Sunday: ran 3 miles in the park with Dan. It's 1.5 miles around and up/down hills the whole way. We saw lots of doggies and one frogfaced newborn in a stroller.
Monday: 10 minutes bike, 45 minutes hard elliptical.
We don't watch a lot of current TV except to have it on as background noise while cooking dinner or knitting or drawing or what have you. Most of our entertainment comes from our Netflix account, and lately we've watched a lot of television on DVD.
The saddest thing in the world sometimes is watching an amazingly good show on DVD (like Freaks & Geeks or Firefly) and knowing that when you get to the last DVD, that's it. Neither of those shows was allowed to run an entire season, let alone run the natural lifespan of the show. When we were watching Arrested Development and Lost on DVD at least I knew there was/would be more to come (Since then, AD has left FOX and I don't know what network will be picking it up, if any. I do hope someone does), but when watching the last disc of Freaks and Geeks the other night I got a little choked up thinking about all the ways in which this show was kickass and all the ways in which the networks seem to do their best to kill any show with good writing, good character development, and a more interesting premise than 'fat schlub with hott wife', "science"/cop or science cop shows, or copies of other reality TV shows.
I mean, c'mon. How many "Mary Poppins saves the day because these people don't know how to raise their children" or "let's swap a super religious wife and a crunchy granola wife and see how their families handle it" clones do we need? And how many iterations of Extreme Makeover: Heartwarming Sob Story Editions? How many Law & Orders/copycats and fauxCSIs? And the latest game show, that was on for about two minutes during fruitless channel flipping last night, has about the most idiotic premise ever. I'm sorry, but if there's no skill or talent or psychology or ANYTHING interesting going on, I'm not going to watch. No Deal.
Firefly was an incredible show that got a little bit more life in a movie that didn't make enough money for there ever to be any more. Freaks & Geeks was an awesome show and many of the actors and the creators of the show have gone on to more lucrative engagements. The only TV show we've watched on DVD recently that's still on and doing well is Battlestar Galactica. Now THAT's a kickass show. And it's on the SciFi network (we don't have cable, so we've had to wait for DVD) and seems to be doing well with a good fan base at this point, so it's unlikely that some bigwig executive will decide that it's too cerebral, intelligent, or funny and try to kill it anytime soon. Plus, there's SUPER HOTT chicks on that show. I just wish there were more Man Candy.
RIP, Freaks & Geeks. RIP, Firefly. I hope you get resurrected, Arrested Development. Hold on as long as you can, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Scrubs, and Everybody Hates Chris. May more shows join you in fighting the good fight against mundane, pointless, and nonentertaining television.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Stepford Springs, Colorado
Last week I had to spend several days in Colorado Springs for work.
Let me tell you about Colorado Springs. It's one of the creepiest places I've ever been and spending actual time there (as in, 3.5 days) makes me realize just how weird it is. Colorado Springs is 60 miles south of Denver, a bit closer to the front range (mountains). That means the altitude is a little bit higher. The most well-known mountain in the area is Pike's Peak. In the Springs, you can find the Air Force Academy (there's a great big sign that says "Give me men" at the Air Force Academy, though I've heard they took it down recently because of all the sex scandals), a military base (Fort Carson), about 68798769451687 churches, the headquarters for the "save the children" outfit, and (my personal favorite) the home base for Focus on the Family.
People in the Springs use the Focus on the Family compound to navigate around the northern part of the city. It's that big and visible. You could fit many thousands of people at once into its buildings. The rooftops are bright green. Oh, and there's this thing on the outside that kind of looks like a long, curvy slide; I speculated that perhaps it's used as an escape chute for people who just can't take the brainwashing anymore.
The Springs is full of Stepford people. When I've been there conducting trainings for my actual job, I've noticed that the people don't really talk, ask questions, or even look you in the eye. For this particular work-related thing I was part of a team conducting focus groups in a school district, and it was obvious that not everyone who is in education is liberal, progressive, or anti-NCLB. Even my religious, conservative coworker who I spent a considerable amount of time with gets creeped out by just how over-the-top reactionary some of the culture is in the Springs.
We stayed in the northern part of the city and I noticed that everything was stripmalls and chain restaurants. I got to eat at an Elephant Bar, which was actually pretty good (for a chain)(I had the fish tacos)(hee hee, fish tacos), but in all the northern part of the city where I spent that time I didn't see any independent stores or restaurants. Granted, I've never been downtown or spent much time in the southern part of the city, so maybe I'm being a little unfair. It just seemed like there wasn't anything there to make it unique or identifiable as a city (other than the Focus compound, of course. Only once city in the US gets to house that gem).
There are some good things about the Springs - it's close to the mountains, there's a really cool place called Garden of the Gods, it houses a small liberal arts college (that's actually liberal, from what I understand), and the school district where we were is 1/3 of the way through building the coolest preschool-12th grade campus I've ever seen or heard of. It made me really excited to get to tour it and see what kinds of things they're planning to do.
I'm sure the Springs has non-pod people - they're just camoflaged, because they don't want to be captured and brainwashed in James Dobson's House of Fun. That curvy slide looks like it only holds one person at a time.
Let me tell you about Colorado Springs. It's one of the creepiest places I've ever been and spending actual time there (as in, 3.5 days) makes me realize just how weird it is. Colorado Springs is 60 miles south of Denver, a bit closer to the front range (mountains). That means the altitude is a little bit higher. The most well-known mountain in the area is Pike's Peak. In the Springs, you can find the Air Force Academy (there's a great big sign that says "Give me men" at the Air Force Academy, though I've heard they took it down recently because of all the sex scandals), a military base (Fort Carson), about 68798769451687 churches, the headquarters for the "save the children" outfit, and (my personal favorite) the home base for Focus on the Family.
People in the Springs use the Focus on the Family compound to navigate around the northern part of the city. It's that big and visible. You could fit many thousands of people at once into its buildings. The rooftops are bright green. Oh, and there's this thing on the outside that kind of looks like a long, curvy slide; I speculated that perhaps it's used as an escape chute for people who just can't take the brainwashing anymore.
The Springs is full of Stepford people. When I've been there conducting trainings for my actual job, I've noticed that the people don't really talk, ask questions, or even look you in the eye. For this particular work-related thing I was part of a team conducting focus groups in a school district, and it was obvious that not everyone who is in education is liberal, progressive, or anti-NCLB. Even my religious, conservative coworker who I spent a considerable amount of time with gets creeped out by just how over-the-top reactionary some of the culture is in the Springs.
We stayed in the northern part of the city and I noticed that everything was stripmalls and chain restaurants. I got to eat at an Elephant Bar, which was actually pretty good (for a chain)(I had the fish tacos)(hee hee, fish tacos), but in all the northern part of the city where I spent that time I didn't see any independent stores or restaurants. Granted, I've never been downtown or spent much time in the southern part of the city, so maybe I'm being a little unfair. It just seemed like there wasn't anything there to make it unique or identifiable as a city (other than the Focus compound, of course. Only once city in the US gets to house that gem).
There are some good things about the Springs - it's close to the mountains, there's a really cool place called Garden of the Gods, it houses a small liberal arts college (that's actually liberal, from what I understand), and the school district where we were is 1/3 of the way through building the coolest preschool-12th grade campus I've ever seen or heard of. It made me really excited to get to tour it and see what kinds of things they're planning to do.
