Guarding Xian with Walls and Terracotta (Asia Trek pt 25)

In the morning we had time to kill before taking the train to Xian, so me and Tobias walked the streets to the train station and back with little to report. We ended up walking further than I expected and were in a bit of a rush to get back to the hotel so we had no opportunity for lunch. The group coalesced and then got in the Taxi to go to Xian. The next week was hectic as well traveled with a full schedule to Xian and then Beijing. The train ride to Xian would also be the longest, but bearable in the soft sleeper.

In fact we were probably a bit raucous as the girls had acquired some portable speakers so we could continue our party and games and chit chat late into the evening. After bed time I stayed up a little longer with Anton and few beers and talked more things China. Only when we started getting complaints from others in our groups about the noise did we finally go to bed. Woke up in the morning and stepped out onto the platform of Xian, which arrived a little earlier than expected.

Exiting the train station, we saw the old city wall right in front of us and many people hanging around on the square waiting to buy a train ticket. This is common at most major railway stations. Taxi's took us too our YMCA hotel, where if you damage anything you pay, because it is private! Other hotel are government managed and do not suffer this indecency. Given the short amount of time Anton thought it best to guide us around personally, rather than let us do our own thing as is standard. So he took us up the street to the bell tower before catching a cab to the city wall. The wall is from the time when Xian was the capital of China, though I can't remember when that is. It is in fact one of a few complete city walls in China and was the largest that I saw. I recall that the area is 12-16 square kilometre, and the wall is 20 meter wide at the top, 30 meter wide at the bottom with guard houses and other building dotted around the perimeter. The usual trick is to hire a bicycle and cycle around on the Wall. So as a group we cycled casually around the wall stopping at the generals offices to view the inside of some of the building and some old military artifacts. Continuing on to the opposite side of the city we stopped there to save time, thus completing only half of the full circumference of the wall. As we stopped a group of traditional military guards walked passed us, for our phototainment.

Descending down off the wall again passed the fake old city recreated for tourists, we walked a country mile to a restaurant for a feed. This time sweet and sour pork was ordered for those that had enough of the 'exotic' food (I can't imagine a more boring chinese dish than sweet and sour, but anyway!), and many cups of tea later we left again.

In the afternoon we headed to the Muslim district were there is an old Mosque from again a long time ago. These thing can of course been search on the internet if you are interested. This was actually very interesting as it was built by Chinese Muslims in 742 AD and bears a much closer architectural relationship to Chinese Buddhist temples than Muslim Mosque, while retaining many of the strucutural ideas of Mosque. A true mixture of religious culture into something that is wholly unto itself. I found this very intriguing watching chinese muslims walking around and conveniently they were called to pray while we were there. However there was no access to the prayer hall for visitors. The Muslim area also contains a tourist market around the Beiyuan Mei Islamic street, with some very cheap terracotta warriors if you want them, though I think you can get then even cheaper in Beiing. Here I was lured into a shop by a young lady who liked my hat. A big wide brimmed straw thing that on of the members in my group had bought for someone else but his head was too big for it. Given that my head was, and still is nice and small I inherited it. She wanted to try it on and then keep it. I didn't really like so I said Okay. However just as I was leaving she changed her mind an then managed to coax me into the store. There was actually a study done recently that if you allow men to fondle womens clothing, the sligh buzz they might get from that is enough to make men accept a worse deal than they would normally. Hence it is no surprise that most of the stall in China and South East Asia are operated by young women. and this one managed to sell me a bad quality shirt for twice the price it should have been. This was not expensive but other places started at much cheaper prices. Flatery goes a long way, in this cut throat business world.

Having bought my t-shirt for the show that night, I walked through the Muslim district and the back to the hotel, where I rested for the afternoon, reading the news paper outside my room as my room mate had gone off to see a pagoda with the key. He returned
20 min before we had to be ready for the show that evening. Anton collected us and we walked to the "Tang Dynasty Royal show" which was set in a theatre of old styling (that is an acedemic term!). Of particular interest to us was the fact that before the show we would be given a meal of dumplings, of both the decorative and tasty styles. It was all you can eat aswell and included in the price ticket for the show. The decorative dumplings were presented first in various animal and plant shape. And while these looked impressive in different colours and shapes, the taste was lacking. After that we recieved plain looking dumpling with execellent taste and these we could eat as many as we wanted. However the dumplings were so filling that we could only manage one extra portion before relaxing for the show.

