Xian and Hua Shan Mountain
Trip Start
Nov 26, 2007
1
34
44
Trip End
Apr 17, 2008
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Xi'an,
China
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Xian is the ancient capital of China. It is an important place for the Chinese people. The town itself is supposed to be one of the most polluted in China but I have to say I have not noticed that at all but that may be because it was either the weekend or raining while I was there. It is a lovely city, the old town is ringed by a wall, some of which looks natural most of which looks restored (the Chinese have a passion for knocking down old things and rebuilding them like they would have been the day they were built). Differing from other cities I have been in China they have a Muslim quarter which is a bit of tourist mecca; but they did do the best noodle soup I have had thus far in China. Outside the old town you can see the normal Chinese obsession with shopping malls and building. I can see why shopping can become an obsessions as I tried in vain to find (a) a Chinese Lonely Planet (apparently it is banned because of some derogatory comments in there about Mao) which I never found despite finding every other country in the world and (b) a cheap waterproof coat (I had to buy an official Columbia one for nearly 50 quid in the end - nice coat but really felt like I should be paying 20 quid for a gortex rip off here).
Instead I bought myself a little phrase book. The language is interesting and much of it is very logical compared to English or French. The main difficulties (apart from actually memorizing words which I have always been terrible at) are the use of different tones which are very difficult for a foreigner to learn.
On my 1st full day in Xian myself and Dave went for a walk around the wall and ended up trying to find this little park...in vain until we met a Chinese girl who spoke perfect English (she worked in New Zealand apparently) who walked with us till we found the park in a typical demonstration of Chinese kindness.
How happy can you be with ur work
We would never have found the park ourselves and as it wasn't in any guidebooks we were the only Westerners there. It was packed full of Chinese on pedalos, fishing (I have never seen such a concentration of people fishing in such a small pond - see pics) or getting their wedding photos taken (I am not sure why Chinese woman get all dressed up in Western wedding dresses rather than their own traditional dresses but it looks a bit silly).Really Xian is all about the Terracotta Warriors, the site is impressive but I have to say the recent BBC programs were probably more enlightening than actually seeing the warriors themselves. There isn't that much about the history and as most of the army is still buried you see only a tiny snapshot. As is the norm I China it seems the attraction was geared around making money. As well as an outrageous entrance fee (equivalent to a few days wages for a normal Chinese person) there are basically shopping malls around the site. Worth the visit but I think I had built it up into something much bigger in my head.
The food in Xian is awesome. As well as the noodle soup (noodle soup is now my favorite breakfast dish by far - the one day that I did have eggs and toast in the hotel I didn't really enjoy it that much) the Muslim quarter also has these bbq's where one night which included an entire leg of lamb. We tried some duck feet one night as well as the Chinese seem mad for them but I have to say they were disappointing - there is nothing to them but a bit of skin.
Old and new Xian
Dave and I are getting along well and after just 4 days people were asking us how long we had been traveling together and if we had met each other at university and such things. We are both pretty similar in that we will eat anything in front of us and want to experience all aspects of the Chinese culture. We did have a pretty bad day when we were supposed to leave Xian the 1st time. First we couldn't get a train and had to book back into the hotel, then we couldn't find the Public Security Bureau (where I need to go to extend my visa), eventually we got to the Wild Goose Pagoda but missed the fountain show (this wouldn't have been quite so bad if we hadn't persuaded a load of other people to come with us and told them we knew the bus routes etc).
After a couple of days in Xian we set off to climb Hua Shan, a holy mountain 100km from Xian. Originally the mountain was occupied by Buddhist hermits who chipped out homes in the hard granite mountain face but now it is a tourist mecca with a cable car to the top. This is one of the most amazing mountains I have ever been on in my life.
The climb did not start well as we got ripped off by a taxi driver who was supposed to wait for us but drove off and then Dave lost his ticket after we had got the bus up to the park entrance so we had to walk all the way back down again. We skipped the cable car and climbed the 1100m to the top in a couple of hours. Climbed being the operative word at some points as the mountain is pretty much vertical at points. There is an excellent path all the way and where the going gets steep steps have been cut into the solid granite. I have honestly never seen anything like this in my life before. It just shows what can be done when labor is cheap. Another good example of the price of human labour in China are the porters carrying amazingly heavy loads to the guesthouses on the summit when there is a perfectly good cable car running to the top!! However, these porters seem amazingly happy; one just went past us singing happy new year to you in perfect English while another balanced his load on one shoulder so that he could play his flute while walking (see video).
We spent the night in a guesthouse up on the mountain so that we could see the sunrise. We were the only people staying there so made a bit of schoolboy error paying for a double room when we could have got a much cheaper dorm and been alone. Most of the local people who walk up seem to climb the mountain during the night so they can see the sunrise. I have to say I didn't envy them as it was freezing at night; so much so we resorted to wearing every piece of clothing we had with us in bed. It was just as well the staff woke us up at 5am as by 11am the mountain was swarming with cable car Chinese dressed in their business suits and Sunday best. Some of the signs on the mountain are just comedy and have inspired me to start an album of them.
Other than that we checked out a nightclub in Xian (very expensive beer and lots and lots of spectacular lighting) and found out that it was difficult to get train tickets on the day...meaning that we had to stay an extra night after we had already checked out of the hostel. I did really lie Xian and have no idea how people can say it is boring or polluted as they do. I reckon I could easily live there, it is a very nice compromise between being a big city but not overwhelmingly busy like London or Tokyo.
After a few days in Xian (Dave had been there for 3 or 4 before meeting me) it was definetly time to move on though we were a little sad to leave the hostel as it was great and we had just met some really nice people there. We agonised long and hard about it but decided on heading East towards a small town called Kaifeng as our next stop before Nanjing for the May day holidays.
Photos from Xian.
Some new observations about the Chinese:
Their children have the backside cut out of their trousers instead of having nappies so that when they need to wee the mum just sits them down in the street and they go for it.
Number of staff everywhere. I know people are cheap but it sort of takes the pips when you turn up somewhere and there are 40 people hanging around to serve 2 people. Some hotels have a person whose sole job is to open the room door for you rather than give you a key. The other interesting thing is that before the start of a shift in a restaurant or similar the staff all assemble out on the street and have a bit of team building singing exercise.
The price of tourist attractions is outrageous. They would be expensive back home but to an ordinary Chinese it must be impossible...for example the mountain we went up would have cost the equivalent of 2 days wages. Very strange behavior for a communist country indeed!!
I am not sure if it is just repetition of the party line but there does seem to be a resounding feeling that the West is treating the Chinese people unfairly. Several times people have said to me that they know they have problems but that they are a developing country and it will take time to solve those problems.
There is a distinct randomness to a lot of behavior in China. Sometimes you will get on a bus and it will just go round on circles for a bit before disgorging you onto another bus or a waitress will spent 10 minutes trying to ask you if you want a glass in a restaurant rather than just bringing a glass over to you and seeing if you want it. I think some of this maybe related to an inability to think for themselves which clearly exists compared to home.
You should try and speak some rubbish Chinese to people as they are too shy to try their English until they have heard you speak really bad Chinese.
