niniane | Recent Entries

We woke up around 6 the next morning so that we could get to the wall ahead of everyone else and ride bikes on it. Dad accidentally led us to the north wall, and we bought a double ticket to the city wall and the Beilin Museum (Forest of Steles) then rented bikes and rode around. I can see why it's a popular adventure! The full circuit of the wall is 14 km, so easily doable in two hours on a bike, even getting on and off frequently, and it's well sign posted with interesting things to see about the city. A few of these were various points where ancient courts and markets had existed, a lama temple (complete with a gold leaf roof and a Bodhi tree that had its own house complete with curtains), and all kinds of defense ramparts and guard towers. We cycled only to the south gate, then got out to go to the Forest of Steles.

After a bit of asking random passerbyers as to where I was, we found it. (And I'm pretty sure were the only white people there, oh well.) I really love the place, though, as it has steles from the Han dynasty (200 BC) onwards. Some of the highlights for me included an entire hall of Tang dynasty Buddhas in perfect condition, an 11^th century bell with a poem on it by the Emperor (who also did the calligraphy, nach!) and a bunch of Han burial tombs depicting hunting, dancing, singing, and guest welcoming, of all things. (I almost wondered what the guest welcoming was. Everything else showed pictures of people doing things they clearly loved. Was guest welcoming a hobby? Or maybe a way of showing that you were a good person who deserved a warm welcome in the afterlife? Unsure.)

The next stop was the Banpo neolithic museum, where a city has been found that's over 6000 years old. We got to see the pots (many with either a symbolic fish motif or a face interspersed with a fishing net – I think I know what these guys ate!), tools (including some intricate fishing hooks and hair pins), and recreations of daily life, along with the original dig site (that included a bunch of tombs. Interestingly, people they liked were buried face up facing to the west with elaborate grave goods – people they disliked faced down, facing East, sometimes in rubbish pits. The west is interesting as I now wonder whether the Queen Mother of the West dates back to matriarchal days. Maybe?) There were also some interesting pot scratches that looked a lot like writing. Hard to tell, but maybe?

One of the tombs in its original site, with everyone buried the way that the people there thought was proper for good people. Note the bowls.

The site, in situ. It's pretty interesting in that they basically just put a building over the dig site, rather like with the Teracotta warriors, so it's protected, but still an actual site.

Aside from getting a feel for how truly ancient China is, it was fun for me because it had changed so much. Now there were long descriptions in English, video displays, and other things one would expect of a modern museum. When I was there, it was just a bunch of artifacts flung into cases and haphazardly labeled with things like “pig jaw”, which gave little to no idea of the symbolism. There was also an incredibly cheesy village of teepees and women wearing cave women outfits (they had cartoons in the outfit at the modern museum, as well as some somewhat more tastefully dressed statues, but no miserable looking women), and while the fake huts remain, they've been converted to bathrooms and classrooms. What a difference a decade makes...

Our final stop was Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was magnificent, of course, but in many ways I liked the monastery around it better. There was a magnificent jade carving (in brilliant, lifelike colors!) along with gems depicting the story of Buddha. It was so gorgeous...

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

There was this MASSIVE mural carved out of jade that depicted the life of Buddha. I took a lot of pictures, but only posted this one of Mara's daughters tempting Buddha because who doesn't want sexy dancing ladies?

Then there were two combinations of carved bronze (I think, it was some kind of metal...) and wood that depicted the lives of the two monks who had brought manuscripts back from India. The first one showed the monk going off to India, then endless panels of him talking to the Emperor, then a lot of him translating with an army of monks, then another of him dying and ascending to heaven to...translate. It looked very serious. (And was accompanied by a print out of his work. It was 44 encyclopedia sized volumes – no wonder the endeavor took so long!)

Replicas of the manuscripts that Xuan Zang brought back from India. Note that the Big Wild Goose Pagoda was designed to store these and that they still exist in the tunnels beneath it.