While we were eating a lady came out and played the zither for about 15 minutes which was pleasant background music before the show started. The show was a typical show present to the Tang dynasty emperor and consisted of music, dancing, some acrobatics with some love stories thrown in. The costume elaborate Again a very good show, with high quality dancers and technical production

After the show, we returned to the hotel, as firecrackers went off somewhere downtown. The following day was the day of the terracotta warriors, one of the must see things in China. The warriors are about and hour and half drive out if Xian, and the tour included a guide whose duty it was to make more money of us and talk a lot with an Chinese American accent. So before we got to the original warriors we stopped at a small house that was were the official government approved replicas of the warrior are made. You can buy models of the warrior ranging from 10cm to life size. Of course you pay a premium price in comparison to those you can buy in the market, and after we left there were many more stores selling terracotta warriors and also stated that they were officially government sanctioned. I don't know what the truth is but, I also have no need for a life size terracotta in my backyard, though I have since seen a couple in Europe.

Onto the actual warriors. The first thing which impresses (an impressed me the most) is the way they are looked after. After seeing many relics in south east asia with minimal protection or investment in infrastructure, I was not expecting the elaborate complex that the have built to enclose all the warrior in football field size buildings, accompanying museum and multiple shopping centre complexes still lying dormant. Our guide took us through the three separate pit where you could see the variety of statue types; archers, infantry and the one general, who is no encases in a glass display unit. Interesting to note is that in the design of the warriors the heads are are separate and thus each statue is able to have an individualised face, suggesting that the faces are in fact replicas of the emperors army at the time. The second thing is that unlike the gray statues that you see, in fact all the warriors were created with colour, which unfortunately disappears shortly after the warrior are uncovered . Due to this many of the warriors will remain covered until they can develop a technique to preserve the colour once the covering is removed. All that you can see of the colour are images on the wall within the complex.

The whole complex is impressive in it scale and in it care exhibited to the warriors and their preservation. No doubt China will make much money out of the complex making a handsome return on investment, but it is great to see the effort and care that the Chinese are giving this piece of world history.

Leaving the complex the commercialism of the place become truly apparent, as the exit takes you past empty building after empty building which will at some stage be filled with shops to sell all manner of goods. Luckily for us they were all still empty so that we could walk through straight back to the hotel. On the way out though, there were some hawker selling small sets of terracotta warriors at ever decreasing prices. I wasn't interested but again one of them was interested in my hat, and jokingly asked if I would swap the hat for a set of warriors. Then his friend joined him and said he couldn't do that. After a few minutes of confusion, laughter and discussion, I walked away hatless with a box of terracotta warriors. I was as surprised as anyone with the deal. We headed further towards the exit when about a minute later the guy ran after us, wishing to turn the deal around. He didn't want the hat after all, so I gave him back his warriors and I took back my. Something about wearing the hat seemed to turn people off.

That was the end of two busy days in XIan and after lunch back in town we picked up our laundry, packed our bags and headed off to the train station to go to our final destination of the tour; Beijing

Up the Yangtze and back again (Asia Trek pt 24)

The overnight train to Yichang, finally took me out of the tropics and in to the food and industry belt of China that revolves around the Yangtze river. A river whose economic impact has a long history, and a major role in Chinese industrial exports to the rest of the world today. But it is but one part of the industrial and agricultural production of China, which exceeds the rest of mainland south east Asia in scale and sophistication and has left a significant scare on the landscape where ever you go. Even in the mountainous areas of southern China, which are less affected due to limited access, have been significantly worked to facilitate the agricultural production, most spectacularly brought out by rice terraces which are now a major tourist attraction. It looks as though this level of development is leaving the natural environment hurting. But it is not just the farmers that are to blame as the huge growth in construction and the transport routes that criss cross the country to facilitate internal and international trade. This is also eating up agricultural land (i suspect reclaimed by the government) with farmers hanging on and continuing to use very small sections of land in the middle of road construction sites to continue growing crops. On the whole China is busy, busy building and growing and it is not surprising it is driving the world economy.

