Xian

I am back from my adventurous week in Xi'an China.
As you know I am prone to motion sickness. When I left the states I had acquired a small medication patch that is usually given to people going on a cruise because it needs to be worn for 3 days and lasts for about 5.  I put it on a little late when we were leaving because I had forgotten to get it out. When I remembered to get it out I had one hour before the train to Xi'an was to leave and it takes the patch 3 hours to do its magic.  However, it seemed to begin working right away. The train ride headed East and a little south, further into the interior of China. The mountanous region is famous for the Terra Cotta warriors and many other national treasures and this time of year is considered the off season, it is much to cold for the tourists to come out in their usual numbers (THANK GOODNESS!!!!) The trip took a little over 7 hours but my travel colleagues were seasoned travellers and we had all prepared with snacks, books, and I had brought a card game called SET which I taught them and we played for about 2 hours.  It was one of the longest trips I have ever taken (The plane ride here was much longer... gee I guess a 14 hour trip would be about....twice as long) We disembarked at the Xi'an train station at 10 pm and had to find a Taxi to drive us to the hotel.  Now I don't want to brag but I have become an excellent packer. I was able to fit all of the items that I might need into one backpack so I had my arms free and unhindered and was able to assist my fellow travellers with their luggage and loads so that we were able to get to the taxi swiftly and without too much difficulty.  (My money was hidden in my camera bag which I wear around my neck and arm, under my armpit on the inside of my jacket which is buttoned up... I take after my mother..) I had some small change in my outer pocket for the taxi so that I would not have to dig in front of strangers (It was a small amount that I was willing to lose if it came to that) and we climbed into a taxi that was parked in front of the Taxi que.  That was a mistake.  You see we had bypassed the taxis closest to the train because they seemed a little dishonest to us and we were going to the taxi que because that is where the honest drivers line up.  This taxi appeared to be in the que but was in fact just outside of it.  We learned why when we finally arrived at the hotel after being driven the long way around.  It cost us almost twice as much as it should of. (Yeah it was less than 2 U.S. dollars, but it was the principle of the thing).  We were very angry but guessed that it was just the dishonesty of the driver. Then we went into the hotel.  It was actually a pleasant place.The rooms were fairly inexpensive and clean and the bathroom looked spotless (Which is my gage of a hotel rooms useability).  So we payed for the first two nights and took to our room.  We got up early the next morning and headed for Large White Goose Tower, a famous tower and religious center of Xi'an.  We payed the money to get into the park and explored the area.  Many pictures were taken.  My photographic friend took about 200 pictures at this location. I saw a monk in full robes with a pair of high top sneakers on and could not resist asking to take a picture. He agreed and I got some photos of him.  He was so flattered that he invited us to a roped off area where they keep the scrolls and photographs and shared fruit with us.  We were at the tower for about 5 hours.  We did not climb the tower because the attendents (Who are not monks but are hired to dress like monks) wanted to charge us a second time for the priveledge of risking our lives on the icy stairs.  We refused and simply explored everything outside.  It was delightful.  We then went walking and found a street where the Muslim members of Xi'an congregate. Food carts everywhere.  I have had an aversion to pork since I arrived in China there is only one dish in which I have been able to eat pork that does not make me ill and it is hard to find good versions.  That meant that I would be able to eat here without fear of ordering the wrong thing.  My mother knows that I have always been a bit choosy when it comes to food. (Down right picky and very annoying) but since I came to china I have been ready to try everything at least once (Even the Donkey Intestine Soup... a kind of Chinese Monudo) but I am still just as picky as I ever was. And since the Chinese fertilize with night soil I have a really hard time with my mild Germaphobia.  However, I will try anything placed in front of me at least once as long as there are many chinese people eating at the same place.  (If there is no one else eating at the cart it is a safe bet that there is a good reason). Well we went searching among the carts and restaurants and found some things to try and then we went shopping.  We went back to this same street (It is one specific area of the town and it is the biggest dive but the people were polite...and the deals were stupendous) Three different times to shop for gifts.  