Where’s Megan?

I took another overnight train from Chendgu to Xi’an. My hostel in there was in a nice, traditional-style building with several quiet courtyards and artfully-posed cats.

I walked around the city, another big one with all the shopping you’d want (if, of course, you were someone who liked shopping and were daintily-shaped, neither of which I am). There’s an area in Xi’an called the Muslim Quarter with various sundry items for sale, mostly dried fruits, nuts, and souvenirs. I kept noticing a strange, loud noise, and eventually figured out that it was coming from these little cages hanging from some shops, which housed gigantic crickets.

It’s hard to tell in the photo but they’re about 4 inches long, way too big for a bug. I’ve heard that cricket breeding and fighting was once a popular hobby in China, so I’m guessing that’s why they were here. Unless they were guard-crickets that attacked intruders, but I don’t want to think about that.

Probably the most famous sight in Xi’an is the Terracotta Warriors that are a short drive away. The most surprising thing for me was that they are actually indoors, covered by a stadium-like roof. I suppose it’s for protection from the elements (and us sweaty tourists are thankful, too), but it just makes it look like they’re a big, orderly audience waiting for the concert to begin.

I continued north to a small, quiet city called Pingyao. It’s another ancient walled city, but this one has definitely avoided modernization which is a nice change. One not-so-nice feature, however, was that it didn’t have a single bank or ATM, which is ironic because at one point in history it was the primary banking capital in all of China.

Pingyao’s walls, traditional buildings, and winding alleyways are aged yet intact, but it’s clearly in the process of a makeover, and is already packed with Chinese tour groups. My hostel also did its part to ruin the atmosphere: although the traditional-style building didn’t stand out, a constant stream of tourists were compelled to stop and take pictures of the goofy-looking backpackers eating exotic breakfast foods.

Speaking of breakfast foods… some of you may recall that my favorite cereal is “Cinnamon Toast Crunch”, and I found these odd-looking snacks sold on the street that taste exactly the same. I ate a bunch and stashed even more for the road. Now if only I could find some milk…

And finally, Beijing!

The most obvious thing about Beijing is the massive preparation underway for the Olympics next year: buildings under construction everywhere, traditional markets being renovated, even campaigns to urge people to have better manners. It’s really A Big Deal.

It turned out that I had a whole week in Beijing, so I took my time but saw a lot. I also did a lot of walking, primarily because I can’t read the bus route signs and just guess, which only tends to work about half of the time.

I was told by several people that the best way to get around Beijing is to rent a bicycle, but with the millions of other bikes, cars, buses, rickshaws, and pedestrians maneuvering in apparent chaos, I was too chicken. Luckily, the subway is much safer and more efficient.

I walked through Tiananmen Square (which is actually a rectangle, take note). I was disappointed that the mausoleum of China’s semi-hero Mao Zedong, was closed for renovation, so I missed yet another viewing of a famous dead Communist. Maybe someday I can visit Moscow and not see Lenin. But I did get a small glimpse of history just across the street from Tiananmen Square. In front of the south gate to the Forbidden City, which features a giant portrait of Mao, is a lion statue that still retains, if you look close, a bullet hole in its stomach from the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Hooray for history!

The Forbidden City itself was OK. The main buildings were under wraps for renovation, but I visited several little side temples with interesting names. There’s “The Gate of Divine Military Genius”, and this photo was taken in the “Hall of Mental Cultivation”.

Another major sight in Beijing is the Temple of Heaven and surrounding park. It’s a lovely place, and the temple really does give the feeling that it’s floating in the clouds above Beijing.

Some nice detail in blue, above one of the gates.

I love this guy’s toothy grin. There are hundreds others just like him, sticking out gargoyle-like around many of the structures.

And of course, you can’t visit China without going to the Great Wall. I decided to visit on my own instead of going with a tour. I eventually got there and did save some money, but (see bus note above) it did take a little longer.

This was my first glimpse of the wall (yes, the wall runs along the top of that ridge, amazingly). My first thought was “Holy crap, I’m not climbing all the way up there”.

But it wasn’t nearly as impossible as it looked, and here’s proof I did actually make it. I decided to visit one of the less-touristy spots along the wall, so I had the wall to myself a few times, and less of the wall had been “restored” (i.e. turned into a concrete Disneyland)

I walked up the path to wall, and then only followed it for a few towers before heading down. The best part was seeing the wall snake its way into the distance.

And the farther up I climbed, the farther I could see, and the wall just kept going…

Here’s a view from the window of one of the towers.

This Praying Mantis was hanging out on the wall. Perhaps another guard-bug…?

I was fairly tired after a couple hours of climbing around, so I took the cable car back down. It was rickety and there was a long drop below me, so I just considered it an adventure sport in itself.

Most of you probably know that I’m not a big fan of shopping, but I’d managed to go 5 months without buying anything, and figured I might as well take advantage of some cheap stuff before I leave. So I spent a whole day out on a Grand Shopping Excursion, visiting markets, malls, and other random stores. It was exhausting, but I retained both my sanity and a fair amount of money.

Here’s one of the outdoor markets in Beijing.

There’s a lot of crap for sale. (And I did get gifts…hope you like antique painted snuff bottles!)

I felt somewhat obligated to try the famous Peking Duck while I was in Peking/Beijing, but I had a bit of a moral dilemma. Something you may not know is that I am an acutetarian, and therefore don’t eat anything that’s cute (so no bunnies, cats, or pandas). And ducks are sort of cute.. well, they’re certainly awkward, and that’s halfway to cute. The other problem is that when you order a duck, you get a whole or half duck. I can live with eating just a small fraction of a cow, but it only takes 2 to kill an almost-cute duck. So in the end, I found a great vegetarian buffet, and I ate a fake duck. It was delicious.

Next (and last) stop: Hong Kong!

Tags: Beijing, China, Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.