Arriving in Wuhan by train and then transferring onto a bus which took us up the Yangtze river to Yichang, was the first really large scale city I traveled through. A massive concrete jungle split by the Yangtze delta into three different parts, one dominated by government, one by business and one by industry. Traffic jams here are as bad if not worse than anywhere in the world and even the use of electric buses cannot resolve the problem or pollution. This was also Anton's current home town. The smog and concrete made the city look less than impressive, though the first crossing of the Yangtze is always impressive, like crossing the Mekong in Vietnam. The 1 and half hour drive to Yichang is not worth noting, but the arrival at our hotel was particularly notable. Again our lazy tour tour guide arranged to have us dropped off near the hotel instead of the bus station. This probably happened while talking with the bus driver to keep him awake after his head started dipping. The road where the hotel was located had been turned into a construction zone and the adjacent building flattened. All except for one household which seemed to be holding out against the march of progress. So we ambled along the dirt road, around construction debry's with our heavy backpacks to the hotel. Another over priced and not spectacular three star hotel.

Yichang is not a city with sites and is little more than the starting point for tours up the Yangtze river and the three gorges. The Yangtze runs along the side of the city at about twenty metres below the shore line level. Leaving a large concrete sloping wall exposed on both side from which the locals fish and observe the passing water. Along the shore there is also part where after dark the people coalesced, had a small fair, and sent fire lanterns into the sky. Weary after such a lot of travelling and shopping for three days food we rose to our lofts and watched the late night workers do further destruction on the paper walls that posed as buildings.

The following morning it was up early, some quick fresh hand made noodles at a street stall, before hopping in a taxi to the dock. Getting on the boat was easy enough but the boat itself was less than impressive. The boat had seen its fair share of use, the cabins were small and weathered even in first class, and poor Anton as tour guide had to pay for his own room other wise he just gets a piece of floor somewhere. The boat is also aimed at Chinese tourist as opposed to the wealthy westerners, that come past, so that we and a few other represented the western world on the boat.

After setting into our cabins we endeavoured to go to the foredeck and were promptly refused entry as it was a VIP zone. A quick word to Anton and ten minutes later we had new passes giving us access to the foredeck were we watched the city of Yichang pass by. Going back to the aft deck we got a look of looks from the Chinese population and a whole group of them burst out laughing when they saw my hairy legs. I didn't really appreciate that as at first I didn't know what they were laughing about and then be came very self conscious. I am sure that was not their intention though.

The Yangtze river is of course the site of the infamous Three Gorges Dam which is the largest dam project in the world. There is plenty of information available online about the size and scale of the project and so it was with anticipation that we progressed upstream. At first you pass through the locks of a supplementary dam which was built to test the larger three gorges dam, and see if it was possible to dam the Yangtze. Apparently so!

A further 30 min upstream you approach the locks of the dam, which sits on the other side of a small hill to the main wall. As we went through the lock the boat was quite quiet as the rest of the passengers left to have a guided tour of the Dam (our guide advised us not to take the tour as it was in Chinese and not very interesting) So we went with the boat through the five locks of the dam with 5 other boats simultaneously. Each lock is a couple of hundred meters long and 40 to 50 meter wide. The locks raised us from 56 meter to 145 meter above sea level as we progressed through the first four locks. The fifth one has been built but not in use as the last stage of filing the dam occurs in 2009, which will raise the water level to 175 meters. I could write more about them but I think the pictures say enough. The thing is huge. The only thing that disappoints is that due to the supplementary dam you can't see the full extent of the height of the front dam wall. There has of course been much criticism about the dam and it impacts but it remains a stupendous piece of engineering.