Then we walked back to the hotel.  Low and behold we discover that the street that our hotel is on is what a person might call...The Entertainment District... and all that implies. Our Chinese guide (Who was staying with us and went everywhere with us... He never let us get out of his sight and translated everything for us) was very embarrased to have us discover this little fact but our reaction seemed to relax him.  We both (Me and my companion for the trip, one of my teaching colleagues) laughed and said that you can find them anywhere in the world and usually that means the neighborhood is fairly safe because they are often patrolled and there are always bouncers or protection for the girls around.  He agreed and we never felt concerned about walking in that neighborhood at all.  The next day we went exploring the city itself and climbed up the city walls that surround Xi'an.  They are a reconstruction of a wall and moat that existed 3000 years ago.  I took some photos of the awesome view and a few of th ings I found Ironic (Like the image of the ancient building with the lights of the Howard Johnsons hotel in the background) and had a delightful time visiting shops.  I was practicing for shopping because I had decided to practice my bargaining and my chinese until I felt ready before I would begin my actual shopping. Several times I found the shop keepers would assume I was a stupid tourist and would quadrouple the price of items so that I would have been paying way too much if I had agreed.  I walked away from several store keepers and even had one chase me down at one point to try and make a sale.  She started at 280 and I said (In Chinese...aren't I talented) that it was too expensive and walked out.  She bargained with my back down to 80 and I told her it was still to expensive that I was not a stupid tourist I live here and I walked away. (A block away I found the same item for 20...yes twenty... actually I bargained it down to 15).  Several times we would be shopping and we would find shop keepers who treated us fairly, but it seemed that there were always a few who felt that it was okay to completely fleece the lowai (Barbarian Foreigner).We simply refused to deal with them and it was actually quite nice to feel that we were letting them know they couldn't always skin the white people.  I bought a small thing of Tea, Jasmine tea is fabulous and I got an incredible deal...but this is the land of tea.
The next day brought us to the warriors. We travelled by bus for two hours to get to this museum and we walked about a half a mile to get from the gates to the actual museum. It was cold but we were very excited.  We got into the first museum and I enjoyed the exhibits of weapons and gold and horse peices and all of the other little items that they had put behind glass for the examination by the public.  I have to admit I have a thing for silver and half of the items were silver.  The other half were gold and I have always thought that gold looks fake, especially when it is real.  I think it is such an ugly yellow color.  There was enough gold in that one display room to make the whole room shine, and everyone kept ooohing and ahhing.  I kind of got bored.  Then we moved to the second museum (The whole thing was 5 seperate buildings...six if you count the movie theatre but it was closed for the off season) and gazed down about 20 feet to the Terra Cotta warriors below.  As cold as it was, with the crowds of tourists (I am so glad this was the off season because any more tourists and it would have been a cattle drive...mooo) and the distance from the relics I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed.  I was interested in so much of the history and learned so much from going, but it was a huge disappointment.  you can barely tell that the hair styles and faces of all the warriors are different and that each outfit and duty was just a little different, that each peice was unique.  You could barely see them and pictures were not allowed.  However, we were with about 2000 Japanese tourists, and they can't read Chinese either... so our photo moments were disguised by their photo moments. It was a lovely symbiosis. We went from museum building to museum building until we had covered the entire thing.  Then we went to sit under a huge tree and ate lunch.  Looking at the tree was in many ways more interesting that the warriors because of the distance and impartiality that occurs being 20 feet away.  The only time we were able to get close was when we got to see a few of the chosen warrior examples that had been placed behind glass.  That over with we decided it was time to go.  We were a little earlier than we had planned but that meant we would in no way miss the bus (Which to me was rather important.)   So we started the long walk to the gate.  We got seperated (I was at the north gate which is about 10 yards from the east gate) and I started out the gate and hit the wall of sales people. It was like a never ending wave of "hello, postcards. Hello real metal warriors...hello hello one dollar  one dollar"  ( In China it is illegal to do business in U.S. dollars.) these people were like a swarm of locusts.  