China 2007

Our morning was spent in the air - a 4:45 wake-up call, a 6:00 meeting time, at the airport before our 8:30 flight. After we got through the painful security line and people spread out to buy food, the airline pulled a surprise gate change on us. Peter, who could speak the language, almost missed the flight.

I settled into my window seat in relative comfort, until I heard an "Oh!" from down the aisle. Mrs. James had to sit next to me. We chatted for most of the flight until she became more interested in the Chinese man sitting next to her. Our takeoff was delayed by about an hour, as hundreds of planes landed and took off in front of us. Mrs. James told me that she had never had a flight that left on time throughout her personal excursions in China. We landed with a huge bang (we all thought the plane had lost a few wheels) - I happily picked up my bag, about the fourth one on the belt - and we got on a very "hutong" bus (our equivalent for "ghetto"), so named because we had to double up.

Xian was much cooler, slightly less humid, and very quiet. Our guide, now Helen, told us that there had not been any skyscrapers until just a few years ago, and Xian only sported a population of six million. I thought the airport was just in the countryside, but we followed an empty and equally "country" expressway to the city walls, which were almost as deserted. Once inside the city, things were busy but not packed. It was quite a relaxing change, and since we were through our "gateway" city, Beijing, it felt like we were really in China now. We pulled through a huge arch into an empty courtyard, with wall on all sides rising up at least fifty feet. This was the city wall, much wider and flatter than the Great Wall, but only about sixteen kilometers long. We climbed a huge watchtower, getting a great view of the city, and then we walked down a bit of the wall (or one could bike the length in 100 minutes). As I stared down the perfectly straight wall, bikers and pedestrians about a mile away disappeared into the smog. Until just three years ago, only farms had been outside the city walls.

Before stopping at the hotel, we toured an ancient Buddhist pagoda, about 14 stories high, that had been damaged by an earthquake. For about seventy cents, we could ring a giant gong three times. A few people from our group rang it politely, and then Collin tried riding on top of the wooden thing, causing an uproar from tourists and locals alike. Most of us climbed the pagoda after a long, pointless argument between our tour guide and the officials. However, there wasn't much to see as this was not an active place of worship. As we got ready to leave, a full-blown Chinese orchestra came out and warmed up. After waiting a while, they played part of a song and then broke into argument. We sauntered away chuckling.

We arrived at our hotel, the Xian Garden Hotel. Mrs. James had warned us that it would likely be a dump, but when we were greeted with cold towels, doormen and a sparkling gold lobby, we thought otherwise. After an hour of getting settled in nice ground-floor rooms with patios looking out onto the peacock-infested grounds, we left for the Muslim quarters of the city, and the Great Mosque. The mosque had some interesting architecture, but unlike the Buddhist temple we explored earlier, we didn't get any background on the religion and weren't allowed in any of the buildings. After a slight introduction to the area, we were released into rows and rows of alleys full of tiny shops selling the same things. Christina pointed out a 120-year old unique camera, and I got swarmed because they thought I was interested. They offered to trade for my HD camera, but I figured the size of film in that camera wasn't even made anymore. I also took a look at a cheap, fake 8 GB iPod for $45. After playing around with it, I figured I could do everything it could do on my phone - except it was smaller. Still, I didn't know in what way(s) I was getting ripped off. So I dragged Gina down some more primitive streets - no shops, but really where people lived and worked. I was the only Westerner, but surprisingly my camera drew little attention. We passed a little carefree kid who was just spinning around, enjoying the shade until he noticed my camera. I felt bad, and wanted to slip him 5 yuan to see if he would cheer up, but by the time I found the money he had run off.

We had dinner in the area, at a dumpling restaurant. We got our own private room with two tables on the fourth floor - and for the first time this trip, free refills. The dumplings came in all shapes and sizes, basket after basket. The chicken dumplings looked like miniature chickens, and the walnut dumplings looked like little nuts. There was every combination of food possible packed into these things: pumpkinfish, ham, vegetables - everything. All this for a meager fifteen dollars.

Once back at the hotel, I explored the "garden" aspect of the place, the gym and massage/sauna place, but didn't find much intriguing. It was disappointing that our group was spread all over the hotel. Our neighbors and my roommate usurped my bed and the room for long into the night, so I didn't get very much sleep. Finally they took a walk, and I immediately dropped off. The early morning flight had definitely cut into my delicate sleep schedule.