Day 5: Bye-Beijing, Hello Xi'an
CHECKOUT
Another day, another 4a natural wake-up. You'd think I'd be more tired than I am, but I think the energy here is just an effervescent burst. It's part the sights and sounds, but it's mostly the people I'm here with that provide that extra ounce of steam. Best of all today I was able to get a bit more of a burst from back home, as I was packed and ready early enough to go down and FaceTime Devin and Jonah for a good 30 minutes. That felt good just to see their face through a constant, unadulterated wifi connection. That woman is my rock, and while many of us complain as to how technology has divided us and made us less vested with one another, having the power to FaceTime - something I didn't have when we went to Turkey 5 years ago - is pretty superb. Side note: I was reading a Wall Street Journal article on what the iPhone (10 years old today) will look like 10 years from now. My question is: will it even be around? If you don't believe me, pull out your Nokia and look it up on Alta Vista.
Anyway... back to China...
TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
After another tasty breakfast and a 7:30a checkout, we boarded the bus and visited the Temple of Heaven. This little (470 hectare) slice of "heaven" was where the emperor visited a few days a year to pray to the deity for a good harvest. As an American who's lived in nothing but a republic (quick lesson: we don't live in a democracy), it seems so nonsensical to see the man in power use such a large space in such a sprawling city for just SIX DAYS A YEAR. It reminds me of when I took 4 girls from Poland and Czech Republic and showed them the White House. The temporary home to the "most powerful man in the world," regardless who has the title, lives in a small home compared to other culture's standards. That holds true for the girls who grew up around the castle and estates of the previous pontificates of their Eastern European past, and probably can be similarly said of our Sino friends. Once they see all these amazing palaces and pristine pastures of land dedicated to the (albeit little) usage of so much by those in power, it must be beyond foreign. That's how I feel. The people power we are all too familiar with in our nation would topple such a regal relationship. For the Chinese, this isn't just commonplace, it's a proud history.
PEOPLE'S PARK
A large part of the land at the Temple of Heaven is dedicated to something called "The People's Park." For those of you keeping score at home, yes, this is another homage to the new communist regime. To give it comparative credit to the emperors, it was certainly well-used by the people. We started off by practicing Tai Chi with an instructor who taught us some moves. I'd heard it's a quality, quiet workout, and I wasn't disappointed. Many of us are not fluid enough to do the slow, sloping arm, leg, and hip movements - me most of all - but it was fun to do. I believe that, when I get home, I'll probably find a few YouTube videos to help me clear my mind after unpacking a whole home.
Also in the park there were plenty of outdoor gymnastics to do. Being a fatty with some muscle, I decided to do what I'm used to at the gym - some dips, monkey bars, ab workouts, and some pull-ups. For the lack of sleep I did pretty well with the latter, so one Chinese dude of about 50 years old came over and motioned me to compete with him. I'm proud to say I represented American well in the 2017 Olympics and kicked his butt. The guys around him gave me a great round of applause. However, I didn't know this was a multiple sport event, and he started doing some fancy flips around the bars. When he got down, we all gave him an applause. Not knowing my lack of physical flexibility, I took to the bars and pretended to begin doing what he just did, but I jumped off and landed with an Olympic wave instead. We all got a good laugh (non-verbal humor I think is the key to Israeli-Palestinian peace, Mr. President), and I made sure to give such a deep kowtow as a form of concession that even President Trump would make fun of me on Twitter. Overall, I enjoyed going to the guys and gals working out there and asking them their age. In comparison to this taboo topic in the States, this is something these folks proudly presented. They wanted you to know that they were 70 and could do back flips. Heck, I think I would, too!
