The Blog of Peaceful Tranquility and Divine Harmony Concerning our Righteous Adventures

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Beijing, China

July 28, 2006

Sean: So far China has been an all-out assault on my proper American senses - and I thought Korea was hardcore. Where Korea is rough around the edges, China is jagged like broken glass. There are people everywhere - unafraid of a little shove when they need to be where you’re at - and the smelly, hazy air only adds to the insanity that greets your eyes, ears and nose around each corner (I never thought I’d fondly reminisce about the cleanliness of Romania).

Needless to say, we’re having a ball throwing ourselves bodily into the scrum and drinking up the cocktails of sights, sounds and flavors in the world’s most populous capital city. This is what traveling is all about: keeping you off kilter a little as you witness the wildly different permutations that arise when humans gather in one place.

And we’ve only been here two days.

It’s all so much that I’m not even sure how to describe it. Yesterday (our first full day) we were self-compelled to walk down to Tiananmen Square and experience the world’s largest public plaza (be prepared for a plethora of superlatives). It also seems that half the population of the country was there to bask in the shadow of Mao’s mausoleum as well. Looking out over the undulating sea of people all you could see were hundreds of little tour flags poking above, signaling that yet another group was forging ahead. And through the din you could hear the tinny squawk boxes that were attached to each tour leader’s hip, rattling off all the impressive statistics.

Shannon: One image will forever stand out in my mind: as we’re walking up to Chairman Mao’s mausoleum I’m thinking “Sure, there’s probably a line, but maybe it’s worth a few minutes of waiting to see Mao in all his preserved splendor…” when I suddenly realized that what I mistakenly thought was simply a crowd at one end of the enormous plaza actually was the line. Snaking first one way, then another, then doubling back on itself again and again, it was unimaginable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people waiting for anything in my life. And that was even before I realized that the overflow line wrapped all the way around the building and ended in the back of the mausoleum. I wanted to capture it on film, but - without benefit of satellite imagery - the sea of humanity just wouldn’t translate as well in a photo. And so we left The Great One for his faithful, unable to stomach what we were told would be a short 3 hour wait.

Sean: One thing we’ve seen already and that is worth mentioning is the amount of domestic tourism that’s evident. In so many countries we’ve visited, the only natives of that country you see at tourist sights are the ones manning the souvenir stalls. In Egypt, no one but foreign tourists were actually at the pyramids (the cab driver we hired for the day to see some of the more remote sites even told us that he’d never been to the places he was driving us to). So far in China, foreigners are definitely in the minority at every prized location. Each place that we’ve visited is mobbed with wave after wave of Chinese tour groups, sometimes overrunning you completely. And while the tourist sights have been much more crowded than in some other places, it’s definitely not a bad thing that the Chinese not only value their history and heritage but that so many can afford to experience it as well.


July 30, 2006

Shannon: Over the past several days, we’ve been out and about soaking up Beijing: The Forbidden City…The Temple of Heaven…The Summer Palace…Lama Temple…the list goes on. This city has a ton of sights and you could spend weeks here seeing them all. But to be honest, we’re feeling just a bit weary doing the sightseeing circuit. It’s not a statement on China, certainly - there are amazing places to visit. But seeing them has been a bit of a “check the block” experience. It’s an unavoidable part of long-term travel; every so often you just get a little lethargic and it’s hard to muster up excitement about every new sight - a traveler’s block, if you will.

That said, our lack of enthusiasm for the tourist sights does not mean that we’re having a miserable time. We’ve just found that our interests have gravitated to more pedestrian pleasures: sitting in a tea shop debating the solutions to world problems, shopping in the markets, walking the streets and just enjoying being in China. Perhaps one of the nicest things, for me at least, is the relaxed pace of life we see around us. We’re staying in a hutong (traditional neighborhood) and I love walking through it with the kids riding their Big Wheels around shouting “hello” to us, while the same elderly people seem to be permanent fixtures on the benches each time we go by. Walking into our neighborhood is like walking into another world: it’s shady and cool, quiet and relaxed - the complete antithesis of the crazy traffic and choked streets we leave behind.

And we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t spend a good amount of time seeing what succulent foods are available. We haven’t yet sampled Peking Duck, but the food that we have had so far has been tasty and a very good value.

