The Mysterious East

The Story

I can't even begin to know how to adequately describe my experience here in China thus far. It is a completely different world that has brought so many new experiences, feelings, and reflections; it is difficult to summarize.

I arrived in Beijing, China on the 8th of January very enthusiastic about what a unique place it was appearing to be. After settling in to the hostel I unintentionally found, I began to wander around the city, seeing Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. My first shock was the weather; I came from the humid 26C degrees in Malaysia to the -5C degrees in Beijing. I met some interesting art students in Beijing that showed me there work on special display in the Forbidden City and learned about the meanings behind many of the images in traditional chinese art. I was intrigued by how I was given so much special attention as a white foreigner from random Chinese. Multiple people throughout the day would come up and just start speaking to me for the purpose of practicing english as well as the opportunity of meeting a foreigner. I would receive many "hullo's" from strangers that would follow me with their curious stare. China is not a very popular tourist location for westerners, so foreigners are still a rare sight (especially outside the larger cities)

My first night of dinner in China I ventured out with some other travelers to try some fried sea horse, snake, and cricket - not too bad actually. The next day I went to an unreconstructed section of the Great Wall of China. There was a group of 9 of us from the hostel and we were the only one's in sight. Most parts of the great wall are full of tourists and people trying to sell a variety of overpriced trinkets. We had a guide from the local town show us where to hike up to the wall and then lead us along it. Luckily some people in our group spoke Chinese so we could get some details about when parts of the wall were built, what had happened over the years, etc etc. After walking on the wall for about 2 1/2 hours, we went to our guide's house for a big lunch, obviously a wonderful experience all together.

After a few more days in Beijing, seeing Mao Zedong's preserved body and the emperor's summer palace (which was spectacular). I took an overnight train to Daton to see the famous Hanging Temple and Yungang Caves. The temple consists of several wooden buildlings lodged on a cliff side supported by what appeared to be unstable wooden posts - quite a nice view but also a steep drop. The Yungang Caves were carved into the base of a hill and contained several huge buddhas carved out of stone and an impressive variety of story based carvings, some dating back over a thousand years.

Before I continue, I must first add some cultural inserts to remind the reader of how these activities all take place in such a different environment. I hate making generalizations and these are all made with the utmost respect for the Chinese culture as unique and different from my own; they come from someone that is from a completely different world and not used to China. In short, the things I find difficult to cope with is that the Chinese are often very loud when talking with each other, pushy when in line or going places, often close minded to new ways of doing things, men will smoke everywhere (buses, cabs, restaurants, bathrooms, etc), they will also spit everywhere (and I mean real loud spitting, full mouthfulls of saliva and flem), and so on. In praise though, the chinese are often incredibly friendly, also very giving, helpfull, and hard working. The reader must remember as well, few Chinese can speak English, so everywhere I go takes twice as much effort to communicate through body language/nonverbals or using a few phrases from my guide book. People are always trying to sell stuff to foreigners and whenever buying necessities I always have to figure out what the real price is as opposed to the foreigner price given. Traveling in China is fairly cheap, as a hostel room only costs about an average of $6 US dollars a night, food usually ranging a few dollars, and transportation a 1/3 of what it would cost in the states; regardless of the exchange rate though, it certainly seems the money go fast here. And I never know if information I am given is reliable or just a way of someone trying to scam me; so I never really know who to trust. There is probably a lot I am leaving out, perhaps I will mention it later on.

From the ugly industrial town of Datong (which about sums up the majority of larger towns in China) I took a 6 hour bus ride to the holy buddhist mountain town of Whuti Shan. I took a small local bus that had no heating and was filled with mostly chain smoking older men. The scenery along the drive was beautiful but the fact I couldn't feel my toes (even with three pairs of socks) slightly distracted me from the views. After checking into my hotel I explored the local buddhist temples and was probably the only western traveler I saw in town. I also couldn't find anyone who could speak english in town, so it made for an interesting experience to try to communicate I wanted to take a bus the next morning to my further destination. That night, my hotel room got down to a temperature of about 2C degrees (just about 35F) according to my little thermostat I have. There was a little heater that really did nothing to heat the room; there was frost on the inside of the metal door to the room and ice along the inside of the window. It was certainly a cold night but with the thick heap of covers I had I was at least able to keep the covered portions of my body warm.