I'm sure the Springs has non-pod people - they're just camoflaged, because they don't want to be captured and brainwashed in James Dobson's House of Fun. That curvy slide looks like it only holds one person at a time.
The Stripey Shirt Makes My Boobs Look Good
Wednesday: 35 minutes of easier elliptical, 10 minutes of crunches/leg lifts
Thursday: full weight circuit, 30 minutes bike, 10 minutes free weights, 10 minutes leg lifts/crunches = 85 minutes exercise, started getting shaky when I was changing after my workout and had some trail mix right when I got home to stave off Unfed MLE.
I'm totally exhausted and need a rest day. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night and had to drag myself out of bed this morning. Luckily, it's 1. Friday (woot!) and 2. nobody is around to care that I'm not actually doing anything. To make myself feel better, I'm wearing my favorite pants (I wore them all through China) and my stripey green shirt that makes my boobs look really good.
I need to meet more people. It's really hard to meet people when you work with almost all menopausal women, you don't have a car, and you are trying not to spend money to save up to move into a bigger apartment/buy a car/go to grad school. How do I meet more people? Any ideas? People at my gym are very intent on working out and everyone does his/her own thing. I wish the gym had classes that I wanted to take at times that were more convenient.
Thursday: full weight circuit, 30 minutes bike, 10 minutes free weights, 10 minutes leg lifts/crunches = 85 minutes exercise, started getting shaky when I was changing after my workout and had some trail mix right when I got home to stave off Unfed MLE.
I'm totally exhausted and need a rest day. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night and had to drag myself out of bed this morning. Luckily, it's 1. Friday (woot!) and 2. nobody is around to care that I'm not actually doing anything. To make myself feel better, I'm wearing my favorite pants (I wore them all through China) and my stripey green shirt that makes my boobs look really good.
I need to meet more people. It's really hard to meet people when you work with almost all menopausal women, you don't have a car, and you are trying not to spend money to save up to move into a bigger apartment/buy a car/go to grad school. How do I meet more people? Any ideas? People at my gym are very intent on working out and everyone does his/her own thing. I wish the gym had classes that I wanted to take at times that were more convenient.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Getting Skinny Update 1
It was really really really cold in Denver this past weekend (I believe Saturday's high was 9F) so, except for a few errands, we didn't really leave the house. So on Sunday I did an ancient Pilates videotape (need to buy one on DVD, have checked out Amazon but not made any decisions). I had Monday off because a long time ago some presidents were born, and I spent about two hours cleaning and then went to the gym and worked out for a solid 90 minutes (full weight circuit, 35 minutes on the elliptical, and 20 minutes of free weights and crunches/leg lifts). Yesterday I did 35 minutes on one of the harder ellipticals and 25 minutes on the bike.
When I got home I felt OK and had a little snack. Within an hour I was shaky, nauseated, and in fullblown super low blood sugar mode. It took a long time to go away and took me nearly an hour to only eat half my dinner. I haven't had a blood sugar episode like that since we were doing our marathon training two years ago. It was kind of scary.
It's hard to lose weight when you have blood sugar issues. I have to balance out what I eat and when and how much I exercise to make sure those really low dips don't happen - but I'm also trying to lose weight. I wish I had the kind of job where I did a lot more walking around. Trying to fit my daily exercise into 35 or 60 or 90 minutes and working out as hard as I can to get the most out of it isn't ideal; I'd rather be doing lower impact activity for most of the day. The 40 minutes of walking I do (to work, home for lunch, back to work, home from the gym) isn't nearly enough to counteract Office Butt. I know that I lost weight in China because we were walking 5 or 6 hours a day.
When I got home I felt OK and had a little snack. Within an hour I was shaky, nauseated, and in fullblown super low blood sugar mode. It took a long time to go away and took me nearly an hour to only eat half my dinner. I haven't had a blood sugar episode like that since we were doing our marathon training two years ago. It was kind of scary.
It's hard to lose weight when you have blood sugar issues. I have to balance out what I eat and when and how much I exercise to make sure those really low dips don't happen - but I'm also trying to lose weight. I wish I had the kind of job where I did a lot more walking around. Trying to fit my daily exercise into 35 or 60 or 90 minutes and working out as hard as I can to get the most out of it isn't ideal; I'd rather be doing lower impact activity for most of the day. The 40 minutes of walking I do (to work, home for lunch, back to work, home from the gym) isn't nearly enough to counteract Office Butt. I know that I lost weight in China because we were walking 5 or 6 hours a day.
A Proposal of Marriage
Last night, as I was walking home from the gym, I was waiting at one of the major intersections to cross the street. A guy who was probably around 21 or 22, in obviously a very good mood and also wearing a funny hat, came traipsing down the street and as he passed me, he said "Hey, miss. Will you marry me?" with a great big grin on his face.
I thought for a second, and replied, "Sorry, no." but gave him a big smile.
It was my very first live and in-person marriage proposal. I've had two online but both, like this one, were jokes. Perhaps someday I'll get one that isn't.
I thought for a second, and replied, "Sorry, no." but gave him a big smile.
It was my very first live and in-person marriage proposal. I've had two online but both, like this one, were jokes. Perhaps someday I'll get one that isn't.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Adult beverages I have made
We mostly drink at home, because we're cheap and Denver still allows smoking in bars. I know of only two bars that are nonsmoking within walking distance, and they are both trendy and spendy.
Because we mostly drink at home I've had the opportunity to concoct some interesting tasty adult beverages. I don't think any of my favorites have a name, though probably desparate college students somewhere have mixed and consumed them before.
Drink 1 (Richer rum/coke)
Put 3 ice cubes in an old fashioned glass(I think that's the short beverage glass). Pour in about a finger of dark rum and an ounce of kaluha. Add your favorite cola (I like RC Cola best) to fill the remainder of the glass. Stir. Consume.
Drink 2 (Because I'm trying to get skinny)
Put 3 ice cubes in an old fashioned glass. Pour in a finger of citrus vodka, and fill up the glass halfway with strong iced tea. Fill the remainder of the glass with cranberry juice cocktail (I use the kind made with spenda because I am trying to avoid calories). Add some triple sec if you want a bit more booze, or squeeze a couple of lime wedges or lemon wedges into the glass and stir. I used to make this with Ocean Spray Juice & Tea, but I can't find it anymore so I have to do it ghetto style. I like this drink because it's not two sweet or too tart and doesn't have as many calories as just a cran/vodka drink has.
Drink 3 (Ghetto-style mojito)
Muddle some mint leaves and a lime wedge in the bottom of a highball glass (the tall kind? I think). Add 4 ice cubes. Add 1 1/2 oz light (or dark) rum and fill the remainder of the glass with ginger ale. Add another lime wedge if you're feeling crazy.
This weekend I went out for "girls' night" with my Oldest Friend and two of her other friends that live in the Denver area, and we went to both of the nonsmoking bars. Oldest Friend is from California and when we got to the last bar, which wasn't nonsmoking, she finally understood why I don't go out that much.
Also, though girls' night was fun, it was cool to have someone's boyfriend show up and buy us 3 rounds of drinks.
Because we mostly drink at home I've had the opportunity to concoct some interesting tasty adult beverages. I don't think any of my favorites have a name, though probably desparate college students somewhere have mixed and consumed them before.
