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Published: June 30th 2010
Lights in Xian
Xian becomes quite the hot place at night, especially around the city wall
Entry #7
The Last Day in Beijing
Well, it's been some time since I've done an entry in this. I've found myself more busy here than I could have accounted for earlier. Come to think of it, I haven't written since Kevin left back for home, which was over 2 weeks ago. So much has happened here in Suzhou that I haven't gotten to updating. Initially I had planned to extend this out for the summer so I always had things to write about, but I haven't even finished the tour yet. That's a little embarrassing, so this one is going to be rather long.
Alright, so we left off on the last day in Beijing. On this day we went to see two famous sites: the Beijing zoo and the Summer Palace. Now we weren't in the Beijing zoo for very long at all, it was something short of an hour. We were there for one very specific reason: to see pandas! And pandas there were, tons of them. Well, tons in a relative sense. Think of how many pandas you have ever seen at one time, it was a lot considering that.
Pandas 1
Funny, this is how I woke up feeling in Beijing after a night on my rock-bed. I think they had 12 or so, but not all were out on display. Aside from some humorous signs warning us not to "offend" the pandas, the outdoor section was pretty uneventful. But when you got inside, the pandas were playful as could be. Kevin got a 10 some minute video of two of them fighting over a swing, it's damn near the cutest thing you will ever see. Personally my attention was elsewhere, as one of the volunteers at the zoo noticed I was a foreigner and wanted to speak English with me. Pretty fascinating guy, we got into a length conversation about cultural differences and working as computer professionals (his former profession). Although I didn't see too much of the pandas playing for this reason, he showed us a bunch of old pictures of pandas at the zoo that were equally as cute. He even offered me one as a gift, a vintage photo of a panda climbing a tree in the snow. Now that's a souvenir.
Now, the name of the Summer Palace is a little bit deceiving. We did not find ourselves walking through the halls of an actual palace building, but rather down this
Summer Palace Pan
A nice view of the courtyard. very long outdoor walkway. The entire thing had a roof too, I'm not sure the actually word for it but it looked like a really long gazebo. Occasionally it opened up into courtyards and gardens on the side, which looked very pleasant in the slightly rainy atmosphere. It was next to a waterfront, where many "dragonboats" would take you from one end to the other. And on one end sat a giant marble boat, which I'm assuming was ornate. Every now and then actual palace-looking features would stick out of the trees, so I think there was more to see had we more time. Now, it's called the Summer Palace, but unless I'm mistaken I think it served more as a retreat for the ancient Chinese royalty. While we were here, the tour guide told us the story of the infamous Empress "CiCi" (that's what it sounded like anyway), also known as the Pearl lady. She basically took power of the country by controlling two boy emperors during her life. They were something like 12 or 14. Could you imagine being an emperor at that age? Christ, the only things on my mind back then were video games, ice cream,
Summer Palace 1
A more palacey looking area. and puberty. I guess it made Pearl lady's job pretty easy. One other thing about the Summer Palace; while the "hawkers" prevalent at every other tourist site were not as abundant as say the Forbidden City, the were viciously persistent. If you're not familiar, a hawker is someone who tries to sell you things like little toys, trinkets, and "Rolex's" (yeah, right) as if their life depends on it. They're annoying as all hell, and when they spot a foreigner the come after you like you're the damned president. One particular lady hounded our German friend on the tour for half an hour, she literally followed him that entire time. Unbelievable. We ended our time here by taking a dragon boat back to the entrance, which gave us a lovely view of the scope of the walkway.
The last thing we saw in Beijing before we left for Xi'an was the silhouette of the Bird's Nest in the distance. This was an important building during the 2008 Olympics, but I honestly have no idea what events were held there. The architecture is fascinating, it looks like the thing was built out of those "Kinects" toys with tons of metal
The Bird's Nest
Look Alan! Birds! bars entangled in some structurally sound way. The shape of the building actually resembles that of an ancient Chinese ingot (money), which had some symbolic meaning of wealth and prosperity I guess. Anyway, from there we hopped on the flight to Xi'an and said goodbye to the capital of China.