Sean: Surprisingly enough, everything we’ve tried thus far hasn’t been as foreign as you’d expect it to be. You’d assume that the Chinese food in the States would’ve been Americanized over the years - turned richer or meatier or made less spicy - to suit our tastes. But they really do eat Sweet and Sour Pork. To be honest, I’ve only ever been served Chinese food at home by real, live Chinese people so it shouldn’t come as a shock that they have strayed only short distances from their native recipes.

Each adventure in eating here has been relatively unadventurous. Meat filled buns, noodles with vegetables and spare ribs that taste exactly like they should. Someone will be quick to point out (they always do) that China is a large country with diverse cultures so we’re bound to run into dishes and flavor combinations that we’ve never tried. You’d be correct and I could tell you about the many varied plates that have passed over our tables these past few weeks, but I’m also here to let you rest easy the next time you go to a Chinese restaurant at home that you’ll be eating similarly to the Chang family halfway around the world.

Shannon: Coming from South Korea (where Sean’s knowledge of the Korean language made navigating through a menu fairly painless), ordering food here is a bit harder, but definitely not a real obstacle. A few places have had English menus, and more still have some sort of picture that you can point to on the wall. And when in doubt, you can always get up and point at things that are cooking in the kitchen or at what other diners are having. Coupled with some excellent dishes sold on the street, we’ve been eating pretty well.


July 31, 2006

Shannon: Being here in Beijing at this time - a scant 2 years before the opening of the 2008 Olympics - is a mixed bag. Preparations are in full swing for the influx of visitors, with tons of construction, restoration and rebuilding going on. (Of course, securing the Olympics only added to the fact that China’s economy was already booming and construction nationwide was already rampant). It seems that everywhere we look something is either in the process of being renovated or has just newly been unveiled with a fresh coat of paint. When the latter is the case, it’s great - they probably won’t look this good again for a long time - but more often we are seeing the sights through the hazy curtain of scaffolding. It gives the country the feeling of one huge construction site. Not that, for me personally, it’s necessarily bad. Not great for pictures, of course, but interesting for me on a professional level. As most of you know, I work in the construction industry in America. And more than once, the booming Chinese economy and associated building spree has affected my projects: some materials have been rationed due to shortages and the price for others has escalated. It was hard for me to imagine, sitting in my office in the jobsite trailer in New Orleans, just how much construction was going on in China to justify the repeated mantra of suppliers saying they couldn’t guarantee supplies or prices due to the Asian construction boom. Now I see what the fuss was all about. Tower cranes - a highly visible marker for how much construction is going on in a city - are everywhere. And when we arrived in China by boat at the city of Tianjin, I couldn’t believe the size of the port. I’ve never see that many container cranes anywhere. Or that much rolled steel, piping and other materials just sitting on the docks. It’s truly amazing.

Another thing that you hear so much about are buying pirated movies - along with software, music and anything else that fits on a disc - on the streets in China. Beijing is supposedly famous for the speed with which bootleg copies are made available to the masses: the last Star Wars movie was said to be selling briskly only one hour after it hit theaters in America. Not surprisingly, every US industry involved - from Hollywood, to the RIAA and Microsoft - has made it clear that these infractions on intellectual property rights need to be addressed by the Chinese government, as they aren’t keen on pirated (and steeply discounted) copies being available to their 1.3 billion potential customers. And perhaps some of the pressure they have been putting on China to combat the problem is working. There hasn’t been a vendor on every street corner, as we expected, and the ones that we have seen are displaying their wares in a highly portable manner (i.e. working out of a suitcase), the better for a quick getaway. In fact, walking back from the subway one afternoon we witnessed the mad scramble of street vendors closing up shop (i.e. closing the suitcase lids) and making a fast break as police officers approached. (Sean: It was almost beautiful to watch the choreographed performance of street hustlers folding up their blankets and suitcases and then tearing off down the street in unison.)

Always ones to participate in the local culture, we bought a movie on the street for 6 yuan (about $0.80) and watched it. What surprised me most wasn’t the quality (only one person stood up in the theater during the filming) but rather how bad the English subtitles were. To say that it was mostly nonsensical jibberish would be an understatement. The movie we bought was The Break Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. In it, Vince Vaughn’s character gets chastised by John Michael Higgins, who plays the brother of Jennifer Aniston’s character. He says:

You don’t take a pitch pipe out of a guy’s hand when he’s in the middle of a very funky groove.