In the next room, the monk traveled off in horseback with a much fancier robe and abbot's staff, then was welcomed by the people of India, who happily partied (complete with singers and dancers and musicians), then met some more Indians, and partied some more, and so on and so on. It seemed maybe a bit more fun of a trip. :) (Although without knowing more of the history, it's hard to say.) They had his works, too, which were equally large, as well as a 1605! printing of the Journey to the West that is still in perfect condition. (How?!!!)

At last we went back to eat. We found a hot pot-like restaurant which specialized in sea food where they steamed, rather than boiled, the food in hot pot sauce. The first dish was a delicious fish, then we had rice, then beef, then vegetables, then chicken, all of which was served with quite a bit of flare. I liked it, but Mom and Dad were freaked out by the raw chicken, and we didn't quite understand the instructions (that they were scooping out food to later be dumped into the condensed broth, which sounds AMAZING!), and had to go, which I think disappointed the waitress who did not feel that we had gotten our full experience. (We hadn't, and I liked it, even if it weirded out Mom and Dad. It was good food and something new!)

Then we went to the train station, which was a level of chaos I've never seen before. People were crammed in like cordwood and I couldn't find the ticket office, which was frightening, especially since I was exhausted. I asked the lady at the tourism office, who said to go through security, but being tired, I didn't understand her, so kept circling, asked again, figured it out, and made it through, picked up my tickets without any difficulty, and then nursed a beer before getting ready for bed. Then I got into my car and slept on the very nice soft sleeper, from which I am writing this now.

Anyway, the whole plan was to spend one jet lagged day in Beijing then return later. So today was off to Xi'An! Anyway, we got to Beijing West to pick up our tickets to Xi'An. Unfortunately the lady at the ticket counter couldn't find our tickets and spoke no English. I freaked out a bit, as previously all I'd needed to do to claim my tickets was to present our passports and pick up tickets...so it seemed weird that she was having so much trouble. She told me to follow her, so I did to a fluent English speaking desk worker...who had no problem whatsoever in locating our tickets without even taking to us. So...?

Anyway, with that minor crisis solved, we got loaded onto the bullet train. (Always a destination in and of itself!)

We got to Xi'An without incident and made it to our hotel, which was quite nice, dropped off stuff, then wandered around a bit. We were right by the Bell Tower, so checked out that, the Drum Tower, and the Muslim quarter. Because of the holiday, the streets were overwhelmingly packed.

The Bell Tower, lit up at night. All of Xi'An is lit up like a Christmas tree in the evening, WHICH IS FREAKING AWESOME.

The drum tower, which is also really amazing.

We also went to a “famous” (read well advertised) dumpling place, which was frustrating in that it was mentioned in Dad's guidebook without the Chinese characters, which meant that it was near impossible to find. (Since, you know, the signs are in Chinese, not pinyin. Interestingly enough, in almost all of Xi'An, even when they used the pinyin, it wasn't a translation, just pinyin. So the bell tower was “zhong lou”, the Big Wild Goose Temple “da yan ta”, which I can see being confusing as heck to foreigners.) Anyway, after a long frustrating search, we found it. Then the waitress kept trying to direct us upstairs to where there was an English menu, but no amount of searching could find it, so eventually I just ordered beers and dumplings from the little take out stand in Mandarin. (Kind of like I'd wanted to, because dumplings are not the kind of food that requires a full service restaurant.)

We went to bed tired but fed!

The next day, we took a tour, which was nice in that I didn't have to plan quite so much. The tour guide wisely woke us up super early to see the Terracotta Warriors, which are magnificent, as always. There are just so many of them, and they're so exquisite, and we've learned so much from them. I was rather disappointed in that the museum is exactly as it was 10 years ago – a dig site with a few of the warriors pulled out to look at. They didn't even mention the additional excavated pis (the acrobats, menagerie, bird area, etc.) which is rather sad seeing as they know SO much more than they did a decade ago. Oh well...

