Life before and after China

Six months in a country where culture and language varies a lot even within the country, not to even talking about compare to Europe. I have had an opportunity to get to know Chinas culture in many aspects tasting different foods, meeting new people (both, Chinese and non-Chinese) and travel many places.

I will admit that there have been moments of different feelings, there have been no way to avoid moments of frustration but there have been also many moments of glad and joy fulfilled with different experiences. I've seen many faces of China, from Shanghai skyscrapers to old farmer who lives in a cave, from Inner-Mongolian grasslands to Li-river green hills, from busy life in Beijing to peacefulness of Tibet. Every place includes own stories and memories, but like I said after I left Ireland: Its the people that make places.

People... yes people in China are truly a chapter of its own, even that it almost feel bad for me to talk Chinese people as one because there is such a huge difference among them. Chinese have their own habits and event that they might feel weird from our perspective, I still think that they need to respected as the way they are, not judge them. For example spitting on a streets or “slurping” noodles/soup can be irritating, but have you ever head that louder you “slurp” your food, the better it tastes! Another funny combination is Chinese and cameras, especially in the phones, which connects to selfies. Here people love to pose on cameras, it even comes naturally from 4 years old child, and it is important to pose in front everything as all things that moves and even if they dont move, they are still worth of taking picture -or few just in case if first one is not good enough or something...

Oh, and bathrooms, which mostly are just holes in the ground some of them having more privacy but some of then are basically just holes side by side, no walls or nothinhg between (Japanese call those ones “Ni Hao Toilets”). I know that topic is not the most interesting one, but I share it still: I managed almost whole six months without squatting in bathrooms, but that 42hrs train ride toTibet broke me. But I mean even the squat toilets are part of Chinese culture and habit to use them is so deep in mind that there have to be a sign over normal toilet “no standing on a toilet seat, sit down please”

One thing I learned in here is that actually with how little its possible to get along and be happy. Even that sometimes Chinese seem ignorant towards other, mostly if they dont know you, but when you “break the ice”, the way they actually do care from others who are close to them is amazing and definately something worth to learn. On the other hand living here have shown clearly inequalities in society, how much wealthiness can give you power and how Chinese who have money are definately not afraid to show it in a way that everyone should know their place in Chinese society. Same applies for foreigners, being a Western person in China, gives you a priviledges and good opportunities in society, but on the other hand adds it adds some extra challenges (especially if you dont speak language). It is stunning to notice how openly racist Chinese culture is.

There is an statement I've heard that there is a life before and after exchange in China and I completely agree with that. Some people fall in love with China completely, for some it has been more like an awesome experience but the country is not the place where to spend longer time in life. I belong this second group, China has been great experience but it is time to move on. One thing that influences is most likely the language, here I realised first time in my life how important is to know the language in order to be able to integrate better on surrounding culture and in that way have much more out of it.

Thank you for those ones who have been reading my blog. This is now last post because it is time for new adventures. It is not time to return Finland yet, I will spend next two months backpacking around South-East Asia, which will be completely another story to tell.

Ps. Now you can check also pictures for two previous blog posts!

Tibet - At the top of the world

So my last stop in China was Tibet, place that is called to be a rooftop of the world. To reach it was slightly pain in the ass, as I spent 42hrs in the train. I had a sleeper, but travel agent did book a top one (there are 3 bunk beds top of eachother), which had such small place that could not even sit on a bed, so I was forced to rest. Positive was that especially during second day the views from train were great!


Finally when reached Lhasa, first I was taken to a side because police have to register all foreigners who arrive in Tibet because they require special travel permit that shows that you have an official tour guide with you. Its all because of political reasons, in Tibet there are stationed lots of police officers and military troops to “maintain and supervise order in Tibet.” It was very interesting to talk with our tour guide and also see his attidute towards Chinese government. The way how certain type of power struggles of identity can be seen in Tibetian people daily life i.e. Government dont allow Tibetian people have passports so they cant travel outside China oron the other hand Tibetian people dont like to drink Lhasa beer because its owned by Chinese businessman.

