Days 223-232: China, part 2
Xian, Yangtze River, Chengdu
Part 2 of our three weeks in China proper.
The trains in China are great, but getting tickets is illogical to say the least. To get to Xian from Pingyao, we had to take a 2 hour train ride in the wrong direction to the city of Taiyuan just to buy a ticket for a train that went through Pingyao on the way to Xian. At least we could buy this ticket. To leave Xian, we had to go through the black market to get a ticket to Yichang. Craziness.
Xian is a huge, walled city with a neat bell tower and drum tower in the center of town. Here’s the bell tower lit up at night.
Getting food has been really tough for us in China. We would have thought that the country that invented fake meat Chinese (FMC) would be heaven. But alas, it was not. We found ourselves searching out – of all places – Pizza Hut. You read it correctly. We usually had to wait for a table for up to an hour. And all the wait staff were decked out in Halloween costumes. Do they actually celebrate Halloween in China?
Speaking of interesting costumes, it seems that diapers are not standard equipment for young kids. Instead, they wear pants with a split in the back and just open and go whenever neccessary.
Would you call this a crescent-moon?
China has a one-child policy that has lead to a whole lot of spoiled only children. The Chinese have an expression to describe this new generation as “little emperors”. We saw a lot of parents and grandparents letting these kids get away with murder. And to think these kids will be running the world in a few years….
There’s a lot of phlem in China. We mean A LOT of it. We were warned to expect a lot of spitting and farmer-johning (blowing snot out of one nostril at a time), but it was remarkable to see it in action. Young, old, male, female. It just happened everywhere, all the time. For example, people did it on busses, in train cars, in buildings, and on boat decks. And covering one’s mouth while coughing or sneezing was unheard of. We’re pretty sure that people actually turned our way to cough on us a few times. That’s probably why we both caught colds for the first time in many months.
And while we’re on the subject of differing cultural norms, the Chinese stare a lot. We’re talking a full-on double take complete with open mouth stare. We thought it was just foreigners (lowai!), but it seemed like they would stare at anything: infomercials for socks on a train, anything written in chalk on the sidewalk, someone breathing. Tough to get used to. They’ll sure have a lot to look at in 2008 when the Olympics come to town.
We felt right at home taking pictures in China because everyone had a camera and was constantly taking pictures of themselves in front of anything. In fact, they even wanted to have pictures of them taken with us! We thought this was a lot of attention until we went on a tour of the Terracotta Army with a family that included a blond, blue-eyed 9 month old. This kid must be destined to be a saint for putting up with the constant grabbing and posing for pictures.
The Terracotta Army was interesting. Thousands of life-sized soldiers lined up for a battle in the afterlife. They even had horses and chariots.
Ready for action.
What the army looks like before reconstruction. A bit like an army of Humpty Dumpties.
Street sign warning that no trucks on fire can drive on this street. Whew!
We went to Yichang to take a trip on the Yangtze through the famed Three Gorges. But first we had to find a ticket, and since we were going the opposite direction of most travellers, it was tough to find English speakers. Fortunately, one boat operator had set up a special window just for us.
Marcus trying to get some help at the “English and dumbness window”.
English was much less useful in China than elsewhere, and Chinese is very tough for those of us unfamiliar with tonal languages. A perfect example was when Kelly tried to order a Sprite at a restaurant and received a blank stare from the waitress. Eventually Kelly pointed to the word on a menu and the waitress replied with a falling then rising tone of sprITE? After that, whenever Kelly ordered another Sprite she would do the tones and was understood. On a plane ride she ordered a sprITE and got it, and Marcus pointed out the stewardess spoke English. On the second round of drinks Kelly ordered another sprite (with no tone), and the same stewardess had no idea what she was asking for.