Drink 1 (Richer rum/coke)
Put 3 ice cubes in an old fashioned glass(I think that's the short beverage glass). Pour in about a finger of dark rum and an ounce of kaluha. Add your favorite cola (I like RC Cola best) to fill the remainder of the glass. Stir. Consume.
Drink 2 (Because I'm trying to get skinny)
Put 3 ice cubes in an old fashioned glass. Pour in a finger of citrus vodka, and fill up the glass halfway with strong iced tea. Fill the remainder of the glass with cranberry juice cocktail (I use the kind made with spenda because I am trying to avoid calories). Add some triple sec if you want a bit more booze, or squeeze a couple of lime wedges or lemon wedges into the glass and stir. I used to make this with Ocean Spray Juice & Tea, but I can't find it anymore so I have to do it ghetto style. I like this drink because it's not two sweet or too tart and doesn't have as many calories as just a cran/vodka drink has.
Drink 3 (Ghetto-style mojito)
Muddle some mint leaves and a lime wedge in the bottom of a highball glass (the tall kind? I think). Add 4 ice cubes. Add 1 1/2 oz light (or dark) rum and fill the remainder of the glass with ginger ale. Add another lime wedge if you're feeling crazy.
This weekend I went out for "girls' night" with my Oldest Friend and two of her other friends that live in the Denver area, and we went to both of the nonsmoking bars. Oldest Friend is from California and when we got to the last bar, which wasn't nonsmoking, she finally understood why I don't go out that much.
Also, though girls' night was fun, it was cool to have someone's boyfriend show up and buy us 3 rounds of drinks.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Getting skinny
So I lost approximately 10 pounds/one pants size in the three weeks we were in China, without even trying - just walking for hours every day and eating a non-western diet. I was actually shocked, because I ate way more processed white flour/sugar, peanuts, and oil than I do at home, and hardly any whole grains or fresh veggies - I just ate smaller portions. When I came back and looked appreciatively at the body I hadn't seen since before the Evil Fat Birth Control Pill Saga of 2003-04, I thought to myself: "Self, perhaps it will be possible to keep this bonus 10 pounds from returning." Gee, wouldn't that be nice.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. Living in Colorado in the winter, even in this freakishly mild winter we've had, my body wants to pack on the protective layer. The good news is that I haven't gained any MORE than that bonus China weight. The bad news is that I have 6 months until I have to look super fabulously fantastic for my 10-year high school reunion - and my metabolism has always been such that it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to lose weight in the winter.
I have a desk job, a sit-on-yer-ass-in-front-of-computer-for-eight-hours desk job. Despite my copious amounts of muscle, my walk home for lunch and back to work, and my fidgetyness, there ain't no way I'm burning as many calories as I should be if I want to look Super Fantastic (tm Manolo the Shoe Blogger). And my base level of activity already includes gymratting at least 4 times a week for at least an hour a pop. Solution: eat even less than I do now.
I'm not sure if I'm going to actively starve myself or severely restrict the calories again until perhaps March, because it always seems to backfire in the winter: my energy is sluggish, my motivation is super low, and I don't really lose any weight because it's too damn cold out. I hope that for now I can be satisfied with just maintaining my current weight/size and not gaining any more.
I don't want this to be a weight-loss blog, because I don't actually have all that much weight to lose. But I DO want to be super fantastic for August. Ideally, I'd lose 20 pounds to get back to what I weighed immediately post-college. Realistically, I've put on too much muscle since then, so I don't think I could lose more than 15 without losing my boobs. And really, I think I'll look OK just losing that bonus China 10 again.
The most depressing part is that I now weigh 27 pounds more than I did when I graduated high school. But when I look back at that girl who was somewhat emaciated, had no boobs, and no upper body strength or muscle - I realize that it wasn't healthy for me. But in this culture, it's hard to come to terms with the fact that I'll never be a size 4, EVER.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. Living in Colorado in the winter, even in this freakishly mild winter we've had, my body wants to pack on the protective layer. The good news is that I haven't gained any MORE than that bonus China weight. The bad news is that I have 6 months until I have to look super fabulously fantastic for my 10-year high school reunion - and my metabolism has always been such that it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to lose weight in the winter.
I have a desk job, a sit-on-yer-ass-in-front-of-computer-for-eight-hours desk job. Despite my copious amounts of muscle, my walk home for lunch and back to work, and my fidgetyness, there ain't no way I'm burning as many calories as I should be if I want to look Super Fantastic (tm Manolo the Shoe Blogger). And my base level of activity already includes gymratting at least 4 times a week for at least an hour a pop. Solution: eat even less than I do now.
I'm not sure if I'm going to actively starve myself or severely restrict the calories again until perhaps March, because it always seems to backfire in the winter: my energy is sluggish, my motivation is super low, and I don't really lose any weight because it's too damn cold out. I hope that for now I can be satisfied with just maintaining my current weight/size and not gaining any more.
I don't want this to be a weight-loss blog, because I don't actually have all that much weight to lose. But I DO want to be super fantastic for August. Ideally, I'd lose 20 pounds to get back to what I weighed immediately post-college. Realistically, I've put on too much muscle since then, so I don't think I could lose more than 15 without losing my boobs. And really, I think I'll look OK just losing that bonus China 10 again.
The most depressing part is that I now weigh 27 pounds more than I did when I graduated high school. But when I look back at that girl who was somewhat emaciated, had no boobs, and no upper body strength or muscle - I realize that it wasn't healthy for me. But in this culture, it's hard to come to terms with the fact that I'll never be a size 4, EVER.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Dan's trip report
China Trip Report
By Danny, Age 28
We went to a country called China. It was neet. They have a big wall there, and we ate alot of Chinese food. If your going on a trip you should go to China, because its a really cool place to go.The End
Overview – We traveled in China for two and a half weeks, from October 28 to November 14, 2005. We visited Beijing, Luoyang and Xi’an.Guidebooks – For Beijing, we relied mostly on The Rough Guide to Beijing. For the rest of the trip, we used Let’s Go China 2005. Both were well-organized and informative, though the maps in Let’s Go were not terribly accurate.
BEIJING
Getting There – We got tickets through www.skyauction.com, which worked very well. We flew from Denver to Portland, OR, to Tokyo, to Beijing. Overall travel time was about 16 hours. There are ATMs in the airport, which seems like the easiest way to get cash upon arrival. We traveled by taxi to our hostel (see below), which was near the city center. There are lots of people claiming to be taxi drivers waiting for you just outside the international arrivals area, but you’re better off avoiding them. Signs in English direct you toward the taxi rank outside. Uniformed police will direct you to a cab and may also be helpful in telling the cabbie where to take you. Our taxi driver got us directly to the hostel with very little fuss. It cost 105 RMB; 95 for the fare, plus 10 for the expressway toll.
Hostel – We stayed five nights at the Far East International Youth Hostel, which was very nice. It’s in two different buildings, a newer one and an old courtyard house. We stayed in the old building, which was charming but had certain eccentricities. The toilets are out in the courtyard, but they keep the toilet paper in the kitchen. The rooms are clean and have sinks/mirrors and probably had the most comfortable beds we slept on during our trip (save one). Lockers big enough for our backpacks were included with our basic deposit, which was also a plus.The ambience of the courtyard was interesting, though it was a bit cold for us to hang out outdoors at night. The shop/tourist office in the courtyard was quite handy. 1.5 liter bottles of water for 3 RMB, 1 liter bottles of Tsingtao for 2 RMB – can’t beat that.
