David's Big Adventure in China

First the usual odds and ends. One thing I have noticed here is that it takes a great deal of discussion for a meal to be ordered. I asked why this is the case and was told that the there is no standardization of menus. The name of the dish on the menu does not give a good description of what the dish actually is and how it is prepared. Thus you have to ask each time unless you’ve been to that restaurant before. Most of the toddlers here (pre-potty trained) wear pants that are open in the critical areas so their private parts are hanging out in the breeze and they are not wearing a diaper. I don’t know how they keep them from making a mess everywhere. I was told they know the child’s schedule and keep them in a safe place when it’s about time. I have witnessed ladies holding babies in a fashion that they are aimed at a safe target. I have seen some apple orchards in this area and most of the apples in the trees had plastic bags around them to protect them. Think of how much work that is! Speaking of food again, I can add one more unique item to the list of foods I’ve tried and that is chicken hearts. It was pretty tasty. If any of you are wondering how I manage my finances for this trip I’ll explain it now. I opened an account here at China Construction Bank and have an atm card from there than I can use. For the past few weeks I have primarily funded my expenses by paying in cash with yuan that I get from the China Construction Bank (CCB) atm’s using my Bank of America (B of A) atm card. B of A has an association with CCB and I can withdrawl money from my account in America with no atm or currency conversion fee. One time I withdrew money from my B of A account then 5 minutes later logged onto my account via the internet and the atm transaction was already posted. If my B of A account runs low I transfer money via the internet from my Fidelity money market account. I don’t think I would have done this adventure without the internet. I use it for the blog, managing my money, researching travel options, and keeping in touch with friends and family. I normally have a video chat using Yahoo Messenger with my parents about every 7 to 10 days.

Now for the details about Xi’an. It is located in China roughly where Indianapolis is located within America. The countryside is pretty similar to Indiana with lots of cornfields except there is a huge mountain off in the distance. Xi’an was the capital of 13 dynasties from 1046 BC to 907 AD and was one of the most prosperous areas of China. In 1374 to 1378 a huge wall was built around the city to protect it from invaders. The wall is about 9 miles long, about 40 feet tall, about 50 feet wide at the base and about 40 feet wide at the top (see pics). It originally had 4 gates (N,E,S,W) and had a double gate system at each of the 4 gates. Xi’an is a fairly small city by Chinese standards but doesn’t seem as nice a place as many of the other cities I have been to. The people are not as nice and there seem to be more people trying to hustle you out of your money. I think I had my camera stolen by one of their fine citizens. Either that or the strap broke and it fell off my body without touching me on the way down or making much of a sound when it hit the ground. You will see in the pics a banner labeling the Islamic street. There is a large Islamic population here but they do not appear to be extreme fundamentalists. Even if they were we would not be able to tell because the party would not tolerate extreme behavior. I have been told that the party supervises activities and teachings of all churches.

One of the first places we visited was a museum for stone tablets. They have thousands of tablets with carvings on them mostly with Chinese characters carved into them. Some of them are over 4000 years old. There are twelve Confucian classic stories engraved in the year 837 on 114 pieces of stone and they contain about 650,000 characters! Man, that’s a lot of work.

The next place we visited and the highlight of the week was The Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang. Qin ascended to the throne at age 13 and assumed power at the age of 21. Upon assuming power he immediately launched military campaigns to unify all of China and succeeded after 10 years. During his reign he developed a uniform code of law; and standardized currency, weight, measures and the written language. He also contributed to having significant sections of the Great Wall built. He had the tomb and all the terracotta soldiers built to protect his rule for eternity. There are about 8000 life sized warriors and horses along with tens of thousands of weapons. I posted lots of pics of this place as it is so amazing. If you look closely you will notice that the faces of the soldiers are all unique. The first warriors were discovered in 1974 by farmers that were drilling a well. The excavation is still continuing. According to records, it took 700,000 people 36 years to build the luxurious tomb where many treasures were buried with the emperor and his ladies.

Next stop was Mount Hua . It is about a 2 hour drive from the city and I would compare it to Yosemite in America. Its peak is at an elevation of about 7000 feet. We took the aerial cable car to about half way up then hiked the rest of the way to one of the peaks. From time to time, my fear of heights kicks in and this was one of them. I was very nervous in the cable car but was better on the mountain since there were railings or iron chains everywhere we went. We then hiked all the way back down and had to do it in a hurry as it was getting dark and we were late for our bus. We missed the bus and had to take a really old train back to Xi’an. In total, we hiked for almost 5 hours either straight up or straight down. By the time we got we made it back to the hotel I was exhausted and my leg muscles were very tight and sore. You’ll see in one of the pics a bunch of red ribbons attached to padlocks that are locked onto an iron chain (you can’t see the chain for all the locks). They sell the locks and the couples buy them and place them on the chain near the top of the mountain then throw away the key to symbolize that they will always be together. The next day (today) was a much needed rest day (and blog update day!).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 10:10 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.