To understand history and Tibetian way of thinking, the most important figure is Dalai Lama who is head of Tibet in political and religious issues. Buddhism is the backbone of life as people are very religious. In Lhasa there are three main “Pilgrim circles” that people walk around daily bases praying., they are like 10km, 3km and 1km. Then people pray on yearly bases 100 00 times by bending down and up, and some people even complete that amount within few months. Of course monks are then a group of their own as they devode their life for studying religious text books, which have to first be memorized and then understand them. By doing that it is possibleto complete a bachelor degree (6years) and master degree (another 6years), exams are based on debating with other monks and our group was lucky to see this debate going on when visitng in Sera monastery. There are two main monasteries in Lhasa, Sera and Drepung - those used to have thousands of monks living there, nowadays there are only hundreds anymore.

Besides those monasteries there are two main places to visit which symbolizes Tibet, Potala Palace, home of Dalai Lama and Jokhang Temple, center of old town of Tibet and a place “where all starts”, according our tour guide (like demonstrations in 2008). Potala palace is massive, one thousands rooms and one thousand windows (symbolizes 1000 lives of Buddha), visitors are only allowed see some parts of palace, which is good in a way that walking through thousand rooms might take a while... I tried to spot Dalai Lama but because he is in excile it was only possile tombs of previous ones. Most massive was tomb of fifth one (almost 4tons of gold and huge ammount of precious stones) as he is the one who started construction of Potala Palace.

Jokhang temple is main place for Tibetians for worshipping. There were many people praying outside of the temple, walking around it (one of the Pilgrim circles) or praying inside. One way to get blessing is to bring your religious statue to temple overnight and then monks will give a blessing for it and you can pick it up next day. Like I said, Tibetian are quite religious people.

Of course Tibet is not only about Buddhism, it also have a stunningly beautiful landscapes. My Tibet trip took me overnight for lake Namtso, one of the holy lakes in Tibet. It took totally five hours to drive there even that distance is only 250km, but the roads and speed controlling. I think they have one of the most efficient speed control system in Tibet that I have come across with: There are police checkpoints between certain distances (i.e.60km) where they check your timing how long it was when you passed previous checkpoint and the speed ticket is then based on timing and it costs 100rmb per minute if driving too fast. Of course it can be questioned, is it only for speed control or also for general people control not so spend too much time “somewhere” as the destination also needed to be mentioned...

When we finally did reach the lake, altidute of 4700m above sea level, sun was shining and wind blowing. Lhasa is 3600m altidute and there i didn't have any signs of mountain sickness, but reaching 4700m day was fine but evening got little bit mountain sick (headache and lack of apetite). Place itself was really beautiful, huge lake surrounded by snow-top mountains. Yak's, goats wondering around freely. Never tried Yak meat before, but here in Tibet had a chance for that and have to say that it was delicious.

But now it is time to leave Tibet behind. Im flying to Kunming at evening and stay a night at airport before saying goodbye China when heading to Bangkok.... Or actually thanks to Chinese government ""Great Wall" Im already in Bangkok and able to access facebook, google etc. again freely so I can publish my blog texts...

Last Weeks in Beijing

So almost six months have passed and like always, farewells come at the end. So last 1,5 weeks have been quite busy, not just because of deadlines for handling in assignments but also saying goodbye for people leaving. Obviously it also meant some fun!

There were many different evenings in both nightlife areas (Woudakou & Sanlitun). At beginning of my studies I tried study Chinese, a good point from that was that we got a nice language class so I still hang around with them event that I dropped of from language studies to other major. One night we went out with class, with a private space in bar where we hang arounded, had a laugh before continuing to the place called Wu-Club. Interesting evening but nothing more about that -those who participate, those knows...




Another day direction was Sanlitun and club name Latte. Cool club, that has different shows during evening separates it slightly on basic clubs. In Beijing the basic logic how club works is following: Clubs want to be popular among foreigners (non-Asian looking), because it is seemed to make the club more attractive also among Chinese. In clubs rules changes a bit, but i.e. in Latte foreigners get free entry and free drinks (3 different choices) until like 2am or something. Chinese will pay a table and order their drinks before on there that easily costs thousands rmbs. So basically rich Chinese brings money for the clubs and foreigners enjoy the fun for free. It was a also fun evening just was a bit more rough than usual as I ended up with black eye and some bruises, but nothing more about that either -those who participate, those knows...

