A look back: Taishan, China

We told this anecdote a couple years ago as part of a longer story about a whirlwind trip from Beijing to Taishan that provided us with several "cultural moments." You can check out the longer story in context here. Meanwhile, Brian had captured the moment from his perspective for a class assignment last night and we figured we'd share it again.

Life teaches many lessons. 10 minutes in a Chinese train station taught me that sometimes, you have to embrace the local culture and dive in headfirst.

My wife and I had arrived at Taishan station after a long 24 hours; a night train followed by a nine-mile hike that had a 9000-foot total altitude change. Our reward? Dead legs, and another night train complete with rice bags in the aisle, unfiltered cigarettes in the air and about 100 of our closest Chinese friends to every side.

We stood in a line at the departure gate, waiting to board. Yes, a line. My personal need for order was fulfilled for the first time during our Chinese travels. I was skeptical but feeling positive that for the first time in our time there, I might be rewarded with an American sense of order.

A second later… it was gone. So was anybody whose ticket had been checked, sprinting down the platform. With legs like jello and resigned to our fate, we limped to the platform. Amoebas were forming on the platform, waiting for the train.

Bam. The train is here. The amoebas turn to anarchy as 50+ people frantically try to push and shove their way onto our train car. We suddenly were worried about not being able to get on the train at all. Becca noticed the opposite side of the carriage opening up and ran down to tackle the smaller crowd. I saw her disappear at the door and with the hope she was on the train, I went to work.

Now I consider myself a gentleman. I may not always have the most refined of tastes but I was raised in a midwestern family. I still hold the door for women, say please and thank you and in general behave like the Boy Scout I used to be.

It was tough being in China to that point. Cultural difference in behavior had left me with an opinion of people as rude. However, as I looked up at the crowd in front of me, I knew I had to get on that train.

I tightened my pack straps, and charged into the crowd. I started plowing through people and was towards the front of the line when I got knocked off balance. I look to my left and there is an 80-year-old grandmother blowing by me.

My first thought? It’s go time. I got right behind her and grabbed the rails on both sides of the train. I lifted myself up and over the grandmother, and onto the top step of the train.

You know what? No one even flinched. I may be a Boy Scout but sometimes it’s more important to be a local.

Brian

Grinning in the Gorge

Two weeks ago we had the chance to do one of the quintessential SW China outdoor activities: hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge. It's interesting: in Europe many of the 'big deal' sights/activities turned out to be kind of let-downs for us, while some of the much lesser-known attractions were our favorites.

In China however, the biggies have all been worthwhile. We were really moved and impressed hiking the deserted sections of the Great Wall (thanks again Linda!), we were suitably impressed by the terracotta soldiers in Xi'an, and we now we have really enjoyed our trek down Tiger Leaping Gorge.

It's by no means the most challenging or most breathtaking hike we've ever done, but something about the combination of the scenery (which is really pretty), the hike (enough uphill to make you work, but not to be too daunting), the guesthouses (small family-run places) and the other people doing the hike somehow all combined for a really enjoyable experience that definitely made our China highlight list.

The hike is easily done in two days and even possible in one, especially since most people don't do the full length of the gorge, but instead turn back at Walnut Garden. However, we were in no hurry, and also, I had no desire to do the hardest part of the hike either at the end of the day or in the hottest part of the day. So instead, we headed up from Lijiang early afternoon, arriving at the head of the gorge about 4 pm, leaving us just the time to attack the first 2 hours of so of the trek.

That turned out to be a great decision for a number of reasons. 1) We missed the early afternoon rainstorm that could have made things a little dicey. 2) We got our legs loosened up hiking uphill for the first two hours but then got a rest before climbing the notorious 28 bends the next morning, and best of all 3) It meant that we ended up spending the night at the Naxi Family Guesthouse (which we recommend, by the way) and meeting up with the rest of 'The Naxi Family Eight' (see below)

The second day was a great mix of hiking and soaking up the views. It was a pretty easy day of hiking (the 28 bends notwithstanding) with only about 5 hours of moving down the trails, but the scenary was great and we broke up the hikes with some snacks and beers at various guesthouses. After a slightly more basic night at the Five Fingers Guesthouse (which might not have been anywhere near as comfortable as the Halfway House, but was definitely authentic and came with the world's cutest grandmother), we easily rolled off the last 2-3 hours in time to grab some lunch at Sean's Guesthouse (which underwhelmed us, btw).

So what was the hike actually like?

-- Well, it started among the green, terraced hills of the river valley but quickly climbed into the gorge proper. For two days we had variations on looking down steep slopes to a narrow, rapid-filled gorge, looking forward along the gorge, looking across at spectacular rocky peaks that changed aspects as the light and weather changed, and walking a trail that wound through forests, dusty trails, and rocky cliff edges. (For all the pics from the trek click here)

-- Scattered along the way are spraypainted ads for the various guesthouses telling you (usually inaccurately) how far you have to go. Occasionally at some of the intersections it could get a bit overwhelming.

-- Each time we had stopped at a guesthouse, someone always came running out with a menu for our meal/snack etc. When we reached the Five Fingers Guesthouse late afternoon of the second day we checked in, put our things in rooms, and ordered a bunch of teas and beers. A food menu never appeared or was mentioned and so when an hour or two after our arrival we heard cooking sounds from the kitchen and began to smell some tantilizing scents, we all assumed that it must just be an 'eat whatever they cook for you' type of place, which was fine with all of us. After all, they knew we were there for the night, there were no other food options, and we clearly would be hungry having hiked through the day to get there.

About seven o'clock or so we looked up from our card game with some surprise, as we realized that we still hadn't seen the hosts or our food and we were getting quite hungry. Much to our chagrin, disappointment and amusement, we looked in and saw the family gathered around the table piled high with food and eating away; it had been THEIR dinner they were cooking. Thoroughly abashed at our assumption, we meekly went to them and asked for a menu. By the time they had cooked all of our dishes from scratch, it was after 9 pm when we finally were able to eat. But it was delicious.

-- While many tourists hike the gorge each year, thousands more visit it by tour bus. We strongly recommend against experiencing the gorge this way. Looking down from our peaceful trail above, we could see the backed-up jam of tour buses winding through the gorge and we spoke to some Belgian tourists who described the chaos and crush of tourists and touts and vendors at the viewpoint and path down to the middle rapids with disgust.

-- Though there was the occasional sheer drop off the trail, by far the hairiest part of the experience was the ride back through the gorge to Qiaotou. Due to shortage of taxis (and no phone to call more with) Pat and I managed to bargain with the driver of an ancient truck to drive us back to town. While I'm sure that he actually drove really well, I was a wreck as we headed back, seemingly oversteering and skidding on the gravel towards the sheer drops and driving way too close to the edge for my comfort. The only saving grace for me was that I was sitting on the cliff wall side, so I could just refuse to look towards the abyss. Poor Meaghan had it right out her window and she wasn't much enjoying her ride either. It took me a good 15 minutes to stop shaking afterwards.

All in all, it was a great couple of days doing the kind of things we love to do. We highly recommend the hike for those passing through Yunnan. If we had more time we would even have tried to extend the walk or combine it with a trek to the WenHai ecolodge or something. Rumor has it that the Chinese are going to dam up the gorge and soon this spectacular walk and scenary will be gone. Don't know if that will happen or not, but if so, get here and see it while you still can.