And the subtitles say:

The cover, you think Malaysia monkey can frighten the person

Which begs the question: whose job was it to do these subtitles and, more importantly, does their boss know they’re complete nonsense? And why bother putting English subtitles on a pirated American movie selling in China? The movie itself wasn’t dubbed (so presumably native speakers shouldn’t need them) and since they also subtitle it in Chinese, who is the target audience for these English subtitles - the non-Chinese, non-native English but jibberish-speaking population? It just makes no sense. But I have to admit: the free-form, whatever-comes-to-mind, offbeat collection of random English words was amusing.

So far there’s really only one bad mark on China - and it’s their toilets. It seems that in traveler’s circles, they’re so bad they are almost infamous. Many, many times we have been innocently walking down the street when - WHAM! - the smell assaults you from out of nowhere and you realize that there is a toilet nearby. And we can’t quite figure it out - the smell is definitely not proportional to the cleanliness of the restroom (we’ve been in many clean ones that reek just as bad). It’s a rare time indeed when you can enter a bathroom without wincing at the odor and trying to hold your breath. And public toilets are all over, which is both a blessing and a curse. It means that you’re never too far from one when your in need, but it also means, well… that you’re never too far from one. Even Chinese officials must realize that it’s a problem - asked to fill out a tourism survey, toilet facilities were one of the categories to be rated (we did not score them highly, needless to say). Not that China has a lock on the bad toilet department - the toilet facilities behind a certain Internet café in Pisco, Peru were so bad I’m still traumatized by the experience. But China is definitely in the running.


August 1, 2006

Shannon: We’re still in Beijing, doing our part to “punch the clock” by visiting Beijing’s finest attractions. Rather than tell you about them all, though, we’ll limit ourselves to a plug for what ended up being our favorite thing in Beijing - seeing talented Chinese kids perform in an acrobatic show.

Sean: The show, called the Beijing Circus, ranks among the top five things we’ve seen since we started this trip last September. Really, it was that good. These kids were absolutely amazing in their coordination, flexibility and skill. There were, of course, the tumblers that could effortlessly throw themselves around without visible exertion to the synchronized jugglers (each with seven balls) to the impressive girl who spent at least 10 minutes balancing herself on one hand while she slowly contorted her body to the entrancing music.

The whole show lasted for about an hour and a half and at the bargain price of 13 bucks per person, a difficult value to pass up. Neither of us knew what to expect (I’ve never seen a Cirque de Soleil show, but I hear it’s similar) so we went into it without any preconceptions.

Shannon: It completely wowed us. The performers seemed to range from the age of 6 up to about 20 - and they were extremely talented. One thing that I did like, though, was that the kids weren’t perfect. 99%!o(MISSING)f everything they did was executed without a flaw, but the occasional mistake happened. And it reminded you that they were, after all, mostly still children. Tremendously gifted, hard-working children, but still kids nevertheless. And they handled any flaw with professionalism, never missing a beat. I was truly impressed.

And to give more value per page than the next travel journal, we’ve even produced a little video of some of the highlights.


August 2, 2006

Sean: This is not your father’s Communism. Forget what you think you know about China because, like the weather in Southern Louisiana, it’s different than it was just five minutes ago and it’s bound to change again in the next five minutes.

Where are the long lines for the moldy bread? Where are the old rusted automobiles chugging along the bleak streets? In terms of visible wealth, China looks like every other country we’ve been to. I’m having a difficult time reconciling what I know of Communism and what I see here. The upscale malls are filled with not only the same stores we’re used to, but scads of people with enough disposable cash to afford the bulk of it. I wasn’t prepared for that. We see nothing but the vagaries of capitalism at every turn, from the street vendors to the hustling cabbies.

Karl Marx is spinning in his grave.

Also, as we’ve seen with the prevalence of internet connections, the government is allowing people online. The hallmark of a good Communist system is to restrict information and exposure to alternate thought. China is failing miserably on both accounts. Sure, there is some very real internet censoring that is occurring - most notably with Google China, Yahoo and Microsoft - but for all that has been made of it in the newspapers in the West, the reality has been that my online habits haven’t been stymied much at all - although Wikipedia has been a “no-show” every time I’ve tried it.