Life is not just clubbing (its actually quite little part of time here in China), its more about food I would say. We were a group of fifteen people who went to one buffet place, 60rmb all you cane eat and drink (incl. beer, baiju...). So many options, so limited time but I still managed eat so much that I felt exploding when walking out, straight to bed and sleep.Another day, I had a sushi lunch with my two Japanese friend.

Lastly, my Finnish friend Jussi who was studying Hong Kong this spring was on a China tour with his friends and Beijing was last stop. I met them when I was in Hong Kong, so now it was other way around. There was one wish: Would be cool see nightlife... You got what you ordered, so Latte was destination and I remember the words said there: “This is cool, but there is one thing that I dont understand, how this all can be free???”

So it was time to pack my backpack and leave Beijing behind, I have one more stop to go before I leave China. Its a bit more than 4000 km from Beijing and takes 42 hrs in train going as high as 5000 meters ending up on 3500 meters above sea level: Place is Lhasa, Tibet.

Inner Mongolia - From Grassland to Desert

I already thought that all my trips here in China would be more or less done before I leave Beijing, but random things do happen… I have just enjoying a beer with my friend and she was telling about her plan to travel Inner Mongolia with couple of other friends and that one of then cancelled so there was a free spot to fill up. Yes, I was in – And what a great trip it was! Usually I am more or less prepared myself a trip to know at least where Im going or so on, but at this time only thing I knew about whole trip was time of departure and arrival, price included everything and it was toward Inner Mongolia… But that is what is often said: when you don’t know what to expect, you won’t get disappointed easily.

Clock stroke 5am in Friday morning, some people were on their way home from the bars but we were sitting in a tour bus ready to head up towards Inner Mongolia. The worst part of the tour was definitely long bus rides, first around 7 hours Hohhot where we had our lunch: 10 people sitting around round table and more food just kept coming from kitchen = paradise!

Then it was another two hours in bus as we drove to grasslands. Mongolia is famous of its horses so what would be better time to get familiar Mongolian culture than riding horses over grasslands. In total the riding tour took almost three hours but luckily we had few stops on the way because otherwise my ass would hurt as hell. And not just the riding was great experience, but also the whole place where we staying overnight. It was type of hotel that every room was built to remind a shape of a tent that Mongolians traditionally used to live with, I counted that there was almost two hundred “rooms” so it was kind of a village in the middle of grasslands. At the evening in the main building there was a dinner served, and also a show with traditional songs and dances. Table was again full of food but the “main dish” was over others easily. We had lamb which was so delicious that I cant even describe it: Chef was cutting huge chunks of meat on the plates from a whole lamb and the plates were bought to our table, and we “tried” manage them with chopsticks – although I realised that using hands were must convenient in this case. Later at evening we had some beers and bbq outside under Mongolian stars – so bright and so beautiful sky.

Second day we change environment completely as we were heading to Gobi desert for different activities. To get to the desert the tour bus dropped us on a parking place, there were few shops if someone wanted to do last minute purchases to protect him/herself against desert… As known, Chinese people are generally not really those ones who enjoy sun that much, so they were really preparing themselves: Putting their phones and other stuff in small plastic bags (because of sand) and covering themselves all over with scarfs… I mean it wise in the desert but still a bit over in my opinion. Anyways we took a miles long cable car to the desert, feeling was like going to skiing as the cable car was exactly the same… only difference was direction: It went straight forward instead upwards to the top of some hill. Finally it reached to its destination where we were surrounded by sand. In total we had four activities: camel riding, sand sliding, quad bike driving and kind of “desert boat” round (a car that drove fast over dynes making us feel that were in the rollercoaster). Camel riding was interesting… especially after riding horses previous day. I thought to get my ass sore riding a horse but no way, after riding a camel, horse feels like sitting on a soft pillow.  I mean everything was really cool experiences, also because I they were all something that I haven’t ever experienced before in that kind of surroundings.

