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Published: April 24th 2008
Xi'an
Terracotta Warriors Pit 1China Trip #2
April 11-12 - Shanghai Arrival I left Chicago Friday morning for the 14 hour journey to Shanghai. Upon arrival I headed to Patrick's hotel. He had been in China on business for a few days already. His former co-worker, Kevin, was also at the hotel. He arrived from Hangzhou the day before. Soon after I got to the hotel the three of us set out to meet Don, another of Patrick's former co-workers, who lives in Shanghai. The four of us had spent a week together in Japan a couple years ago.
I won't get into all the details for the night, but after dinner we visited a number of bars, and eventually when I got too tired and couldn't take it anymore. I took a nap at the last bar until everyone was ready to go.
April 13 - Not feeling so well... Well it turns out staying out all night after being awake for 30 hours might not have been the best idea. Patrick and I only had a few hours Sunday to walk around Shanghai before we had to head to the airport. We found a small restaurant near the hotel and
Xi'an
Terracotta Warriors Pit 1 ordered a plate of dumplings. Or I should say he ordered...it was so nice to have someone around who could speak some Mandarin.
Later that afternoon I flew to Xi'an, and Patrick to Hong Kong. That night I wandered around the Muslim Quarter, which is full of shops and restaurants. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be an early night.
April 14 - Terracotta Warriors The Terracotta Warriors are located about 45 km from Xi'an, so I signed up for a day tour to go see them rather than go on my own. Which is fine, except for the tour included the usual visits to factories and shops. The first tour stop was the Banpo Neolithic Village, an excavated village from 4500 BC. Some interesting artifacts and history, but really mostly just holes in the ground. Next we visited the replica tomb of Emperor Qin, the first emporer of China. The Terracotta Warriors were created during his reign. The original tomb has not been excavated and is only a large hill that can be viewed from a distance. The replica supposedly represents how it looked inside when he was buried.
After lunch we made the mandatory visits
Xi'an
City Wall to a silk factory and "official" Terracotta Warrior replica factory. Finally we made it to the site of the Warriors. It holds three excavation pits, the main one containing over 5000 figures, each unique to represent specific warriors. The second holds only 68, but appears to be more high-ranking officials. The third, though largely unexcavated, is reported to contain thousands more. The excavation is a work in progress and will take many more years to complete.
The final stop of the tour was back in the city of Xi'an at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 648 AD. A couple other guys and I paid extra to climb to the top. After the tour I returned to the Muslim Quarter with one of the tour members for dinner and some shopping.
April 15 - Xi'an City Sights My second day in Xi'an I walked around the city to visit a number of sights. First, the Bell and Drum Towers, originally dating from the 14th century and rebuilt in the mid-1700's, were used to designate time and calls to prayer. Many other temples and pagodas have smaller bell and drum towers of their own. Second, the Great Mosque,
Xi'an
Small Wild Goose Pagoda one of the largest in China. It is one of the more interesting mosques I have visited as it is built in a Chinese style. Third, the Xi'an City Walls, surrounding Central Xi'an. The rectangular walls were rebuilt on the foundations of the original walls of the 1300's. Finally, the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 707 AD. Of course I climbed to the top, because that's what I do...
That afternoon I flew to Chengdu in the province of Sichuan.
April 16 - Dujiangyan Irrigation Project On the recommendation of my friend Patrick, I spent Wednesday visiting Dujiangyan, 60 km from Chengdu. The trip required two bus rides, no easy task in these parts with my limited knowledge of the Chinese language (by limited, I mean I can say "Please", "Thank you", "Beer", and "I want to go to a bar"). Ok, I know a little more than that. I can also say "Do you want to go to a bar?". Also not that useful on this day.
The irrigation system, originally designed around 300 BC, was designed to prevent frequent flooding of the Min River. Though it is probably not of interested to most tourists,
Dujiangyan
Irrigation Project it is quite an engineering feat of its time. Around the project is a huge park and temple grounds. It took most of the afternoon to cover the entire area.
That night I ate dinner at a very small food stand. The table at in the front had skewers of various meats and vegetables (no idea what most of them were). The cook handed me a plate to fill with skewers, and when I was done the cook threw it all in a deep fryer, then removed everything from the skewers, and fried it all with the famous Sichuan chili peppers. FYI, two plates of this plus 2 half-liters of Tsingtao cost 30 RMB (about US $4.50). I love this country. On the downside, some of the meat was, well, not anything you could find in a US grocery store. Luckily for me I'll never know...