Along with this was our ease at obtaining visas to get here. We spent, cumulatively, about 15 minutes at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, first dropping off our passports and then picking them up four days later (we could’ve gotten them “same day service”, but didn’t want to pay the extra fee). ¡Que facil!, especially compared to our multi-country, multi-embassy, Mission Impossible tracking down the elusive “Golden Ticket” that would’ve allowed us entry into Russia. One is Communist, and the other was Communist - an irony that hasn’t been lost on us.

Now obviously I don’t have intimate knowledge about the percentage of public vs. private ownership of companies and utilities nor what the challenges to being a democracy advocate/Christian proselytizer are, but just from my layman’s perspective, this isn’t Communism. Communism without strict government control of the flow of information and profits is just Socialism with a grudge.

I don’t want to belittle the plight of the jailed bloggers who’ve rallied for democracy and reported on many of the government’s heavy handed tactics at squelching protest. But everywhere around me I see a country that, while maybe is not judged completely free by the outside world, is too far over the edge to go back to anything more restrictive.

And exhibiting my tireless efforts to bring truth to the blog and to find out how pervasive internet censorship here is, I’ve scoured the web attempting to view subversive sites and bring the real scoop. As I mentioned earlier, Wikipedia must be too seditious for the government (although I’m not sure why) but interestingly enough, Amnesty International’s website was not blocked and I was freely able to navigate and even download their comprehensive report entitled “Undermining Freedom of Expression in China” (an interesting read that highlights many of the aforementioned issues). CNN.com has been universally OK, but access to BBC.co.uk has been spotty (not too sure what kind of statement that is). Freetibet.org was noticeably absent when I went searching - no surprise - but tibetlibre.com was readily available. I guess filtering content in French isn’t a high priority.

Barring those examples (and surely many more), I’d have to say that the Chinese people have access to a lot more information than we in the west give them credit for.

Datong, China

August 4, 2006

Sean: A Bevy of Beautiful Buddhas Beveled into the Bluff. Put another way, we visited the Yun Gang Grottoes today where over 50,000 statues of the great man himself were cut into small and large recesses in the cliff face. It is very impressive. Even though most are very small, there are quite a few that are enormous (the smallest is about an inch tall and the largest, a remarkable 60 feet in height).

The majority of these were constructed in the 5th century by the monk Tan Yao and some have weathered time fairly well, but many others have either eroded away or are in the process of becoming lost to history. The Chinese government since the ‘60’s has put quite a bit of effort into preserving them, but as we found at Petra, the material that made it so easy for those early monks to carve homages to the Enlightened One doesn’t lend itself to immortal posterity. For those tasked with preserving them, it’s quite a challenge.

Carving images of Buddha into cliff faces was a popular pastime in this neck of the world so there are quite a few of them dotting the Asian landscape, but this is the largest collection anywhere. And fortunately, they’ve largely escaped the destruction of later generations. In the next province over there is another set of these carvings - Longmen Caves - which was the successor to Yun Gang after the capital of the dynasty was moved. Over 100,000 images and statues were carved there, but in the 19th and 20th Centuries most of them were beheaded by souvenir hunters. And many of you will remember another pair carved further along the Silk Road, in present day Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Sadly, the Taliban’s hatred of all things non-Muslim, coupled with a few well placed sticks of dynamite, ensured their demise.

Pingyao, China

August 7, 2006

Shannon: Having moved on south, we’ve entered something of a Chinese time-warp, albeit a somewhat touristy one. The city of Pingyao is notable in China for having missed the boat to modernization; it’s not the only example of a traditional Chinese city, but it is perhaps one of the best preserved. Inside the towering city walls, the old quarter of the city is resplendent with traditional houses and secret courtyards, dusty streets filled with merchants and red-lanterns hanging from every façade.

