Xi'an

Xi'an is most famous for the nearby "Terracotta Warriors." We intended to spend only a couple of days here, but we ended up spending a while longer just relaxing at the hostel with friends.

We did (on our third day) go see the "Underground Army." We had already seen so many photos of the warriors that they weren't all that impressive. The first emperor of China had the army built in secret to defend him in the afterlife. There are over 6,000 warriors, although three-quarters of them still need to be excavated. They were originally vibrantly-coloured, but the paint fades quickly after excavation. Work continues (at night, when the tourists are gone) and they are making several attempts to preserve the original colours.

We also visited a Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Research Centre to see some pandas. Pandas do not seem overly concerned with the extinction of the their species: the female is only fertile for a few days a year, pandas would rather hang out by themselves than mate, a mother will often club her baby to death, and will only nurture one of her cubs (leaving any others in a litter to die). After 20 years of trying, the Breeding Research Centre have only successfully bred two panda cubs - and both in the last four years. Hopefully, they're getting the hang of it now...

The panda cubs were very cute, and we were able to feed and pet them. Unfortunately, the rest of the 'Rescue Centre' was quite depressing. They had a cheetah (which had been kept drugged by a village), black bears (which had been milked for their bile) and numerous other sad animals. While these animals were being rescued from terrible situations, the rescue center seriously lacked financial support. Each animal was kept in a rather small cage, which consisting of only a concrete pad and steel bars instead of attempting to mimic the animal's natural habitat. We left the centre feeling really sad for the animals.

We spent the last few days that we were in Xi'an, actually seeing Xi'an. The city centre is surrounded by a 14km long (in perimeter) wall. The wall has a path along the top (about 5m across) that you can walk or bike around. We decided to bike the wall, so we rented a bike at the top and cruised around for a couple of hours. It was a really cool feeling to be cycling 15m above street level. If it weren't for the admission price for the wall and the fact that you can't bring your own bike to the top of the wall, it'd be a good commuting strategy for the locals...

Another key part of seeing Xi'an was the Muslim quarter. Unbeknownst to us, Xi'an has a sizeable population of Muslims (called Huis, who are descendents of Arabian merchants and travelers that came to the northwest of China by way of Persia and Afghanistan). The quarter consists of a bussling market area and street vendors, and so we spent a bit of time walking through it. We especially enjoyed the fried persimmons, the variety of dried fruits that you could buy (kiwi, tomatoes, oranges, etc.!) and the tasty halva!

Pingyao

The old town of Pingyao, with it's city walls intact, would have been very impressive - if it hadn't been so polluted.

Our guidebook (published in 2004) claims that this small town has escaped the development of much of the rest of China. Obviously, in the past few years, the race to develop has begun. Old parts of town are being knocked down. New buildings are being erected. And, a thick smog of coal dust and desert sands sits over the whole city.

We spent several hours walking (and biking) around the walls, but the whole experience was marked by the sights, sounds and smells of "development."

Datong

Datong is not on the normal tourist route (probably due to the smog), but there were two excellent sites near the city. The Hanging Temple was built by monks, who dangled down from a cliff-top above a mighty river, to drill holes for the cantilever beams. Flooding in the valley below was a big problem, so they built Buddhist, Daoist and Confucianist shrines (praying to anyone who could help). All of the temples in Beijing are fully restored, so this was our first chance to see shrines that were desecrated during the Cultural Revolution (the eyes were knocked out of all of the statues).

On the other side of town, about fifty caves were created in a sandstone hill. Each cave centers around a giant Buddha, with thousands of smaller Buddhas decorating the walls. Ironically, the best preserved Buddha is outdoors (his cave collapsed in an earthquake). The caves are damp inside, and past restoration attempts have crumbled off, leaving pock-marked Buddhas.

