Back To The Future

Saturday in Xi'an

We checked out of the Golden Flower and then headed to the airport by way of a lovely park surrounding an ancient Buddhist pagoda. The Chinese are not stingy with urban parks. They are everywhere in every city from little vest pockets to huge meandering acres of green. And the parks are used for Tai Chi, walking babies, or just enjoying a cool respite. There are also trees along every road, street and highway. The city buildings are pretty gray and ugly with the occasional spectacular architectural feat.

There is a museum in the park and for the life of me I can't remember the name but there's a good chance the words "revered heritage" would be in there. We strolled by some statues from various dynasties and then went down to the research level. We sat around a large table covered with red felt and then the young professor in charge gave us each a pair of gloves with pebbly palms so we could handle some of these antiquities. We passed around a selection of items of bronze and even a very old and very rare ceramic box. Kevin is such an archeology buff that it seemed he knew as much as the professor. It was a rare treat to actually touch things so old and we got to keep the gloves as a souvenir. I think they'll be perfect for to use while machine quilting.

I did learn that during the Tang dynasty the standard of beauty did a 180 from the willowy creatures of the Hans. The most beautiful and prized women were plump with round faces and double chin. Hello????? Tang princess right here.

And then it was time to leave the ancient city of Xi'an to head into the future: Shang Hai.

At the airport the Chinese TSA guys once again rifled through my purse looking for the knife they see on the X-ray screen. And once again, I have no knife. I must say that the TSA-ettes have a much lighter touch than their Atlanta sisters when it comes to the pat down. Our plane to Shang Hai was only 30 minutes late which is as close to on time as it gets in China. A 737 this time and the usual lovely box with unidentifiable snacks inside. We must have taxied for ten minutes from runway to gate and then the endless march through the concourse in Shang Hai (we landed at gate 220. You do the math.) All this walking and climbing is starting to weed out the weak ones in our group. One of the Dragons went down in Xi'an. A few of the other LOL's (in this case, Little Old Ladies) are slowing down quite a bit but are still hanging in there. One of our Panda group is pretty much staying on the bus at every stop. Then waddles to a snack stand for a Coke and M & Ms. No sympathy for that doofus.

Contrary to popular belief, everything is not free in China. The government picks up about 30% of medical costs once you wait in line for whatever procedure. There is no social security. You must buy into a pension plan while working and then the pay out is about 100 US$ per month. Remember, people must retire at 55 and 60 and then their children are responsible for their care, thus the multi generational living. The parents work while the grandparents keep house and watch the child. Education is free only for the "minorities" who make up less than 10% of the population.

Ah, but there is a vast underground capitalist system in play. For instance, teachers who earn a set amount (500) per month supplement this income by tutoring their students after class. The grandparents minding their grandchild (remember the one child policy) will find somewhere to plant a garden and then will sell the produce themselves by just throwing a blanket down and hawking their vegetables or will wholesale to little produce markets. And then there are the street vendors...

We rode a bus for two hours through Shang Hai, the financial and shipping center of the country, to Suzhou, the Venice of the East, a city of only 8 million. We didn't arrive until dinner time. Our hotel, a Holiday Inn, is a high rise right smack dab in the middle of the action. Jim and I are on the 24th floor in a corner suite. Great view and wifi. Too bad we're here for only 13 hours.

Tomorrow we're seeing whatever Suzhou has to offer and then will take a train back to Shang Hai. We've picked up a local guide, another 30-something year old named Alex. He's already told us that the traffic is so bad in Shang Hai (as to differentiate it from every other car clogged city????) that the government discourages private ownership of cars within the city limits. Public transportation is prolific and cheap (2 Yuan, about 20 cents fare on bus or subway) while parking is very expensive as is the license plate fee---thousands of dollars. Only the very rich can afford to own a car. We've already determined that you have to be nuts to drive here. Someone asked why there aren't endless traffic accidents and was told, "They don't go fast enough to cause any damage."

Another Fun Fact: There is only one time zone in China. They call it MST, Mao Standard Time. Dawn and dusk are the usual times in Beijing. It gets more interesting for those who live in the far west.