We also ended up staying one night in the Great Wall Sheraton, which was kind of odd after spending so long in the hostel. It was fancy and like any Sheraton anywhere. A Filipina lounge act plays nightly downstairs, and the rooms are as comfortable as any upscale hotel. It was free for us (long story) but I think the rooms cost something like $225 US/night.
When we returned to Beijing before heading home, we spent two nights in the Saga HI Youth Hostel. We’d heard a lot of good things from other travelers, but it wasn’t very close to anything of interest or close to the subway. The rooms and beds were fine, though the showers were a little weird. One of the attractions to Saga is the proximity to the airport shuttle bus – we had to get to the airport really early in the morning, and it was a 10 minute walk from our hostel to the shuttle stop.
Sights/Activities – We joined up with a tour group through the hostel to the Great Wall. The tour we chose was for a hike from Jinshanling to Simatai, about 10km, which was absolutely amazing. It was 90 RMB per person for the round-trip bus (though the very next day, November 1, the price dropped to 70 RMB, the off-season rate), which was about a three-hour ride, plus 60 per person for admission to two sections of the wall and 5 per person for a bridge crossing. After a short hike, we didn’t see any tourists other than the other people from our bus. On the Great Wall, there are tons of locals who will try to sell you water/Coke/beer, postcards/books/t-shirts, or appoint themselves as your tour guides. Most of them speak enough English to understand a basic “No,” but a few choice phrases in Chinese can help a lot.
For such a big city, Beijing is surprisingly easy to explore on foot. Much of our time there was spent simply wandering – just watching day-to-day life in the hutongs is a fascinating way to while away an afternoon. We spent quite a while doing that, just wandering and observing city life. When we weren’t walking we were on the subway, which has a limited reach, but is convenient to use.
We visited two temples in Beijing – the first was a Tibetan Buddhist temple, Yonghe Gong, also known as the Lama Temple. It’s an interesting place, but a little too touristy to feel especially spiritual. The highlight is the 18-meter tall Maitreya Buddha, carved from the trunk of a single sandalwood tree. It is to say the least, impressive. The second temple was Baiyun Guan, the White Cloud, a Taoist temple. This one is much quieter, more peaceful. During our visit, we only saw one other Westerner, and most of the people there seemed to be devotees.We spent a lovely afternoon in Tiantan Park, which contains several museums and the Temple of Heaven, the Echo Wall, and The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The latter was undergoing repair while we were there (as were aspects of many of the attractions we saw – everything is being gussied up for the Olympics).
The Forbidden City is impressive, definitely a must-see, though in my opinion, it doesn’t really warrant the entire day that guidebooks seem to insist it does. I donno…I might have been more into it if we had gotten the Roger Moore-narrated audio tour and gotten more in-depth info on what I was seeing. Still, quite a sight, overall. It’s kind of interesting just in that it feels like a huge series of temples, but you also know that the emperor and his wives, concubines, and eunuchs actually lived there. (Mle’s favorite part was the Imperial Garden on the north end)
Food – As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, we ate a lot of street food in China. Jianbing is the local Beijing street food specialty – a pancake and egg with scallions, cilantro and sesame seeds wrapped around a bit of fried dough, and absolutely delicious. There are lots of places to find a variety of pastries, too.As far as restaurants go, our biggest night out was at the Hepingmen branch of the Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant. I’d heard the term “Peking Duck” before without really knowing what it meant; it’s definitely worth seeking out. Pancakes, roast duck, plum sauce and onions all wrapped up together…yummy!
The language barrier can make eating out a bit tough. Even places that advertise an English menu aren’t always easy. We went to the “restaurant of Muslim” in the hutong near our hostel that had an English menu. I ordered “fried mutton” and got a salad plate of mutton, onions and peppers. Mle ordered “chicken with pastry” and got an enormous serving platter loaded with chicken, veggies, sauce and a yummy pastry, which could have fed six people.
Shopping – Bargaining is the order of the day, of course. Silk Alley, the most famous and touristy shopping center, is an overwhelming experience. Everyone shouting at you, “Hey, sir, lady, come look!” You can’t show the slightest interest in anything without being harassed. They don’t seem to understand that the aggressive hard-sell is really off-putting to a lot of Westerners. We had a slightly better experience at a lesser-known market in Sanlitun near Worker’s Stadium, but it was still fairly aggravating. We probably could have gotten some reasonable deals on clothes if we’d had the energy for bargaining hard, but their starting prices were way too high and many merchants weren’t willing to drop especially low. We got the feeling that many Westerners either don’t bother to bargain or think “it’s Chinese money so it must be cheap” without doing the math. We weren’t as easy marks as some others might have been, and there are always enough other tourists who will pay the outrageous prices.
We got lots of good deals on souvenirs and gifts, though, mostly at the Panjiayuan Market in the southeast of the city (only open on weekends). Start low, stand your ground, and don’t betray too much interest. We had a lot of luck pointing out how many other places we could get the item we were looking at.
LUOYANG
Getting There – We took an overnight train from Beijing, which got into Luoyang an hour or so late. We went with hard sleeper berths, which worked out well. According to other travelers we spoke with, soft sleeper berths aren’t a whole lot fancier, but quite a bit more expensive. We were quite happy with two top bunks – a bit more privacy and access to luggage storage.
Hotel – We stayed at the Lijing Men Hotel, which is built into the base of the old city walls. The room was adequate, though the bed was very odd. Rock-hard in some spots, soft as foam rubber in others, and source of dozens of weird noises. Still, it was a private room with a western-style toilet for 100 RMB a night (about $12.50), so it’s hard to complain too much. And the location is great.
Sights/Activities – We were in Luoyang for two reasons – the Longmen Grottoes and the Shaolin Temple.
The Longmen Grottoes are amazing – thousands of Buddhas carved into the cliffs, ranging in size from a few centimeters to 17 meters. Many are missing heads, but even that can’t detract from the mind-blowing grandeur of the place. It’s easy to get to from the city – bus #53 or #81 will get you there. It’s the last stop on both lines, and pretty much impossible to miss.
The Shaolin Temple was not really worth it, in my opinion. Getting there isn’t too hard – you can book a bus from the city’s bus station, which cost us 14 RMB each. We thought we were getting round-trip tickets, and we may have, but the return bus charged us 14 more, one way or the other. The Temple itself was kinda-sorta fun, but too expensive at 100 RMB a head. The mountain setting is a nice way to escape the pollution of the cities, though. The kung fu exhibition comes free with admission and is the best part of visiting Shaolin.
We enjoyed just walking around the city of Luoyang and spending time in parks, watching people live their lives and play with their children. Children have the most interesting reactions to tourists – brave ones even said “hello” to us before giggling and/or running away. The old city of Luoyang (inside the walls) is also a nice place to see people living as they’ve lived for generations, and great for people-watching.
Food – We had one of the best meals of the trip in a tiny noodle house in the Old City; two giant bowls of noodles, veggies and broth for 6 RMB total. That’s a very satisfactory dinner for two for about $0.75. We ate mostly from grocery stores for our brief stay in Luoyang. Dairy products are still fairly new in China, and they’ve got the hang of yoghurt pretty well, but I’d stay away from Chinese cheese.