The Great Wall

We wanted to climb the Great Wall and we didn't want to do it alongside thousands of other tourists and postcard vendors. So, we decided to head to Huanghuacheng- a section that was further away and much less touristic than some of the other sections. Considering we were already going to be heading out so far, we decided to also go to the Ming Tombs (mausoleums for the emperors from the Ming Dynasty from 1368 - 1644).

We met up with Aaron, an Australian that we met on the Trans-Manchurian, at 7am on Sunday morning. We headed off to find a bus that would take us to Chongping, a city closer to the sites we wanted to go to. We spent about an hour on the bus, along with some really talkative early-bird locals. When we got to Changping we hailed a cab and spent about 10 minutes bargaining with the cab driver for the price on hiring the cab for the entire day. When we'd finally agreed on a price, we headed to the Ming Tombs. The cab ride was really fun, striking up a conversation with the driver with our minimal Mandarin, and trying to learn some new words from him (mostly farm animals that were in the farms at the side of the road).

The Ming Tombs were interesting enough - we got to climb underground to actually look at the tombs but they were really restored and not overly exciting. After a couple of hours of walking around, we got back in the cab and headed to the Great Wall.

A few kilometers away from the section of the Great Wall we were going to, we could already see the wall snaking through the mountains. It was really exciting! At one point we could tell that the cab driver had no idea where he was going, but luckily he kept stopping and asking people in the nearby villages where we had to go. When we finally got to the wall, we were told by a guard that it was shut down...We were a bit disappointed as we assumed that we would have to ask the driver to take us to the more touristy sections. We were told however that we could head to a lake where we could hike and look at the wall.

The driver drove us there and then a woman who said she was an official tour guide said that we could pay 50 yuan (about $8) and she would take us to the wall. We thought it might be a waste of money, but we agreed and so she lead us through back alleys around the village, through a construction site and up a slope that would lead us to the section of the wall. She left us at the bottom of the hill and so we clambered up to the top. The view from the top was incredible, and high enough up that you began to feel a bit uneasy about where you were standing.

We ended up climbing for 2 hours - one hour up the mountain along the wall and one hour slowly easing yourself down the wall, sometimes on all fours. Given that our walk along the Great Wall was less than official, we were kind of worried that we would get fined or something as we came back through the village (passing "Do not climb on the wall" signs along the way). Fortunately, the only people we met were an older couple (the woman had a cane) who were heading up the slope to climb the wall. With no language in common we tried to convey to them that the climb was pretty steep and difficult - we hope that they got the message! Anyway, we got to experience something pretty unique!

And as Mao once said, we are now "true men" (and women).

China!

We got a really good feeling about China the minute we entered. At the border we were welcomed by the border guard, and by the fact that people actually smile in China.

Our first impressions of Beijing were much better than expected. While there are a lot of people everywhere and there is quite a bit of pollution, it is not as bad as we expected. However, crossing the street is VERY scary. Despite the fact that there are traffic lights at intersections, you can't be guaranteed that the cars, buses and bikes will actually stop. The tactic we've used so far is to wait at a corner until a few locals show up and then follow them across.

Another thing is that we've left the places where we can attempt to blend in with the locals. Anytime you go anywhere touristy, you get asked if you want to buy guidebooks, Olympic paraphanalia, rickshaws rides, etc. What I think is particularly hilarious is that we've been approached a number of times by people who want to take their picture with us. We've even been handed someone's baby so that they could have their baby's picture taken with some gangly foreigners!

We've also had great luck with finding vegetarian food! We've found so many delicious vegetarian restaurants (there a quite a few Buddhist monks in China) that serve a huge variety of delicious food, some of which are very realistic mock meats made of soy and mushrooms. Nevertheless, we are armed with key phrases (I don't eat meat and I am vegetarian) for when we leave the big cities...

Over the past few days we've seen quite a few of the sights as well, including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (where the Chinese emperors used to live and was closed off from the public until the 1920s), the Temple of Heaven (a park with Buddhist temples), and Beihai Park (a huge park on a lake with an imperial garden and ponds with kai fish). We've also had the opportunity to climb a bit of the Great Wall, which we'll describe in the next post.

