Chinese New Year Travels (Xi'an, Luoyang)

I had an overnight train to Xi'an which went fine, but I arrived at the crack of dawn which is never fun. As a side note, there is one thing that Chinese do that is only very annoying and bothersome when one is in a quiet, confined space: Chinese don't chew with their mouths closed. So while I was in my sleeper room with three other people, I would be reading a book and all of the sudden hear the obnoxious *smack, smack, smack* come from just a few feet away. I just wanted to kill everyone when this happened, and it continued to happen throughout the trip. Unfortunately, I notice it a whole more now. Anyway, while I was waiting for my room to open up at the hostel I met three Americans and one Australian. Two of the Americans, Omar and Paul, were on holiday from teaching in South Korea while the other American, Mandy, had been traveling the world for five months already. She bought an "around the world" ticket and will be traveling for another 11 months all over the world. I want to do that too! The Australian, Luke, was traveling on holiday from school but he is planning on coming back in September to be a student studying Chinese.

Mandy, Luke, and I decided to bike on top of the Xi'an city wall which was great. There is not much great scenery from the city wall (not to mention the haze/smoke), but it was still a good time. Apparently, it's the oldest preserved city wall in China. Later that day we went to the Drum and Bell Towers. The Bell tower was used to signify the beginning of the day and the Drum tower was used to signify the end of the day. There were performances at each tower. The Bell Tower performance was primarily made up of bell players (surprise, surprise) and the The Drum Tower...well you get the drift. The drum performance was better than the bell and it was performed by teenagers, but the innovative ways in which they played their drums (such as tapping the sticks on the side of the drums) were very entertaining.

The next day, as if you could have guessed, we went to see the Terra Cotta warriors. When we walked up we ran into a group of four American students learning Chinese. They are in an intensive program in which they can only speak Chinese. If they are caught speaking English than they may get a strike against them. Three strikes and they may be kicked out of the program...intense! The nine of us asked for a English speaking tour guide, and she said she wanted to charge us 150 yuan. At once we all started complaining ("Awww, c'mon!") and saying, "Too expensive!" in Chinese and then she almost immediately said, "OK! 100 yuan!" and we all cheered in unison. Anyway, the tour was really cool. The most interesting part of the tour was finding out that each warrior had uniquely been carved. Each has its own unique facial features with some minor differences in uniform (for instance, commanding officers have different head gear and wear their hair differently).

Both nights we were in Xi'an, we enjoyed the entertainment provided by the bar in the basement. At one point during second night, a man approached Luke and asked him, "This is going to make me sound like a weirdo, but do you happen to be from Adelaide, Australia?" Luke hesitantly replied, "...Yes". Apparently this man had been living in Adelaide and remembered seeing Luke at a bar there. This man ended up being someone we would travel with to Chengdu. His name is Regis, but we ended up calling him Frenchy, an absolutely hilarious (and slightly slimy) gent. This also isn't the only "it's a small world after all" incident which will be revealed once I get to Chengdu.

At one point while in Xi'an, I realize that, "Crap. I meant to go to Luoyang." Which is 5 1/2 hours east of Xi'an. My train ride to Luoyang ended up being the worst of the entire month of travel. You wouldn't think so because it was probably the shortest of any train that I took the entire time. However, I felt nauseous during the entire time and attempted to sleep after taking some antihistamine medication but was so uncomfortable I couldn't, especially since I had to put all my luggage right in front of me. Anyway, enough complaining. Once I got to Luoyang, I was picked up by my hostel. What was strange was he was with one of the hostel residents, a French Canadian. The Canadian kept on saying what a great host this guy was. I thought, "That's odd that the owner of the hostel would come pick me up. Usually it is an employee." On the way there, the man asked me (using the French Canadian as a translator) where I was from. I said that I was a teacher in Shijiazhuang. Almost immediately the man's face brightened right up. He said he had two girls from Shijiazhuang who were also teachers come to his hostel last year! Immediately upon hearing this, my heart dropped a little bit. My friend Sherly is a teacher at my school and she is currently in her second year of teaching through the Drake program. When I was asking her about travel during the Chinese New Year I expressed interest in going to Luoyang. She said that Luoyang was pretty cool but the hostel she stayed at was weird because it was just some guy's apartment where he lived with his son. As soon as this memory creeped back out, I realized where who I was with and where I was going! It was a little strange the first night. The French Canadian was leaving the same night I was arriving so I was down a translator. However, the man ended up being very helpful.

