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Published: June 21st 2012
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Before leaving for Xian from the biggest railway station yet (more like a terminal at Heathrow) we decided on some local fare. Stalls outside the station had a wide offering with an array of bits of animal that we would normally send to the bin. Our cabin on the train was shared with a Chinese couple and their five year old daughter. Introductions were made and then non-stop chat – the father had learnt English a couple of years previously and was keen to use it. We covered travelling, football, the economy, pronunciation, political systems, Tibet, charities and on and on… the couple were members of the communist party and both worked for a 1 million employee sized state owned oil company. Tina taught their daughter how to dunk biscuits in tea. An overnight train and early start the next morning – a whistle stop tour to see the Terracotta Warriors. In our eagerness to get to the warriors and an hour long bus journey, we arrived there without sufficient cash to get in – of course they don’t take any form of card payment or dollars. After some negotiation we managed to get in accompanied by our own guide as
part of the foreign exchange deal. There are 3 sites, each more impressive than the one before. Each warrior has its own individual features and expressions – no two are the same in weight, height or hairstyle. The final building, which is football stadium size, houses over 6,000 warriors. They say 6,000 warriors but many remain uncovered as they are waiting to develop technology which means that as they uncover a warrior the colour on the statue isn’t lost – currently within minutes the colour fades completely.
On the way back to the coach we sampled some stinky tofu –fried tofu which is served dipped in a sauce of what smells like horse manure. Yummy. Not.
The following day was spent wandering around the Muslim quarter in Xian – a big food festival was on – Tina was really pleased to find fried quails eggs on kebab sticks – genius. Body parts of chickens featured heavily at the market, particularly feet. Continuing down side streets we passed stalls selling huge hearts, livers and we passed a man shoving a huge pile of intestines into canvas bags. Boiling pans of water were each side of the lane with flames
shooting out of what looked like pan exhausts. A man stood by the side of the road chopping down a huge pile of meat with an axe.
Escaping the mayhem we took a tuk tuk to a quiet park – as with all parks in China they are family orientated so lots of activities for small children, painting, some rides and pedalos on the pond. We also saw our first Chinese dog wearing a pair of pants.
Back on the train - our first late one - and our first experience of 3rd class travel – an open 6 berth cabin, it was fine, nice and cool and no one snored – too much.
We arrived at Chengdu and found a local café which served us a fine dinner Szechuan style for less than one pound. We ended up visiting them twice more and became like local celebrities although we couldn’t understand a word each other said. We also managed to see the final match of the premiership season.
Big Buddha – out on a day trip sitting in the backseat of a minibus which wasn’t attached to the van we were in. Our first toilet
stop gave Tina her first experience of open loo’s for women – not yet brave enough to share this experience she opted for the cubicle.
The site of the Big Buddha at Leshan was really beautiful, this came to light once the overcast morning cloud dispersed. The Buddha is 233 feet tall, carved into the rock and is a sitting Buddha and looking out over the bay – it is almost impossible to get the whole statue in the camera frame. It took one and quarter hours to get from the head to the toe – this was due to the enormous number of people viewing the statue.
Having been invited by our Buddha visiting buddies to join in the hostel quiz we ended the day by providing some critical winning answers. We postponed our prize winning drinks to the following day in preparation for visiting the Pandas.
Pandas – LOVELY. They eat a lot and look like people dressed up in Panda costumes. Look there are Panda’s cuddling and wrestling, climbing, rolling around – eating – now some really big Pandas. Then some red Panda’s which don’t look like Panda’s more like cats.
The next
day a quick scout round a Taoist temple - research and the painted images of Taoists seem to indicate that they are significantly funkier than Buddhists.
Another overnight train and arrived in Xihong in the early hours of the morning. Then across the town to pick up a bus for a further 8 hour journey out to Lugu Lake. Despite being dehydrated and having navigated long windy roads we were pleased when we arrived to find that the Lake was even more spectacular than we’d imagined. For anyone interested in landscape photography you’d get your archetypical Chinese images here. The next day we took a bike around part of the lake, the day was scorching hot but the views were stunning. We got burnt.
Making the most of our day at the Lake we joined a small group of Chinese tourists in a long boat to take a small trip over to a small island on the Lake. As has been a feature of the trip, and whilst Mark wasn’t looking, Tina was abducted by the Chinese group to be involved in a photo shoot.
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