Becca

The Gang (aka 'the Naxi Family Eight')

One of the best parts of the hike was hooking up with 6 fellow travellers at the Naxi Family Guesthouse. We started by ordering dinner together so that we could all try more dishes and ended up spending the next day and a half hiking, eating, sleeping, playing cards, and sharing travel stories together. Our partners in crime were:

Scott and Ana, a couple from (of all places) Southeast Portland (!!) who are also travelling for a year. We all get back to Oregon about the same time and are looking forward to sharing stories and beer together.

Pat and Meaghan, two Canadians currently living and teaching in Hong Kong. They finish this vacation trip just as we hit Hong Kong, so hopefully we'll be able to get together there again.

Joachim and Katja, a German couple from Berlin currently living and working in Oudomxay, Laos. It was great to share stories about Laos and learn more about how life really works there.

Thanks again to all of them for enriching our gorge experience!

A little story for your Sunday morning (North America edition)

In four plus months of traveling in Asia, I thought nothing could faze me anymore. Watching your meal be slaughtered in front of you, drinking local moonshine and not going blind, surviving the "freestyle driving" of just about every Asian bus/moto/tuk-tuk driver, random 1-2 hour delays for no particular reason and taking a step of faith into a steady stream of traffic knowing that people will just move around you. All of this after a while just becomes another day at the office (which hopefully will make a day at the office look pretty damn tame in about 5 months or so).

Then we took the mini-bus up to Qiaotou to go hike Tiger Leaping Gorge. A normal mini-bus ride; a full bus and people smoking here and there. We stopped about 20 minutes from our destination to fill up on gas. This particular stop was unique in that it included filling up the spare gas jug and placing it next to me in the aisle of the mini-bus. No problem, despite the gas soaked rag sticking out of it and the fumes coming at me like a French cheese.

This is where it got good. We start up and started heading down the road to Qiaotou. I happen to glance across the row and find that the Chinese man on the other side of the aisle is lighting a cigarette. After my mind envisions a big budget movie explosion, I quickly point this out to Becca and we both start yelling at him (not really any words, just yelling and gestures including an outstanding hand motion "boom" on my part). The other four foreigners figure out what we're getting antsy about and join in.

The Chinese fellow is able to finally figure out our worried faces and hand gestures and in an act of attempted reconciliation motions that he'll hold his cigarette out the window when he's not smoking. Obviously not a science major, this guy. After a lot more yelling, the driver finally turns around and says something to the guy to get him to throw it out (the window thankfully) and despite the fact that there was definitely a "let's just appease the stupid foreigners" vibe to it we were finally appeased.

Explosive experience narrowly avoided, about 5 minutes later we pick up someone on the side of the road and no less than 30 seconds later he's lighting up while sitting in the aisle. The whole process begins again and he actually yells back a bit before the driver once again convinces him to put it out. 5 minutes later he says something to the driver and gets out. And stays on the side of the road. Evidently he was willing to wait for a smoking mini-van. Fine by me.

I can't decide whether to chalk this one up to stupid hillbillies, Darwinism at work, a Chinese thing or just people who never were taught basic science. Either way Becca and I were VERY happy to get our butts off that bus pronto.

Just when you think you've got a part of the world figured out or at the very least understood, it surprises you yet again...

Brian

The Story of the Elusive Beer

Most of the people who read this blog know a simple fact:

I'm a beer snob.

After trying beer for the first time in college, I was subsequently subjected to four years drinking Budweiser and other related Bud products. One of the disadvantages of going to school in St. Louis. After that, I swore never again; if I was going to drink beer, it was going to be good beer. Or at least beer with a little personality.

Since then, I've sworn off bad beer (the exception being a well timed Hamms after a ultimate tournament; have to rehydrate you know...). Throughout this trip, this hasn't been much of a problem; the beers of Europe delivered, Asia surprised ( Beer Lao being the big winner) and I even had a Budweiser (the much tastier Czech beer of the same name) along the way.

However over ten months, I'd had zero US beer. Obviously anything you're going to get is of the mass produced variety and despite the Chinese folks digging into to their Buds on the train, I wasn't interested.

However when we arrived in Xiahe, I saw a curious thing. Buried on the shelves of the local market was a familiar sight. PBR. Pabst Blue Ribbon. Feeling a bit homesick and after some serious consideration I decided to break the streak and bought myself one on our last day out of town. We thought we could take a good picture of me, the PBR, and some Yaks or Tibetans. Surely between Xiahe and Langmusi we could make that happen.

To make an increasingly long story short, we never did take the picture and I never had the chance to drink it so I carried that bad boy around until we got to the Lanzhou airport for our flight to Kunming. At this point, I was determined to have it as a pre-flight drink. Unfortunately my plans were foiled by the staff at the metal detector. I put my bag through the x-ray and they wanted to take a look. To the amazement of everyone (including his fellow guard) the one guard CONFISCATED my PBR. Never mind the fact that I had a Leatherman in my bag. Me thinks someone wanted a little break time refreshment. Feeling confused and in many ways denied, I shrug it off with some disappointment move on.

Flash forward to Kunming. During my infamous trip to the Wal-Mart I'm headed to checkout and what do I see out of the corner of my eye? The LIQUOR section. Never one to pass up the opportunity to do a little window shopping, I walk over. What's the first thing to catch my attention?

The elusive PBR. I quickly throw one (and a Guinness in case one takes me for a beer heathen...) into the cart and head off. My reward is shown above, en route to Hong Kong. PBR me ASAP!

Brian

A bewildering experience...

With last night being our final night in Yunnan and a 25 hour train ride on the horizon, I was sent off in search of groceries for our commute to SE China and Hong Kong.  The nice lady at the front desk of our hotel had given me two options; the Carrefour (for those Stateside, a huge French chain) that was a healthy hike away from the hotel or the "wor" supermarket on the opposite side of the block.  Wanting to keep my walking to a minimum as well as my enjoyment in checking out local businesses, I headed off in search of the "wor".

 

After about a mile and a half (LONG block) I neared the corner and saw a sports store.  Of course, this being me I had to go in.  As I weaved my way through the endless workers on duty, I saw that the other entrance emptied out into... the Supermarket!

 

Properly excited (on a trip like this, it is the little things) I walked in, picked up a basket and started off.  Only to be rebuffed by the escalator going the other way.  And the endless supply of Chinese folks coming down it.  Ah, I must be trying to enter through the exit...  So as I headed towards the proper entrance I got a glimpse of someone's bag of groceries.  Right then I froze up and was horrified...

 

Yes, I was in Wal-Mart.  I don't shop at Wal-Mart at home (Costco on the other hand...).  Never mind their nefarious business practices, I just don't like the place.  But with a promise of bringing back actual food for our train trip lingering overhead, I took a deep breath and entered.

 

In short, let's just say I'm very glad we're not going directly home after this portion of the trip.  The simple sight of fresh groceries, a butcher and even fresh vegetables sent my head spinning.  Throw in the Chinese workers having blue light specials on such high end items as watermelon and doughnuts (damn Passover restrictions) and the endless rows of consumer goods and it was just too much.  Somehow I think reentering the western world via the quiet tranquility of a New Zealand and Australia winter will be a much needed transition period.  Now if only we can survive Hong Kong between now and then...

 

Brian

 

PS Posts on Tiger Leaping Gorge and random stories from China to come.   

Just cuz we love this picture

Finding Paradise in a Theme Park

That's our experience in Lijiang in a nutshell. We arrived here a bit tired (it's a nine hour bus ride from Kunming) but still fairly rested given we'd just been on our best bus ride of the trip. Our seats resembled barcaloungers and over the nine hours there was zero karaoke. Woo, and may I say, hoo.