Sean: Pingyao is the New Orleans of China. Much like the Big Easy, wealth built it (Pingyao was the Chinese banking headquarters during the heyday of their capitalist history) and poverty saved it. It’s old, has beautiful, unique architecture and it harkens back to a bygone era. The first bank was created here and the very first Chamber of Commerce started within its 35 foot high, fortified city walls. Pingyao, as the heart of finance, reached its apex during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), but as the country’s emphasis moved, so did all the money. And - like New Orleans - without a thriving economy, it fell into disrepair. But also like the City That Care Forgot, because the winds of development have blown right by, so largely has any mismanaged development. It’s for this reason - to see relatively untouched Chinese architecture of yesteryear - that tourists amass here with cameras at the ready and stay in hotels set up amidst the ancient courtyards of old.

They really are very cool places to spend a few relaxing nights. Most residences, with their large windows facing the street, are accessed through a central doorway. From the outside, you can hardly guess how large they are. Stepping out of the bright sunlight into the dimness of the front rooms, you leave the hustle and noise of the streets behind for the calm and coolness within. From these rooms, the houses sprawl endlessly into courtyard after courtyard until you’re well ensconced and far removed from the bustle of the busy world outside. You truly feel like you’ve removed yourself to a different place and time.

Shannon: And much like our beloved New Orleans, whether or not you find the city “authentic” is a matter of perspective. These days little electric golf carts ferry handfuls of Chinese tourists through the streets and vendors are more likely to try to sell you a tourist map or a red watch with the visage of Chairman Mao on it than anything else. But getting off the main streets, you encounter friendly faces sitting in doorways washing clothes, smoking or otherwise going about their daily lives. And in the evenings, when most of the tourists have gone and the streets are quiet, the glow from the red lanterns makes the city seem magical.

Aside from visiting many of the traditional houses and buildings - all in a varying state of restoration - there isn’t terribly much to do in Pingyao. In our two days here, we wandered through the streets, browsing through shops and stepping inside many of the small houses that are open to the public (one ticket allows you admission to everything) and, of course, seeking out small places serving tasty morsels. We did manage to rouse ourselves rather early this morning to take a walk on the city walls before the sun reared its head to bake our flesh. From our perch high above, we were able to peek into hidden courtyards and watch the city come alive.

Sean: Pingyao, because of all the money passing through it, also needed some serious protection which it got with its high walls. These 4 miles of ramparts completely surround the city and guarded it well throughout the centuries. They are also in surprisingly great shape. Every other city wall we’ve seen so far has either been beautifully restored or is crumbling into dust, but these seem to have done fairly well with very little intervention.

Of course, one of the things that I never get used to - and this tall wall highlights the fact - are the lack of guardrails and protective equipment prohibiting you from pitching over the edge. For better or worse, in the U.S. we’ve implemented OSHA and multiple building codes that facilitate protecting us from these sorts of pitfalls. It never ceases to amaze me how little other countries perform the task of saving us from ourselves.

Xi’an, China

August 9, 2006

Shannon: You’ve seen pictures of them, no doubt. Thousands of life-size soldiers arranged in battle-formation, buried beneath the earth for thousands of years, brought back into the limelight by the fateful act of a peasant digging a well. The Terracotta Warriors are one of the most iconic images of China. Today we made our way out to see them.

The warriors are one part of a huge necropolis built for the Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 B.C.), known as the First Emperor of Qin because he established the dynasty of the same name and managed to conquer the other Chinese states and institute centralized rule throughout the country. During his reign he began linking existing city walls to create that other little tourist attraction known today as the Great Wall. Never one to shirk from small projects, he also ordered his minions to find some way to make him immortal; failing that, he commanded the construction of an enormous burial complex containing everything he might need in the Great Beyond. Reportedly, it contained amazing artifacts: a ceiling resplendent with gems to represent the cosmos, a scale replica of his empire and lakes of liquid mercury surrounding his sarcophagus. Oh, and a small little army of clay warriors. Let’s not forget them.

It took as many as 700,000 workers 36 years to construct the complex, reportedly with many of them entombed alive so that they could not divulge the secrets lying therein. To create the army of warriors, massive pits were excavated. The space was divided by rammed-earth corridors and covered by a roof made of wooden timbers and straw mats. The clay figures were then arranged four-abreast down the long corridors. Alas, much of it was to be quickly undone, as 5 years after the death of Qin Shi Huang an invading army overthrew his successor and established the Han Dynasty. In the process, at least some of the burial complex was destroyed by fire, including some of the clay warriors. Time and water destroyed most of what remained, as the roof timbers rotted and eventually collapsed. Fast forward 2,000 years to a time when a man just needed some water for his crops…and discovered China’s #2 tourist attraction.

