September 24 - China: Xi'an
Xi'an History Museum
We woke up this morning with grand plans of seeing the Xi'an Museum, which is supposed to be fantastic. So we looked at the map to see where the museum was. It looked like a long walk - probably 30 minutes - but it was a nice day and we decided that it would be good for us. So we set out and walked down the main road to the museum.
An hour and a half later, we got there.
We were so tired that we weren't even talking to each other. It took too much energy to think of the words. When we finally arrived there, we just sat for about 10 minutes and rested. It was 11:00 by this time (even though we'd had an early-ish start), and we weren't in the mood to do much more walking. Of course, that's all one does in a museum. But we weren't going to bag after putting in so much energy to get there. So we walked around each of the exhibits.
The layout was in chronological order, beginning from the prehistoric eras and continuing through each of the dynasties. I tried to pay attention to which dynasty was which, and why each was so significant, but I just can't seem to retain it. The exhibits were interesting, though. They had bronze artifacts, jewelry, stamps, molds - all sorts of things. There were two more buildings to see outside the main hall, but we just didn't feel like it. So we caught a cab and went to the Big Goose Pagoda.
Big Goose Pagoda
The Big Goose Pagoda is a large tower-like structure with 7 floors and beautiful views of Xi'an. Much to our chagrin, it cost 30 Yuan to get into the park, and an additional 10 Yuan to walk up the Pagoda. But we didn't really care by this point, and our entire mission was to get to the top of the pagoda and then get some food. So we bolted up 7 flights of stairs because we wanted to beat a large group of tourists, and didn't stop until we got to the top. We were exhausted by the time we got up, but we did our thing, took in the sights, and took pictures in each of the four directions. They were beautiful views. Unfortunately there's only so much you can do at the top of a Pagoda so we headed back downstairs after 10 minutes. By this time it was 2:00 and we were starving, so we didn't spend much time in the courtyards but caught a cab to the Drum Tower for lunch.
Lunch
We were thrilled to get to the restaurant, which was the same one to which Ken and Mel led the group last night. We wanted to get some food to go for dinner tonight, so we decided to make it easy on ourselves and get lunch there too. For lunch we had the sweet and sour beef and the beef skewers. We liked the sweet and sour beef so much that we ordered it to go along with some yummy vegetables. As we were sitting in the window on the first floor, quite a few people stopped to watch us eat but we didn't really mind. Jon was entertained by the family-run store across the street. They were roasting chestnuts, and the daughter had been stirring them in a large tub the entire time we were in the restaurant. All the while, her father was asleep in a chair out front. Every once in a while, she would switch stirring utensils between a broom and a large spatula, but the old man never moved. It wasn't even that interesting to watch, but we were quite impressed with the dutiful daughter.
Day Room
After lunch, we took our dinner back to the hotel where we showered and finished packing. Our room was one of the "day rooms" in which everyone put their bags after they checked out of their own rooms. We walked into our room to find Grant asleep on the bed because he hasn't been feeling well but had to check out of his room. (He drank some local water and it's wreaking havoc on his stomach). But he says he's feeling better. Ivy, Ted, Ken, and Mel also had their bags in our room and so we all ended up hanging out until it was time to leave for our train to Beijing.
Terracotta Warriors Song
Ken has written a song for our visit to the Terracotta Warriors. As I mentioned yesterday, the farmer who discovered the warriors in 1974 (he was digging a well when the hole ran into one of the chambers) was at the site signing souvenir books. So here is Ken's song - to be sung to the tune of "Beverly Hillbillies"
Let me tell ya a story 'bout a man named Yung
Spent his whole life pulling weeds and spreading dung.
Then one day he was digging up some food
Up from the ground came a Terracotta dude.
- Warrior, that is. Tourist Trap. Souvenirs
Next thing ya know old Yung's a millionaire,
Folks said "Yung ya oughta move away from there.
Southern California is the place you oughta be."
But he stayed in Xi'an and he signed a book for me.
Now that's my story and it's just about done,
Terracotta warriors were sure a lotta fun.
The last remaining remnants of the Qing Dynasty,
If you ever go to China it's a sight you oughta see.
Overnight Train to Beijing
Our overnight train was a hard sleeper, which is the open cabin six-sleeper model. Tonight most of the other passengers were Chinese, so we were quite the anomaly. In one "cabin" was me, Jon, John, Chris, Robert, Anne. Grant, Mel and Ken shared another with 3 Chinese men. And Anne, Laurel, Ted, and Ivy were in another with 2 Chinese people. There were probably 8-10 cabins per car, so that's a lot of people in one car.
Women with carts would wheel through the cars with noodles, chicken, toys, etc. At one point, a fruit cart rolled by and the underside of the cart looked like a cage although it only had fruit. As the cart was stopped in front of us, we joked to each other that this is probably where they store the live animals before they become dinner. So Robert, who does an excellent imitation of a little dog, let out a high-pitched "BARK!" which clearly upset the lady with the cart. She said something in Chinese that we imagine was, "Hey - you're not supposed to have dogs in here!" and she stooped to look under the bunk for the dog. Seeing nothing, she stood up and looked at her friend in the hallway for support. As she looked away, Robert barked again and she looked back and said something else in Chinese - this time very sharply. All this was exacerbated by John, who bent over the bottom of the bunk and waved his hand as if shushing a pet. The woman got even more upset, Robert kept barking, John kept shushing, and we couldn't stop laughing. After a few minutes, I think she must have caught on because she shot us a look and rolled her cart away.
Quest for a Mah Jong-Sized Table
I have decided that China falls into one of two categories: Places With Mah Jong-Sized Tables, and Those Without. After much searching, we realized that this train unfortunately falls into the latter.
Ken, Mel, Jon and I were on a mission to find a table on the train on which we could play Mah Jong. We haven't played in a while and we feel our skills are getting rusty. So we headed off to where we thought the dining car was (and where we swear Grant told us it was). After walking through 5-6 cars, bumping into people and dealing with stares from the Chinese passengers, we reached a hard sleeper car that had no electricity. It was here that one of the train attendants said to us through the dark, "Where are you going?". We told her that we wanted to go to the dining car and she pointed back the way we came. Clearly we had walked the wrong way. So we headed back again through 5-6 cars, bumping into people and dealing with the stares from the Chinese passengers. This time, however, I had a vise-like hold onto Jon's belt so he could pave a path for me. It was much nicer than bumping into people on my own. That is, until Jon decided to speed walk and zig-zag through the cars to see if he could break my hold. We must have looked really funny because I was laughing so hard.
When we passed though our own car #12, we all mumbled smart-ass comments to Grant about his making stuff up and being full of smelly excrement. He, of course, denied ever saying anything about where the dining car is, but we're onto him by now. But we kept going until we finally found the dining car 5 cars away. It was PACKED! And no one looked like they were going anywhere any time soon. So we took our dejected selves back to car #12 to mope and wish we this train were a Place With Mah Jong-Sized Tables.
As with our first Hard Sleeper train in the beginning of the trip, the lights went out at 10:00. Jon and I had our Maglights out to read for a while, and we went to sleep around 11:00.