The new town of Lijiang itself isn't a whole lot to look at; the main appeal is the old town. So after reluctantly getting off the Chinese equivalent of the Madden Cruiser, we headed towards old town. The old town is cobblestone streets and old stone houses that give the feel that you've been transported back hundreds of years. Our first 10 minutes wandering through it had us wondering whether we'd again successfully avoided the tourist season; all the closed up shops and mostly empty guesthouses make us think we'd hit another ghost town.

Then we turned a corner and entered the old market square. Good freakin' lord. At 6pm on a Saturday night it could only be described as chaos: Chinese tour groups flying around, Naxi (the local minority) women selling various trinkets, more westerners than we'd seen in weeks and a two horse camera op complete with an Attila the Hun looking tout. We definitely weren't in Kansas any more. In fact a Irishman we ran into described it best when he stated "Did I just enter a theme park? I thought I'd have to buy a ticket to get into old town".

There is no doubt that Lijiang is definitely a tourist destination (some would say tourist hell). You can't walk through the main streets without using NFL running back-level dodging and weaving around all the tour groups (and you're still going to end up getting elbows in your ribs, shoulders in your back and your feet stepped on). We saw hordes of Chinese tour groups still being led around at 10pm, which has to be some kind of record. At night a couple of the more famous restaurant alleys felt more like Fraternity Row during pledge week, with people drunkenly hanging out of windows singing and the costumed workers all chanting trying to outdo each other to bring you in to their restaurant. Yuk, ick, and ugh. Get me out of here.

However like many tourist destinations, it has become that for a good reason. Old town is a picturesque blend of cherry blossoms, canals, stone bridges, and chinese lanterns. The endless maze of streets provide a charming place to lose yourself in for hours. And you CAN get away from the crowds; all it takes is a minimal effort to get out of the main streets and you're home free, wandering along the local homes and in our case, spending two hours trying to find this amazing restaurant we'd been to the night before.

The Petit Lijiang Bookcafe is restaurant/bookshop/jazz wine bar/travel agency run by a Belgian gentlemen and his Chinese wife. We happened upon it while "getting lost" in the back streets of Lijiang and stopped when Becca spotted a 5 year old version of Lonely Planet New Zealand on the shelf. (big deal you say? it is when you're unable to find a copy anywhere and need to figure out where you're going next...). We started by ordering drinks and got sucked in by the peaceful ambiance, friendly conversation and fantastic jazz and ordered dinner. Short of one or two meals in Beijing it was the best Chinese food we'd had on the trip. A must go place while in Lijiang; at the very least for a glass of wine and the best hash browns I've had since home.

My favorite place here in Lijiang though has to be the Black Dragon Pool Park. With its picture-perfect views of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, endless willow trees hanging over the water, flower-lined paths and numerous hidden grassy slopes to lay down on, it was the perfect place to relax. For one of the few times on our trip, we had that lazy Sunday afternoon we've sought and desired so much. Instead of feeling the need to do another "tourist must-see" or work on planning for New Zealand, we spent the day reading in the park and in my case napping and watching the clouds pass by overhead. Can't think of a more fitting way to enjoy Lijiang. The topper? While old town was jammed with people, the park (a 10 minute walk away) was nearly empty.

So in all, Lijiang (once we figured out how to escape the tourist chaos) has far exceeded our expectations. This is the first place in China we've seen with an actual nightlife (things were all still hopping when us two sticks in the mud headed for home at 10:30) and it has a little bit of something for everyone. It's a place where you can find madness and serenity all in a tightly bound package.

Brian

Petit Lijiang Bookcafe
No 50, Chongren Lane, Qiyi Street
0888-5111255
petitlijiangbookcafe@yahoo.com.cn
(your best bet is to to call them for directions.....)

Jingjing and Chacha foiled!

Who are Jingjing and Chacha you ask?

These are Jingjing and Chacha, the lovable characters the Chinese Internet police (police=jingcha hence the names) use to make sure you're not reading democratic musings, the non-sanitized news or other important things like porn. They've been our foil during our time in China; as a result we've been unable to check out OUR blog (or anything with a blogspot address) since we crossed the border.

However, thanks to some kindly Belgian folks we met here in Lijiang, we've finally got the weapon to defeat the mighty anime forces of Jingjing and Chacha. Anonymouse.org. It serves as a proxy and allows you to surf to your hearts content without having to worry about the Chinese hunting you down. Of course, an anonymous web savvy contact of ours has also pointed out that it's a popular tool amongst pedophiles as well. So if you're going to use it, please use it for good.

Posts about Lijiang and our trek to Tiger Leaping Gorge to come.

Brian

I'm back...

Becca has let me return to the blog, having done time served for the April Fool's fiasco. I think I'll stick to executing my April Fool's jokes in person from here on out.

So I hope you're ready for more low brow travel musings from everyone's favorite cynical world traveler. I'll be bringing you the latest from Lijiang, China after our return from hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Brian

The Spring City Delivers...

A quick post from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. We've fallen in love with it in our wanderings today. It helps that it's living up to its other nickname (The San Diego of China) and has given us a beautiful day in the 70's. But even in bad weather I think we would have fallen under its spell. There is a vibrant enegery to the place, with restaurants, cafes, and nice stores everywhere. The streets are clean and lined with trees(!) and flowers(!) and there are a mulitude of parks to enjoy. And best of all: no pollution, just a clear blue sky with a couple of wispy clouds. Our favorite area to wander was around the university, with a great green campus, a park with lakes, and all kinds of interesting looking restaurants. The only strange note was seeing more westerners in one afternoon than in our first three weeks here. We're so used to just being among Asians that it's very strange to see other people who look like you.

Actually, that will probably be the theme of the next two weeks. We're heading north to Dali, Lijiang, and Tiger Leaping Gorge with the potential for a detour or two. While these areas should provide plenty of natural beauty and potential for outdoor activities, they are unfortunately no longer undiscovered backpacker gems but part of the veritable tourist trail. I'm sure within a couple of days we'll be shaking our heads at the traveler cafes and shunning them again, despite the fact that I would have given my right leg to have found a place like that to eat and hang out in last week in Langmusi.

One last quick story. We got further supporting evidence of our culinary crowd theorem in which the sight of a crowd of natives (in any country) filling a restaurant or queuing up to buy a food demands that we give it a try. We were running some errands today and passed a little bakery stand with a shoving crowd at the counter. They seemed to be waiting for something to come out of the oven with a bunch of bags open and ready. Later when I was waiting in a line, Brian went back to check it out and though the crowd still made it difficult for him to see, he reported that they seemed to be some sort of buns that the people making them (in a non-stop assembly line behind the glass) seemed to be stuffing some sort of red leaf or something into. He was baffled.

However when we passed a third time and saw yet more people we knew we had to give it a go. The red stuff was unidentifiable....cabbage? leaves? swiss chard? what? We got an order of 6 hot out of the oven and took a bite.

Heaven.

Evidently these piping hot soft rolls, whose dough seemed to have some orange zest or something in it (similar to the zing in Hamentaschen for the MOT in the crowd) and who had been brushed on top with a sweet butter, were stuffed with some sort of concoction of rose petals and sugar. Really different and REALLY good. We didn't get any pictures this time but we are hoping to stop by the stand again when we pass through Kunming on our way back down to Hong Kong. If we get photographic evidence we'll post it here.

So we highly recommend Kunming. We could have stayed and explored longer and its the first place in China we could actually imagine ourselves living in for awhile.

Off on a 8 hour bus ride tomorrow to Lijiang!

