The Xi'antastic Four

"Say what you will about the tenants of national socialism, but at least its an ethos."

--Walter Sobcheck, on Nihilism.

My glorious perusal of China continues, with the historical city of Xi'an (shee-ann) being the latest in the roster of locales I have been able to explore.  Travel weary but hungry for more, I am now, once again, safely in my Southwest University dorm, able to write about my experiences.

While four days isn't exactly an all-encompassing look at a city of 8 million people, we did what we could to experience what Xi'an had to offer.  This included visiting the famous Terra Cotta warriors, walking along the (renovated) city walls, and enjoying the local markets.

For being one of the more famous things to see in China, the Terra Cotta soldiers were fairly anti-climactic.  Instead of being awed by the intense amount of work it would take to produce over 8,000 individual terra cotta warriors, I found myself disturbed at the fact that over 700,000 chinese laborers were forced to make such an elaborate tomb for one man.  But I suppose thats just Matt the pragmatist speaking; I'm sure Emperor Qin Shi Huang is quite safe in the afterlife with his army of clay soldiers guarding him.

We visited the city wall of Xi'an on a day when the weather was eerily similar to Seattle, so much so that at times I thought I was staring into an unfamiliar part of Ballard.  Then I realized I was on a 60-foot-high wall covered in Chinese characters and wooden trebuchets.  Nothing like ancient Chinese trebuchets to ruin a pleasant daydream about home.

The market of Xi'an seemed to be straight from an Anthony Bordain show on the Travel Channel.  Vendors lined the streets, preparing traditional Islamic and Chinese dishes for the endless throngs of tourists and Chinese residents alike.  One favorite snack of mine was a traditional Islamic snack of steamed rice pudding on a stick, covered in plum paste, ground peanuts, and sugar.  Delicious.

I have successfully managed to avoid any language barrier difficulties this trip, primarily by having a stronger knowledge of numbers and basic phrases.  I am still completely helpless in communicating anything beyond "I want that" and "How much is it?", but luckily thats about all one needs in a marketplace.  

A note to anyone traveling within China: don't buy illegal billy clubs and attempt to bring them on a flight.  One person in our group who will go unnamed attempted this and ended up in a 30-minute discussion with the police.  Somehow I doubt my two phrases of Chinese would have gotten me out of that fix.

In the next few weeks I will be taking a trip to Inner Mongolia to explore more of the Chinese countryside.  I really don't have the slightest idea of what there actually is in Inner Mongolia, but I'm told it's pretty cool, so, off I go.  Seriously, what else is there to do?  Oh, right.  Class.

I will be taking my Tai Chi final this Friday, which will mainly consist of me awkwardly trying to copy the moves of the people around me.  While I'm sure if you are an elderly Asian person, or are on an osteoporosis commercial, Tai Chi is very invigorating.  Unfortunately, I am neither of those, so I will be glad to be done with this portion of our education.  Luckily, we move onto cooking next week.  Finally, some practical education.

Zai Jian,

McG