Last day was a really long day in a way that in total we spend more than 12 hours in a bus… But luckily we had some stops. Absolutely the funniest one at one traditional courtyard house. It was renovated to show what kind of housing were built in the cities early ages. It reminded a lot traditional Chinese courtyard houses on its structure so that itself wasn't that stunning but which made it fun was that there a possibility to try archery skills and dress up on traditional clothes to take photos. After a session of photo shooting it was time to get up back into the bus… Finally at evening we arrived back to Beijing, long exhausting trip but I really worth.  

Datong

It has been a moment of since my last blog post… And to be honest, it just of being lazy to write J

I did a two days trip to city called Datong, it’s (not more than) around 400 km West from Beijing, easily accessible by train as most of the bigger cities in China. Datong is definitely not the most popular tourist attraction point in China, which made it very interesting place to visit. During the whole few days I saw maybe around 5 foreign people and obviously this lack of foreigner influenced on prices also… For example staying in five star hotel junior suite paying 25 euros for a night – not bad! Or I had a haircut that cost me 2 euros. Datong is also known as “city of the coal” as it is one of the main coal producers in China. There was few huge coal mines that could be seen from distance, but the way how it actually realized was the amount of trucks fully loaded with coal transporting it to the other parts of China – Hip hip hooray green energy!

There was two main things I wanted to see in Datong: Hanging monastery and Yungang Grottoes, but actually managed to see much more than that. On the morning arriving Datong, the day started for seeking breakfast: Bao chis (steamed buns with various fillings) were a good option as usual. While eating breakfast a local guy came to talk and introducing himself as a local guide. By being curious and listening what he had to tell and suggest the two day tour itinerary was completed: First day, see Northern section of great wall and some local village and second day go to see Hanging monastery and Yungang Grottoes.

With our tour guide (“Simon”) we took a local bus to the some small town outside of Datong, and I really mean a local bus: more like a minibus which didn’t seem to have a real schedule as it left when it was full and stopped on the way places when people told it to stop. After a bit more than hour long ride in a bus, it reached the town – surely there are not many foreigners there as it felt that as walking through the town everyone stopped whatever they were doing and stared, even some cars slowed down – even stopped to stare. The Great Wall Northern sections was built over there but ruins only left, but now I have been standing on the border of Inner-Mongolia.

There we continued to the old fortress which was now an area where some farmers were living, we were even very lucky to visit one of the farmers house. A really simple house: Two rooms only, no running water or heating, but still kind of everything you need and the man seemed to be really happy of his life in there. Like it is said that China always surprises somehow, so it happened again while we were taking another bus (normal size) back to the Datong. It was really full and there were no seats for all so we needed to stand almost whole trip and finally when bus got closer to the city and some people get out, the one reason for lack of space in the bus revealed: There was a cage full of pigeon at the floor of the bus… Gourmet dinner for someone or just for…hmm.. fun? And which made it even more hilarious that the whoever had put those pigeons in the bus were not there as at one bus stop a man just entered the bus and picked pigeons with him.

Second day after a well slept night Simon came to a hotel for a pick up with a driver so the journey to Hanging monastery could start. The name “Hanging monastery” comes from the way the place is built. Monastery is built on the side of the cliffs and supported by using wooden pillars so it kind of looks like it is “hanging.” A very beautiful small place, but definitely not for those who are afraid of highs as the peak outside from monastery revealed almost straight drop down and the fact that you were basically standing over nothing. But as the monastery has been hanging around there more than 1500 years, I guess it still will keep hanging there for a while. It is an architectural wonder but also only existing temple in China that combines all three traditional Chinese religions: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.

