China-a very interesting place, to say the least!
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2005
1
11
13
Trip End
Jun 05, 2006
Xi'an,
China
Friday, June 2, 2006
The flight to Hong Kong was fine despite the turbulence with the couple of storms we had to go through. On arrival to Hong Kong it was absolutely pissing it down, which meant the only sights we were able to see was a couple of tall buildings through lots of low, heavy cloud. Never mind. A couple hours later we were on the way to Beijing, which fortunately wasn't raining. We eventually found Leo Hostel in the taxi. The Chinese directions we gave him didn't help him much, but he was able to speak to the hostel to lead him in. The hostel location was on a thin and manic side road in a residential area, filled with its local small shops, eateries and stalls and lots of local people. Never before has the game 'spot the tourist' been so easy.
It quickly became evident that motorcycles and tuk-tuks were not an annoyance or a life threatening obstacle when crossing, or walking down the road, but bicycles are in massive numbers to dodge. And their riders seem to think that them ringing their bell is sufficient in letting others know they're there and which way you should dodge. Unfortunately this is not the case and you end up doing a nice dance with them on their bike, like you would (more safety) when you bump into another pedestrian. Gavin almost got hit by bicycles only 4 times in the first day.
Once settled we thought we'd be adventurous and go try one of the many eateries for some local Chinese food. We picked a place filled with locals, that also had an English menu. Once in and in a position where walking out would be far too rude, it became apparent that in China you don't necessarily want to eat where all the locals eat. Yes this may indicate good and cheap food, but it also indicates an area enclosed by four walls where the locals all chain smoke, gob and spit and throw anything and every thing on the floor. We didn't really notice as we walked in. I suppose we were too concerned with being able to understand the menu but it soon became a rather unpleasant experience. The staff were very nice though and kindly showed my the wine I had ordered before pouring, which was local wine in a jar filled with snakes. Needless to say I opted for a beer.
The next few days were rather boring - with us living in an Internet place completing our applications, with only a well deserved break for a walk in Tiananmen Square. The hostel only had 3 computers, so we found a local Internet place with over 100 computers. Again filled with young people all chain smoking and gobbing all around us. Now I had come away thinking that I would become less squeamish with things and be used to not having some of the luxuries we have at home. And although yes I have come to appreciate things are very different in some places around the world, I unfortunately have become increasingly squeamish over things, making me wonder how I am going got cope going back to work and cope with some of the things I at one point didn't batter an eye lid at. I won't describe the gobbing here in too much detail but what I will say is that both men and women put a lot of energy into gobbing, meaning that the sound effects, facial effort and end result is a lot more disturbing than a mere discreet little spit. Unfortunately this is a very regular occurrence in the majority of places we went to apart from maybe a couple of places. So needless to say while on the Internet, we listened to Radio One blaring on the head phones, trying to concentrate with the job at hand.
We submitted our applications on the 24th and celebrated by treating ourselves to some traditional Beijing duck. We ate at Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant (where no one spat!), which is one of the oldest restaurants in Beijing dating back to 1864. Although it is quite touristy (mostly with Chinese tourists), it was well worth the experience. You can see the chef's at work as the ducks - about 20 at a time - are roasted in these huge fire ovens. They then bring out your duck and carve it in front of you, then asking if you would like to eat the head!. Then they kindly give you a certificate with the duck number they are serving you. We had the 115,212009th duck. On the 25th we spent my birthday on the Great Wall (thank you for all your b'day wishes!). There are numerous sections of the wall to see and we visited Mutianyu. Its one of the less touristy spots though still has its visitors. Although it was raining, the scenery and views were amazing and the mist and clouds around made it look like parts of mountains were on fire. We were able to be on stretches of the wall where it was just us two. We were lazy and got the cable car up and down, but it was my birthday after all! This stretch of the wall is known for its numerous guard towers. The wall itself is really weird and there are a lot of areas that are quite slanted making you feel extremely drunk after a bottle of water. But its so impressive being at one end and seeing the wall go off in different directions for miles and miles, into the clouds and back out - very cool! The hawkers trying to sell you crap on the way out were impressive, certainly the most aggressive we've experienced so far. You have to give it to them though, they are certainly very trying.