On to Xi'an
So Xi'an used to be the capital of China in a much earlier time, as it's geographic location surrounded by mountains provided a natural barrier. It also makes it insanely humid, I suppose I should know why this is having taken an environmental systems class. Seriously, it felt like the jungle. Now, I've commented before on the astounding progress China is making in terms of the economy right? Well, as a result of that things are getting built here. Anywhere you went in Xi'an, you could find cranes a plenty. And they were actually moving, things really get done. Unlike say that bridge over I-95 that has been in progress for what, 3 years now? They probably would have finished it in 3 months here, construction here gets done rapidly. And like Beijing, things would light up here at night. It's
Xian Hotel 1
Kinda strange that these were in the back of the hotel, very impressive. really wild, you have to see it for yourself to appreciate it. Situated in the heart of the city is an ancient City Wall that still stands in great condition. Within the wall were many office buildings and the hustle and bustle of night life, not to mention our fancy hotel. Although it was a little annoying to be so close to traffic. Chinese drivers honk an absurd amount, and it's a bit of a pain in the ass to wake up to. It's like how they communicate to other cars and pedestrians, instead of using turn signals. I sat and watched as a guy literally held down the horn for 15 seconds because he was upset the person in front of him was driving too slow, at which point Kevin turned to me and remarked, "Yeah, because that's helping".
The first thing we saw the next morning in Xi'an was the infamous Terra Cotta Warrior army. They are considered the 8th wonder of the world, and are impressive to see in person. Our tour guide, Helen, was extremely knowledgeable about them and told us everything there is to know. At times I wondered why Helen was not a
Warriors 1
Can you find Waldo? historian somewhere; the sheer depth of information she told us about the city and the various sites made it seem like she would be overqualified for such a position. Anyway, the Terra Cotta warriors are actually larger than life-size, standing like 7 or 8 feet tall I believe. And contrary to what you would think from the popular photographs, most of them were in brilliant color. The exposure when they were excavated actually wore away the paint or whatever it was that the ancient sculpters used. I was lucky enough to have watched a history special on the warriors, which detailed the life of China's first emperor. Qin Shi Huang (or Huangdi?) was the emperor of the Qin dynasty, which was the first ever unified China. He was a pretty power-hungry guy, and longed to be immortal. I think the records indicate that his advisors told him to consume mercury as a means to longevity, which ultimately killed him. He had the warriors built in order to spiritually guard him in the afterlife. Actually seeing them, the organization was most impressive. They were arranged in ancient battle formations, as if ready to march. Additionally, they were designed down to the
Warriors 2
Check out the detail in the faces. tiniest detail. It's said they were uniquely modeled after soldiers in the actual army, which blows your mind considering how many of them there are and how long it must have taken to make them all.
The next order of business in Xi'an was the "Big Wild Goose Pagoda". A pagoda is similar to a tower I guess, with traditional Chinese architecture. While I didn't get a chance to actually scale the tower, the park surrounding it was impressive. The whole thing is a place of worship for Buddhists, so you could find plenty of Buddhist art depicting stories central to the religion. There was even a procession of some sort walking around. Near the back of the park was a building that had these amazing, huge epics carved out of wood or marble. Imagine a very long painting stretching around a room, but made out of marble and in 3D. I want one. There were also several decorations made out of gold. I think the story of the pagoda is that there were some Buddhist monks who were starving and prayed to the Buddha for food, at which point a couple of geese flew down next to them.
Goose Pagoda 1
And yet we did not see any geese. In honor of this spiritual event, a pagoda was built and still stands as an icon of Xi'an to this day. Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for this one.
Before we retired for the evening after our first day in Xi'an, we were treated to a Tang dynasty musical show. It included several pleasant instrumental and dance performances, all of the traditional style. It was extremely colorful too, very aesthetic. Immediately following this was a dumpling feast! They brought out dumplings made out of so many different meats and vegetables, it was quite good. An interesting anecdote: Yan (my pen pal) scold me for calling everything wrapped in dough a dumpling, because in China they all have different names. Anyway, certainly an eventful day.
Back to the Relative Present
Sorry to pull a Lost on everyone, but I'm going to divide the timeline. I've been in Suzhou for a while now, so there is plenty that still needs writing out. So, let's talk about the present.
The tour ended in Shanghai, so from there we hopped a train straight to the city of Suzhou. It was about a 40 minute
Suzhou 1
Sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows your naaammmeeee! Actually, not too many people here can even pronounce my name. ride westward. As crowded as Shanghai is, you can imagine how many cars they pack into each train. Walking from our car to the actual station gate in Suzhou took what felt like an age, maybe 15 minutes. Once we finally reached the exit of the station, I met my penpal for the first time. Yan looked even shorter in person, haha, and was an incredible host to both me and Kevin. Along with her roommate, she treated us to a nice lunch at a little local restaurant. It was here that Kevin was finally able to try the chicken feet he had asked for on several occasions on the tour. I thought they were okay, I prefer something a little meatier. An amusing anecdote: our Shanghai tour guide told us that while practically everything at home is "made in China", China imports tons of chicken feet from America (and just the feet) to meet the demand for this peculiar dish.