The warriors in their dig site.

The command tent. I love that it seriously looks like they're all having oh so serious conversations. Like, "Hey, General Li, you really need to re-take the Eastern Fortress, or we're going to have to demote you." "I know."

Mom claimed that the whole process looked a bit Westworld...which it does. (Well...more than a little.) Then again, I kind of feel like that was the point! The Emperor gets to live in Westworld for eternity!

In case you were wondering, it is a real, actual, ongoing archaeological site. Most of it is still not yet uncovered, which is pretty freaking cool. I can't wait to see what else is figured out in my lifetime!

Around the pit were several of the warriors in glass cases. Which was cool, but would have been cooler had I not gotten to see (with far fewer crowds!) almost the same warriors in Seattle!

Around the warriors, of course, were the obligatory picture taking places, food stalls, etc. Always fun. :) Then we took off to the North City Wall, which as quite lovely and picturesque, but maybe not that exciting in and of itself. (In large part because we had a half hour to walk a short distance, then walk back.) Finally we made it to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

Along with the interesting things around the warriors is the guy who discovered them, who is this guy standing in the middle of my family. I find it kind of awesome (because he has a steady and (hopefully) well paid job), kind of depressing (since it seems like a kind of boring job) that the farmer who discovered the warriors now is paid to stand for photo ops with tourists. Either way, I really am in awe of him, because, rather than loot the tomb, he turned it over to proper authorities, who properly excavated it, which is why it's an amazingly important archaeological dig. So super kudos to this guy!

Also, in Chinese tradition, there must be costume photos. (From what I gather, this is a longer tradition than one would expect. Regardless, there is not a tourist spot in China that does not include the possibility of getting your costume taken in whatever "typical" garb one would expect in the region. It's kind of hilarious.) In Xi'An, it was, of course, all pseudo-Tang dynasty stuff. What I loved, here, was that the girl got to be photographed with two mannequin (and costumed) attendants, seeing as no proper Empress would be pictured alone!

Anyway, next made it off to Little Goose Pagoda!

A bit of history. Long, long ago in the Tang dynasty, a Buddhist monk went against the Emperor's orders to travel to India and bring back sutras (the Lotus sutra, among others) so that he could translate them and ensure that the Buddhism practiced in China as correct. He spent years traveling, then additional years translating. When he returned, the Emperor had changed his mind and was so overwhelmingly pleased with him that he built him the Big Wild Goose pagoda to store his original sutras and translations. (In large part as, since the pagoda was built of brick, it was immune to fire, the scourge of all.) These sutras, amazingly, still exist beneath the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

A few years (decades, I think) later, another monk did the same thing, bringing back still more sutras and forming a different form of Buddhism that made a schism with the first. To honor him (and store his manuscripts, even though these are now with the others at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda), the Little Wild Goose Pagoda was built. In pictures, the little one is a bit more picturesque, seeing as it has more floors, even though it is shorter and slightly less historically valuable.

This would be Little Goose Pagoda.

Anyway, we went in and got a lesson in calligraphy that I think was mostly to convince us to buy calligraphy. Then we wandered around the pagoda, which was fun and lovely. There was a bell there you could pay 5 rmb to ring for good luck, so of course I did so, getting cheers from the crowd. (Which I think found it hilarious that I'd rung the bell. But why not? Good luck! Also, it's a replica of one from the 9^th century, which I find pretty darned cool.)

I shall never pass up luck!

The Pagoda also had a bunch of trees with their ages marked on them. This one is 1300 years old, which seems quite impressive!

We were dropped off at the Muslim market, and wandered around a bit more before going elsewhere for dinner. I'm trying to remember the food. It was good, more or less what I'd expect from Xi'An – spicy meats, greasy (but delicious) noodles and veggies. I also bought some lovely calligraphy and paintings from Helen, a woman who mostly did Bible versus in calligraphy, which I found cool. (Probably her most interesting piece had the names for the 56 ethnic groups in China arranged in a cross with the character for “love” in the center. I would have bought it, but wasn't sure what I'd do with it. Still I found it striking!) Onto the next adventure!