Hello and Goodbye

Atop the inner city wall of Xi'an

Thursday

As promised, in Chongqing (pronounced Chong-ching) we literally walked from the ship to the bus and then were driven straight to the airport. Well, it wasn't THAT easy. We sailed up river all night in pea soup fog as opposed to the usual grey mist. We tied to another pontoon dock and as the fog lifted to a thick grey mist, we discovered we were two pontoon boat docks and about 100 yards of floating pathways from The (inevitable) Steps.

The "bang bangs" are porters who look like they're anything from 20 to 100 years old. They put a heavy bamboo pole behind their neck and over their shoulders and then hang baskets, bags or whatever from the end of each pole and start walking or climbing. They schlepped our big checked bags across the floating pathway and then up the 100+ cement stairs to the baggage bus. We each grabbed our carry on and followed suit. By the time I reached the top of that endless flight of stairs I was sucking wind and wishing Mr. Otis had made his way to the exotic East to teach them about the elevator.

This was taken about 8 AM just before we left the ship.  We had to walk across the pontoon path and then up the flight of stairs to the bus.  This is about as bright as it gets in this city.

Chongqing is monstrous, or what we could see of it. Imagine a San Francisco built entirely of 30+ story buildings; hundreds and thousands of them. The visibility was maybe a mile. Maybe. The combination of humidity along the river, pollution and 32 or 33 million people makes for air you can chew and no sun. Kevin told us that girls from Chongqing are thought to be the most beautiful in China because they're never in the sun and thus their skin is like porcelain. It might make for lovely skin but this gloom is not so good for those of us of Scandinavian descent who are always looking into the
abyss.

We took a one hour flight to Xi'an and then walked and walked and walked through the endless and wide and empty concourse to baggage claim. Chinese airports are enormous and as far as I could tell, underused. And in every city they seem to be building more terminals. The international side of the airport at Beijing (as a opposed to the domestic side) has three HUGE terminals, A, B and C. However, only A and C are used. B was strictly for the athletes to use during the Olympics and was closed after the Games.

The afternoon was spent at the Han dynasty tomb and museum. The emperors built entire cities in their tombs for their afterlife. These underground cities have mountains and lakes, armies and animals, chariots and wagons. The figures in the Han dynasty tomb are small, a bit smaller than half life size. These tombs look like hills from afar. The tomb was excavated (they are referred to as pits), everything put in a series of rooms and then completely covered with earth. There has been a good bit of tomb raiding and destroying when enemies attacked or the peasants revolted, but hundreds of the terra cotta  figures have survived. Xi'an was the capital of China for hundreds of years and many dynasties so a lot of emperors' tombs are in the area which is now farmland. The famous Terra Cotta Warriors were not discovered until a farmer was digging a well in 1974 and hit antiquities instead of water.

Besides the historical center of China, Xi'an is also the dumpling capital of China. Dinner that night was a feast that featured 20 different types of dumplings, all about bite-size. Vegetable, pork, chicken, fish, shrimp, abalone and even a couple of sweet ones. The dumplings are shaped to look like the ingredient inside: ducks, pigs, fish, etc. All are steamed and just delicious. And as at every meal so far, slices of watermelon for dessert.

Street traffic in Xi'an

Xi'an "only" has four million people but it is bustling. We're starting to look forward to our bus rides here and there if only to watch the bicycles, scooters, cars, buses and pedestrians jockey for position on the roads. It seems that the biggest has the right of way, but that doesn't mean the smaller vehicles won't challenge this law of the pavement jungle! The drivers change lanes at will and without warning and will straddle the white line to get "there" first. Pedestrians will cross multi-laned roads at corners, in the middle of a block, wherever, dodging the cars and buses and scooters that do NOT stop for them. And the roundabouts are an E ticket ride at Disneyland! The centers are beautifully landscaped with trees and flowers, and the cars treat the road like a race track. No one stays in his or her lane. They all want to be closest to the center and then they cut wildly across traffic to drive on another street. And then there is always a pedestrian or scooter or delivery bike (a three wheeled bike with a flatbed over the back wheel for freight) going against traffic to liven it up a bit. And seat belts or helmets? Fuggetaboudit.