XI’AN
Getting There – It’s a shorter trip from Luoyang to Xi’an, so we took a day train, with Hard Seat tickets. The ride was fun and fairly uneventful, but not without its oddities. Our tickets were for assigned seats, but when the train began boarding, everyone shoved to get on like Christmas shoppers going after the last Cabbage Patch Kid. Maybe they just dig shoving, I don’t know. Anyway, we got through the mob and found our seats and settled in for the five-hour ride. On the plus side, we were surrounded by women, so it was a rare cigarette-smoke-free moment. On the minus side, we were sitting right next to the toilet, and people kept leaving the door open, sharing special smells with everyone in the vicinity.
Hostel – The hostel in Xi’an, the Shuyuan Youth Hostel, was probably the best of the trip. It’s easy to reach from the train station; just hop on the #603 or #608 bus and listen for the announcement for the Nanmen stop. This hostel is close to the south gate of the city wall and in walking distance to a good many of Xi’an’s attractions and shopping. Like the hostel in Beijing, it was built in an old courtyard house. Unlike the one in Beijing, it had an indoor lounge where we could hang out without freezing our butts off. The beer wasn’t quite as cheap as in Beijing, but it was fun to meet the other backpackers and a few locals who hung out there to practice their English. We spent our first evening chatting with a girl who teaches English to middle schoolers, and who wanted us to explain the lyrics of Celine Dion’s timeless classic, “My Heart Will Go On” to her so she could explain to her students. It took a while, but I think we finally convinced her that it’s just a stupid, badly written song, and it doesn’t really make any sense in English or Chinese.
Sights/Activities – Obviously, the biggest draw of Xi’an is the Terra Cotta Army, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s easy to reach on the #306 bus from the train station, roughly a 45-minute ride. It’s a bit more expensive than many attractions at 90 RMB, but it’s worth every jiao. The site is divided into three vaults – Vault #1 is the most impressive. There’s not much to see in Vault #2 apart from a few soldiers that have been put in glass cases, which allows for a great close-up view. The guidebooks say that there’s a war chariot in Vault #3, but if it’s there, it’s well hidden, because we didn’t see it.
The Terra Cotta Army isn’t the only site worth seeing in Xi’an. We spent an afternoon on rented bicycles riding around on top of the city walls, which was great fun. Bike rental was 15 RMB for 90 minutes, though I suspect that they know you’re not going to get all the way around the 14km circumference of the walls in the allotted time (unless you just tear through and never stop to see the view, take photos, or make out behind guard towers), so they’re all but guaranteed an extra 5 RMB when you go overtime. Admission to the wall is 40 RMB, and you can just walk around if you don’t want to rent a bike. Definitely worth doing.
We also checked out the city’s two famous pagodas, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is in the middle of a park filled with interesting art and pay toilets, and the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, which is actually bigger than the Big Goose. For an extra 10 RMB on top of the 18 to get into the park, you can climb to the top of the Little Goose, which is fun, although there’s not all that much to see.
Xi’an marked the eastern end of the Silk Road, and as such it has a large Muslim population. The Muslim quarter is fun to wander through, and the little alleyways are easy to get lost in. The main street and main alleyway in the Muslim quarter are much more touristy, both with Western tourists and Chinese tourists, than we were expecting. It wasn’t exactly super authentic, but still fun to peruse the shops and restaurants. Follow the red signs to the Great Mosque, which is definitely worth the 12 RMB admission price. It’s an interesting mix of Chinese architecture and Muslim symbolism, and remains a place of worship. The alleyway leading to the Mosque is a great place to shop for souvenirs and trinkets. Again, bargain hard for everything.
Food – Again, a lot of street food and grocery shopping. It’s worth mentioning that Chinese apples are, without question, the best apples ever. The Muslim quarter is swarming with places that make strange little red hockey-puck-sized fried pastry things, which are delicious and, like a lot of what we got from street vendors in China, hard to describe, especially since we don’t know the proper name for them.
We went out one night with a guy from the hostel for hotpot, which was excellent. For those who are not familiar, each table in a hotpot restaurant has a propane burner in the center, on which they put a pot of broth – in this case divided into spicy and not-so-spicy halves. You choose from a wide selection of skewered veggies, mystery meats, bread and tofu, then drop it into the boiling broth to cook. I was a big fan of the fish balls, mostly because it was a source of endless humor. Hee hee. Fish balls. Hee hee. At the end of the meal, they count the number of skewers you took and charge you accordingly. The restaurant charged us for napkins, dipping sauce, and pretty much anything else they could think of. I don’t think they charged us for chopsticks, but they probably would have if they thought that they could get away with it. One of the delights of being a Westerner in China, I guess.
We ate lunch one day at a place called Chinese Fast Food Restaurant, which was pretty good, and worth visiting just for the name. MLE had some soup very much like minestrone with a few added ingredients.
Curiosity drove us into KFC for dinner one night. Not all that different from KFC back home in the good ol’ USA, which is to be expected. They do have a really tasty orange drink, which tastes like real orange juice with a bit of passionfruit or something mixed in instead of the Hi-C orange drink you’d get at an American fast food place. We got better fried chicken (on a stick, no less) from a small vendor next door to a KFC. At least, I’m pretty sure it was chicken. Could have been rat, I guess, but it was deep fried and brushed with a spicy sauce, and it was damn tasty. After that, we ate a poo log on a stick.
Shopping – Xi’an is very, very commercial; much more commercial even than Beijing seemed to be. There’s shopping of all kinds and all price levels to be done just about anywhere in the city. As mentioned before, the market in the Muslim Quarter near the Great Mosque is the best place to go for knickknacks and tchotchkes and geegaws in Xi’an. Pretty much every vendor is selling replica Terra Cotta Warriors in a wide variety of colors and sizes. There’s another outdoor market area between shops selling mostly art supplies east of the South Gate. Several of the vendors will carve a name seal with the Chinese version of a Western last name – again, bargain down.
*****Language Issues – We didn’t have too many problems with language. We stumbled through with our phrasebook, and people who really needed to convey something were able to get it across mostly with pantomime and pointing. I think knowing some Chinese would make the trip more enjoyable, but it’s surprisingly unnecessary. There are quite a few people who speak pretty good English, especially younger people. There were a couple of occasions where we had people write out things in Chinese characters for us, which was quite helpful. This is very handy for taxi drivers, or when buying train tickets. Vendors in markets also generally speak enough English to bargain effectively.
Navigating is generally pretty easy. Most street signs are in Chinese characters and Roman letters. Signage at tourist attractions is usually in Chinese and English, as well.
Cultural Issues – The biggest culture shock issue is the Chinese lack of a concept of privacy. They will quite openly stare at Westerners walking down the street. In Luoyang, we were the only Westerners in town, which made us the subject of a lot of stares. Even in the much more touristy cities of Beijing and Xi’an, we got constant stares. This lack of privacy extends to some public bathrooms – some bathrooms have stalls with no doors.
Speaking of bathrooms, let’s take a moment to consider the sublime beauty of the squat toilet. I’ll try to spare you the gory details – suffice to say that finding a western toilet is all but essential, if possible, for certain eliminatory functions. And bring your own toilet paper, because they don’t stock it in public restrooms. Also, the sinks only sometimes work, so we were very glad of our little bottles of hand sanitizer. The worst bathroom was in one of the train stations and consisted of stalls built over a trough in the ground that had some water running through it; however, not enough to wash away anything that had been done before, so it was about as fun as peeing over an open sewer. MLE nearly barfed.
