Xi'An - The Immortal Army

After we took the 8 hour train back to Beijing we had to stay another night in our hostel there before continuing on to Xi’An. We got up early that morning to make another attempt at buying train tickets. I found buying the tickets to Harbin slightly traumatic. The line was ridiculously long and people don’t queue well so it was hard to decide what constituted being in the line and what didn’t, at one point there was an announcement and the window closed followed by another opening a few minutes later. A lot of people got annoyed and left at that point but, with my luxury of having no idea what was going on I stayed in the queue and actually managed to jump up a bit in the confusion. I had no idea what was so special about this line (it was the Window for Foreigners) or why I was the only white person in the line. And why it even was the window for foreigners when the ticket agent only spoke Chinese. Sigh. Anyhoo, this second time around was ever so much easier. The line at the window was only a couple people deep and I once again managed to buy the tickets we needed using my limited Chinese. I even managed to ask for a soft sleeper car.

That evening we had to go to one of Beijing’s three other train stations. I have never, ever been in a train station that large. It was easily twice the size of DC’s Washington National airport. We boarded our train which was actually headed for Lhasa and managed to squeeze our bags into the tiny train compartment which we shared with a very nice couple from Beijing. The trip was pretty uneventful. Our train didn’t leave until 9:30pm so we went right to sleep.

Once in Xi’an we decided after much deliberation to trust the English speaking guy who wanted to be our driver. Turns out that was the right choice. He ended up not only being very trustworthy and giving us a good deal on being our driver for the day, he took us to a couple cool places we would have otherwise missed.

Our driver first took us to the Banpo village excavation site/museum. The entire way there we thought he was taking us to a bamboo village and so had a moment of “ahhh” when we got there. First discovered in 1953, Banpo contains the remains of several well organised Neolithic settlements dating from approximately 4500 BC. It is a large area of surrounded by a ditch with circular houses built of mud and wood with overhanging thatched roofs. The building they built over the site was pretty cool-lots of big open space showing the excavation with smaller rooms set aside for specific exhibitions. And we had it all to ourselves.

I was less interested in the pots and village models





and far more interested in the communal burial sites and skeletons











Lauren and I had fun pretending that we were Booth and Bones trying to figure out COD (that would be cause of death to those of you who are not, but should be watching Bones).

After Banpo it was off to a factory that made a variety of things including shadow puppets, porceline figurines, laquer furniture, and…all sized models of the Terracotta Warriors. I didn’t take any pics there but these are from Lauren’s collection.





Our next stop was yet another factory-this one devoted to the creation of and production of silk products. This factory actually made the silk then turned it into bedding, wall hangings, clothes, etc. The clothing section was pretty well stocked and prepared for foreigners. Granted I was looking at XXX and XXXX sized clothes…but they fit. According to both our driver and the people at the factory, silk produced in Xi’An is the best as it is 100% silk whereas say Shanghai produced silk is really only 75% and 25% poly-something. Again props to Lauren for these pics.





After shopping at the factory it was finally on to the site of all sites in Xi’An…the Terracotta Army. Dating to 210 BC, the army was built for the tomb of the Emperor Qin so he could continue to fight wars in the afterlife. While endless dynasties have ruled on the Chinese continent, Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of China. He conquered the princes and kings to unify the country, established one single writing system, built standard roads, and began the Great Wall. He is an emperor of legend and is featured in movies, including Jet Li’s Hero and Chen Kaige’s The Emperor and the Assassin (which is long but a great film). The Army figures vary in height (183–195cm - 6ft–6ft 5in), according to their role, the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. Their bodies were mass produced using wax molds…but each face is individual. Every single man in Qin’s army had to sit for an artist to have his likeness taken, which was then carved into a mold and placed atop the prepared body.

The complex is huge and had it not been cold, grey, and raining, we could have explored more.







Instead we headed straight to the pits (which took us a while to find) to see the main attraction. Our pictures turned out kind of crap though. The high, curved ceilings of the pits are almost completely skylights and that is the majority of the light in each building. On such a cloudy and rainy day as we had it meant that the light was very low and camera flashes were useless.

















Despite the disappointment of bad pictures, it was truly an awe inspiring experience. Despite the dozens upon dozens of visitors an almost eerie silence prevailed through the pits as people took in the sight of one man’s devotion to immortality.

Harbin - Pretty Sure My Nose is Frozen

On one of the colder days we were in Harbin, the day I couldn't feel my nose at all, we visited the largest working Confucian temple in the city. More than a temple it was an entire complex filled with small temples and monuments, surrounded by gift shops, and bordered by the Harbin amusement park. Really-I totally wanted to go but it was closed. The complex was, even amidst the barren trees and frozen ground, beautiful. I continuously find the details and embellishments in Chinese architecture are what draw my eye and attention.














While the buildings were beautiful:









It was more the various statues and incense burners were what really caught my attention here.











We also made friends with a very lovely kitty at the temple. One of the monks tried to convince us to take him home with us. Pity that we couldn’t. He was the first friendly stray we saw and he was very pretty.

Harbin...Why?!?!

