Xi'an - Part II

SO - we woke up in Xi'an, and had perhaps the most scrumptrilescent (that one's for Sully if you ever read this) breakfast I've had in China. The hostel sells 'The American Breakfast'. Two eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Toast, Butter, served with an extra helping of love. It was mouth watering, lemme tell ya. After breakfast (with the Spanish gals), we had to unfortunately say goodbye to them, as their trip was taking them off to Shanghai for their next stop. I hope we see all of them again someday, or sooner! They were fabulous people.

So today we took our trip to see the Terracotta warriors. We took a Chinese Tour Bus (which was ridiculously cheap) to get ourselves to the dig-site. We paid our tourist fee...

NOTE: BRING A COLLEGE ID TO ANY TOURIST AREA IN CHINA. YOU WILL SAVE MONEY ON TICKETS!

... and headed on in. There are 3 pits of statue warriors, covered in and STILL being unearthed and studied to this day. They say it will take a few more decades for them to fully understand the entire site. However, what they have on display currently is enough to blow your mind. The statues are extremely solemn and awe inspiring. The sheer number of them.. and how they were meant to be BURIED and NEVER found by any man is truly amazing. This was all done in name of one man, an Emperor. They respected and worshiped this one man enough to create a vast army of stone soldiers to carry him into the afterworld, and for the living world to never lay eyes upon. That, to me, is poetic and stunning. Unfortunately though, much like the Forbidden City, the tourism factory that the place had become put me off a bit. I was expecting something life changing, and I was confronted by Tour Guides and merchants trying to squeeze as much money out of the ancient culture found here. A bit off putting - but if I concentrated enough, I felt I was able to understand and get myself in the right state of mind to enjoy the old statues and their meaning.

After many pictures (my camera died here. Bummer) and long walks, we made our way out of the dig site and headed through the small merchant zone where they tried to sell you souvenirs like crazy. We bypassed them quickly and sat in a little square for a bit. I saw a couple of locals playing Badminton nearby, and walked over to watch them. They asked me if I wanted to play, I said absolutely, and found myself sweating profusely over a game of Badminton with a Chinese local in Xi'an after about 15-20 minutes of play. They asked the regular questions - where are you from? What do you do? How old are you? But mainly, they were just happy to see someone who wanted to have a little fun, I think. It was somewhat heartwarming to know that people are still people no matter where you go. Be it America, China, or anywhere else - I could barely speak with these folks, but they greeted me with warm smiles and the want to connect for a minute, even if it was over a silly little game with rackets and a 'birdie'. I loved it. It was a blast. I thanked them, shook hands, and we jumped back on our bus back to the city.

Back in Xi'an, Katie and I decided we wanted to go check out the Oldest Tea House in Xi'an, down near the Muslim quarter of town. Mike and Neha stayed in the Hostel to relax. We also called up Caitlin (Katie's randomly realized friend from high school) and met her for the Tea Ceremony we were to partake in at the Tea House.

Side Note: While waiting for Caitlin near the Muslim quarter (and in front of the Drum tower) we met 3 young girls from the Xi'an University. They were English students and had many questions for us. They were VERY kind and happy to speak with us, and we were happy to chat with them! We seem to get this basically everywhere we go in China. People love to practice their English with native English speakers. It's kind of nice, I think.

At the Tea House, we paid a very small fee, and were brought into the Tea room in the house. Two women that spoke standard English helped us in and made us comfortable. One of them was the Tea Master (or Mistress, I guess) that made us about 4-5 different types of tea to try out and enjoy. She also gave each one a bit of history and explained why people drink that specific type of tea - for example, The Lychee Concubine Tea was for ladies, and meant to improve the skin and wet the lungs.. whatever that means. It was actually very nice, and the whole experience was definitely worthwhile and interesting. We then were given a tour of the old house - which was around 400 years old - and housed an art studio, shadow puppet theatre, several small homes, a paper cutting art studio, and a small, gorgeous garden.