Trans-Siberian Railway (part 2)

Six days on the train seemed daunting, but we felt we were prepared - we stocked up on packets of instant noodles, soup, tea and hot chocolate (hot water is always available from a coal-fired 'samovar'), we each had a couple books to read and we could plan our entire trip through China (not to mention learning Mandarin).

As it turned out, the days flew by and we had a great time. We barely accomplished any of the planned reading or language practice and we slept less than expected, but we did eat most of the food. We had hoped for "authentic" Russian or Chinese people to share our compartment with (four bunks per compartment), but we were very pleased to spend the whole trip with a guy from Australia and a lady from New Zealand, each taking the slow way home. It turned out that "locals" in other cars would often fill their compartment with large bags, smoke filthy cigarettes, try to involve you in their smuggling operations and generally disregard hygiene.

We chatted, played "Settlers of Catan - Travel Edition," wandered the train taking photos and generally just took it easy. We developed the concept of "segments of time." Rolling up the bedroll was one segment, breakfast was one segment, a "shower" in the cramped toilets would be a segment, and discussions ranging from vaccinations to politics to the Simpsons could range from 1-5 segments. The important thing was never to attempt too many things in one segment of time - just take things slowly and you'd be surprised how little you can accomplish in a day.

In each car of the train (there were 14, carrying 400 people), there were two attendants - "provodnistas" in Russian. They were a constant source of aggravation, as they locked the doors to the toilets way before any of the stops, yelled at us for simple requests, and tried to be of as little help as possible. Still, many segments of time were spent complaining about them, and comparing the levels of apathy and incompetence between cars.

Oh, and we got to see Siberia too. It was cold, rainy, sometimes snowy, and as uninhabitable as you would imagine. It felt great to sit in the warmth of our compartment, sipping tea and looking out on a bleak landscape. We also got to see the real level of poverty in Russia (state pensions are less than 100$ a month) which was not obvious in St. Petes or Moscow. Many elderly women have to supplement their income by growing their own food in small plots beside their sparse wooden shacks, and by selling home-cooked food to passengers on the passing trains.

The sun came out (and the people got friendlier) the instant we crossed over into China (a ten-hour border crossing) - but we'll write more about this wonderful country later.

Trans-Siberian Railway

Tonight, we embark on a 9,000 km, 6-day, 7-night train journey from Moscow to Beijing. Our train is called the Trans-Manchurian and follows the route below. It's not technically the longest scheduled train ride in the world, but it's close (it's 300 km more from Moscow to Vladivostok). We should have plenty of stories to tell, but we'll be out of contact for the next week. If you're interested, we've posted some photos on Picasa from our travels so far.

Москва (Moscow)

Moscow is less European than St. Petersburg; much more like what we were expecting Russia to be like. It's been cold and rainy and the city is bigger, more spread out, and more clogged with traffic.

Luckily, the Metro is amazing, so we can get over all of these things. The Soviets were particularly proud of three things: the space program, the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Moscow Metro. The stations are decorated like palaces, with marble columns, colourful mosaics, stained-glass windows and chandeliers. And, they're deep enough that they could be used as nuclear fallout shelters (two minutes down on the escalator)...

We visited St. Basil's cathedral (which had been our only mental picture of Moscow), Red Square and the Kremlin. Inside the Kremlin (which is just a Russia word for fortress), there are many more Russian Orthodox cathedrals and an impressive collection of royal jewels, gold, silver and Fabergé eggs (and our fake student cards got us in really cheap). The Fabergé eggs were incredible: fist-sized "Easter eggs" of hard stone, decorated with precious metals, with intricate jeweled 'trinkets' inside - including a five-carriage clockwork train.

We also visited a GULAG museum. It was shockingly small and unknown, considering that it is the only museum dedicated to a system of forced labour camps that killed more than 2 million Russians. After having visited Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps, it was hard to believe that Stalin's crimes are being covered up so well.