yuan for a big bowl. We were both stuffed and well nurished for 5 yuan dinner.

Corey, wants to hike Hua Shan 3k+ steps. With all the smog pollution and possible rain, I advised her to think about it. She has been taking care of the directions and I help her cross the streets.

Fa Men Si Buddha Finger Relic

We went to Fa Men Shi where the Buddha finger relic has been kept since the Tang dynasty. Historically, at the end of Tang Dynasty the last emperor sealed the underground palace that housed the relic. It has sealed for 1,000 years. Lots of beautiful Tang gold and silver and celadon artifacts were offered to the relic as if the Buddha himself was here. Through time, this fact became a story, and people kind of remember and kind of forgot. In the interest of preserving the relic, it was better this way. Although the palace was sealed, generation after generation, monks at this monastery all guarded this underground hidden palace.

During cultural revolution, the Red Guards wanted to break into the legendary palace to destroy everything. They didn’t know where it was but they were prepared to tear everything down to find it or not. The old abbot at this time tried to save the palace, the relic, and the monastery. He created diversion by pouring oil onto himself and lighting himself into flames. When the Red Guards saw this, they ran away in fear. Both the palace and the monastery were left unharmed. I was sad to learn of this story but happy to know the relic was unharmed and so were the beautiful offerings that survived wars, and the Cultural Revolution. That they were not destroyed or sold, that it has been here in its original home. I was happy to see the artifacts here in its original form, not a modern replica of an imagined lost item.

Bumpy Bum Ride

We went onto the city fortress wall during sunset. We rented bikes for an hour and half and rode our bikes all the way around. It cost us 20 yuan each. In celebration for the holiday, red lanterns were hung and lit at night. It felt very festive like Chinese New Year celebration. These ancient city walls encircle the town. I think they should have made regulations like Berkeley where buildings within the city wall cannot exceed wall height. This way the views would not have been blocked. I hopped onto a bike that was out of alignment. With the road being bumpy, I had a bumpy bum ride.

Afterwards we went to Drum Tower Islamic Street where it is famous for its eateries, lots of lamb and intestinal parts served everywhere. I had the famous pickled spicy vegetable stir-fry rice. It was pretty good. It had spices I was unfamiliar with from the Silk Route of North West China. I don’t think I can make it at home, we just don’t have access to the same spices.Back at the hostel I took a shower and the shower head was liken to the ones at home. I showered in gratitude, I was so happy to get a decent line of shower water pouring onto me and it was hot. I spent 25 yuan to have access to the laundry and the dryer. The washer lady helped me with my laundry. She complained of working long hours and not have traveled anywhere her whole life. I reminded her that all working class are the same anywhere. The young man at the bar gets 4+ hours of sleep each night. He clocks out at 12am and he clocks in by 7am. He rides his bike to and from work and it is almost a two hour round trip ride.

I am developing a better attitude towards public service officers. I have found in my stay in China, that they are most trustworthy people to offer help and any assistance especially directions.

Terra Cotta Warriors

Back at the central bus station to head for Terra Cotta Warriors, I noticed there is strength in number. As a pair people really didn’t approach us much. It was nice to not have to go on alert defensive mode. This parking lot was full of public buses and private owned buses. If you didn’t know which one to get one, you’d probably easily get onto the wrong ones. The public ones are licensed, follow rules, and are often safe drivers.

Corey and I followed tour groups around to hear the different stories. The excavation sight was full of tour groups of various languages. Tour guides, they are not to be easily passed as simple people in my opinion. They educate, they have a captive audience, and they are in total control of their tourists.

The artifacts when unearthed, still retains its original colors. The colors were bright and beautiful. As soon as it mixed with oxygen it looses its colors just within the short first 20 minutes of contact with oxygen. Currently people have yet to find a way to preserve the colors. Qin dynasty seem liked a long time ago. It is amazing to see how advanced it was in creativity, fashion, civilization. The details on the warriors were beautiful.