Becca

Yak butter and stocking caps

We've just returned from a week out in the wild west of China. Not the lawless wild west vibe of Phnom Penh, but rather the frontier-town vibe I imagine from watching too many old episodes of Little House on the Prairie. (And actually, ironically, when you look on the map it was more like the very middle of china than the west....but we'll push on with the analogy anyway....)

We were in Xiahe and Langmusi, tiny towns/villages in the southwest corner of Gansu province. It was a fantastic break from the city tour we had been doing and went a long way towards refreshing our travel energies. We were near enough to the mountains of the Sichuan province to pretend we were in the Alps or Rockies (as well as to get to try out ALL our winter gear, such as it was). We'd love to return someday in the summer time though to see the grasslands in all their glory.

These towns were both high (almost 10,000 feet) and we really felt it trying to breathe, especially climbing stairs. The altitude made is quite COLD and it was very evident that we were a little early for tourist season. Though that led to some discomfort (and many things being closed) it was wonderful to see both places as the only westerners in town.

Xiahe is a long thin town and home of the Labrang monastery, the most important Tibetan monastery outside of Tibet. The monastery once held 4000 monks but was devastated during the Cultural Revolution. It is back up to 1,200 monks and had a bustling liveliness about it. The monastery is surrounded by a 3 km path of Tibetan prayer wheels (a very popular destination for the various Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims) and also serves to divide Xiahe into the Chinese Han/Hui half and the Tibetan half.

Langmusi was much smaller, just a short main street with a couple of neighborhoods building off of it and two monasteries across the river from each other. This had a similar feel to some of our visits in Laos; pigs roaming the streets, a lot dirty in places, etc. However it also had the same friendly feel that those places did. While not quite as modern as Xiahe was it had tons of charm and a beautiful background.

The week was fairly packed: arrive in Lanzhou on the overnight train from Xi'an, cab to the bus station, ride 6 hours out to Xiahe (including being unexpectedly dumped at a crossroads 34 freezing km from town). Then a couple of days later, take the bus 2 hours to Hezhou, change to another bus 3 hours to Langmusi, stay for two days, then bus 3 hours back to Hezhou and then 8 (painful) hours back to Lanzhou. Instead of giving you a blow by blow travelogue, we thought we'd just share some of our observations and highlights from the trip:

-- One of the best parts of this trip for us was being surrounded by a riot of colors and a large diversity of clothing and ethnicities. After the homogeneity of more mainstream China, this was a nice change and felt really exotic. The Tibetan clothing was very colorful (especially the women's) and incredibly distinctive. I really wanted to buy one of the huge coats that they wore like coats or cloaks, but finally decided that a) getting it home would be an issue and b) I wouldn't really have anywhere to wear it.

-- We were really struck by the friendliness of the people. Like anywhere in the world, when you get out of cities into smaller towns you have more of a chance to connect with people. In addition, we found the Tibetans in particular to be very friendly open, and curious.

-- In Xiahe we stayed at the Tara Guesthouse, a cute family run place just next to the monastery complex. The rooms were basic, but charming and the family was incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, though the rooms had character, they had no heat. We did have a stove in ours, but we didn't feel comfortable using it as at worst we were afraid of carbon monoxide (think Admiral Byrd) and at best we didn't need to be breathing any more coal smoke than already consumed on the trip.

-- When we checked into the guesthouse in Xiahe, we were informed that there was hot water for showers from 8-10 at night. We appreciated the info, but it was cold enough that we didn't feel under a compulsion to take a shower. However when the owner found us the second night to tell us the water had been heated up, he seemed so disappointed that we weren't going to shower (maybe they heated it up just for us?) that we promised him we would take one the next night. Well, that next evening came even more frigid than the former and we cursed our big mouths.

They were so pleased as they told us the water was ready that we smiled and headed off to meet our fate. The showers were in a little room across an open courtyard from where we were staying. So we took off a couple of layers and then shivered/sprinted across to the shower room. We entered to a cloud of steam (which was a good sign) and started to reluctantly strip off our clothes. That reluctance deepened when we saw the shower: it was warm/hot water to be sure, but it was coming out of the shower head in one thin dribble. We jumped in and used it to splash ourselves up and do a quick soap up and rinse and then teeth chattering tried to dry ourselves with our not-so-plush little travel towels. Let me tell you: if I have EVER wished for a bath-sized Egyptian cotton plush towel it was then. We threw our now-damp clothes back on, thanked the guesthouse keepers, and sprinted back to our room and under the covers. Mission accomplished. Somehow the rest of our stay they could never quite locate us at shower time. Go figure...

-- We also set a new personal record on this swing by each wearing the EXACT same outfit everyday, both day AND night. Yes, it was cold enough that we were sleeping in socks, pants, fleeces and stocking caps.

-- Like in Luang Prabang (in Laos), the internet cafe in Xiahe was full of monks, though in red robes instead of orange ones. This led to a couple of strange situations. The first was just the disconnect of watching the young monks play shoot 'em up computer games like Doom and Grand Theft Auto. I guess they're just young guys like any other, but you still expected them to be saying a blessing of forgiveness or something. The other strange situation came from the general oddity we represented. Throughout the time we worked there, monks would come and either stand behind us or sit right next to us and just stare at our screens intently for minutes on end. We'd say, uh, hello? or ni-how? and they'd kind of acknowledge us and then go right back to staring at our screen. It did make us a little self conscious about what we had up there though (had to curb that porn habit a little....). In one instance Brian tried to play revolutionary by going to the CNN website but the monk quickly lost interest and scooted away. (ed. In a good samartian moment, I spent 30 minutes helping a monk set up a new email account that someone had sent him. In Spanish. Needless to say we quickly switched languages on that one.)

-- One of our favorite moments in Xiahe occurred when we met a young monk, (a student at the prestigious philosophy college, the biggest of the monastery's 6 colleges) started a conversation with us and then invited us back into his dorm room. The students live seven to a room, each with a bed and bookcase of their own. The rooms are basic, but comfortable, and the monks have put up posters (mostly religious, but this dorm included small pics of Shaq and Jordan) to decorate. It was really cool to talk to him and find out more about the lives of these young monks.

-- Our primary eating establishment in Xiahe was the Nomad Cafe (our other sojourns having all ended in failure). This third floor restaurant was the local hangout of choice and by mid-afternoon, the window tables were packed with monks and Tibetan pilgrims drinking tea and looking down on the comings and goings below.

-- The Nomad was also where we were exposed to the highs and lows of Tibetan tea. The best: Tibetan black tea, which appeared to be a mug full of sticks, twigs, rock sugar crystals, dried berries, weird seed looking things, and other unidentifiable objects that none-the-less created a deceptively tasty brew. We spent several afternoons nursing these. The worst: Tibetan yak butter tea. What is yak butter tea? You might expect it to be a Tibetan tea with a tasty and refined dollop of yak butter placed inside. WRONG. What it would be more or less is a mug full of melted yak butter. Gag. Even Brian couldn't finish it. (ed. The taste was still in my mouth four days later)

-- Speaking of yak butter, it featured prominently at the monastery as well. The candles burning in honor at each of the temples are made of yak butter and give off a very strong and distinctive odor. I don't know that Crate and Barrel will be featuring them any time soon. More spectacularly, however, were the yak butter sculptures created for the recent New Years festivities. Now Brian and I consider ourselves to be relative butter sculpture connoisseurs being veterans of several trips to the Minnesota State Fair's dairy building with its butter carvings of the dairy princesses. However those are like finger paintings compared to Michaelangelo. These yak butter sculptures were intricately and delicately carved with unbelievably vibrant colors (though still that distinctive odor.....). Very cool.