Spitting is unavoidable. It was at its worst in Beijing, but fairly common in the other cities, too. You can’t go two minutes on a street without hearing someone hawking up something foul, and sidewalks are a little like minefields.
Smoking is equally popular, at least amongst men. When Mle moved to Colorado from California, she was a little shocked to go into restaurants and be asked “Smoking or non?” In China, they won’t ask that question, but for the opposite reason: there’s essentially no such thing as non-smoking. They smoke in restaurants, on buses and trains, in stores, while cooking… It’s everywhere. The pollution is bad enough, but wading through constant clouds of cigarette smoke on top of that is a special treat.
Safety – We never really felt threatened at all during the whole trip. There was a moment where I thought a kid might be trying to pick my pocket, but I revised my opinion of that. Crime was never really on our minds. It’s quite safe for a tourist to go just about anywhere or do just about anything. MLE would have felt fine going anywhere at night by herself. The worst that might happen would be to be aggressive panhandling or being ripped off by having to pay too much in a cab (make sure you tell them to use the meter and always look at it before they stop the cab). There are some scams, mentioned in the guidebooks, but nothing to make one feel personally unsafe.
Well, that’s not quite true. Being a pedestrian is a matter of taking your life into your own hands every moment. Chinese drivers are batshit crazy. They basically do anything they feel like doing, and honk their horns constantly while doing it. Green lights and walk signals are far from a guarantee of safety while crossing the street. We found that the best strategy was to cross when everyone else did – the safety-in-numbers theory. That said, we actually only saw one minor traffic accident during our entire trip. They’re crazy and scary as hell, but they make it work somehow. When riding on a bus or in a cab, it’s best not to watch what the driver is doing, because you will go insane if you do.
Also, sidewalks are being torn up/replaced or nonexistent in some places, and highly uneven in others. MLE nearly broke her leg stepping on a manhole cover that wasn’t actually stable and will probably have her bruise ‘til 2006. Watch your step!
In Conclusion…We saw a tiny little bit of what China has to offer. We’re already thinking about what we’ll see when we go back. Ultimately, I hiked six miles on the Great Wall of China. Everything on top of that is gravy. Mle saw the Terra Cotta Army, something she’s wanted to see for her entire life. How can you beat that?
The main reason we went to China when we did was because it’s changing incredibly quickly, not only Beijing preparing for the Olympics (although that’s a huge part of it), but also that the country is trying to industrialize and catch up to the rest of the first world as fast as possible. Things are disappearing and changing so quickly. We wanted to see what it was like in Beijing before the Olympics changes the city forever.
Also, we really like Chinese food.
Of course, there, they just call it food.
By Danny, Age 28
We went to a country called China. It was neet. They have a big wall there, and we ate alot of Chinese food. If your going on a trip you should go to China, because its a really cool place to go.The End
Overview – We traveled in China for two and a half weeks, from October 28 to November 14, 2005. We visited Beijing, Luoyang and Xi’an.Guidebooks – For Beijing, we relied mostly on The Rough Guide to Beijing. For the rest of the trip, we used Let’s Go China 2005. Both were well-organized and informative, though the maps in Let’s Go were not terribly accurate.
BEIJING
Getting There – We got tickets through www.skyauction.com, which worked very well. We flew from Denver to Portland, OR, to Tokyo, to Beijing. Overall travel time was about 16 hours. There are ATMs in the airport, which seems like the easiest way to get cash upon arrival. We traveled by taxi to our hostel (see below), which was near the city center. There are lots of people claiming to be taxi drivers waiting for you just outside the international arrivals area, but you’re better off avoiding them. Signs in English direct you toward the taxi rank outside. Uniformed police will direct you to a cab and may also be helpful in telling the cabbie where to take you. Our taxi driver got us directly to the hostel with very little fuss. It cost 105 RMB; 95 for the fare, plus 10 for the expressway toll.
Hostel – We stayed five nights at the Far East International Youth Hostel, which was very nice. It’s in two different buildings, a newer one and an old courtyard house. We stayed in the old building, which was charming but had certain eccentricities. The toilets are out in the courtyard, but they keep the toilet paper in the kitchen. The rooms are clean and have sinks/mirrors and probably had the most comfortable beds we slept on during our trip (save one). Lockers big enough for our backpacks were included with our basic deposit, which was also a plus.The ambience of the courtyard was interesting, though it was a bit cold for us to hang out outdoors at night. The shop/tourist office in the courtyard was quite handy. 1.5 liter bottles of water for 3 RMB, 1 liter bottles of Tsingtao for 2 RMB – can’t beat that.
We also ended up staying one night in the Great Wall Sheraton, which was kind of odd after spending so long in the hostel. It was fancy and like any Sheraton anywhere. A Filipina lounge act plays nightly downstairs, and the rooms are as comfortable as any upscale hotel. It was free for us (long story) but I think the rooms cost something like $225 US/night.
When we returned to Beijing before heading home, we spent two nights in the Saga HI Youth Hostel. We’d heard a lot of good things from other travelers, but it wasn’t very close to anything of interest or close to the subway. The rooms and beds were fine, though the showers were a little weird. One of the attractions to Saga is the proximity to the airport shuttle bus – we had to get to the airport really early in the morning, and it was a 10 minute walk from our hostel to the shuttle stop.
Sights/Activities – We joined up with a tour group through the hostel to the Great Wall. The tour we chose was for a hike from Jinshanling to Simatai, about 10km, which was absolutely amazing. It was 90 RMB per person for the round-trip bus (though the very next day, November 1, the price dropped to 70 RMB, the off-season rate), which was about a three-hour ride, plus 60 per person for admission to two sections of the wall and 5 per person for a bridge crossing. After a short hike, we didn’t see any tourists other than the other people from our bus. On the Great Wall, there are tons of locals who will try to sell you water/Coke/beer, postcards/books/t-shirts, or appoint themselves as your tour guides. Most of them speak enough English to understand a basic “No,” but a few choice phrases in Chinese can help a lot.
For such a big city, Beijing is surprisingly easy to explore on foot. Much of our time there was spent simply wandering – just watching day-to-day life in the hutongs is a fascinating way to while away an afternoon. We spent quite a while doing that, just wandering and observing city life. When we weren’t walking we were on the subway, which has a limited reach, but is convenient to use.
We visited two temples in Beijing – the first was a Tibetan Buddhist temple, Yonghe Gong, also known as the Lama Temple. It’s an interesting place, but a little too touristy to feel especially spiritual. The highlight is the 18-meter tall Maitreya Buddha, carved from the trunk of a single sandalwood tree. It is to say the least, impressive. The second temple was Baiyun Guan, the White Cloud, a Taoist temple. This one is much quieter, more peaceful. During our visit, we only saw one other Westerner, and most of the people there seemed to be devotees.We spent a lovely afternoon in Tiantan Park, which contains several museums and the Temple of Heaven, the Echo Wall, and The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The latter was undergoing repair while we were there (as were aspects of many of the attractions we saw – everything is being gussied up for the Olympics).
