Trip to 西安(Xi’an)

A few weeks ago, 星星(xingxing), my good Chinese friend, called me and said she wanted to meet later to ask me a question. At first this sounds pretty worrisome, but (through experience) I have learned that in China this means a positive question just as often as a negative one. It was a great question, as she wanted to know if Dave and I wanted to go with her to Xi’an. She has a friend from high school who goes to college there, so he would be able to show us around. We of course said yes. Xi’an is the capital of Shaanxi province in central China. It is famous for two reasons, one, it is the home of the Terra Cotta Warriors as well as historically being the Western-most Chinese outpost on the Silk Road.

We grabbed some McDonald’s at the train station (the standard m.o.) and boarded the train to Xi’an. Xingxing had bought us all hard seat tickets, but seeing that it was a fifteen-hour journey, I upgraded to hard sleeper. After boarding and texting with her and Dave, I was quite glad I did. We were traveling on the long weekend of Qing Ming Jie, or tomb-sweeping day. This is a very traditional Chinese holiday remembering dead relatives, and essentially cleaning and sprucing up the graves. So the train was packed. For them. This is because there seems to be no limit on the number of tickets sold in the seat cars. So, they will be jam-packed with people, and I mean jam-packed. (To really understand, see this post.) But, in the sleeper cars, there is still just one person per bed, so there is plenty of room. I had a pleasant journey, was accompanied by a nice family (grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, and a young Chinese ‘princess’). The young girl, maybe five or six, even helped me read some text messages from Chinese friends I couldn’t understand. My decision was further vindicated when, in the morning, I received a text from Dave saying that one of the kids in the seats near them “just dropped deuce on the floor in front of 星星”, for those not familiar with the slang, a toddler had just pooped on the floor. Dave said that the parents punished the child and quickly cleaned it up, but that’s just one more reason why I always say take the hard sleepers for trips over 8 hours.

We had a great time in Xi’an. We hit the ground running after getting off the train, and joined what seemed like every other tourist at the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. I was pretty impressed with the exhibit, it was much, much greater in size than I had imagined. It was pretty mind-boggling to think that all these statues had been created over 2,200 years ago, and were still in pretty good shape despite being burned and buried. The Terra Cotta Warriors are touted as being (along with the Great Wall) the top tourist destination in China. They were worth seeing, but in my opinion, one could probably appreciate them almost as much by watching a good PBS special about them. All the display rooms really seemed to lack good explanations with the artifacts (and this wasn’t just due to not being able Chinese, as Xingxing concurred). We spent Saturday afternoon in a delightful park, and even went on a paddleboat ride. Xingxing’s friend, 奚海波(Xi Haibo) was as helpful as anyone could be. The Chinese people’s record for astoundingly good hospitality was kept up by him. Throughout the weekend he would always ask us what we wanted, tailor everything to us, and most amusingly, he is quite the frugal fellow, and would try to bargain cheaper prices for us because he and Xingxing are just students, and we were foreigners who had traveled such a long way to visit Xi’an. I can’t say enough about how helpful people have been in China. I attribute it to the incredible importance Chinese people place on family and close friends. Thus, whenever I have been to a Chinese person’s home, they have treated me incredibly well.

Dave and I spent the second day climbing up and down 华山(Hua Shan) one of the most famous mountains in China. It was located just a little ways outside of Xi’an. We spent the nigh before in a cheap hotel, and got up bright and early, and made it to the entrance gate by 6 in the morning. Only to be told that it didn’t open until 7. We wanted to climb the mountain because we had read a few reviews and seen some pictures that advertised a few dangerous and treacherous cliff-side pathways. We were unable to find these paths, but we are pretty sure that they have been rebuilt with much safer walkways (to our disappointment). It was still a great day, and the mountain provided plenty of steep paths requiring ladders and chains to ascend or descend. It is always great to get out into nature (albeit filled with tourists and vendors) and enjoy pollution free vistas.

One thing Dave and I occasionally did during the day was to go on litter patrol. In my opinion, littering is an incredibly big problem here in China. Either the police and other public servants have more important things to do, or they choose not to punish litterers, so it is rampant. Ironically, creating a ‘harmonious’ society and a much better environment is something the government, and every Chinese person desires and claims to be actively doing. The problem is, that to criticize (or even talk with) a stranger is something unacceptable and embarrassing in Chinese culture. I have asked a few Chinese people if it is rude that I make comments when people litter, or cut in line, or a few other things, and they say not for me. They don’t say anything because they might be embarrassed and maybe they don’t feel it is their role to do so. But they say it’s okay for me because I am a foreigner. I don’t accept this answer, as I tell them we are all people, nationality should not affect what is or is not acceptable in Chinese culture. When pressed, they have said the main reason they don’t say anything is because they don’t want to be disrespectful to an elder, or they are just shy. Because I don’t really understand the word shy, and don’t think that being older than me gives anyone the right to litter, I have decided that I will make comments. So Dave and I stayed pretty busy reminding people to put their trash in the trash can (all in Chinese of course). Maybe we are the fat, stupid, culturally insensitive Americans, but at least we’re making China cleaner (and for the record, I have had two friends say they wish they had the courage to tell their fellow citizens to quit being rude).

Back in Xi’an we had a good evening walking around the Muslim corner, which although it is pretty touristy, is still a good time. It is essentially supposed to represent the old market that Xi’an was during the Silk Road days, when people from all over Central Asia lived and traded in Xi’an. It seemed now to be more of a way for the Chinese to boost the livelihoods of many of its ‘minority’ peoples from Xinjiang, Gansu, and Ningxia provinces. Whether or not this is the best way to ‘involve’ the people from China’s exteriors is a fairly complicated socioeconomic argument. Nonetheless, we had some really good 'yang rou pao mao', a soup/stew with fried bread, onions, green onions, and lamb strips. It was quite tasty, and wish it was on the menu at the Muslim restaurant near our campus in Changzhou. On Monday morning we toured the campus of Haibo’s school, which was very nice (it is a larger and much more prestigious school than mine). We had a failed attempt to visit what was claimed on WikiTravel as the world’s largest Internet café. We learned that it had broken up and spread to a few locations, as we went through a mostly empty building.

There was last thing to note that occurred on the trip back. The three of us were all in the hard sleeper on another overnight trip. The train wasn't too full, so there was only one other guy in our compartment (which holds six). At some point in the night he seemed a bit distressed, after having run to another car to grab his bags (he had upgraded his ticket). He and Xingxing had a little chat, and he had a thick accent/dialect so I couldn't understand anything he said. Xingxing was chuckling as she explained to me that he had two chickens in his big luggage bag. I was astonished. Now, I have plenty of fish, crabs, and other seafood on the buses and trains. And had seen two chickens escape from a regular looking box outside one train station. I just never thought that these clandestinely transported chickens would be in the bunk next to me. He was so distressed because one of the chickens had died because of the heat (and cramped quarters) inside the bag. It was now just in a plastic bag, with the head visible, on the floor underneath Xingxing's bunk. He had told Xingxing that we were lucky that we were getting off at 3:30, as they (now just it) usually make a lot of noise around 5 am. I think I now am getting a little better idea of why the bird flu spreads easily in China.

It was a great trip, Xingxing, with an amazing command of English and a good sense of humor, makes a solid travel partner and her friend Haibo was a great host. Many of my students have said I am crazy to have traveled thirty hours by train just to spend two nights and less than three days somewhere, you might agree with them. But it was a three day weekend, so I figured it best to make the most of it.