A pagoda in the mosque, which was quite serene and pretty.

The mosque proper. Since we were there on a Friday, there were a lot of Hui gathered about, most of the men talking animatedly in their little white hats. It was rather cute and picturesque, I guess?

This woman was wandering about the mosque and having her (I'm assuming wedding) pictures taken. What's interesting is that, to me, she looks Hui...yet her costume looks more Uigher. (Although I could be wrong on either/both.) So it's hard to tell whether this is her actual ethnic garb (so she was having her pictures taken at her mosque because this is the normal thing) or whether it was more or less fancy cosplay essentially appropriated from another group. Regardless, she looked FANTASTIC and I was super grateful that she consented to letting me take her picture. (Not that it's hard in China....they really like pictures, but still...)

Once done with the mosque, we entered the night market DURING GOLDEN WEEK. It was pretty crazy. The food was good, though. Note the sheep carcasses and the delicious meat on stick. I didn't know this then, but this was some of the last good meat I'd be getting....

I got into Beijing late in the night and taxied into the hostel with my parents. It was a standard hostel – clean enough, quiet enough, and central enough. Yay! (Probably the amenities were less than with many hostels – no real restaurant that I could find. But it was near restaurants, so whatever.)

By our hostel was a book store with a bunch of students passed out inside. I found this vaguely hilarious for some reason.

The next morning we got up super early (yay jet lag...) and made it off to the Forbidden City.

Near Wangfujian were some *amazing* topiaries. This one, I think, represented Beijing.

Panda topiary that represents....Shanghai? Nifty mountains? Generic Chinese awesome stuff? Unsure.

The Silk Road topiary had camels and the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, located in Xi'An.

Because of the National Day holiday, it was absolutely packed, which got very annoying very quickly, so we decided that we'd visit the ticketed portions (Palace Museum) later, after when returned after the long trip. Then we took the subway to the Temple of Heaven, which was also crowded, but managably so.

The crowds around Tiananmen were pretty crazy...and they only got *worse* once inside the Forbidden City!

The outside of the Forbidden City. For inside pictures, we'd have to wait for another day!

The temple was built by the same emperor who had built the Forbidden City and has many of the same stylistic elements, just more religious, since, after all, this is where the emperor would sacrifice for good harvests, rain, etc. The main “thing”, if you will, is the temple itself, a lovely blue spire covered in gold leaf dragons and phoenixes and mounted upon a huge white marble plinth with stair cases leading up in all directions. (I particularly loved how in the middle were huge marble reliefs with even more dragons and phoenixes soaring about the clouds in graceful spirals.)

The Temple of Heaven. Note that while it's still busy, it's at least walkable!

There was also the huge mound, sacrificial kitchens, storage rooms, and an impressive music training area. However, probably my favorite part were the lavish gardens. They were covered in cypress (because the blue-green looked like jade), planted in not-quite-natural rows, some of which were nearly as old as the temple, as well as rose garden (in full bloom), other gardens (not in bloom), and Empress Cixi's flower pavilion (in a completely different style than the rest of the other-wise-matching temple). It was all very peaceful and lovely, a well as an escape from the crowds.

It was nearly two by the time we were done, so we went to a small restaurant where we asked about the wait and were told over 2 hours. (2 hours!) So we left with the idea of trying to find something along the way back to the hotel.

We encountered a small place with a cage with a dog (on a platform...sort of odd) and a cat, along with a second cage with a bird in it outside. It looked like a restaurant to me, so since I was hungry, we went inside.

We were promptly seated by the waitress (next to a very kind family who offered to help us order). I picked out a few dishes (an amazing Kung Pao chicken and lamb stir fry), as well as a pot of tea.

