Xian, Part One
Back from Jiangyou and chilling in Santai I decided that I would spend some of the remaining days by taking a trip and I knew I’d better soon or else run the risk of lollygagging away my holiday. It is a hereditary risk.
After talking with a couple of female teachers I was encouraged to go to Chongqing with the enticement being that ‘there are many beautiful women’ in Chongqing. So with no other plan or great idea I took Reashan up on his offer to help me by having him come over to write some things down for me in Chinese. You know, basic stuff like, ‘I would like a soft sleeper train ticket.’, and other helpful phrases. Since I had just bought a map of China and hung it on the wall he showed me where I would be going which led to a discussion of where else I might go. Since it was decided I would be the better part of a full day on the train I reasoned that maybe I could go somewhere more interesting or with greater history in about 12 hours. It was pretty quickly decided that I would leave the next day for Xi’an, (which despite the geniuses on The Amazing Race it is not pronounced zi-en but rather she-an). Reashan explained to me that Xi’an was the capitol of China for many years including the First Emperor, it is where the terracotta warriors are, (the clincher), and has been the home to 13 dynasties. I was pretty excited. I remember as a young boy of 10 or 11 when news of the terracotta warriors broke in the Western media how I read in awe of this discovery. If I recall correctly it was after my family had taken a road trip from our home in Eugene, Oregon to Seattle, Washington to see the touring display of King Tutankhamen. I was pretty immediately excited about my upcoming adventure. I packed pretty lightly, threw in a book to read and departed Santai around 5pm the next day to catch the train in Mianyang.
Since I had arrived in Mianyang by 6pm and took the city bus to the train station to by my ticket for a 9:41 departure with the help of a friendly guy who was also headed from Santai to Xi’an but by bus. Even though he was traveling a different method to the same place he was kind enough to see me to the ticket counter to make certain I got the right ticket. Have I mentioned how friendly they are? With a few of hours before my train departed I called Annie Holmes. I met Annie at the bar in Santai but she lives in Mianyang. She speaks English very well and has a contract with a producer in Hollywood where she dreams of being an actress. We met near the park and went to a great restaurant not a far walk from there. Dinner was great and it was nice to speak casually in English to someone as charming and attractive as Annie. I warned her to be careful of the ‘producer’ and she seemed pretty cautious already. With dinner done we walked through the festive park and the numerous ‘lantern’ displays that were lit for the Spring Festival. Many people, when Mianyang is mentioned, tell me what a ‘lovely’ city it is and I really think it is very nice. After continuing our walk we decide to take the bus to make certain I get there in time and despite my assurances that it was unnecessary Annie walked me right to the train station. I wished her good luck and told her that perhaps when I next see her it will be in a movie.
With a night time departure I was able to sleep away the majority of the trip and awoke to see the scenery drastically changed. Sichuan really is very nice, lush and green and I am so happy to have ended up here. In the next set of bunks was a very nice family that introduced themselves when the father offered to help me if I needed anything. After speaking to him for a while I learned that he is a mid-level official in the Chinese efforts in reforestation and that he studied in California and Utah. I also learned that his daughter is a student in grade two in Santai Middle School.
Once in Xi’an I decided from the glance I had seen of a map on the internet that I would forgo the bevy of taxi’s and the siren calls of the drivers for a walk into the city. I picked up a map, walked through the city wall and was on my way. I walked a few kilometers before I came to an entrance to the top of the wall where I walked to the South Gate taking some great pictures along way. I eventually made my way to the center of the city and began my tourist crawl with a visit to KFC. Yup. One of the many pleasures for me when I travel to a city is to eat some comfort food.