The next day I took a very uncertain series of busses to Piangyao, an older preserved historic city. From Whuti Shan I was directed to change buses in a town several hours away. After about 5 hours of driving, the driver pointed to a small van, and the driver of the van was yelling "Piangyao, Piangyao" and waving for me to come over. I supposedly bought a direct ticket to Piangyao but this man wanted me to pay for his van (which I didn't know if it was bringing me all the way to Pingyao or to another bus). So not really having a clue, I handed over some money and was just hoping the few rough looking men in the backseat of the van weren't going to drive me to the edge of town and take all my money or some rather grime experience. They drove me across town to a bus sitting on the side of the street (not at a bus station) and said Pingyao pointing to it. So I hop onto that bus, not really knowing when or where to get off. They ask me to pay and I then realized I payed the last van driver way too much thinking he was going to be taking me further. So this point in the day, I am pretty tired and quite ready to get off buses and just have a conversation with someone in English (as it had been about 48 hours since talking to someone beyond a few words in Chinese I learned - it really is amazing how essential proper communication is to maintaining sanity). Eventually I made it and at least got my own room (the dorm room was full) for a good price and have my own shower with consistent hot water.

Pingyao is indeed a beautiful little old town (a little run down though) surrounded by ancient walls and looks what you would think of when considering a traditional chinese town. It was a pleasure to have a hostel owner who could speak english and I could ask questions about exploring the town. It was good for a day but I was ready to start moving again. Starting during the last day of travel, I got get into a bit of travel rut, really not enjoying traveling for the time being - this would last several days. So I was a little annoyed at everything and just having a hard time enjoying the various discomforts of being in such a different culture.

I took an overnight train to Luoyang where after I booked into a hotel I took a bus straight to Song Shan, a Holy mountain where the Shaolin temple is located (Kung Fu originated here). The temple had been destroyed many times, so the rebuilt version wasn't anything too amazing but there was some beautiful scenery. I took a steep hike up to the grave of a famous monk behind the Temple and then walked along one of the most spectacular rock cliff sides I have ever seen (sheer rock cliffs shooting straight up hundreds of meters from the base of a canyon). I also had my first and probably last celebrity experience up on the cliffs. There were hundreds of children there who were studying kung fu at the Shaolin temple and visiting this cliff side; when I walked by they would all yell "hullo, hullo", they took pictures of me, and reach out to shake my hand - all for being a western foreigner. Quite a unique, blushing, shocking, slightly enjoyable, slightly embarrasing expierence.

I took a 5 1/2 bus ride the next day from Luayong to Xi'an, which is a modern city but has a very old history as one of China's earliest capitals. I made a decision that I would take some time to relax and take some time to do nothing to try to get out of this travel rut. I was pretty weary from the fast pace travel schedule, the vast cultural differences, and the work from dealing with language barriers. I saw the Terracotta Warriors (8th wonder of the world) which were an impressive collection of stone carved human figures that were made to commemorate the emperor Qin's (I believe that is his name) accomplishments of uniting China (if I remember right). Besides seeing some other city sites, I took things very slowly, watching movies, playing the guitar at the hostel, actually having conversations with people in English (something that has been very refreshing), and just going with the flow. I finally felt ready to keep moving.

I arrived in Chengdu today (south east of Xi'an) from a 16 hour train ride and will be going to see the largest sitting buddha in the world. I only have 8 days left in China and am hoping to have a good conclusion in this country before moving on to South East Asia. Unfortunately I just got a cold, so my progress will have to continue to be slow. This was certainly a long entry, so no reflection today. Pictures to come soon though!

go well,
Karl Smerecnik