I used every Chinese phrase I knew to tell them to back off (I told them I didn't want the items, I told them no and when that wasn't working I told them BAD all in chinese... Nothing worked).  I waded through them to the east gate where I walked right past the guard where the sales people stopped.  Apparently the gaurds are very adept at dealing with them so they were not passing the line. I met up with my companions (I had gotten out first because my gate was closer, so I had time to warn them) and we all linked arms  and marched out into the mass of "hello hello hello"  It was the most amazing mass of horror I have experienced.  People were shoving items in my face to such an extent that I was almost yelling in Chinese.  Our guide was yelling in Chinese and they were still coming.  So we just marched hard and fast through the swamp of people.  They were selling statues of the warriors, postcards, nicknacks, brickabrack, junk that passes itself off as gift ideas, and then there were the skins.  Animal skins.  Some of them I recognize as illegal at U.S. Customs (I remember the display case in Japan that has actual items of illegal things that should not be brought to the U.S.) and things I would not want to think too much about.  I saw at least one German Shepard skin and a white tiger skin.   I actually got angry with the White Tiger skin (At least German Shepards are not endangered) and was able to put a little more force in my Bu Hao (BAD) and Bu Yao (Don't want) and Mayo (No) which seemed to affect the sales people and they slacked off slowly.  We made it safely to the parking lot and there were only one or two sales people there. Our bus arrived in about 10 minutes and we were off to return to Xi'an. Once there we sought out a coffee house and I had a Mcdonalds soft serve Ice Cream (The only relatively good tasting Ice cream in all of China...I am not one who enjoys string bean  or tomato flavoured Ice cream)  I ordered a vanilla sundae.  They told me they were out of chocolate so I asked them to put the dipping sauce (The stuff that hardens for their dipped cones) on it.  The man did and we went on to enjoy our coffee and me with my ice cream. The next day we went shopping in the city.  We were going to the pet and plant plaza so our guide could price trees for his mother. While we were there I came across a store that was selling Iguana babies (Less than 5 inches long). 
Reptiles are one of the only animals that are not restricted by customs...I bought Zeb a pet for his birthday. (The children wash their hands before and after handeling him with soap and water and he has already become very attached to Zeb after just a short time).  The baby was tiny and fit in my pocket, so I have carried him around during the rest of my time in Xi'an.  He cost me less than 3 dollars U.S. and I did not realize how young he was until he imprinted on me like a gosling.  He is so relaxed with me that at night if he is active all I have to do is pick him up and he falls right asleep.  I checked out care and management of reptiles and he is one of the easiest of the reptiles to care for. Anyway, after that we explored a new location in Xi'an.  We went to the stone forest.This is  a place where the great stone tablets of caligraphy from 4000 years ago and sooner have been gathered for display.  Some of the stones are chosen for rubbings while others are placed behind glass to keep them safe.  Confusious has four books that are etched into the stone (Deep into the stone) that are kept at this location.  I can only take so long of staring at large stones with writing that I can not read.  I have never felt so illiterate in my entire life.  However there was a set of museums that I enjoyed seeing there.  The first was a display of traditional Chinese shadow puppets made of Donkey skin and the second was ancient burial items from around the area that included a 12 foot tall stone rhinoserous.  We snuck a few pictures there too.  We were at the museum for a very long time and it was a very cold place. I was shivering most of the time because the museum had no glass in it's windows and there was no heat.  At least there was a roof over the stones.  The most interesting stone to me was one that remained uncovered, uncared for and there are no rubbings of, it consists of 3000 year old writing that is litterally a Chinese Rossetta stone with Sanskrit.  I had to sit on the floor and look up at it to see the writing because it was so faded and unprotected.  It was just sitting out at a point in the building that was being ignored.  It was an amazing discovery to find this peice of history (Which I am fascinated by...thus the BA in Religious studies) just sitting there being slowly destroyed by the elements and ignorance.  We left just as the museum was closing and found ourselves on a street that was slowly closing its doors. Turns out this museum is on the busy shop street that we had looked for previously (Well, our guide had looked for it) and now that we had found it, it was shutting down.  