-- I have to say that on this trip I have become quite the pro at the squat toilet. I can handle them all: porcelain, trench, ditch, hole, etc. (unlike my husband, who through some incredible combination of will power, mind-body cooperation, luck, and being a guy has only used one twice in 4+ months!!), and I have been able to manage even the ones in pretty distressing condition. However between Xiahe and Langmusi I had three episodes of 'hitting the wall'. This is where you approach not even the toilet but just the room/bldg where the toilet is (and in 2 of the 3 cases, it didn't look bad at all) and you just stop short, struck by a solid wall of stench and before you are even aware of what's happening your stomach has turned inside out and you retch and turn around and decide, you know, I don't really need to go to the bathroom that badly...... (ed. one of these locales is where I learned how to do #1 from the door frame. Even my horrible sense of smell was bowled over in that instance)

-- Langmusi was a wonderful place for us to visit and lived up to all our expectations and hopes in all ways except one (see below). It was nestled up against snow dusted mountains on one side, high grassland hills on another, and a red butte you'd swear was in Arizona on the third side. Really incredibly picturesque. After 3 weeks in big cities and fighting with pollution, etc. It was just fantastic for the two of us to get to spend a few days hiking around out in the hills and mountains and forests and streams. Very healing for the soul.

-- The one bummer in Langmusi was the fact that Leshas, home of the yak burger (as well as a number of good solid comfort western foods) was closed for remodeling. After having held out that yak burger to ourselves as a carrot through a number of less fun moments, we were seriously bummed. Guess we'll just have to go back in tourist season sometime...

-- We really liked the Chinese train system, despite the occasional horror story in hard sleeper. (That is, as long as we were able to avoid hard seat overnight journeys). Otherwise it has been convenient and (especially in the case of the soft sleeper) comfortable. The buses, on the other hand, have been a little bit more of a challenge. In Laos the buses were very old with large holes and more people and livestock than you know what to do with. In China it hasn't so much been that the buses are rickety, but just that we have been stuffed in with more people than you think can fit, two-thirds of whom are chain smoking unfiltered Chinese cigarettes. That can make for some very long bus-rides, especially over windy, bumpy roads.

I have more random tales, but this has gotten too long already. We'll add more stories in a general China/SE Asia roundup blog later...

Off to the Yunnan province!

Becca

Sartorial Sadness

Some quick and random musings while we get a bunch of stuff done today (like load photos from the past week and write a blog entry that will hopefully be up tomorrow.)

Part 1
We have to say, we're pretty pleased with the clothes (both the number and type of pieces and the actual items themselves) we chose before the trip. (Thanks to Danielle and Ryan and Laura for some fabulous advice!). However, we have been wearing them more or less nonstop for the past 10+ months. We have been making the occasional purchase to replace an item or two, but mostly it's the original REI purchases.

Needless to say, we are getting more than a little tired of wearing the same thing day in and day out. Heck, you're probably tired of seeing the same thing in every picture! Added to that, the clothes have been used hard and are starting to get a little threadworn with that ground-in grime that the sink washings can't quite conquer. However, we've recently been dealing with the ultimate indignity. As may or may not show in our pictures, we have been shedding a good deal of weight as we've traveled across Asia. Consequently, we're now finding that our clothes (and our rings) are falling off of us (which has lead to a couple of humorous occurrences, especially where Brian's pants and disappearing butt have been involved).

"So buy some new clothes" you are probably saying. (I definitely can hear the Moms saying that.) Unfortunately a) we're too stubborn, b) we're too cheap, and c) the options in our sizes (especially mine) are not overwhelming. I think we'll probably limp along with these as long as possible (at least until Australia/NZ) and then have a big bonfire while toasting their hard work when we return.

Part 2:
Oh...and random cultural experience of the day:

We had checked into a splurge hotel last night (of course, splurge to us here is $25/night*) because we were so desperate for a (lots of water pressure, actually in a bathtub not on the floor) hot shower and comfy room after the past week roughing it a little more out west (more coming on that tomorrow). This morning we checked out and stored our bags, planning to find either a) a cheaper place or b) find a posher place for the same money (as this place had turned out to be a little disappointing in that regard.)

However, a search of the neighborhood found only 3 other types of possibilities: 1) super schmancy rooms for $50-$100, 2) scuzzy rooms for $10-$15, or 3) great rooms for $12 or so that foreigners weren't allowed to stay in. So we resignedly (is that a word?) headed back to the Lanzhou Fandien to recheck-in.

Slight complication. In the interim we had gone to the Police Security Bureau to renew our tourist visas. (We had only gotten a 30 day visa instead of the 60 day one we requested in Hanoi so we needed to reup). They had taken our passports to do the paperwork and given us a receipt and photocopies of the passport and Chinese visa pages. So when Brian goes to check in again he gives them the photocopies and explains that our passports are at the PSB. No go.

No passport, no check in.

But we stayed here last night! You saw our passport/visa then and still have all the information in your record book.

No passport, no check in

But it's your government office that has our passport. We're just getting the visa extended.

No passport, no check in

Come on, how about we call the PSB and you can talk to the officer

No. Go away.

Hmmmm.....after contemplating a) fire bombing the check in desk or b) setting up camp in the (plush) lobby for the night (ed. with a six pack of Tsingtao and some particuarily smelly street food), we decided instead on c) retreating, marshalling our evidence (we found our receipt from the night before and baggage check claim slips) and explanations, and hoping return when someone else was manning the front desk.

Stay tuned for more of the sexy side of travel....

Becca

ps. We did in the end convince them to let us check in again.

*You may laugh at $25 being a splurge, but we just checked our records and that's officially the second highest price we've paid for a room in 4 months in Asia behind our illfated Tadfane 'resort' in Laos. Even Bangkok was only $22 and that included a huge buffet breakfast. And in Sihanoukville, we had a wonderful bungalow with a balcony and view of the sea, hammock, nice shower, mosquito net canopy bed, clean toilet, and great restaurant/bar/hang out area downstairs for only $10.

Becca clears things up (with an eyeroll at her mischevious husband)

Hey folks....

Given the number of comments and responses to the previous post, I thought I'd better step in quickly and point something out. LOOK AT THE DATE OF THE POST (and remember we have time zone challenges messing things up a little).

So many people predicted (even urged) that I would get pregnant during the trip that Brian thought he'd have a little bit of fun. (Remember, this is the same guy who PROPOSED to me on April Fools Day).

We are still unencumbered (and the ice cream in China isn't very good anyway).

The little ones will come, but we're going to wait 'til we return to the relative sanity and healthcare of home....

Becca

PS. Linc0ln? You're still wrong

Becca's Craving Ice Cream...

Just a little hint for y'all.

We'll be able to finish the trip, but come early October some things are definitely going to change. :-)

Brian & Becca

Nee-how from Xiahe

The high (2920m) home of Tibetan Monks playing Grand Theft Auto, colorful pilgrums spinning prayer wheels, yak butter tea and cold nights. We'll post all about it and more once we're in Lanzhou in about five days time. In the meantime, the fearless travelers are off to the even more remote and evidently higher locale of Langmusi. In the meantime, please enjoy (or at least contemplate) the latest rant on the blog.

Hope everyone is well and that your Spring is currently warmer than ours.

Brian

A very bad day...

This is an excerpt from my written journal that I keep in addition to what I write on the blog. Things have gotten significantly better since this day but I figured for posterity's sake I'd post this. It really covers a lot of the frustrations/difficulties that I faced in the first two weeks of China (especially after our love affair with SE Asia.) I apologize if it seems bit too whiney or negative for people but it is how I felt on that day. And sometimes, we all just have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Brian

3/19/06 Pingyao, China

I just ordered a beer. I felt like ordering a double Jameson's. Hell, I just still might.