We were going to take an 11-hour hydrofoil ride up the Yangtze river until we found out that you can’t get out to see the scenery. So we opted for a two day, two night ferry trip. The funny thing is, it took us so long to get through the locks at the two dams – including a whopping 5 locks to get through the enormous Three Gorges Dam – that it was dark when we got into the first of the three gorges. We missed the second two completely in the night. The dam has raised the water level to 140 meters, so it won’t be much different when it tops out at 175 meters in 2009. But we may want to bring a snorkel to see the good stuff that’s already under water when we come back.
One of the huge locks at the Three Gorges Dam. Those are huge tourist cruise ships in there. Each lock raises the boats 20 meters.
Xiling gorge at sunset. Yep, that’s all we saw.
The boat dropped us off at Chongqing. A weird place. We had a taxi driver ask us for 100 yuan (about $12.50) to take us 2 km. When we finally got a cop to get a taxi to pull over for us, the ride ended up costing only 5 yuan. And we don’t have any idea what this statue was supposed to be for.
Speaking of 100 yuan, when we got to Chengdu we found out we had a counterfeit 100 yuan note. We thought we had only used ATMs and banks to get yuan, but then we remembered getting back a key deposit from a hotel in Yichang (The Railway Hotel if anyone is going there). The deposit had only been 60 yuan, but the gal “didn’t have change” and asked us for 40 yuan and gave us the 100 yuan note. Biyatch! Now we’ve got a $12.50 souvenir.
We went to Chengdu for two reasons: they can arrange permits to Tibet, and they have pandas. Lots of pandas. When the alarm went off early to get a jump on some pandas, Marcus’ words were “these pandas had better be cute.” They sure were! The panda research center was bit more zoo-like than we would have liked, but at least they weren’t in cages.
One of the cuties having breakfast.
Marcus had some bamboo too but couldn’t figure out what the attraction was.
The panda center also had a bunch of the “lesser” red pandas. Sure they were smaller than the giant pandas, but they a lot more playful and just as cute. Look a lot like redish racoons but act like big cats.
Our favorite cable channel in China is the all-sports CCTV5. It seemed like there was some kind of national sporting event or Olympics warm-up going on the entire time we were here. We also got to see US basketball games; well, at least the ones where Yao Ming was playing. How did Yao Ming buy shoes in China? We went hunting for new shoes for Marcus and none of the US shoe retailers (Nike, NB, Adidas, Reebok, Columbia, North Face) carried shoes larger than size 11. Thank goodness for super glue!
Toilets are really hit or miss in China. Most of the public toilets in bus and train stations are really revolting long troughs filled with excrement. At the tourist sites, the toilets have a star rating system. 4-stars gets you squat toilets that flush with stall doors and sinks, but no soap. 5-stars gets you an aquarium in the bath room and hot-air dryers, but still no soap. The best bathroom we used in China was, of all places, in Pizza Hut.
China presented us with a very different cultural environment that took a bit of getting used to. That being said, we really did enjoy our time there and can’t wait to go back!
Tags: China
Kelly & Marcus
November 9th, 2005 at 5:33 am
And, after visiting the Dumbness Center, did you feel smater or what???
Thank goodness for Pizza Hut 🙂
Love you xoxox
November 9th, 2005 at 9:20 am
After your description of hocking goobers and pottties, sounds like a place I can do without visiting
November 10th, 2005 at 3:59 am
marcus…u r posed to dry dat stuff then smoke it : ) great pics
November 10th, 2005 at 5:41 am
That is interesting that they spit everywhere AND there is no soap in the bathroom. Who needs it anyway, its not liks SARS was ever an issue.
November 10th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
That red panda may be cute and playful, but it looked like it had claws.
November 10th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Lynn – We were more confused after leaving the dumbness window than before we got there.
Grandpa – This post came off more negative than we wanted. It’s possible to avoid the bad bathrooms and whatnot if you go on a tour.
Lori – Now you tell me!
Mike – That and bird flu were on our minds the whole time. Kel is still recovering.
Dan – We wouldn’t wrestle them!
November 15th, 2005 at 3:50 am
What did you do at the dumpness window?