Also, it was absolutely freezing cold in the apartment/hostel. I didn't even need to refrigerate my leftovers from dinner. Luckily, there was a heated blanket that did the trick.

Anyway, the first day, I went to see the Buddhist Grottoes which are essentially small caves carved into limestone centuries ago. However, not all of them were small, there were a few very large ones that were quite impressive. I'll put up some pictures of these. There was also a very cool mist over the river next to the grottoes that added an air of mystery.

When I got back from the Grottoes that evening, I told the man that I wanted to go see the Shaolin temple the next day. He said it wouldn't be a problem. When I woke up the next morning he said that I had woken up too late to go to the Shaolin temple. I thought, "Well, you could have probably told me that last night." (By the way, at this point, Google translator is serving as foremost form of communication). Instead, he tells me that I can go to a Buddhist temple (not that I haven't been to enough already). However, this Buddhist temple is considered the first Buddhist temple (still standing) in China. It was quite an adventure getting there and probably took and hour to an hour and a half total. I enlisted the help of these two Chinese girls who were actually heading my same way. They were college students and they were very interested in America and my experience in China so far.

The Buddhist temple ended up being my favorite temple that I have visited in China. I watched a Buddhist ceremony that some patrons also participated in. The grounds were pleasant and offered a bit of uniqueness among the many temples in China.

The second night (and last night) I was at the apartment/hostel, there were three more guests: a Japanese man and a younger Korean couple. By the time I got back from the Buddhist temple, the man and the Japanese man had eaten dinner and were a bit drunk on baijiu (rice liquor). As he was getting ready for bed, the man said to me, "I...I...drunk" shortly after which I had to restrain myself from a fit of laughter. Since the Koreans were staying in the room that connected to the bathroom, the man (from what I could ascertain) said that I couldn't go to the bathroom after they went to bed. Like clockwork, I wake up in the middle of the night and have the utmost urge to urinate. With no where to go and no disposable container to do it in, I elected to open up my seven story window and let her rip. Very relieving (but cold!) I must say.

The next day I was off to Chengdu! I'll just say a little about my train ride. This was probably the most crowded train I had been on...and it was going to be 20 hours long. Within the first five minutes of stepping on the train there was a fight between a few girls and one guy. Apparently, the guy had a standing-only ticket and did not feel like standing for twenty hours and he refused to move from the seat that rightfully belonged to one of these girls. These girls started smacking him and screaming at him. One of the girls started bawling. This was holding up the entire line of people trying to find their seats and/or a place for their luggage to be stowed. I'm not sure, but I think at one point the guy may have pushed or hit one of the girls. When this happened, a guy standing in line with his luggage dropped his luggage and jumped over the seat. He grabbed the seat-taker by the hair and smacked him a few times, yelling at him as he did this. Finally the seat-taker, with face red and bleeding and eyes watering, gave up the seat. As we began to move, I looked back and noticed that people were sitting on top of seats. That is, people had their legs draped over or around others that were sitting. That's how crowded it was. There was also an old guy with rotten teeth who kept on staring at me. By the time we got to Chengdu, the floor was covered in trash, chicken bones, seeds, and general debris. What an awful, disgusting mess it was. At one point, a woman was eating over me while I was trying my best at a Sudoku puzzle. Of course, she was chewing with her mouth open and a little bit of saliva fell onto my page. Taking all it in stride, I brushed it off with my sleeve. A minute later, a rather large food particle from her mouth landed on my Sudoku page. "All in stride," I thought, "all in stride." Amazingly, I still wouldn't consider this as bad as my train to Luoyang.