The first sign that things might be a bit more of an adventure than anticipated was when my father ordered a beer. (ONE!) The owner came out with about six and proceeded to try to open all of them. I stopped him at one, and we got back to eating the amazing meal.

Then, once we were finished, the owner came by again, this time with a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. He poured a glass for himself, then one for my father. I insisted, again, that we didn't want, but then he insisted that my father toast him.

Then...there was another toast and another. The Johnny Walker blue came out (BLUE!!!!) and he....POURED IT INTO COKE! (I am crying here forever. That's good stuff. QQ) There were more toasts. The bottles went from full to half empty. The owner kept joking around and getting loopier and loopier. He dragged out perfume and sprayed both my Mom and myself with it, then insisted that I take the bottle. (Then he dragged out a bottle of Bai Jiu and insisted that my father take it, putting it into his pocket despite our protests.)

Boiled peanuts and watermelon were also dragged out, despite that I really couldn't eat any more. (I did anyway, to be polite. Not to mention...watermelon.)

He also dragged out cigarettes and insisted that my father smoke (after several protestations that my father can't smoke, he gave up and just started smoking himself in defiance of the very large “no smoking” sign on the wall.

He took me on a bit of a tour of the store, too. He happily pointed out the signed jersey from Yao Ming from when he had been at the restaurant, as well as a signed ping pong paddle as well as the bad mitten wiffle from other prominent athletes, all the while asking me to tell all my friends about the place. (I offered, but I'm not really sure that it will do much to add to his business, but hey!) It was all pretty crazy.

A pair of Austrians appeared, at which point the owner found MORE people to drink with.

I started asking him for the check, since I was hoping to escape, using as an excuse that we had a train to catch, but he kept not giving it to me. Eventually I cornered a waitress and got her to give us our check (which didn't include the insane amount of alcohol), paid it, said good bye and fled.

Quite the adventure off the beaten path, and it was only the first day!

From there, we made it off to the Olympic Stadium and saw the Bird's Nest (which is a pretty cool piece of architecture). We opted not to go inside as it was >$20 USD and didn't really seem that cool...

There was also this interesting building, although is it already falling apart? (Hopefully not!)

Also this gold bridge, which I thought was awesome. Note that there are flowers inside each of the transparent yellow bricks!

We got back fairly late, hunted down light snacks, then crashed. Now off to Xi'An!

So, I've decided that it's time to make a life long dream a reality and travel the silk road from one end to the other, starting at Beijing and ending at Xi'An. Plane tickets are booked and I've put in my inquiries for train tickets. (Essentially the only good way to book train tickets in China is to put in an inquiry - and pay! - online, then hope that the tickets are available when the in-China reservation agent goes to the train station to get them. They'll then send you the confirmation code, which you can use to pick up the tickets at the station. It's a bit round about, but I guess it works, and it's only $5/ticket, so...eh. It can still be frustrating, though, as some of the time I book one ticket, but then end up with a different one and whatnot.)

Anyway, this is what I *think* I'll be doing...

10/2 - fly out of Seattle at 17:00. Arrive in Beijing at 19:50 on 10/3.

10/3 - limp to hotel room. Sleep the sleep of the dead.

10/4 - Explore Beijing while contemplating jet lag. I'll likely return to the Forbidden City (as it's awesome), or maybe will check out a museum. (I don't want to go too far out of my way as will likely be a zombie)

10/5 - Take the 8:05 train to Xi'An. Arrive at 13:45. Maybe check out the old city wall + Bell and Drum tower that evening. (Maybe the Great Mosque too) - NOTE: Train confirmed!!!!! ^_^

10/6 - Check out Terracotta warriors! (I've seen before and are well worth!) Probably also check out the Shaanxi museum and forest of Stelae

10/7 - Another long day - maybe wander off to one of the museums or more likely, Huaqing Hot springs. (Alternate idea : view the Banpo museum!) Re-appear in the late evening as I'm taking the 00:05 train out.

