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Published: March 13th 2009
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Greetings -
While recovering from "Plague '09," we got a little behind on the blog, but here we are, reporting on our two week run through Xian, Beijing, and Shanghai. Transitioning from Yunnan province to China's big cities was a little rough. We went from blue skies and gorgeous countryside to cold, imposing and gray cities. But once we settled into our winter gear and our eyes adjusted to the smog and cityscapes, we found there was a lot to enjoy.
First, we hit Xian, pop. 3.25 million, formerly the terminus of the Silk Road, now the famed location of legions of unearthed clay soldiers, the "Terracotta Warriors" (touted by China as the "8th Wonder of the World"). Expecting Xian to be all Terracotta Warriors, all the time, we were pleasantly surprised that the city also hosts a thriving Muslim quarter and an impressive city wall, which we spent an afternoon coasting around on rattly old bicycles. Of course, we hit the Muslim quarter for street food our first afternoon in town, walking through the neighborhood and exploring its many markets, mosques and alleyways as we nibbled on our treats. [As an aside, this street food obsession of
ours is starting to be a full time job. Our best meals of the trip have all been on the street, and our worst tummy aches have been after hotel or fancy-restaurant meals.] Our favorite food items in Xian were MaJiang--cold, thick noodles topped with chili, vinegar and peanut butter (don't worry the PB was Chinese, not American), flat breads pulled right off the burner, and a persimmon-flavored dessert. We made a meal out of choosing one thing from several street vendors while we walked through town. Mmmm mmm.
Our only questionable food purchase came on the 15th day of the lunar new year, when the Chinese celebrate the Lantern Festival starting at sundown. Everywhere we looked during the day, we saw lines of people snaking down the sidewalk waiting to buy plastic bags full of what looked like donut holes coated in confectioner's sugar, called "tang yuan." We had to have some. We queued up and made our purchase, and the vendor rattled off about a minute's worth of instructions, but my Chinese was only good enough to understand that (1) we weren't to eat these temptresses right away since they were holiday food, and (2) we
Kite seller
Temple of Heaven, Beijing should eat them with families or friends. It was not good enough to understand that we were supposed to boil the rice balls in water and eat them in soup. As night fell, we headed back up onto the city wall with most of the rest of town to enjoy two hours of non-stop, apparently unregulated fireworks (which, that same night in Beijing, started a fire that burnt to a crisp a brand new Rem Koolhaas-designed scy scraper), and to take in dozens of float-like creations, which seem to have replaced the small red lanterns of yore. We walked around watching the crowd and waiting for some sort of signal to eat our tang yuan. Finally, I had to break out my basic Chinese again to ask some super nice, very patient security guards whether we could now eat them . . . at which point the words for "boil" and "hot pot" came back to me. Ooops. Another cultural experience foiled by lack of understanding and boiling water.
Our second day in town, we visited the Teracotta Warriors. The complex features three excavated pits available for public viewing and many other areas still unexcavated. Due to the enormous
cost and burden of restoration and excavation, the Chinese may not be able to display all of the crumbling warriors any time soon. Still, there are thousands on display. We learned from a spooky, bilingual panoramic introductory film that the Warriors were re-discovered by a peasant drilling a well in the area in 1974. As luck would have it, the same former peasant is now displayed, along with the Warriors, at the museum, where you can pay $20 for an autograph as he sits sipping tea and reading the newspaper. According to our guide, he is the "luckiest man in China." The Warriors themselves are impressive, each with its own unique face. There is literally an army of them-- generals, horsemen, rank-and-file, chariots, etc. etc. We came away glad to have seen the sight but a little troubled by what we learned about China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who had the army built to stand guard over his tomb, a few kilometers away. The same man who first united China and started the Great Wall (more on this below) also made the highly questionable decision to enslave thousands to help in his massive personal projects and then kill them
all to keep his tomb a secret. So it goes.
With Xian checked off our list, we caught a sleeper train to Beijing, checking in to our hostel in one of the hutongs near Tiananmen Square just as Beijing's first raindrops since September began to fall. With the rain falling, we visited Factory 798, an art collective in an industrial area, where we marveled at the variety and quality of contemporary Chinese art on display (and at the price tags - ouch!). The following day, with the sun back in the sky, we made the rounds to some of Beijing's biggest sights - the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. These stops felt a little obligatory, and with the number of tour groups clogging up the area, we were ready for a nice, romantic Valentine's Day dinner at the end of the afternoon. Thankfully, we read about Pure Lotus, a Buddhist all-vegetarian retreat serving ridiculously-named but tasty dishes like the "Destiny Comes Together on a Cold Plate" and the "Ignorance is Bliss Tofu." Think dry ice and artful presentation. We toasted love, peace and fake meat. Afterwards we felt like bad Buddhist diners
when we jonezd for a drink and made our way to "12 Sq. M." bar, advertised as "Beijing's Smallest Bar," and later to a high-energy, reasonably angsty concert by the Chinese rock outfit Ziyo (video will be posted soon). In the morning, we got up before dawn and drove three hours north to Simitai, a remote but still well-preserved area of the Great Wall. We spent the morning hiking up and down the wall, taking in gorgeous views and sunshine while freezing our extremities off (Mongolia was to our left, after all).
Another sleeper-train later, we found ourselves in Shanghai, China's "financial capital," and former home of my parents, where the cold drizzle continued. Shanghai is "all growed up" these days (or hopelessly Westernized, depending on your perspective), with loads of European and American chains, a Starbucks on every street corner, and the Pujiang Hotel--my old haunt on the Bund when I was studying in China--charging 4 times the rate I used to pay. Once the initial sticker shock wore off and we got over feeling frumpy and out-of-place, we treated ourselves pretty well in the Big City, with nights spent drinking wine and visiting with my parents'
Banging the Drum
at the Drum Tower, Xian great friends at an Italian restaurant, and days spent checking items off my mom's "must-do's while in Shanghai" list, which included trips to the Ritz Carlton, the Grand Hyatt PuDong, the Westin (all to use the bathrooms and/or drink), strolls through the French Concession area and a few antique markets, and visits to spas. (Thanks, mom! You know how to do it!) We also enjoyed visiting contemporary art galleries within the Moganshan road complex and wandering the alleyways of Taikang Road, which has been cutified to the maximum with countless small boutiques and swish restaurants. Our last day, we took in the Shanghai museum before saying goodbye to the shiny city and heading to my old university town of Nanjing.
We are now in India making an effort to catch up on blogging while avoiding sensory overload. Stay tuned.
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