Probably the best part was hacky-sacking with complete strangers there. For those of you at home, you're familiar with the knit, seed- or bean-filled bags that us Skater Punks held omnipresently in our 1990s JNCO pockets. These hacky-sacks, by comparison, are constructed of small, foam-like coins and have a fake feather atop. It's amazing the physics behind it, but it helps to slow down the hack and really help beginners or rusty old former-skaters get into the game. I hacked with 2 different groups, first a couple of guys who invited Brandon (Arkansas), Bob, and me -- and then later I joined an older group of folks. I tried to get all fancy with my kicks and balances and bounces on the brim of my hat, which worked well enough until I stumbled a bit and accidentally busted a feather tail a tad. It was still good enough to play with, but I felt bad so I asked Li Jun to come over and help me offer to buy them a new one. They wouldn't accept the payment (he told me 99% of them would never do such a thing), but he said a good concession would be to buy one of the hacks from the guys. So, even though I already bought one, I gladly did.
BYE ALEX and MR. MA
When we loaded up on the bus, we said our first goodbyes of the trip. Alex was our leader from EF since the beginning in February, and he's a really great dude to chat with. A German by birth and a world traveler by choice, he's the head of EF's tour wing. Despite me making fun of him for his previous day's beverage choice (in what world does Gatorade come before German beer to any national, let alone one from the Deutschland?!), he's a "pretty solid dude," to borrow his own language. He's been on enough trips with enough teens and fellow Americans from the Boston wing he leads that he's like talking with one of the dudes. I hope to come across him sometime in the future, and he's got such unique features (tall and lanky and a deep, determined voice) that I could pick him out of any crowd.
We also said goodbye to Mr. Ma, our Beijing driver. For those of you keeping score, Ma is one of those words with 4 definitions. His means horse, and dang if he didn't drive this bus like a bad-you-know-what. Even though he doesn't know English, we made a handshake that we used every day. Plus Bob taught him how to thumb wrestle. So I think that makes us friends.
BEIJING AIRPORT
We quickly made our way to the Beijing Airport, and it was a really quick and efficient process. So efficient that they flagged me to security, inspecting my $100 jackery phone charger to see if it had the ampage on there. It didn't. So they confiscated it. This has been the sourest part of my trip, and I was pretty heated about it from the get-go. However, now YOU know. If you're keeping score, check that your phone charger has ampage, weight, height, zodiac sign, and birthday on it when passing Chinese customs.
FLYING TO XI'AN
The flight to Xi'an was very brief. It was supposed to be just 2 hours, but we were there in 75 minutes. We arrived so quickly, our tour guide Chris had to hurry to meet us at the airport, so we had 10 minutes built-in for coffee and candy and such. I took the time to tell y'all of my misfortune on the flight.
That misfortune was offset by the fact that I sat next to David, Teacher of the Year in New Mexico. Most of the time - a large majority of the time - I'm the class clown of the group. He had that scepter the minute he joined us. We were given our tickets blind and, after steaming over the "situation which we will no longer name," I saw that I was sitting next to David and said "I needed you in my life." We had a good bro-hug and had fun with the stewardesses and joked around like 12-year-olds while eating our meal (yeah, they feed you on a 1 hour, 15 minute flight). I took plenty of time to catch up on the day and blog above.
BIKING THE XI'AN CITY WALLS
When we arrived in Xi'an, our guide Chris started to take over the lessons of the city from Jun. In doing so, he mapped out an extensive history of this ancient city serving as the epicenter of China's growth in the world, as he said it's the first city to eclipse 1 million people in our history, even before Rome or other major ancient urban areas. That's because the Silk Road began here, and, in seeing its importance tucked in the valley of several natural-defense-making mountain ranges and also having 8 tributaries for drinking water and navigation, its geographic importance cannot be understated. Today, however, his tone softened. It sounds like a city trying to figure out its future. While it's a sprawling 8 million people large (and its sister city just 5 miles away has another 5 million), it's not even in the top 20 largest cities in China. For those of you keeping score, yes, that's the same population as New York City, our nation's largest by lots. It's also the coal and oil center in China, and both of those resources are on a decline here and in the U.S. No matter what each of those respective nation's leaders or the dudes in my hometown say, that's the cold economic truth.