Today they have excavated and revealed four pits, three of which are open to the public. Pit 1 is the largest and probably contains 6,000 figures and 180 horses (the numbers are an estimate, as much of it still needs to be unearthed). Today more than 1,000 figures from Pit 1 have been unveiled, revealing archers, infantrymen, officers and horse-drawn chariots. Archaeologists surmise that this was the “main” army and Pit 2, with approximately 1,400 infantry and cavalrymen, was the Terracotta “Army Reserves” (just in case they ran up against another underground clay army and had to pull off some quick flanking maneuvers.) Pit 3 is the smallest, holding only 68 soldiers and one war chariot, and is presumed to be the command unit.

Almost all of the wooden artifacts - notably the chariots - rotted away the same as the roof beams. However, the metal objects withstood the passage of time rather well. Each soldier was buried with a weapon, and these were first treated with a chrome-saline oxide coating (fancy stuff for before the age of Christ!) so that they emerged 2,000 years later not only still sharp, but reportedly still as shiny as a new button.

Walking into the hanger-sized structure that protects the warriors from the elements, I was completely unprepared for how large it would be. Pit 1 is 755 feet long and 203 feet wide - or roughly the area of 4 football fields. The view from this pit is the one most people probably think of: thousands of warriors arranged in long rows. The second thing that struck me was actually how little of it has been excavated. The signs at the museum state that they are waiting to do further excavation until techniques and technology can catch up; curious about this, I researched it a bit on the Internet. It seems that - in order to provide a more realistic appearance - the warriors were originally coated with a lacquer and then painted. This paint was mostly still intact upon excavation, but to the alarm and frustration of the archaeologists - quickly flaked and peeled after exposure. Unintentionally buried beneath the ground, the earth had nevertheless helped to contain the moisture in the underlying lacquer. Once removed from that protection, the lacquer underneath dried and caused the paint to flake. Hence, most of the statues that you see have only faint traces of coloring left. Experts have worked on this problem over the years and have come up with some protective coatings, but work is proceeding very cautiously for the time being.

Pits 2 and 3 are a bit anti-climatic after seeing Pit 1, as they don’t have nearly the quantity of warriors on display and - Pit 2 especially - have little other than pieces of broken warriors visible. But the building containing Pit 2 does have several display cases where you can get up close and personal with the clay figures - something lacking at Pit 1. The individuality of the terracotta warriors is well-known. Each has a unique face, perhaps modeled after the workmen themselves or people that they knew. What surprised me a bit was that they also vary in height, body size, body position, hairstyle, shoes, and even the uniform details are unique. Great care was taken with the smallest details - even fingernails are apparent on their hands.

Sean: So here we were walking out of the Terracotta Warriors compound, heading back down to the bus when I saw this tout hawking little 6-inch tall warrior figurines (they’re statues, dammit!). Five to a box, I asked him how much they were and he replied $4 each. I was only interested in getting a price for later bargaining around town and so thanked him for his time.

Side Note: A lesson we’ve learned over and over again is to always do your research on trinkets. Ask as many people as possible and see what the going rate is - never jump at the first offer. We’ve been admonished by other travelers because - as Americans in general - we have the habit of paying too much for everything. We don’t come from a bargaining culture, so the criticism is that we tend to pay what empirically is a very inexpensive price for the stuff we buy abroad, but is much higher than usual. This, the thinking goes, unfortunately screws it up for the next John and Susie Q. Foreigner who may originate from humbler environs.

Anyway, back to my story. So the box would’ve been around $20 or about 160 Chinese Yuan (obviously way too expensive but as I said before, I was on a fact finding mission). I never even counter-offered (Rule #1: Never counter-offer unless you’re actually willing to purchase the product in the end), but he started following us - a hint of blood in the water - and kept shoving the box into my chest trying to get me to buy. I continued saying, “No, thank you”, but he was persistent and continued to keep pace with us…and, of course, shoving the pointy, wooden box into my chest more times than was necessary.