We decided to walk down it and explore a little and to return later at an earlier time.  I found a small street vender who was selling scrolls and decided to bargain.  I felt that I was ready to face the bargaining.  I asked about a set of four scrolls.  I was given a price.  I acted offended and offered him half.  He acted offended and lowered his price by 30.  I offered him 5 more than half.  He lowered his price...I raised my offer.  We met in the middle, both of us satisfied.  I had bought a full set of scrolls (Which we will be dividing to give out to family members around ...March) for less than 8 U.S. dollars.   I was highly satisfied.  We walked further into the street of sales and found a vender selling the puppets.  I bargained hard again and spent a small amount on puppets (Less than 30 this time...but I bough quite a few for gifts) and we went back to the hotel to savour our sales victory.  When I showed our guide what I had bargained for he got upset. Turns out he (Remember he is the Chinese Native) had purchased the same set of scrolls for more than I had.  I was applauded for my efforts but I was worried about our guides pride. The next day we went out to the Museum in Xi'an and we explored the fabulous treasures of this Province.  I saw the bones of a pre-neanderthal man and many other items that had been found in China, I saw the weapons and works of prehistoric man, I found the most ancient art work and writings of China as it developed for thousands and thousands of years. I saw silk older than some dirt, I saw craftsmanship and amazing items and the develpment of a civilization.  I also saw the evidence of superiority complexes written out in their presentations of these items.  (The most amusing was the statue of the first barbarian encounter, an Arab, which was labled "barbarian statue" as  it's official relic title.  I saw examples of the dynasties arts and creations. I found that I enjoy items from the Qing dynasty far more than the Ming dynasty. The artistry is more to my taste.  I had a wonderful time.  We finished the museum at around lunch time and decided to take a taxi to the craft fair.  By this time we had walked around much of Xi'an and had a fairly good idea of the layout.  So when the taxi started out in the wrong direction right from the beginning we got annoyed.  He drove us in two little circles and one large circle before he finally got onto the right road.  We stopped him and got out of the taxi stating that we were tired of him driving us in circles when it was only an attempt to cheat us out of a larger fare.  He seemed shocked that we knew what he was doing.  We walked to the craft fair and had a 20 minute tour of the craft items of Modern Xi'an.  sewing, embroidery, straw weaving, wood shaving art, painting little masks, versions of origamy with metal, and much more.  This place was monitered so I was not able to sneak any photos. It was fun, but very short. So we went back to the shopping street.  I explored and had a wonderful time.  Then I found a set of scrolls that I just had to have. They were beautiful, they were based on Chinese tradition, they were hand painted with water colors, but most important they were unique.  China is a country were everything looks exactly the same. Every item you see is available somewhere else so all you have to do is ask a price in one store and walk two doors down to find that same item again.  This was not the case. This set of scrolls were of the Four Beauties of China, four women who are from famous stories.  They were shown with the four sacred plants and displayed as part of the four seasons. (Four is a big deal here) Now the four beauties are found just about everywhere. In fact if you have seen any chinese scrolls before with women on them they were probably the four beauties.  (very few of the women painted are NOT the four beauties) But these ones caught my eye from the other end of the alley way.  I decided that I was going to bargain and bargain hard.  I strolled down and looked over all of the scrolls without showing interest and then started bargaining with the women who owned the shop.  We both bargained hard, I worked my best expressions and all of the chinese I new to work it to the limit.  Come to find out that unlike most of the scrolls being sold, these are originals by an unknown artist who not only had signed his paintings (Usually they are cheap prints or copys) but he had signed each one a little differently.  They were not perfect, in fact you could see mistakes that were made during the creation process including the underlying drawings and where he had changed his mind during the process. I got her down from 800 to 240 but I could not get her down any lower.  At that point my Chinese ran out. So I called over my interpreter.  I told him to tell her that I wanted the scrolls very badly but that I was down to my last 100 and could not possibly afford it and would she please not be offended.  (I was not in any way shape of form down to my last 100, My guide thought that I was though so it made for a very good appeal) In this way I was able to talk her down to 120. To me this was still very expensive, but I really felt that they were worth it.  Remember, 120 Yuan is about 15 u.s. dollars.  Part of the reason that I felt they were worth it is that the artist allowed himself to depart from the traditional. He had some western influences showing in his work as well as the traditional influences that are found in all of the scrolls. It is hard to find scroll work in China that is not purely traditional except for the master works.  Only the masters feel safe enough and secure enough to depart from the traditional works that so often can be sold to the tourists. Many people come over and see these beautiful works and are so busy thinking in terms of U.S. dollars that they don't bargain hard enough and they don't realize that they can get such a lower price.  The next set of scrolls that I found and bought (These will also be gifts) were also of the four beauties but in a much more traditional presentation and for less than half of the price of my expensive ones. The guide was also happy because he was able to argue a set of scrolls down to less than 5 U.S. dollars and they were of really good quality.    During that trip out I also bought a gift for our guide. He had been looking at a traditional Chinese flute. It is an egg shaped flute made of ceramic that has been around since the Qin (Pronounced Chin in case you have been wondering) dynasty accourding to the museum from earlier that day. I found one with a horse on it (He likes horses) and I gave him the gift when we laid out our purchases. One of the days (It was a whirlwind tour so I don't remember which day it was) we decided to take a break from all the rushing around and just enjoyed a short walk around the neighborhood and explored for foods. We tasted so many different foods I don't remember them all and we saw so many different things that I could not possibly remember to tell you all of it. However, I did discover that any building marked with a sign that says KTV on it is an entertainment house and that you should not glance in the windows of such establishments no matter what street you are on.  We explored the main shopping district and there was a woman without clothing on looking out the glass front door of a building in the bussiest part of town.  Apparently I am the only one who saw her (Our guide was disappointed that I did not point her out to him...China is a bit different)  I tried some foods that I enjoyed greatly and  I discovered that my skill with chopsticks is better than I had thought.  We were given plastic chopsticks and a dish of slippery mushrooms.  Plastic chopsticks are the most difficult to use and slippery mushrooms are the most difficult item to pick up (Other than ice cubes but you try to find ice cubes in a country where you have to boil all the water before you can drink it and everything is served hot except the coffee) and there I was gulping it down swiftly and using my chopsticks skillfully with the entire wait staff staring out of the corner of their eyes.  They seemed shocked that we were able to use chopsticks in the first place, let alone to eat this particular dish.  It was the worst restaurant that we ate at because they kept giving us bad tea (Using leaves from tea that had already been used once or twice before...nothing fresh brewed and ignoring us when we asked for salt or more tea or napkins....it was obviously not a place that we went back to later).  On the last night there we went to an all you can eat buffet serving the Chinese version of South American B-B-Q.  We started eating at 7pm and continued to sit and eat until about 1 am when we decided that we were all full. We went back to the hotel and packed up all of our suitcases and set the alarm so we could get to the train on time.  Long story short...(Too late I know)  we got to the train just fine and had an uneventful return to ZhengZhou. However the train arrived at the station at 6:20 pm and the last bus to XinZheng (Home) was suppose to leave at 6:40.  We caught a quick taxi who took us straight to the station and then we got on the bus.  We had to go to the bathroom so we left our guide with our luggage and went to the bathroom because it looked like we had a few minutes.  When we got out of the bathroom the bus was not where we had left it.  We had to run to catch up to the bus. We sat comfortably on the bus and were almost home (we were about 10 minutes outside of town) when the bus pulled over and told us to get out and get on a different bus.  We did (What else could we do) and it was an overcrowded bus where we had to stand for the rest of the ride.  We made it safely back and I was even in time to have a shower and kiss the children goodnight before I went to bed.
I had a wonderful trip and was able to buy a lot of wonderful gifts for my friends and family.  I think I have something for everyone now and I can't wait to visit in march and bring it back with me.