 It was a warm day so thank god there was no need to use public transportations (if there even were any?) as sitting in the car half-awake and half-asleep was a great option to spend distances between places. Because Datong is a border city to Inner-Mongolia in the past it has been often being under attacks of Mongolians (or other Northern tribes) so farmers have at that time dug caves in order to provide them safe place to escape in the case of attacks. Still even on these days there are farmers who are living in those caves, we met one. An old man with half of teeth missing maybe around age of 80. He spoke some very very traditional dialect as even our tour guide could not understand completely what he was saying. This one the local house day before has been really showing a simple way of Chinese living in countryside.

Then the second main attraction, Yungang Grottoes. It is considered as UNESCO World Heritage site built also around 1500 years ago providing an excellent example of rock cut architecture. The area covers around 250 grottoes which have around 50 000 Buddha statues, few huge ones and thousands of small ones. I can just imagine how much patience it is needed to carve all those things especially when thinking about that time tools and techniques. It took around few hours to walk through the area, although I didn't count did I saw all those 250 grottoes or did I miss some, but I guess it doesn't matter even if I did. Then our tour guide drove us back to the Datong to drop us of. It was time to say goodbye to him, a really friendly and polite guy indeed. Before it was time to catch a night train again, we enjoyed a super delicious meal which was also much cheaper than here in Beijing. I would really recommend to visit Datong, it was overall very positive experience.

North Korea - Peek Behind Curtains

There was one thing I decided that wanted to do while staying in Beijing: Find a way to travel North-Korea, and I did so this is a brief story of what I saw and experienced. Before starting to describe it, if using just one word I would say “mind-blowing” for describing the trip, and that is why it is impossible to explain the experience completely by words and if you would just pay attention for pictures the society looks an ideal place to live. I mean a country with completely free education system, 0 % unemployment and criminal rate, costs of living and basic groceries covered by the state – doesn’t sound that bad society at all, right? But as you might guess, there are two sides in every story…

I was part of the tour group that were mainly Chinese except Dries (Belgian) and Natalie (Slovakian) who were both studying near Shanghai and with them I had an awesome time! Journey to North-Korea started from the Dandong, Chinese border city where we crossed Chinese-Korean Friendship Bridge straight to the N-Korean customs. We were sitting two hours in a train while military officials collected our passport and tourist cards (special thing required from Westerners), wrote up all hi-tech devices we were carrying with us (mobile phones, laptops, cameras, tablets) in order to make sure that what you bring in, you also bring out and checked through our luggage if there is something politically incorrect material. We didn't have anything but there was a group of three Germans in a train who had South-Korean guidebook with them – never saw that book again. But so the journey continued through the countryside and mobile phone signals disappeared. It was like travelling back on time, views from train very mostly quite flat farmland where work is mostly done manually or with the help of water buffalo / ox. There was few tractors in fields, but they were not even close to modern days, more in common transport was a wooden wagon pulled by ox.

We were staying in Yanggakdo Internationa Hotel – international indeed as seems like that all tourist groups will be accommodated there. Again, a well decorated hotel with three restaurants, few coffee places, casino and some shops does sound like a place that there is no need to leave from there.

Everything is perfectly planned so even if you would like to its impossible to leave from there by yourself or encounter something improper. First of all the location is on island in the river that flows through Pyongyang – good way to avoid tourists encountering with random locals. In hotel there is a legend about its fifth floor, its missing on elevator. Some says its propaganda room some say something else, but who really knows. First evening we were going for a dinner Dries took a picture of the floor buttons on elevator where number five was missing. 10 minutes later our tour guide asked Dries on the side asked him about elevator and delete the picture taken from the floor buttons, so there is definitely something. One evening I was sitting in Dries and Natalies room (floor 33) a bit later so as I was on the way my room (room 16) I found out that none of 8 elevators were working – nice evening exercise by running down the staircase. So obviously they monitor tourists at the hotel and during late evening when everyone has gone up to floors, elevators are locked in order to avoid anyone or anything sneak in or out. So everything was perfectly planned, and not only in hotel but during whole trip as there were always a bus driving us from door to door.