That evening we went in search of some bars and first hit The Den - a New Zealand bar that must have been filled with all the western tourists in Beijing, so we stayed there for a few and had dinner - I had fish and chips! We then headed to a street that had lots of interesting bars filled with posh locals. Each bar had a three piece singing group tuning out some English classics badly. So we had a couple drinks in one of them. So all in all I had a very nice birthday, though very different than my typical norm, which is never a bad thing.
The next couple of days we did a lot of chilling out and a bit of site seeing - we went through the Chinese History Museum in record time! (though it didn't really give you a lot of information on its history). Our hard bed night sleeper train was surprisingly comfortable. We were on the middle bed - 3 tier beds on a train! Obviously I got up very elegantly. I was absolutely dreading the train journey with the chain smoking and gobbing. But fortunately it wasn't that bad, people only smoked in one part, so only a bit of a woof, and the gobbing only happened in the sink and bathroom, and it was only our unfortunate luck that our sleeper was beside this area. But i was expecting both to happen in our sleeper, so I mustn't complain, and of course we had our MP3 players and ear plugs - both god sends!
(Gavin) On to Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Warriors. We arrived in Xi'an to see blue skies (rare in Beijing) and sunshine. After being confronted by the usual bunch of hostel/hotel hawkers, although not in the same numbers, we made our way to the ticket hall to buy our returns. The LPG had stated that this could be a whole day pursuit and even then after visiting numerous windows on countless floors, still leave empty handed. Jodie approached the 1st window and was promptly told (or gestured) to try the next window. In doing so found an English speaking assistant and promptly bought the tickets, the whole process taking 3 mins tops. After barging through taxi drivers all offering a 'deal' to the hotel for 20RNB and unwilling to use their meter, we found the taxi rank and were at the hotel for 6RNB, about 40 pence. We checked into the hotel and soon found that all the luxuries e.g. cable t.v., 'pay movies' were all in Chinese or 'not working today'. After looking round Xi'an we found that none of the restaurants had English menus and our own hotel only sold gourmet style food, like soft shelled turtle, dog and offal, we were forced to eat at a local hostel and western eateries.
We decided to book a trip to the Terracotta Warriors as once the entry fee, free western brekkie and other museum costs were added in, it wasn't a lot more expensive than taking the bus, which no doubt would have been filled with locals gobbing and smoking, but having never gone on one, this is only an assumption! What can you say about the Terracotta warriors? Amazing, but kind of disappointing. The site is divided into 3 pits. The 1st being what you normally see in the pictures (men and horses lined up), but I had always imagined walking amongst, or near them, but of course doing this would get you no where but jail pretty quick. This pit though was very impressive, with sections of it still not excavated. The 3rd pit, but the 2nd you visit, is the command post which was really good but not many warriors and the 2nd pit is basically not excavated yet, and instead remains with a bamboo sand matting on top, with apparently hundreds of warriors and horses and chariots underneath. Guess we'll have to come back in another 50 plus years to see the end result. Although the site is massive and you do feel a sense of history and power, but I always expected to see more warriors in one place. The amount of tourists in one place was impressive and Jodie's tolerance levels to tour groups is diminishing quickly. For some reason the Chinese need to come in tour groups of about 30 people, so if you can imagine 30 surrounding one point of interest, the rest of us don't really get a chance.
The following day we went to Shanix Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Centre, 2 hours away from Xi'an. They now have 9 Giant pandas, 4 red pandas, crested Ibis (there used to only 8 in the region, and the world but they now have breed hundreds), and other indigenous animals and birds. We spoke to a volunteer from Oz who explained lots to us, and although the cages were small(ish) the pandas had plenty of out door space they use and toys to play with. They must be happy as a couple had actually mated and we saw the baby (about 4 months about) and another was pregnant. That evening we headed to the Big Goose Pagoda where at 20.30 they put on a light/music/dancing fountain display. The locals come in their hundreds to watch it and get nice and wet. Whilst in Xi'an we also checked out the Bell and Drum Tower and Muslim quarter and its Great Mosque, and some shopping centers that would have been great with lots of dosh.