We got into Pingyao this morning, arriving on our third overnight train in four nights. I was ok getting off of it and the room we settled into is nice but four hours later, I'm just exhausted. Over the past five days or so we've picked up the pace considerably and it's taking it's toll. Throw in the fact that China is just a tiring place to travel in general and I'm running very, very thin.

When we got here originally, we decided that to give ourselves more time that we'd push our flight from Hong Kong to New Zealand back a few days. That being done I'm not sure it was such a good idea. 45 days is going to have been a very long time to be here. It's easily the most difficult place we've traveled and throw in the fact that we're hitting our second wall (the first was 4 months into Europe) and it's not good.

So many aspects of China are draining. We've ran into a very fierce language barrier; especially in regards to the tonal aspects of the language. A bigger barrier than the language itself though has been people's inability to be helpful/understanding with our pronunciations. I know I don't know your language. But I'm trying to learn at least a little to be friendly and do simple things like order food and find the nearest bathroom. Throw me a friggin' bone.

We do our best to pronounce something correctly (esp. Becca) however if you're not 100% spot on (which is very difficult for just about anyone to do who isn't a native speaker) they just give you a blank stare. There appears to be no attempt to put a slight mispronunciation into proper context. Just a blank stare. This makes it very, very difficult to communicate at times and can become so exasperating that you just lose the will to live. Or at least the will to do anything other than run away and curl up in a cocoon someplace far away.

Just beyond draining. It's definitely the biggest language barrier we've encountered on the trip. To be fair I've wondered how much of it is timing; we're on our 22nd country and we've had as many languages (not counting local dialects). We probably could have used an extended stay in an English speaking country before tackling China head on. Or maybe we would have gotten "soft" and have an even more difficult time of it. For now though it remains as big of a hurdle as the Great Wall.

The other difficult part of China to date is the sanitation and person space issues. The sanitation here is in some ways worse than Laos and Cambodia. Sure there isn't the garbage in the street, open sidewalks, pig crap to avoid, etc. Instead they are replaced with personal habits those of us in the west just aren't used to (highlighted by people spitting with a shudder-enducing hocking that must start from their ankles) and the steady dark choking haze of polluted air. It's made what otherwise have been beautiful sights just as memorable for their environmentally destructive elements.

A classic example was Tai Shan. Hoofing it all the way to the top sometimes gives the recipient a view that stretches for over 200km to the ocean. Instead we were lucky to see faint glimpses of the valley approximately 8-10km away. The rest was shrouded in coal produced smog. Even here in Pingyao you can tell the sun is out; you just can't see it amongst the grey blanket that permeates our eyes and lungs.

Personal space being an issue isn't as shocking. Looking through the guidebook even the smallest sounding outposts are over a million people. It just gets exhausting when you're constantly jockeying for position for everything. Lines are an afterthought. You'd better be ready with elbows sharpened and fists a flying to keep your ground. It's not the "big city" aspect of this that bothers me the most; I've done just fine surviving a number of major metropolises both before and during this trip. What frustrates me to no end is the lack of common consideration given to the fellow person. This may just be a west v. east issue but it's one that rankles me to no end. I hate finding myself being THAT guy elbowing his way past a 80 year old grandmother to get on the train.

Becca forwarded an interesting theory; in addition to the social fabric tearing impact of the Cultural Revolution, with the one child policy there is an entire generation of people growing up as single children. As a result they are used to being the center of attention, they haven't had to be displaced by siblings, learn to play well with others, etc. I'm not sure if it's a right answer but it's a pretty interesting perspective.

Despite all of this and my sense of sensory overload/exhaustion at the moment, China has been at the very least an educational experience to date. Certainly a learning experience on how it truly feels to be a minority. Even at our previous stops in the trip if we were feeling too overwhelmed we could always huddle amongst the comfort of the packs of (mostly western) travelers. Here however the non-Chinese travelers are merely an afterthought. As well they should be I suppose; Chinese travelers make up something like 95% of the travel in China. A billion people can't be wrong, eh?

Hopefully the Gansu and Yunnan provinces will bring warmer weather & people, less smog and more tranquility. Or at the very least someplace where I can sit and enjoy my surroundings and do things like this without being immediately accosted. I tried to start this entry outside in an open space in a Pingyao courtyard only to be propositioned with various tourist trinkets multiple times within a five minute span. I ended up writing this instead in the safety of our hostel with a beer in hand. And you know what? That's more disappointing than anything else this trip has allowed me to experience.

Xi'an: The TC Warriors and the return of the Bangles

Another overnight hard sleeper brought us to the town of Xi'an. In our conversations with fellow travelers along the way, we weren't expecting much. People had pretty much just described it as a means as an end to visit the Terracotta Soldiers and then be off. With a population of over 6 million, we were expecting dirty, expensive and not much in the way of charm.

Instead, we found our first completely relaxing stop in China. One wouldn't expect to find it amongst the endless streams of pedestrians, buses, taxis and cars but we did. Xi'an was a very pleasant surprise. After getting off the train we (really for the first time of the trip) let ourselves get sucked in by the touts. (Becca kept saying "it's all good as long as you're using the touts instead of them using you.")The result in the end though was good; a centrally located hostel for the price we were looking for.

The center of Xi'an is inside of an ancient wall with the striking Bell Tower being ground zero. This ended up being a great area to wander around; lots of nice open public spaces, much better air quality than our previous stops, lively nightlife and incredibly clean. Throw in the incredibly tasty return of the cheap street food and we were very happy campers. It was also very nice to have a few days where we stayed in the same place. May not seem like much but it was a very needed chance to catch our breath. It was just nice to have the chance to actually sleep in a bed and prepare for our trip out west.

In our three plus days, we did a fair amount of exploring, including a trip to the surprisingly interesting and informative Shaanxi Museum. Within Xi'an itself though, the highlight was the Muslim Quarter. Not more than a quarter mile from our hostel was a 5-6 square block area where Chinese Muslims and amazingly good cheap food reigned. We made countless trips there, snacking our way through the area and just soaking in the scene. Very similar to the various ethnic enclaves found in countless cities around the world but very cool.

Outside of Xi'an, our trip was an obvious one. We joined up with Leslie (one of the Canadians we'd done the tour in Datong with) and headed out to see the Terracotta Warriors. Instead of paying 300 Yuan/person for one of the tours with no guarantee other than the fact that we'd be stopping at plenty of jade and pottery factories, we elected to take the public bus out to the warriors. Pretty uneventful ride though there was a revolving set of tour guides who'd get on, say their bit about the upcoming attraction (the stops were all tourist attractions along the way) in Mandarin and jump of. Needless to say they weren't on the return trip.

A few random thoughts on the visit:

- The introductory video explaining the origin of the Terracotta Warriors was actually quite helpful but I kept getting distracted by production values that gave Flash Gordon and Clash of the Titans a run for their money. I kept waiting for Medusa to come out of nowhere and turn the onscreen warriors to stone. Or maybe they did...

- Even though you are expecting it, the scale of the army just blows you away

- Two interesting points about the warriors that I didn't know before. The warriors were actually originally pillaged in the peasant revolt (not surprisingly they revolted since they'd just spent the past 40 years building the tomb) and the ones found had been scattered about. Also, I had no idea that they'd all been painted. It just increased the level of respect I had for the people that made them; not only did they do different faces, armor, hairdo's, etc. but they painted them. Very impressive.