We're staying at the Shangri La Golden Flower Hotel. It's lovely, the staff is gracious and the rooms are huge. Our local guide, this itty bitty creature named Coco, has told us that it was built on the site of a palace an emperor built for his favorite concubine, the Golden Flower. The emperors each had one wife but hundreds of concubines. They were forever building palaces for the latter. The empresses knew what was going on but that didn't mean they were going to tolerate having these women in THEIR palace. There are endless stories of the craftier concubines bribing the eunuchs who guarded them to put them at the top of the emperor's list. There are eunuchs among the clay figures in the tombs. All the figures were once clothed in silk robes which have rotted away. As Coco put it, you can identify the eunuchs because "they don't have parts down there." Like a big ole pile of Ken dolls!

Tomorrow the big event.

It Takes An Army

Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an

Friday in Xi'an

Xi'an has loads of tourists along with its citizenry. Tourism is a big part of their economy so they make it easy to access the interesting places and keep them nice and tidy.  Way back when, the city had three walls: inner, outer and second outer. Over the  centuries they've been burned and then rebuilt during the Tang and Ming dynasties.  Today only the inner wall is still standing and surrounding the original city. It was first  erected using mortar made from kiwi juice and mushy rice. You use what you have. It has been resurfaced with more modern materials. The wall is a square with big guard houses at every corner. There is a moat adjacent that is now a series of parks. You can walk, bike or ride in a golf cart along the length of the top of the wall, 14 km. It's only 76 stone steps up (we're all counting steps by now) to reach the top. Once there it's a nice, smooth surface maybe 50 feet across. Inside the wall there are height restrictions for the buildings but outside, anything goes. (more on that later)

A special welcoming ceremony had been arranged for us at the North Gate. We had no idea what to expect and were speechless when we were each given a key to the gate of the wall, a passport to meet the emperor and then an honor guard of soldiers dressed in Tang era gear to escort us through the gate and into a large parade ground where we were entertained by dancers and drummers all in gorgeous costumes and then met the emperor and empress. Quite a way to kick off the day. Those peons on the top of the wall were looking down, taking pictures like mad and wondering who in the world we were to rate this big hoo-hah.

And then by bus (same crazy street madness to entertain us en route) to the main event: the pits of the Terra Cotta Warriors. There is a big (toll) highway leading out there past farms and wheat fields and then, through the gate and into a three ring circus of shops and vendors and restaurants and flags flying and noise. Always in China, noise. We got a ride out to the pits on trams, about half a mile or so and then into the building housing Pit #1. I'm typing this on our flight to Shang Hai so can't look up the exact dimensions of this building, but it is at least as large as an indoor football stadium. There is an elevated walk way around the perimeter where you can look down on the Terra Cotta Warriors. It is an astounding sight. So much so that the visitors are almost quiet. The soldiers standing in ranks were all in pieces when uncovered and have been put back together. Ditto for the horses. The chariots were wooden so have long rotted away. Every person and animal is life size and distinctive. It took 700,000 laborers four decades to create all this.

There are two other pits also covered by buildings. The archeologists have been able to determine which figures were infantry or archers or officers or generals. In many areas of the pits, the broken pieces lie in situ so you can see what they looked like before restoration (a big jumble of broken pieces covered by yards of dirt). The Chinese government doesn't have the funds or knowledge to uncover, protect and restore any more. The figures were originally brightly painted but that fades quickly when uncovered and exposed to the air.

There is quite a complex of buildings and museums and shops around the site of the tomb. As one guide book I read put it, at last a destination in China that really lives up to the hype. It was quite hot (there is sun in Xi'an!) and we walked a lot (for some reason, the trams that take you TO the pits return empty leaving you to hoof it back to the entrance) but it's definitely the highlight of our trip. And everyone likes the city of Xi'an.

Back to the hotel for 45 minutes to rest and regroup for the Tang Dynasty Dinner Theater. Much to our surprise, the food was excellent and the show was spectacular. A 30 piece orchestra playing strange and old Chinese instruments accompanied a troupe of 30 or so singers and dancers in fabulous costumes recreating dances once performed in the Tang court. It only lasted an hour or so which was just right.

Tomorrow we're finishing up in Xi'an and then flying to Shang Hai and on to Suzhou, the Venice of the East.