Xian was the ancient Chinese capital which marked the beginning (or the end) of the silk route. It has thousands of years of tradition and history so it has become a traveller hangout. Many people choose to come directly from Beijing on a night train in 'hard sleeper' class, but I took a detour in Datong which I've already spoken about a bit and I also went to another city called Pingyao. Apparently Pingyao is the best conserved ancient city in China. It has a wall that surrounds the old quarter and has allowed it to be preserved almost intact, I say almost because there are two main streets which are full of souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels. What there is to see can be done in one or two days, but I spent 4 days there!! Not because I like the city that much but because I refuse to take a night train on a 'hard sleeper'; I've heard a lot of stories of how unpleasant and unique (not in a good way) this experience is and I'll do it only if I don't have a choice. It wasn't so bad to take it easy in Pingyao. On the second day I met Agathe, a French girl who was going to do voluntary work in Nepal. Agathe and I spent the following days walking around the city, seeing the attractions and talking in general. We were shocked at how much we had in common – literary tastes, family and lifestyle.
As there are so many hostels and hotels in Pingyao, they're all desperate for clients, so they offer to pick you up and drop you off at the station for free, and they give presents when you leave the room. Another sign of the overdevelopment in China, a very common phenomenon.
Another night train to Xian and Agathe and I went our separate ways. I started to walk around the city, eating fried squid in the street, seeing Chinese opera in the park (it sounds like wailing cats) and appreciating the Muslim quarter. The most famous attraction in Xian is the Terracota warriors which are one hour from the city; that was one of my aims in China, so on the next day, albeit not very early, I went to see them. Before you get to the entrance you have to walk 7 minutes along a narrow street also full of souvenir shops, so many that it made me wonder whether to see the original warriors! I could have stayed to see the numerous real-size replicas along the path. When I went in there were thousands of Chinese tourists that pushed to be able to take a photo and move to the next 'photo opportunity'. The worst thing was that the statues were quite far back so you couldn't see the details properly – the distinct characteristics of each statue, which is what seems most interesting to me. Fortunately there was a museum with a few statues in a display cabinet and with the help of a bit of patience and elbowing you can see how wildly colossal this work is.
That night in my hostel I met Angus, a 19 year old Australian guy who came to eat with me. The technique I use to decide where to eat is to see where and what people are eating. If what I see looks good I order one for me. This time there was a sign recommending no idea what speciality. I decided to try it and it turned out to be a mixture of transparent noodles in a very slimy sauce with half raw egg and a load of stuff that I had no idea of – something floury like cereal with an insipid taste. What I did know was that my body refused to digest it properly and made the following days in Xian slow and difficult. On one of the next few days I had dinner with Angus and Mare. Mare had travelled from his native Croatia to China by land. He entertained us for a while with stories of Pakistan and Iran, and the combination of beer and more greasy food didn't help my weak stomach. I had planned to go to the Hua mountain on the following day but I had to postpone it, but it didn't matter much as I was corrupted by reading 'The Godfather'.
I eventually stopped postponing my trip to the Hua mountain (one of the 5 sacred Taoist mountains). I was a bit tired of cities and smog and wanted to see a bit of nature and maybe sun. I started the walk with three English people I'd met on the bus. They went too fast for me and I was still weak from the lack of food in the previous days, and I was beggining to feel horrible , after a while they calmed down the pace because the mountain was very steep. A large part of the walk has chains on the sides of the path to help people go up the almost vertical ascent.
When we arrived at the main bit of the mountain from where people walk to the 5 important peaks (north, south, central, east, west), we bumped into thousands of Chinese people who had taken the lazy and expensive option of the cable car. From there we carried on going up the 'dragon's back', named so because it looks like the back of dragon, and we arrived just at sunset at the eastern peak. I told myself that had we gone up at my pace, it would have got dark as we were going up. We spent the night in the hostel at the eastern peak and only an English guy called Wayne and I got up at 5.30 to walk to the eastern peak to see the sunrise. All that effort to see the horizon full of clouds. The good thing was that it wasn't at all cold . We waited a good while and after giving up we saw the sun come out from the clouds on the horizon and we were glad not to have wasted the early morning.
Hua mountain is known for having one of the most dangerous walks in the world. This is because until a few years ago it was possible to do the walk along narrow planks that were placed on a precipice. Now this fun has been ruined and there are cables and harnesses in this section. Even still it was a fun part and Wayne, who had a fear of heights, was very excited to have been able to do it. After this short and emotional journey there is a cave that serves as a Taoist temple. That explains why people go on such a dangerous pilgrimage, as a sacrifice.
That night in my hostel I was taken over by temptation and ate roast meat, because my body didn't want to go back to Chinese food yet. I don't think all that much of Chinese food. The taste doesn't seem exquisite or addictive and often seems to be just a load of really greasy noodles with 3 or 4 pieces of some cheap tasteless vegetables. When they put meat in it it is such a small quantity with miniscule bits of grease with meat but tends to be more grease. It's the type of food that doesn't fill you up but rather gives you enough energy until the next meal. I think that's why the Chinese are so skinny.
Another eventless night train to Chengdu. There I met up with Angus again and we went out to eat with 2 British guys full of energy. At first I liked Chengdu. There's no old town but it has a good feel about it. There I tried the best food I've had in China, a soup with pig's leg that didn't taste like Chinese food, and I also had a good time with other travellers. One of those nights we went out on the town and arrived at a street full of bars that was so full of life that we could hear the sound of the birds and insects on the surrounding trees, so we escaped from that place and ended up in a much more appropriate area. It was Halloween and some people were dressed up. The best bit was when a couple of Mafia chiefs fought amongst themselves to give us shots and have us as their friends. It was as if they were saying, you stole my foreigners, no – you stole them from me, they were mine first…
Among other things I saw the panda conservation centre which was full of pandas and people making noises like 'so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute'. I also went to Leshan to see the biggest Buddha in the world and yes, it was huge!!
That's how my days in Chengdu were spent, with travellers in the hostel, deciding which route to take, getting massages. One of the massages was done with cups. It left red marks on my skin which look as if I had chicken pox on steroids.
I met really cool people in Chengdu and I quite liked the place. Apparently it's the second favourite city for Chinese people to live in. I left Chengdu one morning after having been out, and I slept a large part of the journey to a town called Kangdin, but that story is for the next blog entry.
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