April 17 - Chengdu Panda Reserve and City Sights Thursday morning I left my hotel early to visit the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. Feeding time at the reserve is at 9:30 AM, and if you don't see the pandas during that time they will be most likely sleeping. Around 50
Chengdu
Giant Pandas at Breeding Research Base pandas live at the base, although I only saw about 15. Still, many more than one would see anywhere outside a reserve. For a fee, you can get your picture taken holding a baby panda. Unfortunately this was unavailable while I was there.
In the afternoon I visited a few temples and parks. Zhaojue Temple, originally laid out in the 7th century, is a Buddhist temple which has been a model for many other temples throughout Japan and southeast Asia. The Green Ram Temple is a Taoist temple also dating from the 7th century, making it one of the oldest in Sichuan.
After my temple tour I walked around the city a bit. Chengdu is a typical city in that each block of city seems to be a different district of stores, each selling exactly the same thing. I walked three straight blocks, maybe more, of safe stores. Each sold the same exact safes. I don't know how anyone does any business--there is nothing to differentiate one store from the next.
April 18 - Return to Shanghai By Friday there wasn't much else for me to do in Chengdu. I took a walk to the city square
Chengdu
Zhaojue Temple to get a picture of the Mao statue and then found my way to People's Park. It's amazing how many people spend their days drinking tea and play Mah Jong in the park. Which reminds me, if anyone knows how to play Mah Jong, please give me a lesson since I am now the proud owner of a set for which I probably paid 10 times too much.
This is my bartering technique:
Saleslady: This a nice set. 450 RMB.
Me: It's ok, I'm just looking.
Saleslady: Ok, 350 RMB.
Me: Really, I'm not interested. Just looking.
Saleslady: Ok, ok. Best price. 250 RMB.
Me: I'll take it.
I'm such a sucker.
That night I returned to Shanghai and met up with Patrick. I thought the plan for weekend #2 in Shanghai was to not drink the entire time. However, Kevin, who wasn't even there, had informed Patrick that our previous weekend was not crazy enough and I would require another full night of Shanghai bars. So, after another dumpling dinner (what can I say, I love these things) Patrick and I got in a cab and he asked the driver to take us to a bar
Chengdu
Mao Statue without foreigners. According to Patrick this works about a quarter of the time. Lucky for us, it really worked this time. It didn't look promising, but this bar was exactly what we were looking for. Following hours of entertainment with friendly locals, we headed back to central Shanghai. We visited a few more bars and finally got back to the hotel well after sunrise.
April 19 - Meeting Friends As you can imagine, Saturday did not start very early. We were scheduled to meet Patrick's Chinese teacher, Yu Hong, her husband, Sam, and her friend, Miss Liu, that afternoon. Fortunately they arrived at our hotel later than planned. That afternoon we went to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. It was interesting to me that although Patrick and I had been to the tower before, they hadn't and it seemed like quite an experience for them. After visiting the tower we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended by Miss Liu. We had quite interesting conversations as we had three languages at the table--Patrick, Yu Hong, and I spoke English; Miss Liu and I spoke Japanese; and Patrick, Sam, Miss Liu, and Yu Hong spoke Mandarin. I was able
Shanghai
Patrick, Sam, Yu Hong, and Miss Liu to get a lot of practice speaking Japanese thoughout the day with Miss Liu--she studied in Tokyo and is fluent. During dinner Sam asked what I like to drink other than beer. Of course I told him scotch, at which point Patrick told me to be careful since this might come back later in the evening. So when he asked what kind I told him Johnny Walker Black, as it is one of the better but more reasonably priced scotches.
Later we went to a bar, where Sam's friend Mr. Wu joined us. At this point I thought we would start drinking beer. Of course, Sam decided to order a bottle of Johnny Walker instead. In most bars in China, and other countries, you can order an entire bottle at the table which the bar will hold for you if you don't finish it. They also generally give you all the mixers you want for free for the entire night. Sam's choice of mixer was green tea, which didn't sound good but actually wasn't too bad. He also had the waitress bring us some dice so we could start playing drinking games. The game started off well, but the
Shanghai
Jin Mao and Shanghai World Financial Center rules ended up changing so that everyone was drinking all the time. Yu Hong really seemed intent on getting Patrick to overindulge.
April 20 - Yuyuan Bazaar and Departure Sunday Patrick and I got up late, again, and decided to make one more stop in Shanghai before heading to the airport. We went to Yuyuan Bazaar, streets and streets of shopping and eating. Our goal is always to walk down the narrowest, busiest alleys with the least white people. Food stands are always the best since they offer the most unique experiences. On the last street, we got a good whiff of the stinky tofu. Although it smells like rotten foot, it just wouldn't be a complete trip to China without that smell.
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Kathy Drabant
non-member comment
You're ready to take on a new career
I loved your comments and pictures of your China tour, Matt. I do think that you should consider becoming a tour guide once you tire of tech support work!