10/8 - 00:05 train to Lanzhou. Arrive around 8:05 am. Probably explore Lanzhou a bit. (Need to figure out cool stuff to do.)

10/9 - Buddha river trip!!! (https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/gansu/lanzhou/bingling.htm)

10/10 - Need to figure out what to do in Lanzhou. Maiji caves seem promising. (https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/gansu/lanzhou/maiji.htm) Or possibly make it to the Gansu museum. (If it is open)

10/11 - 10:45 - 15:23 trip to Jiayuguan. Probably just check out the city, check in, and run errands in the afternoon.

10/12 - Check out old fortress and pass

10/13 - Possibly make it to the overhanging wall and/or the first fire tower. Another really awesome possibility would be the Weijin tomb murals. (http://www.topchinatravel.com/china-attractions/weijin-tomb-murals.htm)

10/14 - Train to Dunhuang. Leave 13:44 arrive 18:15

10/15 - Mogao grottos

10/16 Crescent Lake, echoing Sand Hills 19:18 - 7:35 - Train to Turpan (Or vice versa depending on whether we can get the grotto tickets)

10/17 - Arrive Turpan bright and early. Check out the Karez system (https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/xinjiang/turpan/karez.htm) and maybe a museum

10/18 - Turpan Check out the flaming mountain and Grape Gorge (https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/xinjiang/turpan/mt_flaming.htm) and Gaochang (https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/xinjiang/turpan/gaochang.htm) and https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/xinjiang/turpan/astana.htm and https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/xinjiang/turpan/bizaklik.htm

10/19 - Turpan - check out https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/xinjiang/turpan/jiaohe.htm

10/20 - 10:03 - 20:33 - train to Aksu

10/21 - Aksu - Check out mosque. It's a bit far from anything else - mostly just relaxing here so that it's a bit less horrible getting to Kashgar.

10/22 - 10:34 - 17:11 train to Kashgar

10/23 - Kashgar - Abakh Khoja Tomb and Id Kah Mosque as well as Kashgar old town and Apak Hoja Tomb.

10/24 - Kashgar - probably try to make it out to Karakul lake

10/25 - Kashgar - Dawakun Desert?

10/26 - Kashgar - Maybe the Stone city, or maybe just hang out

10/27 - 16:25 - 22:50 - Return flight to Beijing

10/28 - Beijing - Summer palace and/or great wall

10/29 - Beijing - Panjiayuan Flea Market

10/30 - 11:55 - 8:14 flight back to Seattle

Anyhow, have moved to Dreamwidth since it feels about time. I'm Mutive over there (in case anyone cares - I'm guessing not, but hey!)

Anyway, back to the vacation posting! Next on the cruise ship itinerary was St. Kitts and Nevis, a part of the British Empire. It was apparently found by Christopher Columbus, who gave Nevis its name because the clouds on the top of the island looked like snow. (St. Kitts I think is a touch more easily explained!) At least this is one version. There are also stories about how it was named after a "miraculous" snow in Rome attributed to Nuestra Senora de Nieves. So, yeah, whatever. It means snow even though the place is about as un-snowy as it gets.

Anyway, St. Kitts is known for a few things - it's gorgeous beaches, its medical schools, and it's UNESCO heritage monument, Brimstone Fortress. We were to see two of the three. (We did pass by the medical schools, which are used primarily by the US to train doctors who couldn't get into US schools. Clever. I'm thinking this might be a great place to retire...wonderful tropical environment + LOTS of doctors and nurses!)

Although St. Kitts and Nevis are former sugar colony islands, sugar is no longer grown there. (As our taxi driver pointed out, sugar cane growing is HARD work and you know what there are in St. Kitts and Nevis? Better jobs in training doctors and tourism.) But it's definitely part of the history, as we shall see at Brimstone Fortress.

( See more after cut, yadda yadda )