“OK, OK…100 Yuan…whole box”
“No, thank you”
OK, OK…90 Yuan…Final price.”
“No, thank you”
“85 Yuan”
“No, thank you”
“80 Yuan”
“No, thank you”
“75 Yuan…Final price.”
“No, thank you”
Etcetera
Etcetera
Etcetera

He stayed with us - lowering his price in such a way that I couldn’t help thinking there was an inverse relationship between the distance walked and his profit margin - until finally making one last ditch offer of 20 Yuan for the whole box. By this point we were almost down to the parking lot where his tout competition was going to grow exponentially, so when I replied in the negative to that offer as well, he gave up and stormed back to the park’s exit gate (in a bit of a huff) - a place where he’s pretty much the only show. As soon as he threw in the towel on me, another guy with another box of warrior figurines (they must all come from the same factory) magically appeared, picked up where Mr. Shovey Box left off and shouted out “15 Yuan”. I again politely uttered my negative mantra but when, in his persistence, he reached 5 Yuan, I couldn’t pass this up. I then handed over what amounted to US $0.63 and received 5 mini terracotta warriors (4 warriors and one terracotta horse, to be precise) in a cheap wooden box. Like I said, I only wanted one, so I left the rest of the little guys at the hostel with a “Free to Good Home” sign. On the note, I even included the going rate (at least the exorbitant amount I paid) for the whole kit and caboodle - in case they, too decided later that the one I took was the best and wanted the complete collection.

To recap the story though, the 5 Yuan price I finally capitulated on was only 3 percent of the one I was originally quoted. A 97%!d(MISSING)iscount is very steep and it sure makes me think about the cost of every little knick-knack I’ve bought on this trip. I’ve thought we’ve gotten good deals with final costs averaging in the 25%!t(MISSING)o 35%!((MISSING)of initial offer) range, but with this transaction fresh in my mind, I may rethink my bargaining strategies. Of course, if we’re in an area where the “foreign tourist” market bears higher than customary prices, the vendors will pass on anything less.


August 12, 2006

Shannon: Waiting in yet another overcrowded train station and wading through a sea of faces to secure another ticket made me curious about China’s transportation network. Is it just that there are so many people in this country that wherever we are headed, at whatever time of day, there are just bound to be thousands of others trying to go somewhere as well? That’s what I assumed, but curious nevertheless, I looked up some statistics. China has 1.3 billion people, give or take a city. The United States, by comparison, is just under 300 million, or less than ¼ of the population of its Asian counterpart. But in terms of transportation infrastructure, it’s almost the exact opposite, something I hadn’t expected. China has roughly 46,000 miles of railways, or just under one third of the mileage that the US has (141,000 miles). In terms of roadways, China has 1.12 million miles under pavement, or just a bit more than one quarter of the roughly 4 million miles found in the good ‘ole USA. And in terms of air transport, China has 389 airports with paved roadways - and the US has 5,120. For countries that are pretty similar in terms of land area, those statistics were pretty surprising. And it helps to explain why it always seems like it’s us and five hundred thousand of our closest friends constantly on the move.

Transportation in China has been crowded, to say the least. On our first train trip, from Beijing to Datong, we traveled ‘hard-sleeper’. That’s a step above both ‘hard seat’ and ‘soft seat’ both of which might best be described as “cattle class” - packed to the rafters with all manner of humanity. Though we weren’t planning on sleeping (the trip was for about 6 hours in the middle of the day), hard sleeper at least guarantees you a seat, or in this case, a bunk. There are 6 bunks to each compartment and each compartment is open at the end, conveniently allowing every one of the people in our train car ample room to crane their necks to get a good look at us as they walked by. As it was, watching us scramble up to our top bunks seemed to provide some good-natured amusement for our audience. Though cramped (once up there, it’s basically impossible to sit up straight - and we’re not exactly gigantic people) the top bunk had one advantage - it kept us well above the pandemonium reigning down below. It seems that children travel free or on a reduced price fare, as the 4 bunks below us actually held 8 people - 4 adults and 4 children. It was a constant whirl of activity, compounded by the many people who did not seem to belong in our train but were present nonetheless. When, as we reached our destination and the train car finally emptied, I was astounded as I surveyed the wake left from the departing storm of people. The Chinese have no compunction at all with leaving trash all over the floor - food included. For their part, the attendants did not seem to mind, but merely began to sweep up the mess.

