Catch up news from China (part I)

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Ok I wrote this blog on the 4th of March while I was on a long train journey, at this stage I was only at the beginning of my travels in China and had great ideals about updating my blog lots, however I am only getting around to uploading it to the internet now on the 28th March. Since I wrote this things have been very crazy so I’m still uploading the blog as I originally wrote it but it from now on I’m definitely going to have to try write briefer stories and only upload a few photos as it’s a lot harder to find time to update my blog as I am moving so much and with less constant internet access.

So since Shanghai a lot has happened! One thing I have definitely come to learn through travelling, is that time seems to go by much quicker than when I am at home and I guess this has to do with all the new experiences that are constantly taking place. But I’ve just figured out a way to keep my travel blog more up to date; with all my long train journeys that I am doing at the moment I am going to write my stories while I travel and then just upload them to the internet when I arrive at my destination currently on a 18hour train journey so no better time than now to do a little bit of catching up!! (this idea clearly didn’t go to plan..)

So after Shanghai things in Tangshan started to wind down for the end of term, exams had to be carried out similar to what took place at mid-term and we gave out their completion certificates and photos were taken with each class (I have yet to get these photos off Eddie). Actually just to note here the night that we arrived back from Shanghai it had just started to snow, the first that we had seen in Tangshan even though SPRING festival was just ending and weather should probably have been improving not getting worse, however it was nice to see a little snow for a few days though it did make for fun cycling but no accidents occurred thankfully!!

Also for the last day of term everyone went out for a meal (except Demond who had left already a week earlier as he was starting a PhD at university in South Korea). We had our own private room in a restaurant which is quite a common thing when a group of people go out for a meal in China with a big round table, which I find really nice. This room even had our own private bathroom attached. In Ireland this could never be possible as it would just turn into a huge party room, things are a little more civilised in China!! After dinner all the Chinese teachers went home and we foreigners and Sally headed for some karaoke to finish the night off properly. The Chinese staff were all welcome to come along however as they are all females none came along as the majority of females in China don’t drink or drink very little and this is the main thing that takes place in the karaoke rooms, singing is really just a secondary thing. Eddie, Adam, Ron and I had a great night (Sally went home early) instead of Jack Daniels like we had on our new year’s karaoke night instead this time we had a bottle of Captain Morgan’s Rum with some coke actually two bottles so you all can imagine the fun that was had... However I have to say it was a great send off!

So now I was off on the road again with my backpack, which of course was a nightmare to pack as I now had my winter clothes that I’d purchased in China and my summer clothes all to fit in but after a few sacrifices and a lot of sitting on the backpack I managed to get it closed! I was a little sad to be leaving what had been home for 6months but more so I was terribly excited to be heading off again for some new adventures! So the first of the many train journeys was to Xi’an and this entailed two different trains and a total of 18 and ½ hours on the road!! My first train was to Beijing which was fine only a 3hour journey during which a Chinese girl asked to sit beside me and started to speak English to me. Her masters at university was in English and I could tell she just wanted to practice her English by talking to me which was lovely. She was actually very interesting, she was doing her thesis on “The independence of Americans as seen through the movies” and we had a good conversation about cultural differences and attitudes of the Western cultures versus China.

In Beijing I transferred to my sleeper train which was going to be 14hours straight to Xi’an. The sleeper trains are actually quite comfortable, however I had opted for the top bunk as I assumed it would be best as I would be bothered less, in hindsight I’ve realised bottom is better. They carriages in the sleeper sections of the trains are made up of rows of bunk beds, 3 high and then there is pull down seats along the corridors. I had my food with me, boiling water is available on all trains so I did as the Chinese do and brought along my pot noodles and some snacks and I actually had quite a pleasant journey, had some food, read a little and then slept most of the way. I arrived in Xi’an at 7am and thought I’d arranged a free pick-up from the hostel I had booked into, however after a few phone calls to the hostel from the train station it turns out I had made a little mistake and had actually booked in for the following night oops!! Anyways they still had rooms but there was no pick up available so using the hostel receptionist as a translator for the taxi driver I eventually made it to the hostel but not without a lot of phone calls back and forth.

Xian is in central China in the Shaanxi province and it is mostly famous for the Terracotta warriors (this was the main purpose of my visit here). The army of terracotta warriors are life size sculptures of warriors and horses that the first emperor of China “Qin Shi Huang” had constructed for him to take with him to the afterlife as he assumed he would rule in death as he had in life. He was a real fantasist wasn’t he?!

My first day in Xi’an I decided first to get my train ticket sorted which was a bit of an ordeal but with a lot of help from the hostel receptionist, that is she wrote down in Chinese what I was looking for I bought my ticket for my next destination. After this I just wandered around, the location of the hostel was great and there were lots of things to see in the surrounding area. I went up the bell tower where I happened to be lucky enough to catch a performance of the bells which was really cool. Then I wandered the Muslim quarters which was very quaint full of little souvenir shops and food stands, I stopped and had lunch and had a lovely relaxing day. I also walked along the outside of the town walls where lots of locals were doing their exercises alongside the water or playing some traditional music it was a perfect day until I realised I had lost my ATM card. Turns out because they give you back your money and receipt before your card I had walked away and forgotten my card in the machine, the bank were very helpful thankfully one of the clerks spoke very good English, we assumed the machine had just sucked in the card but after checking the machine and then the security cameras turned out the guy behind me had actually taken my card, I had a little panic to get the card cancelled asap, but all worked out fine lost no money and I have a back up card. That evening I hung out at the hostel and watched DVDs with some fellow travellers from the UK, America and Finland.

Day 2 in Xian I set off to see the terracotta warriors, I had huge difficulty finding the right bus but after a call to the hostel I worked this out, got on the bus and set off eventually. The site was really amazing, unbelievable to think of all the work that had gone into these sculptures for a dead guy! The pits where the sculptures were however were freezing cold, I’m assuming for preservation reasons. One of the pits was still under excavation which was interesting to see the development of a dig, the warriors were actually only discovered underground in the 70’s by peasants digging a well. One of the most interesting facts for me is that no two soldier’s faces are alike and there are over 7,000 soldiers thus discovered. I didn’t do much that evening just got ready for the next day’s journey which was off to Chengdu in the Sichuan province.

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