There were three main places we visited on our tour: Mt. Myohang, DMZ and around Pyongyang. At Mt. Myohang there were an international exhibition hall where were collected all gifts give to their leaders from other countries. It was the kind of museum that don't see every day. Entrance to the house which looks small outside but actually museum covers 6 floors and 100 rooms of gifts – Its just continuous miles long underground marble tunnels and rooms dug under the mountain full various range of gift items or suddenly there was one room where our group was ordered to stand on few lines before entering room, in the room there was reallife scale vax statue of “the president”, so we lined up in front of that and all bounded for the statue in order to honour him and show respect. Gift times could were just small simple ones like a basketball or crystal classes… Or some huge ones like a train or an aeroplane. And I still can’t understand how on earth it has been possible to get those in there especially when the train was in -1 floor and aeroplane that was clearly too wide that it would have fit into the room it was as one piece or in general how those objects have even transported there mountainous area?

DMZ, Demilitarized Zone – The place where two nations’ South- and North-Korea stand just few meters apart divided by demarcation line.  We were in the room where the agreement to stop Korean War was written in 1953. It was interesting to hear how North-Korea wants to see Korea as one nations but it blames US hospitality to intruded South-Korea during ending of second world ward and also starting for the Korean war. And as long as US got troops in S-Korea, finding to unification of Korea can be extremely difficult task. On the picture white buildings belong to US and blue ones for N-Korea, and the concrete line on the ground between them is the demarcation line so buildings are located on both nations soil in order to create as neutral place as possible to solve possible conflicts or have just high-level governmental negotiations etc.

Pyongyang to be honest seemed like a nice city, especially what I liked in it after living in Beijing that there are not many cars, actually all the cars in North-Korea are owner either by the state or companies. People move around mainly using only public transports or cycling – clean and environmental. We were allowed to take a metro ride between to stations – and oh my I just say, I thought that Moscow metro has been probably the most beautiful one I’ve seen until I saw these two stations. Marble, lights, mural paintings / mosaics, patriarchal music on the background in escalators from 100meter depth back to the top of the ground. There are my activities to do in the city for people living in there, so it really seems like that those North-Korean who are allowed to live in Pyongyang (decision often made by state) are very lucky ones compared to those who live in countryside. 

One day it was arranged a show of local school children for us, that was such a theatre. Those small kids were just perfect performing with all the make-up, keeping same smile on their faces all the time and not doing even a single mistake – They almost reminded like marionettes in my opinion. 

Then on our last evening we could visit in amusement park, what a highlight of the trip. We were four people who went there, “guarded” by two tour guides because “it's a quite busy place so it’s we might get easily lost” and a staff member from the park who made sure that we always skipped the queue in order to minimize risk that we might take contact with local people. 

Of course in Pyongyang (and elsewhere) there were many other places/things we saw but if I would tell everything, I would be still writing a while before finishing this blog.

The thing that made the trip important was not only things you see but the way you build up relationship with your tour guide during that tour because it really depends on your tour guide what kind of holistic picture you will got from the country. Also the role of tour guide is interesting and their work is also strictly followed by the some officials because obviously they are the only people in North-Korea who can continuously be in touch with tourists’ longer period of time. Our tour guide seemed first really shy and quiet but after all she turned out be a really nice person. She told us lot of things about normal North-Korean people daily lives and we also could ask almost whatever we wanted from her, although she was really clever on avoiding answering certain questions if it was too incorrect. And it is amazing when we paid attention on the way she talked and explained on things, the unquestioned respect toward their leaders, especially Kim Il-sung “the president” and how he has influenced building a nation from the scratch.

She was also generally interested about our lives and was curious to see some of our pictures we had on our phones from home countries, families etc… But she only wanted to see them while we were sitting on a bus driving a longer distance, so are tour guides allowed to do that or not? Or she asked what news we have heard about North-Korea, did she ask that because of her curiosity as she clearly have a much better understanding about world out there than average North-Korean or is she told to so in order to gain information what kind of picture Western media spreads about North-Korea? I mean these are the kind of things that come to our mind during our trip so there was no way to know for 100 % what is real and what is not or is something part of big plan and theatre… Or could it really be just a normal curiosity and intend to make as close friendship as she could during times we spent with our tour guide, because it is most likely that we are never going to see or hear from her again because as soon as we crossed the border back to China, everything happened (people we met, places we saw…) in North Korea are anymore just remaining in memories.