Yan has been an incredible host for the near month I have been here so far, finding us an apartment, setting up our internet, taking us to the bank, showing us how to use the buses, translating for
Suzhou 2
Sipping on Cucumber and Watermelon juice. All the drinks here are warm by the way, surprising since it gets so humid. us, and treating us to more meals than I can count. She even picked out a cheap perfume-free laundry detergent for me. A pity she couldn't be around during the day when we were hanging out at the apartment, as she is a working woman. While it was easy enough for me and Kevin to get around on the buses, given we had our destination written out fairly well in Chinese characters, once you actually get somewhere it's pretty difficult not to have a translator. Unlike Shanghai and Beijing, where practically everything is written out in English, Suzhou does not have as budding a foreign population as of yet. Although I learned a little Chinese before I got here, having never used it in real situations was a bit hampering initially. I can recall two rather humorous situations. One time I was riding the bus to Yan's work to meet her for dinner, and I needed the women sitting next to me to move so I could get off at the next stop. When I motioned to get up, she made room for me, to which I replied "bu ke qi". As she looked at me dumbfoundedly, I realized I
Suzhou 3
A lovely lunch at the Singa-House (stands for Singapore). had said "you're welcome" instead of "thank you." Another time we had just finished eating dinner at a restaurant, and it was my turn to pay. I handed the waitress 100 yuan to cover it and said "gei wo yibai yuan" and if the Chinese raised their eyebrows at all I imagine she would have done so right then. I literally said "give me 100 yuan" instead of "here's 100 yuan." Mistakes such as these aside, Yan always helps to correct my poor Chinese and I've picked up quite a bit so far.
So far I like Suzhou quite a bit. It's a pretty charming city, not anywhere near as crowded as Shanghai. There are some lovely views and some great traditional areas to visit. I just hope I can find the time to see the more outdoorsy areas to the West and South before my time here is up, I've been stuck in the city for so long it's driving me crazy. Some interesting things about Suzhou:
- Foreigners are not as common as in the other cities we visited, so people reacted to me and Kevin's presence quite differently. People stare quite a bit, and a few
heads turn every time you get on the bus. It gets annoying sometimes, you get the feeling that you are being watched. That being said, many people I have met supplement this curiosity with a genuine sense of welcomeness. When we go out to eat, people are taken aback when I ask for more tea in Chinese and seem happy to see a foreigner take in their culture.
- Suzhou is undergoing a lot of construction, much like everywhere else I have visited. There is a new complex being erected right next to Yan's work, where you can watch how much progress they make day by day. It's impressive. The end result is that many areas of Suzhou look brand new, it's really a pleasure to see. At the same time there exist many traditional districts, gardens, and temples where you can get a glimpse of the China that you see on history channel specials. And best yet, like everywhere else the whole place lights up at night and traditional music is often played. Evenings in Suzhou are gorgeous, so many different colors and sounds. At one point my jaw dropped in amazement as I realized the office building in
front of me was playing a 30 story game of Tetris. Simply amazing.
- Eating here is an absolute pleasure. We go out to local restaurants almost every night, as it seems to be fairly common. Sometimes I absolutely love the flavors and the cooking, and other times it's a little too exotic for me (lunch a few days ago was duck tongue, pig's feet, and chicken heart soup). But when it's good, it's
good and there's plenty to go around. And oh my God is it cheap. The other night me and Yan had a very pleasant and filling dinner for 38 yuan total (that's roughly $6 for two people), and you can go even lower than that. A bowl of rice noodles in soup, bigger than your head mind you and way more than you can eat, costs about 10 yuan. Not even a dollar and fifty cents. While it's no home-cooked porterhouse steak, I like the way they do the beef and pork here in particular. Definitely some flavors I'm not used to.
- Some areas of the city are very westernized, particularly the shopping malls. Turns out Pizza Hut in China is one hell of a
classy joint where you can get a lychee smoothie. KFC is in abundance, as is Starbucks. And here's something funny: Wal-Mart is considered one of the more expensive super market / all-purpose stores. We saw a bar called "Cheers" on the first day, and even ran into a Toys R Us one evening. Then there's this area called Moon Harbor, a much more expensive place that reminds me of a sleeker looking Baltimore Inner Harbor. The entire thing just feels rich, complete with a small amusement park (complete with glow-in-the-dark ferris wheel). There's a lovely view of this tower out in the middle of the lake, and several traditional style boats can be seen floating about.
So that's all for today, don't want to make this too awfully long. In the future I'll talk about some of the neat places me and Kevin saw in Suzhou, and the World Expo. This weekend we're going to go visit a famous mountain as well, so I'll have plenty on that. Until next time.
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Allison
non-member comment
Woa!
Awesome stuff Harry! I love the dragon boats, and the baby pandas! I hope you and enjoying at least SOME of the night life! I did not realize how big Suzhou was, I'm glad you are getting to explore it!