Our New Office

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008. We had sort of a bad morning leaving Xian.

First, we had to get a ride to the airport. A little bit of laziness on my part (I didn’t want to walk around on the street trying to hail a cab with my bags) and a mis-understanding with the concierge led to us over-paying about 40 yuan for the cab ride to the airport. While it was convenient, I didn’t start off my morning as well as I would have liked to.

Next, we got to the airport, and after checking in and making our way through security, we found a nice comfortable looking coffee shop. Coffee is considered a luxury in China (very often purchased by visiting westerners), and it is therefore very expensive. We’ve never found a cup of coffee for less than $2 (even just a simple cup), and it’s not uncommon to pay $6 – $8 here for a latte. Obviously, we’ve tried not to drink coffee very much, but Sara and I were craving coffee today. We sat down and ordered a latte, an espresso (same price for both, go figure), a ham and egg sandwich, and french toast. Total cost – $22. Granted, this is the airport, and when you compare it to the U.S. it’s OK, but in China it’s ridiculous.

French toast, cinnamon toast, and ketchup?!

My ham and egg sandwich was nothing special. It was a fried egg and a small piece of ham on four slices of bread with some cucumber slices. The addition of cucumber was unusual to me, but acceptable. Sara’s french toast was completely screwed up. Two small pieces with a big dab of ketchup right in the center! Ketchup on french toast isn’t *bad*, but it isn’t good either – I tried it. Sara was very perturbed (understandably). We left feeling ripped off and a little hungry.

Fortunately, our luck changed. For some mysterious reason we again flew first class (twice in one trip)! I hope that this continues, but there’s a good chance this will be my last first-class flight for a long time. Once the novelty wears off, it’s still an airplane ride. I certainly wouldn’t pay twice as much to enjoy it (at least not until I’m filthy rich). There was also some incredible turbulence during the flight. My laptop almost flew out of my hands a couple of times.

When we arrived in Shanghai, all we wanted to do was crash. Neither one of us was feeling very well, and our hotel, The Crowne Plaza Fudan Shanghai, was simply too comfortable not to enjoy. We upgraded our room to include access to the Club level – free drinks during happy hour, a “free flow of juice, tea, coffee, and water” all day long, snacks, free wireless internet (HUGE), and free breakfast for 200 yuan a day. It was a steal. As expensive as this hotel is, it’s still inexpensive compared to the hotels in Shanghai’s city center (we’re about a 40 minute cab ride away from the Bund, essentially the center of the city).

Because we’re feeling poorly, and because we’ve been touring at what has seemed to be a non-stop pace, we made a pact to take tomorrow off and enjoy our evening.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008. The finest moment of my day was the instant that I first saw the Terra-Cotta Warriors. I walked into the large building that covers the dig site, worked my way through the crowd to the railing, and saw thousands of ancient warriors standing at attention. “Awe-struck” might be the best description for this moment.

While I won’t bore you with all the details, here’s what you need to know about the mighty Terra-Cotta Warriors:

No two faces are the same in the Terra-Cotta army.

• While every warrior’s body is basically the same, every face on every head is different.
• The body of each warrior is hollow, but the warriors were not made using a form. They were made hollow by coiling rope-like strands of clay into the basic shape of a torso, and then shaped from there. Each and every warrior was made using this pain-staking, time-consuming process.
• The warriors were buried upon their completion in 210 BC, and since that time they were mostly undisturbed. They were forgotten completely by history and only re-discovered in 1974, by a simple farmer digging a well during a painful regional drought.
• The warriors were created to protect the emperor’s tomb (about one mile away from the warriors).
• Every stone warrior was buried with a complete set of weaponry, the idea being they would be ready to fight in the after-life.
• At this point, no warriors have come back to life and haunted tourists that visited the site (I asked our tour guide to be sure).

The Terra-Cotta warriors are a site to behold for sure, but the musuem is a little boring. Once you’ve had some time to take it all in, the rest of museum is worth a passing look.

Since we officially paid for a “tour,” we also had a chance to visit a real-life Terra-Cotta Pottery factory(!) and a real-life silk factory (!), each with a variety of incredibly over-priced goods. While I was tempted to purchase a one-half scale Terra-Cotta warrior for my Mom (she could put it in the garden), my concerns about it coming to life and consuming all the staples in lower-half of the pantry at my parents house prevented me from forking over my credit card.

Monday, October 20th, 2008. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you fly half-way across the world, make a plan to see one of China’s finest history museums, get up early to arrive as soon as the door opens, and then find out that the museum is closed on Mondays! Ever see that scene in “National Lampoon’s Family Vacation” where “Wally World” was closed? At least we could laugh about it. Maybe next year kids…

Xian’s Shaanxi Museum, one of the main attractions in Xian, was closed. Bummer.

So instead of visiting the history museum, we walked over to see the 1500-year-old Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was very pleasant – while the weather was dreary, the pace was slow and for the first time in a few days we didn’t feel like we were stuck in a tourist trap. We bought some cool souveniers and gifts for not very much money before heading over to Xian’s historic city wall.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a landmark built nearly 1400 years ago in Xian, the ancient capital of China.