We’ve found that there is one distinct advantage to being a foreigner traveling in China, though. For whatever reason, each train station seems to have at least one designated room for “VIP’s”, a class that foreigners automatically seem to belong. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of ticket you hold as we have been ushered there regardless. And they are usually much, much nicer than waiting rooms elsewhere, with big comfy leather chairs and cool air conditioning. At first I didn’t understand it - we weren’t buying the most expensive tickets - but we certainly haven’t fought it either. A bit of peace and quiet amid comfortable surroundings is never a bad thing.

From here, we are traveling on to Chengdu (located in Sichuan Province, famous for its spicy food) to see some giant pandas and perhaps get a gander at the largest Buddha in the world. Stay tuned…

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Photos

Just Say Mao!
This is the Cult of Personality portrait that looms large above the entrance to the Forbidden City. It's fully visible from the far end of Tiananmen Square.

Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion
At the Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing. Also home to such beautifully named buildings as: The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, Cloud Dispelling Hall, and the Temple of the Sea of Wisdom.

The Forbidden City
This part of Beijing was off limits to all but the most elite of society for 500 years spanning both the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Excellent Food
Spicy stir fried pork, green peppers and mushrooms. It wasn't that spicy, but it had a ton of flavor.

Sweet and Sour Pork
American...er...Chinese comfort food.

Freshly Painted
We've been the happy benefactors of many freshly painted buildings in Beijing, the colors and artistry of which are amazing.

All Hail the Righteous Forefathers!
I just can't get enough of Communist statuary. The people always look so heroic.

Tour Boats at the Summer Palace
Notice the guy who's racked out.

Just Another Day at the Tea House
Nothing like some good ear wax removal to go with your darjeeling.

Beijing Circus
They balanced on their hands like this for a good 10 minutes.

Beijing Circus
This girl contorted her body while holding herself up by one hand for her entire act.

Beijing Circus
This one speaks for itself

Street Food
Steamed buns filled with meat and vegetables.

Yun Gang Caves
One of the 50,000 carved Buddhas at the site.

Yun Gang Caves
This temple was built just outside one of the larger Buddha caves.

Big Buddha
Just to give some scale.

Pingyao Alley
Our door was just on the left, after the little tree. It was very peaceful and like stepping into another world.

Fortified Walls of Pingyao...
...in the early morning.

Fortified Walls of Pingyao
They're rammed earth construction with a brick facade.

Terracotta Warriors
Forever in formation.

Command Your Own Army*
*Some assembly required.

All the World's A Stage
For a few bucks you too can have your picture taken with him. This guy had perfected *his* classic pose...off to the side is a small poster of him in this position in dozens of photos.

Obligatory Shot of Me
Since I'm the artistic eye of the blog, I'm usually on the business end of the camera making sure the pretty boy looks good.

Comments

[Rich]

Hey... It's a picture of Shannon!
Hey... It's a picture of Shannon! Wait a minute... this could be her in Seattle- cut out and photo shopped into the 3rd picture on this journal entry. lol. Great job, still. This journal has taught me more than Globe Trekkers and the Discovery Channel put together could ever convey about these exotic destinations. Plus they rarely ever-so-casually use words like proselytizer or plethora. Here's a question... I know Sean is an avid runner and usually runs many miles at least a few times a week. Has he put his running routine on hiatis while travelling? Be cool...and don't get knifed... -Rich

[Scott]

Terracotta Figures
I first read your story about the mini figurines when I was in a small internet cafe in Brisbane, Australia. As I walked out, not even 2 minutes after reading the story, I stumbled across a stand in Chinatown selling the exact same set for $15. I was so tempted to try to bargain them down, but I don't think I could have gotten the same price you did!

[ruby]

this thing its kool
kool pics love Xi'an at night it looks so beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stephen Paul]

Great Pictures
I could learn a thing or two from you guys. Ive learned that posting just the best pictures from 14 days lends itself to one fantastic set of pictures! Look forward to the rest of your posts... are you sure there was no cardboard in those "meat filled buns"? :)