Highlights of Sichuan -- Opera, Pandas & The Giant Buddha

On one evening was the time of experiencing some culture, I went to see Sichuan Opera which is famous of face changing. To be honest, at first I was a little bit afraid that it would be purely “singing” in Chinese so I asked about the opera at the hostel before booking it. In China there are two famous operas which are Beijing Opera and Sichuan Opera, Beijing one is more based on singing and Sichuan is more like a show – after receiving this answer from a hostel I encouraged myself to book it and it definitely was worth it! Opera was structured on several episodes everyone including a little bit different kind of arts: Traditional music and singing, shadow theatre, acrobatics, marionette, fire spitting and face changing… Everything just amazing, especially face changing made me just to stare straight and try to realize that how on earth they can change their masks in matter of seconds, or actually even faster than that… (on a video pay attention for the guy in the middle)

Then Saturday and third day was another highlight of my Chengdu tour, waking up early in the morning because tour guide was picking me up. First destination was the panda breeding and research centre in downtown of Chengdu. Giant pandas were almost distinct and even now there are less than thousand Giant Pandas in the world and this was one of the rare places where it is actually to see those Pandas. And yes, who could not love those lovely black’n’white creatures which simply look so cute when they are playing with each other, “chilling out”, or enjoying a delicious (?) bamboo.

From Panda centre the tour continued to Leshan see the Giant Buddha, its (normally) two hours drive from Chengdu and another two hours back, but because of that stupid public holiday there was “small” traffic jams on the way so in total car ride took 6-7 hours (almost same time than a flight between Helsinki-Beijing) and the time to visit at the Giant Buddha site was only two hours… so as one can imagine, doesn't make any sense. Still the Giant Buddha is one of main sights to see when visiting Chengdu, which was worthwhile after all. The Giant Buddha is carved in a stone, the work took almost 100 years to carve it and as a result 71 meters high Giant Buddha was completed, that has nowadays a status of UNESCO world heritage.

Usually for visitors it is possible to walk down and go around Buddha but (again) because of the holiday there were so many people that the queueing would have taken at least two hours to get there… And as the time was limited, plus it was a warm summer day there was no sense to start queuing on there. There was another option to take a boat to see whole Buddha from the river, which of course did cost some extra money (around 8 euros) that I was willingly ready to pay just to avoid that queueing. 

Chengdu – The Heart of Sichuan

Sichuan, a province that is famous of its (spicy) food, opera, pandas and the giant Buddha – Now I’ve seen them all. I was travelling again by night train from Beijing to Chengdu and did notice again that distances in China are something else than distances in Finland… Train ride was about 20hrs there and 25hrs back, so basically to spend four days in Chengdu, I two more days in train. Crazy! But time went relative fast (lying on a bed, sleeping, eating, studying) and as I got to Chengdu I head up to my hostel named “Lazybones”, the best name ever!

First day I was just walking around a city and to be honest… in the city itself, there is not that many things to see, of course there are temples and parks but if they don't have any special meaning, those temples and parks looks more or less the same. But there was one famous one, Wenshu monastery – the best preserved Buddhist temple in the city which was different from others I’ve seen because monks were actually living in the same area so I could see where they were eating, sleeping etc. It might be also just my imagination, but I think Buddha statues and other relics had more kind of Indian looking influence than some other temples in the East of China where I’ve visited.

Until this trip I’ve been quite lucky on my travels but now first time on ever, my luck changed for a moment. Original plan was to go visit Mt. Qingcheng (famous Daoism mountain few hours away from city), but it never happened. I did get up in the morning to get to bus station, did manage to buy a ticket for a bus. The date was 1^st of May, which is public holiday in China (= lots of people everywhere) and the bus station was packed of people and when I was “queueing” for the bus, there were people standing no matter which direction I would look and literally there was no space to move at all. Suddenly I noticed that a pickpocket did stole my wallet and that’s it, no mountain day for me. Luckily I didn't have passport or foreign bank cards with me… The most annoying thing is that I lost my driving license, but on the other hand Im not going to drive in China anyways so even that loss is not the end of the world.