- We had an interesting discussion about the amount of work (40 years by a ton of people) and the value of something like this. In so many ways (much like many of the churches in Europe) it's a waste of human talent for something that probably doesn't need that level of extravagance. It makes a great tourist attraction but was it really such a good thing? Becca did raise the valid point that at least in this case, the Emperor decided to have the warriors made instead of following past (and some future) precedent and just throwing in live warriors, concubines, etc. A kind and gentle despotic emperor I suppose.

- The 4 hours we spent at the facility had us around more Western people than we've been around at one time since Denmark. I'm VERY happy we have NZ and OZ as a bridge between Asia and heading home. Not that it's good, bad or otherwise, it's just a shock hearing that much English being spoken and seeing that many similar people in one place. A bizarre feeling and one that made it really hit home how much we've been out of our element for the last four months. And how much I've enjoyed it. And hated it. More on that in a later post.

And for those of you bored enough at work to still be reading, why the Bangles reference? Evidently all these years of communist rule have truly set back Chinese pop culture. Or at least fashion because the streets of Xi'an have been a treat. The 15-24 population has been full of really tacky wide collar shirts, permed hair, spiked hair, permed female mullets and I think even the occasional set of leg warmers. Just frightening. We fully expected to see Ratt warming up in one of the open courtyards...

So congrats to Xi'an, somehow a welcoming haven disguised in a town of six million. Thank you for giving us a chance to recover and get ready for the adventures ahead in the west. My stomach is already anticipating the Yak Burgers and yak butter tea with glee.

Brian

Touristy Update

(More in the catching up from Xi'an series. Hopefully we can even get Xi'an up by tonight. After that we're off to yak country.)

In amongst all the overnight trains (I'm writing this having just completed our fourth in six nights), we have actually done a little touristy exploring. Here's some quick thoughts on two of our stops:

Our Day Trip from Datong with CITS. We went to Datong in an effort to see the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery. Datong was an ancient capital of the country and former seat of power. As we got off the train, we went searching for CITS (the Government run tourist agency) as they were recommended for a tour and potential train tickets going forward. Instead the CITS man came to us, whisking us away like the scary touts we usually avoid and signing us up for a tour the next day.

The Yungang Caves contain over 50,000 Buddhist statues that cover an area over a kilometer long. The most impressive of them though are the larger Buddhas, the greatest of which measured in at over 18 meters (over 54 ft). Also of note was how the caves were carved; they were developed from the top down. As a result a few of the caves go a little lower than ground level but the accuracy in which these caves were developed is certainly breathtaking. The caves ranked right up there as one of the most impressive cultural sights we've seen in Asia.

From there the tour headed to the Hanging Monastery. The Monastery is over 1400 years old and is just up on the side of a cliff in a now dammed valley. The rooms were all built to the contours of the cliff face. The real prize though is the insides of the rooms; intricately carved statues of old religious figures, including the Three Religions Hall where Buddha, Laotzu and Confucius all sit side by side. Of course with it being China, this sign was a requirement as well.

The CITS tour ended up being very good. Our tour guide had good English, showed us the sights and was willing to go into surprising depth answering our questions. It was also a relatively inexpensive way to see both the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery and meet five other great people (two Canucks, two Aussies and a Japanese woman) that we were able to swap stories with from stop to stop.

Offsetting the cool things to see in Datong however was the ungodly pollution. Datong is coal country which was evident in every attempted breath. (The caves are actually across the highway from a coal mine!). We couldn't get out of town fast enough. The best anecdote from this was when we couldn't decide whether to open the window in our hotel room to try and air out the heavy cigarette smoke smell or keep it closed to try and keep out the coal dust.

Our next stop was the town of Pingyao. Surrounded by a completely intact 6km Ming dynasty city wall, it was an example of a well-preserved traditional Han Chinese city. For people who had limited time and wanted a slice of history it would be a perfectly fine place to go. For me though it was full of unappealing tourist restaurants and stands selling "traditional" trinkets...basically another tourist trap.

(ed note: while I thought it was a tourist trap too (a la Carcassonne in France, etc), I also found the streets very picturesque and enjoyed walking around the maze of the city and seeing sights like these.)

The one highlight was watching Becca become famous; she purchased a set of paper cuttings from an older lady the first day we were there (didn't say it was all junk). The next day we went back by and she wanted a picture with Becca. By that afternoon, Becca was a famous happy customer in a 8x11 photo next to the lady set up in the street. Good stuff.

So there you go. A Cliff Notes version of two of our stops. If you want to learn more, check out the links or the pics when we get them up. More general thoughts on China to follow from yours truly down the road.

Cheers-

Brian

Jumping into the deep end...

(In Xi'an now, after stops in Datong and Pingyao. This entry covers our exit from Beijing before that. We will hopefully get caught up soon. )

Over the past 36 hours we had three incredible experiences giving us a hardcore immersion into the culture of today's China.

Brian had been intrigued by descriptions of Taishan, one of the 5 sacred Buddhist peaks in China. So we decided to take a one-day detour east before heading west out of Beijing towards Xi'an and then on to mountain country. Our plan was ambitious: take a night train from Beijing to Taishan, arrive in the morning, climb up and down the peak, then take a night train back to Beijing and on to Datong, which is where we needed to be that evening. However when we went to the train station in Beijing to make our tickets, they would only sell us the tickets to Datong. They kept insisting we could only purchase any return tickets there in Datong. While I still remain convinced that there must be some way to arrange round-trip tickets, we clearly weren't getting that communicated. Brian really wanted to climb Taishan, so we decided to buy the tickets there anyway, optimistically believing that we would be able to get tickets back. [this dear readers, is called foreshadowing.....]

No Beauty Sleep For Us

Our tickets from Beijing were in hard sleeper class, one of 4 kinds of train classes (along with soft sleeper, soft seat and hard seat). We had been travelling by soft sleeper so far, which is like (or slightly nicer than) the couchette cars in Europe: 4 bunks in a cabin with a table, thermos of hot water, and fake flower. Hard sleeper could be best described as a dormitory in a train car. There are bays of 6 beds (3 stacked) around a table, but open to the corridor instead of in a compartment. And there are probably 5 sets of those in the car. Soft seat is just like a normal nice train car with seats and Hard seat (according to what we'd heard and the pictures we seen) were like wooden park benches.

Hard sleeper is a perfectly fine way to travel and is in fact the preferred choice for most Chinese and budget traveller as they are usually significantly less than soft sleeper and about the same price as soft seat. However they are definitely a different world. You have no privacy and are privy to all the slurping, hocking, spitting, eating, trash dropping and smoking going on around you. I was a little concerned about it simply because we would only be on the train (from boarding to getting off) for 7 hours and I was hoping for some sleep before climbing. We had the bottom bunks so we stuffed our bags down under the beds, grabbed eye masks, and tried to snuggle down into bed. This was a little bit of a challenge as people were walking up and down the aisle (and talking) for most of the time (especially during the 6 stops we made during the night when people got on and off) and because the lights stayed at least partly on all night. We were roused by the conductor at 5:30 am and got ready to hit the ground running.

As soon as the train arrived we got into line to get tickets back to Beijing that night. Silly, silly rabbits. (To be fair, we had actually figured the odds to be 3-1 against). Nothing tonight or the next night??? Um...what about hard sleeper?.... Meanwhile the line behind me full of folks looking to buy a ticket on the next train was getting exceedingly restless. So I stepped out of line, wrote up another piece of paper with characters and dates and tried again. Still no escape from Taishan. Brian and I powwowed a bit and then got back in line again. Finally we were able to find that there WERE tickets back to Beijing; it's just that they were hard SEAT tickets on a night train. Given the choice of a potentially miserable night or falling 3+ days behind on our itinerary we opted for the band-aid removal strategy: get the pain over quickly.