The Forbidden City is impressive, definitely a must-see, though in my opinion, it doesn’t really warrant the entire day that guidebooks seem to insist it does. I donno…I might have been more into it if we had gotten the Roger Moore-narrated audio tour and gotten more in-depth info on what I was seeing. Still, quite a sight, overall. It’s kind of interesting just in that it feels like a huge series of temples, but you also know that the emperor and his wives, concubines, and eunuchs actually lived there. (Mle’s favorite part was the Imperial Garden on the north end)
Food – As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, we ate a lot of street food in China. Jianbing is the local Beijing street food specialty – a pancake and egg with scallions, cilantro and sesame seeds wrapped around a bit of fried dough, and absolutely delicious. There are lots of places to find a variety of pastries, too.As far as restaurants go, our biggest night out was at the Hepingmen branch of the Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant. I’d heard the term “Peking Duck” before without really knowing what it meant; it’s definitely worth seeking out. Pancakes, roast duck, plum sauce and onions all wrapped up together…yummy!
The language barrier can make eating out a bit tough. Even places that advertise an English menu aren’t always easy. We went to the “restaurant of Muslim” in the hutong near our hostel that had an English menu. I ordered “fried mutton” and got a salad plate of mutton, onions and peppers. Mle ordered “chicken with pastry” and got an enormous serving platter loaded with chicken, veggies, sauce and a yummy pastry, which could have fed six people.
Shopping – Bargaining is the order of the day, of course. Silk Alley, the most famous and touristy shopping center, is an overwhelming experience. Everyone shouting at you, “Hey, sir, lady, come look!” You can’t show the slightest interest in anything without being harassed. They don’t seem to understand that the aggressive hard-sell is really off-putting to a lot of Westerners. We had a slightly better experience at a lesser-known market in Sanlitun near Worker’s Stadium, but it was still fairly aggravating. We probably could have gotten some reasonable deals on clothes if we’d had the energy for bargaining hard, but their starting prices were way too high and many merchants weren’t willing to drop especially low. We got the feeling that many Westerners either don’t bother to bargain or think “it’s Chinese money so it must be cheap” without doing the math. We weren’t as easy marks as some others might have been, and there are always enough other tourists who will pay the outrageous prices.
We got lots of good deals on souvenirs and gifts, though, mostly at the Panjiayuan Market in the southeast of the city (only open on weekends). Start low, stand your ground, and don’t betray too much interest. We had a lot of luck pointing out how many other places we could get the item we were looking at.
LUOYANG
Getting There – We took an overnight train from Beijing, which got into Luoyang an hour or so late. We went with hard sleeper berths, which worked out well. According to other travelers we spoke with, soft sleeper berths aren’t a whole lot fancier, but quite a bit more expensive. We were quite happy with two top bunks – a bit more privacy and access to luggage storage.
Hotel – We stayed at the Lijing Men Hotel, which is built into the base of the old city walls. The room was adequate, though the bed was very odd. Rock-hard in some spots, soft as foam rubber in others, and source of dozens of weird noises. Still, it was a private room with a western-style toilet for 100 RMB a night (about $12.50), so it’s hard to complain too much. And the location is great.
Sights/Activities – We were in Luoyang for two reasons – the Longmen Grottoes and the Shaolin Temple.
The Longmen Grottoes are amazing – thousands of Buddhas carved into the cliffs, ranging in size from a few centimeters to 17 meters. Many are missing heads, but even that can’t detract from the mind-blowing grandeur of the place. It’s easy to get to from the city – bus #53 or #81 will get you there. It’s the last stop on both lines, and pretty much impossible to miss.
The Shaolin Temple was not really worth it, in my opinion. Getting there isn’t too hard – you can book a bus from the city’s bus station, which cost us 14 RMB each. We thought we were getting round-trip tickets, and we may have, but the return bus charged us 14 more, one way or the other. The Temple itself was kinda-sorta fun, but too expensive at 100 RMB a head. The mountain setting is a nice way to escape the pollution of the cities, though. The kung fu exhibition comes free with admission and is the best part of visiting Shaolin.
We enjoyed just walking around the city of Luoyang and spending time in parks, watching people live their lives and play with their children. Children have the most interesting reactions to tourists – brave ones even said “hello” to us before giggling and/or running away. The old city of Luoyang (inside the walls) is also a nice place to see people living as they’ve lived for generations, and great for people-watching.
Food – We had one of the best meals of the trip in a tiny noodle house in the Old City; two giant bowls of noodles, veggies and broth for 6 RMB total. That’s a very satisfactory dinner for two for about $0.75. We ate mostly from grocery stores for our brief stay in Luoyang. Dairy products are still fairly new in China, and they’ve got the hang of yoghurt pretty well, but I’d stay away from Chinese cheese.
XI’AN
Getting There – It’s a shorter trip from Luoyang to Xi’an, so we took a day train, with Hard Seat tickets. The ride was fun and fairly uneventful, but not without its oddities. Our tickets were for assigned seats, but when the train began boarding, everyone shoved to get on like Christmas shoppers going after the last Cabbage Patch Kid. Maybe they just dig shoving, I don’t know. Anyway, we got through the mob and found our seats and settled in for the five-hour ride. On the plus side, we were surrounded by women, so it was a rare cigarette-smoke-free moment. On the minus side, we were sitting right next to the toilet, and people kept leaving the door open, sharing special smells with everyone in the vicinity.
Hostel – The hostel in Xi’an, the Shuyuan Youth Hostel, was probably the best of the trip. It’s easy to reach from the train station; just hop on the #603 or #608 bus and listen for the announcement for the Nanmen stop. This hostel is close to the south gate of the city wall and in walking distance to a good many of Xi’an’s attractions and shopping. Like the hostel in Beijing, it was built in an old courtyard house. Unlike the one in Beijing, it had an indoor lounge where we could hang out without freezing our butts off. The beer wasn’t quite as cheap as in Beijing, but it was fun to meet the other backpackers and a few locals who hung out there to practice their English. We spent our first evening chatting with a girl who teaches English to middle schoolers, and who wanted us to explain the lyrics of Celine Dion’s timeless classic, “My Heart Will Go On” to her so she could explain to her students. It took a while, but I think we finally convinced her that it’s just a stupid, badly written song, and it doesn’t really make any sense in English or Chinese.
Sights/Activities – Obviously, the biggest draw of Xi’an is the Terra Cotta Army, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s easy to reach on the #306 bus from the train station, roughly a 45-minute ride. It’s a bit more expensive than many attractions at 90 RMB, but it’s worth every jiao. The site is divided into three vaults – Vault #1 is the most impressive. There’s not much to see in Vault #2 apart from a few soldiers that have been put in glass cases, which allows for a great close-up view. The guidebooks say that there’s a war chariot in Vault #3, but if it’s there, it’s well hidden, because we didn’t see it.
The Terra Cotta Army isn’t the only site worth seeing in Xi’an. We spent an afternoon on rented bicycles riding around on top of the city walls, which was great fun. Bike rental was 15 RMB for 90 minutes, though I suspect that they know you’re not going to get all the way around the 14km circumference of the walls in the allotted time (unless you just tear through and never stop to see the view, take photos, or make out behind guard towers), so they’re all but guaranteed an extra 5 RMB when you go overtime. Admission to the wall is 40 RMB, and you can just walk around if you don’t want to rent a bike. Definitely worth doing.
We also checked out the city’s two famous pagodas, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is in the middle of a park filled with interesting art and pay toilets, and the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, which is actually bigger than the Big Goose. For an extra 10 RMB on top of the 18 to get into the park, you can climb to the top of the Little Goose, which is fun, although there’s not all that much to see.