As you know, in (The Peoples Republic of…) China everything is for the people – also in Chengdu. Main city square, also cited as people’s square although official name of it is Tianfu Square. The place gives again great contrast between traditional China and modern China: Shopping street, high buildings, neon lights and of course a big statue of Mao. But only 10 minute walk from there, there is the Peoples Park. It's like a central park of Chengdu, a place where people gather together to sing, dance, to play games and of course to drink tea. 

 

People’s park have one of the most popular tea houses in Chengdu, tables made of old wood and chairs made out of bamboo. I was afraid to sat on a bamboo chair because I thought it might collapse but it didn't. While enjoying tea there came a guy offering me ear cleaning. Yes, ear cleaning – again kind of traditional thing in Chengdu so I thought why not to try. Although I was bit excited when the “doctor” put a lamp on his forehead and started to clean my ears with the tools that looked like he was going to pull of my brains through my ears. Luckily he didn’t do that, but he pulled out lot of other “stuff” from my ears and I was just thinking quietly that it has been a while when my ears was cleaned so perfectly. 

Xi'An

Generally speaking, there was two places in China what I wanted to see before leaving China, first was Shanghai and second Xi’an – Now I’ve seen both! Xi’an is also a bit more than 1000 kilometres from Beijing, so it’s like slightly under two hour flight (yeah, this time I was flying) and could be considered quite close in China context. There was a small misunderstanding when looking accommodation as I just walked into the place which was given me my google maps, but there was no reservation on my name. Usually I always often print booking confirmation with me, but this time I didn't have that so after solving out things a bit I found out that my place was actually on the same street just around on kilometre down the road. Lessons learned: Children, never trust too much on google maps.

Xi’an used to be a very prosperous city because it was the place where the silk-road started. Most likely because of that, the city also needed to have strong defences and on these days Xi’an’s city wall is the oldest and the best preserved city wall in China. The wall is shaped on square surrounding the old city, 12 meters high, 15-18 meters wide and in total 14 kilometres long. Someone have had a great idea to put bike rental places on the wall, as it works as a highway it’s cool to rent a bicycle and drive around the whole city wall loop. Although I have to admit that driving on the wall was a quite bumpy ride, but still a great way to have an overlook of the city. It also gave a nice contrast between old and new because inside city walls the houses were bit older and not that high, but outside city walls there could be seen skyscrapers and other modern buildings.

In physical central of the old city was marked by a bell tower and a drum tower next to that. Mission of those towers were to alarm population of incoming attacks etc. but also just to notify a daily rhythm for people. Around these towers were Muslim quarters, the food street – much bigger and better than the one here in Beijing. First of all it was bigger and the atmosphere, air was smoky and full of aromas because of grilled meat spits, people were shouting and queuing to get to taste best tastes. I had a bit sweetened sticky rice, lamb spit, sesame bread, and “Chinese hamburger” also translated as clip bun. Its like a pita bread filled up with catted meat that is so soft that's its even hard to imagine, some sauce and meat stock. Simple and delicious.

Those were actually the main sights in Xi’an city itself, but the main point is located about an hour outside the city: Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and the Terracotta army. Terracotta warriors were discovered on 1974 accidently by a local farmer when he was digging a water well, now he is famous from that and if you buy a book of the Terracotta warriors, he will sign his name on that book. I’ve seen some pictures from the pits before and heard few stories but still it was something unbelievable!

After stepping into the first pit, a view of 230 meters long and 62 meters wide opens containing the main army of more than 6 000 figures, all real man sized. And it is true that those statues are not just copies made from a one model, they truly have recognizably different facial expressions and clothing related to their military ranking (archer, general etc…). Two others pit had some horse men with chariots, commander’s point – the assumed centre of the army tombs. Bit more than kilometre way from these warrior tombs, is the actually Emperors tomb located but that still remains unopened. Even that the area has been excavated for past four decades we can still only make guess what kind of treasures will be found there in the future.