The second day in Harbin we were still trying to decide why anyone would willingly live somewhere that cold all the time. We were unable to think of a single viable reason. However, I did find the best thing ever in the park along the frozen river...this vendor:



Yes that's right. That woman is standing alonside a frozen river, selling cotton candy, and unabashadly blowing cigarette smoke into the candy. Needless to say we declined to partake in the treat but I do think that is my favorite picture from Harbin.

Despite the freezing cold, Harbin does have some nice pedestrian areas. The pictures from the previous post are part of a pedestrian area filled with shops, dubious restauarants, a movie theater, WalMart, and about a dozen (seriously) KFCs. Running perpendicular to that street and along the river is another pedestrian area flanked by docs on one side and a park on the other. If I lived in Harbin I would probably spend October through May huddled in my house wrapped in multiple electric blankets. Natives however, don't seem to mind the cold. Lots of people, mostly old people, were out and about exercising, socializing (which seemed pretty much the same thing), participating in some sort of televised run the point of which we couldn't figure out, etc. I particularly liked these gentlemen.







This park also included a lot of adult playground equipment! I'd heard that adult playgrounds were starting in Europe with people sized versions of kids toys; the one here was more like actual gym equipment but built to withstand the elements and painted in bright happy colors. There were parallel bars, mock elypticals, and some other things I don't remember. Lauren had fun trying out one of the elyptical contraptions. Also along the park were I think the best street lamps I've ever seen.





Some interesting topiary



And nifty boats





One of the (few) sights to see in Harbin is the Saint Sophia Russian Orthodox Church...which is no longer a church. Many of the Christian churches and the one synagog are now museums of some sort. The Saint Sophia is sadly crumbling on both the outside and inside...but for all its faded glory it is still beautiful. It took us for bloody ever to find it and like pretty much everywhere else I had a hard time taking pictures because my fingers, even inside my gloves, were so frozen.











Inside the church is a museum featuring a brief history of Harbin consisting of pictoral timelines. Annd a ridiculously expensive gift shop.

Harbin - Dude It's Cold

Ranked as the 10th largest city in China, Harbin is located in the far Northeast corner of China. During the construction of the China far East Railway in 1898, and extension of the Trans-Siberian, the Russians got a sweet deal out of the failing Chinese emperors allowing them to use Harbin as an outpost to house their workers, store materials, etc. Tsarist Russia encouraged Russian settlement in their important Trans-Siberian-Railway outpost by waiving the then 25 year long military service. For Jews who settled there, the restrictions applying in Russia were also waived. Russians being Russians they kind of didn’t give it back until 1932 when the Japanese invaded. However, the Chinese slowly regained ownership of Harbin (but why they wanted to I'm not sure) and whereas a visitor used to see a city full of fur-clad Russians with the occasional Chinese, it is now quite firmly the other way around.

In our Harbin research we came to expect that temperatures in November would be a freezing 10F (-12C) but we were pleasantly surprised to find it a balmy 37F (3C). Despite the unexpected gift of warmth we were still happy to have brought our Cuddle Duds and sweaters, winter coats, gloves, scarves, and hats. I'm still not quite sure whether or not Harbin was aware that it was unexpectedly balmy. The river there sure as heck didn't know.



If you ever go to Harbin, or even to China, again, do not buy the Frommer's guide. Supposedly updated in 2008, the book was full of misinformation and outright mistakes, particularly for Harbin. Our first night there we took a cab to a place called India Street to try an Indian restaurant lauded in Frommer's...only to get there and find that the place had been closed for some time. So there we were, freezing freaking cold, approaching dark, in a neighborhood it didn't look like we wanted to be in, completely starving, and not feeling so comfortable with our current situation. There weren't any cabs immediately available and there wasn't really another way to get around there unless we wanted to hunt down a bus and take our future in our hands getting on and heading to unknown destinations; which was a no. We remembered passing a TGIF and decided that, given the present circumstances, we would fold and eat American. Well we got there and it wasn't a TGIF it was the Saint Petersburg (as in Florida) Cafe which seemed to have robbed TGIF of its logo. Food was a little scary as were the decorations...lots of neon and mirrors and very Miami Vice. There was to have been entertainment with showgirls and as much as we wanted to see it for the horror we knew it would bring...we just couldn't make it. Incidentally, whatever this place was was recommended by the evil Frommer's.

Next day we set out seeing what was to be explored in Harbin. The answer is not much. You can do Harbin in two days...max. Despite having the look of a city that has been salted for snow far too often (ie grey with whitish smears all over everything) I found the architecture at least to be quite interesting. It is very easy to tell that the Russians had a large hand in building the city. While signage everywhere is Chinese, the buildings are very very Russian.













All the buildings that is, except for our favorite...



Yes, that's right, there's a WalMart in Harbin and it was a Godsend. For some reason, of all the cities in China we visited, it seemed particularly difficult to find food in Harbin. Maybe because we were afraid to trust Frommer's anymore (wisely) or because few menus came in English...but we stocked well up on food and snacks at WalMart. Also, the Harbin WalMart's butcher section was like a real butcher's shop with hanging dead animals. I think American WalMarts should have those.

Worth mentioning is that I bought our train tickets at one of the stations in Beijing...in Chinese. I stood forever in the line for foreigners which, as far as I could tell, was no different from any other line. Anyway, I got to the top of the line and managed to buy to tickets with return to Harbin all by me onesey in Zhong Wen. Mini wave in honor of me!