Xi’an marked the eastern end of the Silk Road, and as such it has a large Muslim population. The Muslim quarter is fun to wander through, and the little alleyways are easy to get lost in. The main street and main alleyway in the Muslim quarter are much more touristy, both with Western tourists and Chinese tourists, than we were expecting. It wasn’t exactly super authentic, but still fun to peruse the shops and restaurants. Follow the red signs to the Great Mosque, which is definitely worth the 12 RMB admission price. It’s an interesting mix of Chinese architecture and Muslim symbolism, and remains a place of worship. The alleyway leading to the Mosque is a great place to shop for souvenirs and trinkets. Again, bargain hard for everything.
Food – Again, a lot of street food and grocery shopping. It’s worth mentioning that Chinese apples are, without question, the best apples ever. The Muslim quarter is swarming with places that make strange little red hockey-puck-sized fried pastry things, which are delicious and, like a lot of what we got from street vendors in China, hard to describe, especially since we don’t know the proper name for them.
We went out one night with a guy from the hostel for hotpot, which was excellent. For those who are not familiar, each table in a hotpot restaurant has a propane burner in the center, on which they put a pot of broth – in this case divided into spicy and not-so-spicy halves. You choose from a wide selection of skewered veggies, mystery meats, bread and tofu, then drop it into the boiling broth to cook. I was a big fan of the fish balls, mostly because it was a source of endless humor. Hee hee. Fish balls. Hee hee. At the end of the meal, they count the number of skewers you took and charge you accordingly. The restaurant charged us for napkins, dipping sauce, and pretty much anything else they could think of. I don’t think they charged us for chopsticks, but they probably would have if they thought that they could get away with it. One of the delights of being a Westerner in China, I guess.
We ate lunch one day at a place called Chinese Fast Food Restaurant, which was pretty good, and worth visiting just for the name. MLE had some soup very much like minestrone with a few added ingredients.
Curiosity drove us into KFC for dinner one night. Not all that different from KFC back home in the good ol’ USA, which is to be expected. They do have a really tasty orange drink, which tastes like real orange juice with a bit of passionfruit or something mixed in instead of the Hi-C orange drink you’d get at an American fast food place. We got better fried chicken (on a stick, no less) from a small vendor next door to a KFC. At least, I’m pretty sure it was chicken. Could have been rat, I guess, but it was deep fried and brushed with a spicy sauce, and it was damn tasty. After that, we ate a poo log on a stick.
Shopping – Xi’an is very, very commercial; much more commercial even than Beijing seemed to be. There’s shopping of all kinds and all price levels to be done just about anywhere in the city. As mentioned before, the market in the Muslim Quarter near the Great Mosque is the best place to go for knickknacks and tchotchkes and geegaws in Xi’an. Pretty much every vendor is selling replica Terra Cotta Warriors in a wide variety of colors and sizes. There’s another outdoor market area between shops selling mostly art supplies east of the South Gate. Several of the vendors will carve a name seal with the Chinese version of a Western last name – again, bargain down.
*****Language Issues – We didn’t have too many problems with language. We stumbled through with our phrasebook, and people who really needed to convey something were able to get it across mostly with pantomime and pointing. I think knowing some Chinese would make the trip more enjoyable, but it’s surprisingly unnecessary. There are quite a few people who speak pretty good English, especially younger people. There were a couple of occasions where we had people write out things in Chinese characters for us, which was quite helpful. This is very handy for taxi drivers, or when buying train tickets. Vendors in markets also generally speak enough English to bargain effectively.
Navigating is generally pretty easy. Most street signs are in Chinese characters and Roman letters. Signage at tourist attractions is usually in Chinese and English, as well.
Cultural Issues – The biggest culture shock issue is the Chinese lack of a concept of privacy. They will quite openly stare at Westerners walking down the street. In Luoyang, we were the only Westerners in town, which made us the subject of a lot of stares. Even in the much more touristy cities of Beijing and Xi’an, we got constant stares. This lack of privacy extends to some public bathrooms – some bathrooms have stalls with no doors.
Speaking of bathrooms, let’s take a moment to consider the sublime beauty of the squat toilet. I’ll try to spare you the gory details – suffice to say that finding a western toilet is all but essential, if possible, for certain eliminatory functions. And bring your own toilet paper, because they don’t stock it in public restrooms. Also, the sinks only sometimes work, so we were very glad of our little bottles of hand sanitizer. The worst bathroom was in one of the train stations and consisted of stalls built over a trough in the ground that had some water running through it; however, not enough to wash away anything that had been done before, so it was about as fun as peeing over an open sewer. MLE nearly barfed.
Spitting is unavoidable. It was at its worst in Beijing, but fairly common in the other cities, too. You can’t go two minutes on a street without hearing someone hawking up something foul, and sidewalks are a little like minefields.
Smoking is equally popular, at least amongst men. When Mle moved to Colorado from California, she was a little shocked to go into restaurants and be asked “Smoking or non?” In China, they won’t ask that question, but for the opposite reason: there’s essentially no such thing as non-smoking. They smoke in restaurants, on buses and trains, in stores, while cooking… It’s everywhere. The pollution is bad enough, but wading through constant clouds of cigarette smoke on top of that is a special treat.
Safety – We never really felt threatened at all during the whole trip. There was a moment where I thought a kid might be trying to pick my pocket, but I revised my opinion of that. Crime was never really on our minds. It’s quite safe for a tourist to go just about anywhere or do just about anything. MLE would have felt fine going anywhere at night by herself. The worst that might happen would be to be aggressive panhandling or being ripped off by having to pay too much in a cab (make sure you tell them to use the meter and always look at it before they stop the cab). There are some scams, mentioned in the guidebooks, but nothing to make one feel personally unsafe.
Well, that’s not quite true. Being a pedestrian is a matter of taking your life into your own hands every moment. Chinese drivers are batshit crazy. They basically do anything they feel like doing, and honk their horns constantly while doing it. Green lights and walk signals are far from a guarantee of safety while crossing the street. We found that the best strategy was to cross when everyone else did – the safety-in-numbers theory. That said, we actually only saw one minor traffic accident during our entire trip. They’re crazy and scary as hell, but they make it work somehow. When riding on a bus or in a cab, it’s best not to watch what the driver is doing, because you will go insane if you do.
Also, sidewalks are being torn up/replaced or nonexistent in some places, and highly uneven in others. MLE nearly broke her leg stepping on a manhole cover that wasn’t actually stable and will probably have her bruise ‘til 2006. Watch your step!
In Conclusion…We saw a tiny little bit of what China has to offer. We’re already thinking about what we’ll see when we go back. Ultimately, I hiked six miles on the Great Wall of China. Everything on top of that is gravy. Mle saw the Terra Cotta Army, something she’s wanted to see for her entire life. How can you beat that?
The main reason we went to China when we did was because it’s changing incredibly quickly, not only Beijing preparing for the Olympics (although that’s a huge part of it), but also that the country is trying to industrialize and catch up to the rest of the first world as fast as possible. Things are disappearing and changing so quickly. We wanted to see what it was like in Beijing before the Olympics changes the city forever.
Also, we really like Chinese food.
Of course, there, they just call it food.
Friday, November 18, 2005
woot
We looked at all our digital pictures from China last night and I'm really pleased. Plus, one that I was hoping would turn out well as a composite landscape looks fabulous.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
I made this blog so I can comment on other blogs.
Maybe someday I'll actually do something with it. Like post pictures of China, or something.
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