The city wall, originally built in 582 AD, is one of Asia’s treasures. It represents one of the oldest standing city walls in the world, and it’s an insight into ancient civilization. It’s impressive, it’s inspiring, and it’s a wall! Nothing more. Yet just like the Great Wall north of Beijing, I was proud to have been their. Patton said something like “fixed fortifications are a monument to man’s stupidity,” and while that might be true I find them to be a monument to a very basic, human desire – “Don’t touch my stuff while I’m gone.”

We finished up the day visiting De Fa Chang, Xian’s most famous dumpling restaurant. For 250 yuan (about $40), we enjoyed an 18-course meal of fried, steamed, and boiled dumplings along with soup, tea, and appetizers (including some delicious snap peas). If you’re in Xian, you have to go.

One of the more interesting aspects of Xian – at least for us – was the near total absence of westerners. We might have seen a dozen white people during our day in the city, as compared to Beijing where westerners (of all colors) are a dime-a-dozen. At the dumpling restaurant, as we were being escorted to our table, the entire room shifted their focus to us. Just for a moment, the crowd went quiet and everyone looked our way before returning to their meals. During dinner, as each course was brought, people would make a point to watch us. Would we like what we were served? Would we eat it all? Would we drop dumplings on the table because we didn’t know how to use chopsticks? What did we order, anyways? These seemed to be the popular questions.

It’s an odd feeling to be the focus of the crowd, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked it a little. While I realize it’s got absolutely nothing to do with me, my personality, or my “famous profile,” it’s fun to pretend that I’m a famous and/or important person. If only that were true…

Sunday, October 19th, 2008. The weather in Beijing has been steadily declining the last few days, and when we arrived in Xian (about 570 miles south-east-ish of Beijing) the weather wasn’t any better. In fact, it was worse. Rainy, muggy, and a lot of “fog.” Fog is in quotes because, well, in China, you have no idea if it’s pollution or clouds that make the clouds.

The good news, however, is that the main attraction in Xian for us – the Terra-cotta Warriors – is indoors. We’re also excited to see the Shaanxi history museum – another indoor attraction. The only out-doors attraction we’re planning to see is the well-preserved city wall, Asia’s oldest original city wall built around 600 AD. It might sound a little dorky to visit a wall, a museum, and some stone warriors, but so be it. This is what the guide book recommends.

The bright spot in an otherwise dreary-looking day – we got to fly FIRST CLASS from Beijing to Xian! Not sure why, not sure how, but we were sitting at the very front of the airplane. I got a glass of water, a cup of green tea, and a snack (appetizers basically) while enjoying a HUGE amount of leg room and a very helpful flight attendant. This trip may have ruined me – it’s hard to imagine sitting in coach after this experience.

The taxi ride into Xian was exceptionally long. There wasn’t a lot of traffic – hardly any in fact – but it still took more than an hour. When we left the airport, a woman followed us for a while shouting “HELLO!” and motioning for us to follow her to her car. Considering the fact that it would be a dumb thing to do to get into a stranger’s car anywhere in the world, it baffles me as to why this woman is trying to convince us to follow her. Evidently, it’s worked for her in the past.

Travel Tip #88: Ignore anyone who approaches you at the airport and wants you to follow them (anyone not in uniform, that is).

Our hotel in Xian is excellent – the Hyatt Regency. I know what you’re thinking – it’s expensive, right? Yes and no. While it’s quite a bit more than some of the “budget” options in Xian, it’s still only $130 a night. Even more importantly, it was the least expensive hotel in Xian that recieved consistently good ratings on TripAdvisor.com.

By the way, have I mentioned how awesome Trip Advisor is? Amazing. If you’re planning a trip, go visit the site. In fact, even if you aren’t planning a trip, go bookmark the site right now so you don’t forget about it. I’ll wait – go ahead.

Trust me – you’ll thank me later.

Our short trip to Xi’an after Beijing was quite fun, despite the fact that there are only a few things to do there. It was a lot quieter than Beijing and a little bit more manageable in terms of walking to places and navigating crowds.

There are several memories I will keep from our stay here. The first has to be our dumpling extravaganza the first night we were there. I didn’t really comprehend what a Chinese dumpling was before my stay in China, I’ll admit. But now I’m very well-versed in all the different sizes, shapes, colors, folding methods, and of course the fillings. The pork and cabbage combo is my favorite:)

We went to the infamous restaurant, Dumpling Banquet, and had an 18-course dumpling meal, which isn’t as much food as it sounds. Of the 18 varieties we really liked five, thought four were okay, and ate the other nine just to be polite. That last statement isn’t true actually…I didn’t touch a couple of them at all.

Either way, it was a good meal.

My second memory is the tour guide experience and the cab ride in Xi’an that I wrote about once before.

My third memory is the hour or so that Jason and I walked around the city wall and took goofy pictures of ourselves. See below.

Jason is acting like a guard. If anyone can tell us what he’s doing wrong you’ll get a prize.

Last, of course, is our journey to the Terra Cotta Warrior museum. I’ll let Jason fill you in on the details of that because he knows more about the history, etc.  But me, I know more about the cool statues at the “museum.”