Anywho, this sub post is on biking the city walls which is quite awesome. The walls are about 30 feet high and about 30 feet wide, so they're like little roadways perched atop the fences of this ancient city. While most of the population lives outside of this former shell, it's great to have such a treasure still so well-maintained and accessible to the public. Best of all is our hotel is in the Old City. But Lucinda (Kansas) and I buddies up on a tandem and road that alongside David and Laticia - well, for as long as they could keep up at least.
While the walls expanses travel a solid 9 miles in a rectangular fashion, part of the wall was closed, so we couldn't ride the whole thing. Coupled with the fact that the Chinese shopkeepers rent you practically the crappiest bikes you could put your hands on, we weren't doing 9 miles. We probably did 5 in total. Since the weather was much warmer and the sun was beating down on us with 96 degree ferocity, we sweat a good bit but replenished ourselves with plenty of h2o and ice cream. By the way, I'm really starting to dig the Chinese version of Good Humor bars, if not because they're a tasty, fruity concoction of flavors, but in that there's almost no added sugar, at least in comparison to our portable ice cream.
HOTEL, DINNER, MASSAGE
When we finished biking, we checked in to our hotel. I still find it very, very odd that we leave our passports with the hotel - I mean, I can make it home missing just about anything, which includes my dang Jackery or my entire suitcase - except when it comes to the passport. I hate leaving its well-being in the hands of others, but, hey, I'm a guest in a communist country, so I shouldn't expect much less.
Our dinner was probably one of the best of our trip. For those keeping score at home, Xi'an, in the northwest corner of the country, is very much a wheat-based cuisine - very different from the sea, meat, and major rice portions of Beijing. I'm not much of a pasta guy, but I LOVED their noodles. The fact that they also make more than 300 kinds of dumplings - which I've learned is my absolute favorite Chinese food while on this trip - probably has helped me already supplant their tastes for the Szechuan I've come to know and love.
Following a wonderful shower (nothing like rinsing the sweat of continuous 90-degree-days from your sore saddle) and that great meal, we suited up in our comfy pants to go to a Chinese massage. Here, we had the choice to go for the traditional and well-known foot bath and massage, or to go hard-core with accu-pressure. As I'm sure you can guess, I chose the latter. David, Bob, Al (California), Kevin (EF staff), and I all went into our own VIP room, and it was a mixture of fun (you'll have to check out our costumes! Hahahaha!), laughter, pain, and relief. I think what I'll always remember is David farting near his massage therapist while she's twisting around his hips, Bob (who's a pretty big dude) literally being mounted by his therapist as she "dug her steel-coated knees into my side" (his words, not mine), Al being yelled at for not relaxing, and my massage therapist making me feel like my calves were meat in a crock pot, ready to just come off the bone. While they still hurt, it was well worth the $25. I'd do it again tomorrow if I could.
We came back and went down to the bar. While we're staying in a much swankier hotel this time (no paint chipping on the floor, more than one pillow, and a wash cloth all indicate such), the bar prices greatly matched the luxuriousness of our hotel. I looked at the menu and saw most of the stuff was 60 yuan or more (that's about $9), so I ordered a Scotch on the rocks. Jason (Oklahoma) and Sandy (Delaware) were among the non-drinkers in our group; they ordered Evian, and that alone was 35 yuan (or about $5.50). For comparison's sake, they could get 10 bottles of local water which are each 2 times as large as that bottle of Evian.
Oh, capitalism. Even in communist China.
After my one and only drink (which, at that price, was better than American prices) and headed upstairs here. I was tired but, after blogging a bit, I've hit another second-wind. Time to start counting sheep and do it again tomorrow, where we'll visit the famous Terra Cotta Warriors and go to The Great Mosque and famous Muslim district here in the town.
No comments:
Post a Comment