After lunch near the South Gate I made my a bit North to the Bell Tower, (what we would refer to as a pagoda), which is this incredible monument that traffic has been routed around as it sits right in the middle of a major intersection. I actually had to search for awhile to find how to get there which turned out to be an underpass. I spent about 20 minutes looking about and taking a few pictures before I headed over to the nearby Drum Tower. True to name it was a tower with many drums. Oddly it also featured an extensive display of ancient Chinese furniture upstairs. It was here that I met Anne who is from France but speaks great English. We looked over the furniture together and took turns taking pictures of the other before Anne mentioned that she was going to go to the Bell Tower. Since I had already been there I told her I would walk with her. Along the way she took a couple more pictures for me. As we entered the underpass, chatting away, we went the wrong way. This is when everything went horribly wrong. With my camera in my right jacket pocket, I took my hand off of it to illustrate to Anne that we had gone the wrong way but that we could go in a near full circle to get to the Bell Tower entrance. In the time that it took me to take my hand out of my pocket and make a 3/4 circle and put it back a pickpocket had swiped my camera. Ahh! We’ve all experienced it and it is never a good thing but I had that empty-just-struck-in-the-chest feeling that comes with the realization of being the victim of a great personal wrong. A bit melodramatic? Yeah. Have we met? I immediately turned back like an idiot, you know, in case it had ‘fallen’ out. Dumbass. I did all the stupid ripped-off-tourist moves. As crowded as it was, no doubt that someone saw it but no one appeared to. Like a pouty child I remarked to Anne that I was done and I wanted to catch the next train back home and without the support of another English speaker I might have done just that. We proceeded to the street level to the tune of my ‘fuck fuck fuck’s’ to find a police officer. Normally ubiquitous it was nearly fifteen minutes before I flagged down a police car and was able to explain what had happened with a bit of help from a man on the street. We were put in the back of the police car and driven a few blocks to wait at a police substation. And wait. And wait. Anne was great and was able to use some of the two years of Chinese she studied before coming to China despite her modest protests that she new only a little. After forty minutes another, or maybe it was the same, car came to take us to another police station where I was able to file my report. The highlight? I got to sign a form in the space for the Loser’s Signature as they asked me when I would be leaving Xi’an. Apparently not soon enough for them. Now, I really have to give it to the thief. In fact, I guess I did. Whomever it was was so slick and so confident of their skills that they would not get caught that they took the chance. A crime against a foreigner is given a much harsher punishment than a crime not involving a foreigner. Well, that and I was completely careless.
With nearly ninety minutes shot and near the Muslim Quarter we decided to head into it to find something to eat and check out the vendors. I need to also add what a great friend Anne was in hanging through this with me. We found a nice place that some police were leaving so we took that as an endorsement and ventured in ordering the specialty of noodles that it appeared everyone else was eating. I nearly ordered a beer, pi jiu, before realizing that I may offend their Muslim sensibilities. Close call. We then made our way through the crowded streets that were absolutely teeming with people and alive with color. It was a great district even if it was in many ways for the tourists. While stopped at a vendor and haggling over the price of some miniature terracotta warriors we met Evan and Dave. They had just arrived in Xi’an that afternoon and had been traveling together since meeting in Beijing. Dave is from Vancouver, BC and had just recently finished a short stint in Korea before visiting China. Evan, who is from Melbourne, made his way to China by way of time on an archaeology dig in Cyprus before taking the Orient Express through Russia and Mongolia to finally arrive in Beijing. Although we had already eaten Anne and I accepted the invitation to join Evan and Dave for dinner. It turned out that Anne was staying in the same hostel as them and it was agreed upon that we would all meet up the next morning to go to the terracotta warriors together. I hoped to buy a new camera first but we were talking about a pretty early departure.
With something of a plan and the hours ticking away we decided to try a disco near where I was staying. With 20RMB for a Heineken when you buy a dozen and a cup with some dice I began teaching 1-4/24 while we tried to talk over the COMPLETELY TOO LOUD MUSIC. After a bit we were invited to join the Chinese high rollers. Every club has some and you can always spot them – they are the guys drinking Chivas, (1300RMB a bottle), with green tea like it is water. Evan settled into the free drinks just as Anne and Dave decided to call it a night. I was back and forth to the dance floor sometimes disappearing for twenty or thirty minutes at a time. I’ve experienced my share of ambiguously gay night clubs in China but this place topped them all and after one too many Chinese guy insisting on dancing with me I bailed the dance floor to see how Evan was doing. I found him still enjoying the Chives and green tea nectar when he informed me that he decided he would like to stay and find a job as a teacher. He was scheduled to leave from Beijing in something like four days and his visa was set to expire in seven or eight. Heh. I thought this was pretty cool and admired his willingness to turn his life upside down to do something he felt strongly about. So after a bit of a discussion we headed upstairs to the disco net bar where I showed him that it would take all of five minutes to find a job in China. I also shot an email to Teresa, my boss, to let her know of his availability. We then headed back down the stairs where we ran into a couple of Brazilians that play at a club in Xi’an. Very cool. It also turned out that that was the club we had meant to go to. With the early morning beginning to loom we decided to call it a night.
Of course, I haven’t any pictures to send for this half since MY CAMERA WAS STOLEN! Boo hoo.
O.