Finally passing the the final lock several hours after we had entered the first, it is interesting to note that even with this delay it is quicker to put trucks onto boata, ferry the through the locks and upstream to Chongqing than it is to drive there directly. One of the sub projects of the three gorges dam is to improve the road infrastructure along the Yangtze to facilitate increased trading up and downstream
(the other is a pipeline transferring water to Manchuria a few thousand kilometers away.)

Well after sunset the rest of the passengers invaded the boat again and we retired to our rooms for some card games and chit chat. The next morning we cruised further up the river stopping at various point to allow the Chinese tourists to get off to tour the various temples on the way. Anton had advised us that it wasn't that interesting and it also gave us some time alone on the boat, at which point Anton also discussed China with us. At one such stop for a few hours we lamented the fact that we had an Ipod but no speakers to attached to it. But somehow through a sequence of events that I can't remember we managed to get hold of a Megaphone on the boat. With this tool in our hands and a little bit of sticky tape we manage to create our own PA system. Which proved to be quite effective and we held our own little party with this improvised contraption for the rest of the day and night. There is a video of us somewhere, partying on the back the back of the boat.

During this time we also proceeded through the three gorges. The three gorges are three consecutive regions of the Yangtze where mountains and cliffs become prominent on both side of the river. The area is too moutainous to house large cities so there is a lot of natural forest, some farmland and many temples and traditional buildings. Of course there used to be more in the region as many buildings were destroyed before being submerged in the lake formed behind the dam. The area is quite beautiful and one of the gorges appears on the 10 yuan note. In some sections you can see coffins placed on ledges high in the cliffs that have been there for thousands of years. Some of these will be submerged in the final stage of the rise of the Yangtze, and work is apparently being undertaking to remove these coffins to protect them. This process is apparently being undertaken in accordence with the wishes of the traditional communities in the area from which they arose.

The one additional tour that we did take was into the mini three gorges as Anton advised that not only is it interesting but will be totally a submerged after the final stage of the dam is complete. This involved transferring to another boat which took us up a side river for a few hours. The whole time we were given information in Chinese about the gorges and everybody packed the outside decks to see things. Anton filled in a few bits for us he thought was significant. At the entry to the mini three gorges we transferred to small 20 person boats to head up the small gorge. The small river with cliff and steep mountains on either side is beautiful but apparently it is already not as impressive than it was before the dam was built. More entertaining was the very enthousiastic guide, on our small boat, who sang for us and also gave us the opportunity to dress up in traditional clothing including spear and sheild for a photo opportunity. Some of the Chinese took up the opportunity but we westerners balked at the prospect. Turning around and heading back down the mini three gorges, we where greeted with the singing by three staff from the main boat who had left before everyone else to prepare for their performance. Sometimes the tourism here seems very contrived.

On the return trip to the main river, the Chinese were encouraged/told to stay on the downstairs floor of the boat where product were offered for sale with accompanying commentary, and occasional singing, all projected through the ships PA system. After about 30 min of this it became rather annoying and wearying, that the only option was to wait outside on the upper deck in the light rain, to escape the noise. The deck was now empty which meant that it was much easier to appreciate the scenery.

Returning to the main boat we headed further upstream to a city were we had dinner on
shore. we ate fish, which was hot and very delicious, though not to the taste of all. Returning to the boat, we prepared for the long haul back to Yichang. Originally we would continue further up the Yangtze to Chongqing, however the earthquake prevented us from going as the government closed the area for tourism. So we saw many of the sites that we saw on the way up the river and travelled through the locks a second time. Much of this time we talked, played cards, amongst ourselves and with some of the locals.

We returned to the same hotel, still in a construction site that we stayed in before and went out to dinner eating some snail, which again were very spicy, messy and worked up a considerable sweat. The after a little free time the youngn's of the group went out to a nightclub across the road and sang 'Country road, take me home' with the locals. Early in the morning Anton decided he wanted to take two of us to Karaoke and so we left the other to find a karaoke bar. Unfortunately the prices in the area were two high and so that plan quickly fell from the table. and instead Anton became hungry again so we went out for another late night snack. More delicious spicy fish and bbq lamb skewers. Mmmmmn! I love the late night Chinese snack!