Hollywood Movies as Main Source of Education to Western World

I hopped onto the bus to Xi’an. I felt a great relief and the entire bus felt gentle. People were nice and civil. I sat next to a guy named Yang who ran out of credits on his phone and borrowed my phone to load up. As a thank you he helped me with the transition off the bus.

When I landed in Xi’an bus-train station there were massive crowds everywhere. I was glad to have Yang with me. Right away as we exited off the bus, people noticed I was with him, a local so they all backed away from us. It’s really not a big deal to face the crowd and fight through schools of sharks in massive chaos through time with practice. It’s just that I was very tired and haven’t slept in awhile. I do get tired of feeling vulnerable, in fear, and also tired of fatigue.

Yang met up with his girlfriend at the station and together we went looking for a youth hostel near by the station. We walked and walked and just didn’t see it. We even walked back and forth on the same street three times. It may have closed down or it just wasn’t meant to be for me to stay there this time. He called 114 to locate another youth hostel at the South Gate called Shu Yuen Men. He put me on a bus to South Gate and we parted.

On the way to South Gate I did see the hostel we were looking for but it didn’t have the International Youth Hostel sign, it was called a Youth Hostel. I headed for Shu Yuen Men Youth Hostel and approached the lady at the reception who had poor attitude. She refused to offer me a bed because I didn’t have a reservation. I told her I would just go to another hostel instead. At this point a bed all of a sudden opened up for 60yuan and I was shown to a room on the roof with many vacancies. After all that work of negotiating at the reception I smelled mildew on the walls which were grey, the raw color of concrete and mildew. The facility did not offer air conditioning and it was very run down. I had to keep walking in search for a better place to stay. This place didn’t uphold the international youth hostel standards.

I headed for the nearby calligraphy ancient street. This is where people come to buy tourist goods. It was a fun street full of calligraphy supplies and art work. There were lots of fun handy crafts too. I came across a group of 4 French tourists and one of them spoke English. He told he was staying at the Bell Tower Youth Hostel at the Bell Tower above the post office. Since they had just arrived too and just hopped onto a cab after check in they didn’t know their way around. So I had to ask the locals on how to get the hostel.

Locals told me it was only one bus stop away and that I shouldn’t waste my coin on the bus that I should just walk. Well, I was very tired, I haven’t rested in 36hours and I had my packs on me, I really would prefer to spend the coin on the bus to ride one bus stop distance in a new town that I was not familiar with. But I didn’t, I decided to keep walking by the method that was recommended to me.

Bell Tower Hostel located in the busy town square in the heart of the city. It was noisy but had much better facilities than the other one. The reception also ran me through the same drill of no reservations, no bed. But something in my communication of language or body gave way that I was not a main land local traveling during the national holiday. I told them I didn’t know I could make reservations online and that I didn’t know what the area code was to dial as a prefix to make the reservation. The guy asked for my passport and validated that I was a foreign tourist, a bed of 40yuan with air conditioning and no mildew was then available for me after that.

My roommates were mostly girls on teaching English in China from Oz, America, and England on vacation during school holiday with one exception, Corey from Shanghai who does office work in the financial department of a big company. All the western girls gathered up and complained about the spitting and did life imitational sounds of it. We were a loud bunch. It was fun to room with them. They shared their horrifying experiences as western females socializing in China. Locals learned the worst misinterpretation from films they’ve seen. It is their understanding that western girls are all loose, and readily available at all times.

One of the girls 19, blond from Oz said she went with another western teacher to a night out with other local staff from the school. They were new and didn’t know their way around. Their guide and fellow worker got drunk and passed out. They were approached by everyone else and they didn’t feel safe, they wanted to run. But they didn’t know how to get back to where they lived, they didn’t have their own address written down etc…They didn’t tell me how they got out of the situation but they left unharmed somehow. Having learned this lesson, they were a lot more careful and had their addresses written down.

Corey, a.k.a Wang Ying and I decided to pair up for the rest of our stay here in Xi’an. She showed me all her research of places she would like to visit, details were planned down to which food to eat. It was great to pair up with her because she spoke Mandarin and also English fluently. We both loved the show Friends. I really enjoy making friends and look forward to our time together.