After saying goodbye to our Tour Guide and the old house - we got back to the hostel and made more friends! A young man named Ferdinand from Germany, an English gent named Louie, two guys from D.C. who are teaching in Korea and were on holiday and vacationing in China. All good kids! Anywho - our friend making led us to making plans to go out in Xi'an to another hostel to meet more foreigners! We were in a city where foreigners seem to thrive, so why not meet a few more? We got to the other hostel, where the bar was much more suited to host larger parties and had some solid music going. We made friends with LOTS of kids there - including Al - a guy from Vermont (UVM), Muhammad - an American teacher traveling around,
Joe - an American kid who was studying Taoism/Buddhism in Xi'an, and a host of other characters we spent the night with! After a failed attempt at a disco, a trip to the night food vendors, and getting back to the hostel bar - we called it a night and headed home to our little hostel near the Bell tower downtown.

We woke up and had breakfast with Caitlin, Joe and Ferdinand, and relaxed quite steadily inside our hostel, chatting, enjoying each others company, and talking about the night before. The Hostel's 'living room', I guess you could call it, is extremely comfortable. It has couches, a pool table, Fooseball, computers with internet, all kinds of drinks and food, etc. So it turned into a good place to hang out. Also, the walls of the Hostel (like many others, I've found) are littered with words, sayings and drawn pictures from travelers that have stayed at the hostel in the past. It is mesmerizing to begin reading all the things people have left on the walls of the hostel as their mark, and of course we had to leave our own little mark. Or a few.

Note: I saw Zach Zimmerman's name splayed across the wall on the second floor of our hostel. I went into convulsions and wrote my name next to his, as well as '603 Forever'. Go New Hampshire. Go PC.

We wrote Providence College a few times, our names, a little story.. AND, we noticed that the Spanish gals drew three cute little impressions of themselves on the wall near the pool table in the back - so obviously we had to draw ourselves in right next to them! I named the artwork, "Xi'an - the city of Friends". I think it was fitting! After doodling a bit, it was time for the four of us to get onto our train back to Beijing, and then later, the train back to Tongliao. It was a bittersweet leave we took from our happy little home we found in Xi'an. We bid Joe and Ferdinand goodbye, and Caitlin came to see us off at the Train station. Very sweet of her indeed. The train back was again a sleeper into Beijing - so we woke up in the morning, In Beijing! How convenient the train system works here. A train cab can act as BOTH a form of transportation, AND a hideously uncomfortable hotel room! What luck!

At any rate, we made it to Beijing - and decided to spend the day (we had until 5pm or so to kill, as that's when the train to Tongliao leaves) exploring the Temple of Heaven in the center of Beijing. We walked there. Oh, and on the way, I bought this flour-wrap-egg-sauce-crunchy-cilantro-onion-thing.. that was maybe the most delectable street food I've had since entering China. Cheers, Beijing! Anyway - we made it to the Temple, to find that it is actually a MASSIVE park that houses a few monuments and the temple inside of it. The attractions inside include the Temple of Heaven (for making sacrifices to the heavens, duh) the Temple of Good Harvest (for making sacrifices to the gods for a good harvest), The Garden of 100 Flowers (which were all dead - wrong time of the year!), The Echo Wall (which you can talk into at one point, and someone can hear you from the other side of the wall, like, WAY far away), and this big Mound that is supposedly extremely important. Alas, we're not quite sure why. At any rate, everything inside the park was beautiful and captivating to visit and tour around. But the REAL attraction of this place was DEFINITELY the throngs and throngs of old timers hanging out in the park! There were HUNDREDS of them doing activities from Ribbon dancing, playing cards, playing 'Chinese Hackey Sack', learning to ballroom dance, doing Tai-Chi, Playing Tennis, Singing Karaoke, chatting with friends, learning to play instruments together, singing sheet music and BEYOND. It was enthralling! And actually kind of nice. Everything the older folks were doing is 'for exercise and health' - and they all seemed pretty happy to be out and about! If that's how the Chinese retire - count me in when I get that old!

After our Temple of Heaven Park adventure, we made our way back to the Train station and hopped on our final train home to Tongliao. A wonderful trip we had in only so many days. I'd never trade it in for anything, or change anything about it. Well, except that I DID miss our friends back in Tongliao very dearly. It was wonderful to come home and see them.

Ah, traveling. I think that it may be my new passion in life. I guess I'll just have to see where it takes me! (Pun intended).