So with (undesirable) tickets in hand we stashed our luggage at the station and headed up toward the mountain.

Working Out On Nature's Stairmaster...

The climb itself was a neat thing to do. We arrived in early morning and started up the path along with many other Chinese of varying ages and apparent purposes. Some seemed more like tourists, some like pilgrims. We also ran into a steady stream of people on the way down who had been up at mountain top for sunrise. (We had actually considered doing that, but our tight schedule didn't allow it.)

The climb is in two halves, covering 7.5 kilometers (~4.5 miles), 1300 meters (~4300 feet) of elevation gain, and 6660 steps. In the middle there is a complex with hotels and a cable car up to the top peak (which on principle we couldn't even consider). The second half is much steeper and more intimidating than the first half, especially the final section, "The 18 Bends". You feel like you are climbing straight up into the sky and can get some good vertigo going when you look back down.

The path up was paved the whole way, and led through forests and rocky mountainsides. All along the way Chinese characters representing poetry, epigraphs, wordplay and other sayings were carved into rocks and cliffs to inspire and entertain. Vendors and bathrooms made frequent appearances as well. While it was actually quite pretty, I think both of us were a bit disconcerted about "climbing a mountain" on a fully paved path. We're much more used to the rougher mountains of N. America and Europe. On the other hand, without stairs we would have had a tough time making it up the last section.

The people watching was great. We were astounded by how many people made the climb up and down in their best clothes, including suits and ties, dress shoes, and heels. Crazy. But it did impress on us the importance of the place for many people. We made 3/4 of the climb together with 3 Chinese college students who chatted with us and tried to translate some of the rock carvings for us. They were very cute and friendly and glad for the chance to practice their English. Between our dictionary and phrase book and their electronic dictionary we were mostly able to make ourselves understood.

The only sour note of the climb was when we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by 75 American college students studying abroad in Shanghai who were out on a field trip. We decided to slow down and let them all pass, as we a) didn't want to be confused as being part of their group and b) preferred to observe the locals to 20-year-old Americans.

The complex of temples and restaurants and hotels at the top is a little overwhelming, but we did find a neat Tibetan-influenced temple that was very different from what we've come to expect from SE Asia. We're looking forward to seeing more of that as we travel west. From the top (1520 meters) there is supposed to be a spectacular view. On a clear day you can see over all the way to the sea. Unfortunately, we had so much smog and pollution that we couldn't even see the town of Taian at the bottom of the mountain. :-(

The way up, though tiring and a little tough was actually easier than we expected and we made it in less time than we thought it would take. Confidence buoyed, we headed back down the mountain in high spirits after picnicking and exploring the temples on the top of the mountain. About an hour into it our knees and calves and assorted other muscles were letting us know that this was WAY more stairs than they were used to. And we still had two more hours to go...). Three days later we're still sore.

We capped off the day with a fantastic dumpling dinner in a little local dive. We had been told that 1/2 jin (about 0.25 kg) was about right per person so we tried two different 1/2 jin portions. When the food came there was no way we could eat it all, even after climbing up and down Taishan. Meanwhile the two petite Chinese girls at the table next to us each ate a 1/2 jin and an entree. Unbelievable.

When Push Comes To Shove

As our departure time approached Brian noticed that I was getting my Sunday "I'm already thinking about work" look again: hunched shoulders, tense neck, stress on face etc. I realized he was right. I was just dreading how bad the ride had the potential to be: 8 hours of hard wood benches, seatmates chain-smoking unfiltered cigarettes, rice bags taking up floor space and people piled everywhere. In reality, it was nowhere near this bad, though lord it wasn't good.

Our first clue came as the departure was called out and people filed through the gate to get their ticket checked. As soon as they were past the gate they RAN down the gangway to the platform. We could see how this was going to go, but we were too tired and too sore from the climb to play along. When we eventually gimped our way to the edge of the platform we saw a huge crowd already forming quasi-lines.

As soon as the train pulled up the lines disappeared as 50+ people frantically tried to push and shove their way onto our train car. Now this is a car with assigned seats, so I was a little confused by the rush (though not surprised). However as the scrum continued, it started to dawn on us that we might have trouble even getting on the train. Just then I noticed that they had opened the doors at the other end of the carriage and raced down to that end with some of the remaining crowd. I just had a chance to see Brian's hat disappear up into the train before I focused all my attention to shoving and pulling my way up into the doorway.

Once I got up into the car I realized the magnitude of my error. I had just been focused on "get on the train" and then I figured I could walk through the car back to Brian and find my seat. What I hadn't reckoned on was the fact that the car and seats had already been full and now 50+ people and their luggage had just been stuffed into it. I was smashed against 10 other people in the entryway and didn't foresee myself moving any time in the next couple of hours. And without any way to contact Brian (who was probably similarly smashed on the other end of the car) I was worried that he'd be worried that I didn't make it on the train.

After a bit we surged forward a little and I was just able to see down the aisle over heads if I stood on my tiptoes. All of a sudden Brian's head appeared as he stood up on a seat evidently looking for me. I grabbed our phrase book and waved it above my head hoping that he'd at least be able to see that.

After 15 minutes or so the people in front of me began pushing and shoving forward towards the aisle as other people were trying to force their way back towards us. Evidently what was happening was the people with seat reservations were slowly displacing the opportunists from the far end back towards us as my group was trying to get in to get to their seats. Over the next 25 minutes I moved an inch at a time, getting bashed by luggage and shoulders and elbows and dragging my bags behind and in front of me. People were surprised to see me (a foreign woman) and tried to help me out a little or at least shared a smile and laugh with me. (While Brian was waiting for me, he struck up a conversation with a Chinese student who said, "First time in hard seats? Quite an experience, isn't it?") A couple of times they tried to lift my bag up so that it would pass more easily, but that pretty much just put the backpack on my head or neck, which didn't work so well.

I did eventually and with much relief make it to Brian, who had quickly found and claimed our reserved seats (he choose the right door to enter), and discovered that the scrum in the aisle had been so crazy, that my watch had been torn off my wrist. Ah well, one more thing to replace.
(ed. note: while I will be the first to admit that I did indeed choose the right door to enter, I was only able to actually board the train after grabbing on to one of the bars on the outside and with both bags attached somehow execute a modified Iron Cross while leaping over two people trying to board the train then convince the drunken businessmen in our seats that they were indeed ours).

The rest of the trip was uncomfortable and long, but nothing that extraordinary. The seats were upholstered, not wooden, and there was room for the big bags above. And thankfully, most people went out into the entrance way to smoke. The lights did stay on all night and we were on seats with very upright backs so you couldn't really find a way to sleep on them, but at least we had seats. At least 30-40 people spent the 8 hours standing and falling asleep on their feet.

All in all, not necessarily a 36 hours we would care to repeat frequently, but a great chance to experience things that are part of everyday experiences for many Chinese.

Westward ho!

Becca

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I hope everyone takes the day off, has a pint or ten of Guinness and just generally embraces everything Irish.

Our St. Patty's Day was spent climbing the sacred Chinese buddhist mountain Tai Shan. After 6 hours, 15 kilometers and over 8000 feet in elevation changes, we treated ourselves to an unhealthy amount of dumplings and local beer. The kicker?

The chopsticks were green.

Erin go Bragh.

Brian

PS An actual coherent blog entry from the wife about the hike to follow.