Xi'an: Part 1

On Sunday I packed my things for my final school sanctioned trip to Xi'an. I bundled together some snacks, books, iPod, DS, and clothes and headed downstairs where Claresa and my host mom were awaiting us. We took a van down to the train station and boarded a train which appeared to be straight out of a Harry Potter book. We all situated ourselves and enjoyed conversation until it was lights out and we tried to get some comfort out of our rock hard cots.

In the morning we found ourselves in the ancient city of Xi'an. It was one of the four capitals of China during ancient times during the Tang, Zhou, Qin, Han, and Sui dynasties. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel we headed to a Mausoleum from the Tang dynasty. Within its halls were many miniture sized terra cotta figurines. Apparently there had been more antiquities in the tomb but they were stolen by grave robbers for the most part. It was a neat little museum but most of the halls had not yet been opened to the general public. We climbed to the top where it was explained that the landscape surrounding the tomb had been picked because of its feng shui. Bullshit if you ask me, but whatevs. On the way down I made a comment to Claresa explaining that I should have brought my shovel so that we too could try to make a steal at some golden treasure. She replied "Alex you're a dick" and was immediately embarassed because she wanted to say "Alex you're a digger?" Hilarity ensued.

Next stop was a shameless attempt to make us buy stuff. I almost bought an "authentic terra cotta miniture" but was told by Claresa to hold off because we could buy similar stuff later for much cheaper. Our tour guide tried to get us to purchase things, clearly on commission, but to no avail. We left the place with pictures of what they were selling but with our short supply of kuai in hand.

Soon we arrived at the site where the full sized terra cotta warriors were. Alright, story time. So the man who first discovered the warriors was a poor rural farmer named Mr. Yang who stumbled upon the underground wonders whilst trying to dig a well. He reported it to the government and thought that his simple life would go on much as it had in the past. Nope. The government takes away their land and pretty much destroys their village to make way for the tourist attraction. No compensation. Enter Queen Elizabeth. She finds the discovery amazing and it blows her royal socks off. The prude decides she's entitled to inquire about the discoverer and wants to meet him. The Chinese authorities are like "Why? He's just some farmer." She persists, not realizing how much damage she will do to this poor man's life. The police seek out our Mr. Yang and mistakenly arrest him because they thought that's what she wanted. Eventually the misunderstanding is straightened out. The government then realizes they need him as part of the attraction. Diplomats and world leaders from all over go to see the site and want to meet this Mr. Yang. The Chinese make him learn some English prior to President Clinton coming to meet him. They sit him down and teach him two basics "How are you" and "Me too," concluding that Clinton will say good. Of course this rural farmer has no fucking idea who Clinton is. So when President Clinton shakes his hand, Mr. Yang mistakenly pronounces How wrong and says "Who are you." Bewildered by the question, Clinton good heartingly says "I'm Hilary's husband," to which Mr. Yang says "Me too." Will his humiliation never cease?

Now you can see the poor man being forced to autograph these overpriced tourist books in a shop near the site. He sits behind a desk pissed off at the world for not letting him do what he loves which is farming. I was told that the government still allows him to farm a couple days of the week. Fuck. Behind this desk he holds a fan in front of his face and a placard which says "No photos." This poor humble farmer's life was completely ruined by the discovery which one would have thought would be a beautiful thing.

So we saw the warriors. Rows and rows of these things in good condition. It was truly an amazing site once you put the story of Mr. Yang out of your mind. There was but one left which had any of its color and it was hidden amongst the things as a sort of Where's Waldo challenge. There is much there, but pictures do a much better job of explaining what we saw so I'll let them speak for themselves.

Tea time! We went to a sweet tea house which up until this point had been unknown to us. Wuhan does not have a very good tea culture so its hard to find such a place. The only other time I've experience tea culture was a visit I made to an artist's studio where he shared stories and a wide variety of teas from all over China. This is something I hope to bring back with me to America. I want to have a tea room in my next apartment complete with Asian styled art and my own tea table.

That evening we were able to go see a performance at this amazing dumpling theatre place which had been patroned by the Clintons, France's Jacques Chirac, etc. Our tour guide managed somehow to get us the table front and center. So, we walk in with our shitty travelling clothes in front of this audience that has obviously dressed up nicely for this occassion. After our middle finger of an entrance we sat down and began to enjoy the meal. Dumplings of all sorts of fillings and shapes we presented to us. The form that the dumpling was made into was an attempt to inform you of its filling. For example, the pork dumpling was sculpted into the image of a pig's face. The show itself was pretty good too. It was a variety of music and dance which when accompanied with beer is a decent way to enjoy your meal. We hesitated when it was time to leave wondering if we should take a moment for some photo ops, but when we saw all the old tourists from America go up on stage we decided we were better than that.

Kurt and I decided that evening to hit the bar street in Xi'an. It was kind of lame because it was Monday night. Basically we just bar hopped to make the bouncers or whatever they were happy and stop calling out broken English to entice us into their businesses. Most of the night was awkward because we were one of the few people out and all attention was on us. We made the best of it and had some really decent conversation and did some brainstorming for the comic I'm currently working on. The talk definitely helped iron out a few of the details I've been struggling with.

Well, that's day one. Tomorrow I'll write about the next day when we made a trek up to Huashan.