A brief story about traveling in China.

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A brief story about traveling in China

(Beijing-Pingyao-Xian-Chengdu-Songpan-Langmusi-Lanzhou-Beijing)

Coming back from Provinces to the City of Beijing again is kind of shock…no it is not a shock but it feels like you are leaving another life behind and start living your routine again. Start drowning into the jungle of the big city, drowning into the jungle of streets, houses, cars, bicycles, dust and noise far away from the oases we have found on our travel. Feels like you are lost again in between all of them and nothing around you is willing to take any notice of you…or maybe I am not willing to notice my surrounding. I feel a bit trapped in this big city. Beijing is too huge just to escape for a while from the crowds…there are people everywhere and everywhere you can see and hear their signs of civilization. It is like a big ant hill and I am somewhere in the middle…f…!!!!

So I was quite happy that a friend of mine came visiting me and I got the grateful job as a tour guide around the country. That was my chance to turn my back to the city. At least for while so I could refresh my batteries a bit and see the horizon for the first time since a few months only staring at house walls.

Well, where to start to make it not too boring for you. Best thing you first get something to drink and a map of China that you can follow through the wild wild east. China is a huge country and traveling here means to go over huge distances all the time. If you think an 8-hour bus ride over bumping roads is long then you shouldn’t do something like this. Anyway, let’s start.

Immediately after the 10-hour flight of my friend Katja from Germany we drove of by overnight train to a small but well-preserved town called Pingyao 600km southwest of Beijing. It’s really small for China. It only got 40.000 citizens. But this city is something special. The old part is still fully surrounded by the old city wall and the streets are like China 100 years ago. There are still the old style houses with their small shops in the ground floor, the vendors on the street selling everything from meat over shoes to spices and clothes and many tiny food stalls where you can buy every Chinese delicacy you like to have. But mostly you don’t want them anyway. Chicken hearts, meat which was already has been for 3 days in the hot sun, all kind of inner organs and so on is not really making me feel hungry at all. Fortunately you can go in one of the small restaurants where you don’t need to see what the chefs are cooking in the back.

But that’s life there. And life there means also the dirt on the street, the dust in the air and the busy life of the people rushing through the narrow lanes between the houses. Kids are playing and shouting “Hello” at any foreigner they can see, old woman in dirty clothes are sitting behind their goods they want to sell, while men with lined faces are playing Chinese chess, smoke and talk. It got a kind of peaceful atmosphere, like a world in it’s own. So we were wandering around looking in every corner, through the wooden gates of the houses and were trying to avoid the bicycles and the buckets of dirt water people sometimes spilled out of their home. In Chinese cities you have to be more carefully where you step on than when you are walking in the mountains. All the time we were followed by the vendors who tried to sell us every piece of scrap they have. The things they have are “of course” all over 100 year old and no fake products so that they would give as a good price because we are looking so friendly. Well, it is everywhere the same story. Chinese want money. That counts first I guess it also comes before the family.

The nicest part was when we wanted to make a picture of a kinder garden. Suddenly the kids saw us and ran down to the old rusty irony gate where they all were standing looking at us, and everyone tried to be in the front row. They were pushing each other and shouting, laughing and staring. It was such a funny picture and than they also started to sing a song for us. We didn’t understand, but I hope it wasn’t against us….like “go away, it is our city!” or “we don’t like foreigners!” Well, but I don’t think so. Our attempt to give them a show as well failed because of not knowing any song in his full length and our from the dust of China marked smoky voice.

After discovering the town for nearly 10 sweating hours it was time for our train to Xian. We weren’t lucky at all. Tickets for sleeper and seats were already sold out, so we just got standing tickets and we prepared to fight for some seats. The train is just a slow train and stops at every station, the weather was hot and the air in the carriage was awful, but we got seats. It’s a special experience if you are traveling like this through the country. You are really in close contact to the Chinese and everyone is staring at you, touching you, asking personal questions right away but also friendly, at least some of them were. While sitting there with almost no space to move the baby opposite of me was thinking about doing a business. But the toilet was far away and just a small business it also just could do in the aisle the parents were thinking. But my look at the parents let them decide to go to toilet first as long as there is time. Once, the time run out and we got a chocolate similar but not as good smelling pile of something on the seat….well, what you wanna do about it. You smile!!!

But Katja felt worst and worst. Even that she had a window seat she said she can not stand it anymore and need to go to a carriage with an air-conditioning. Inside here the air was as heavy as a mountain on your head and the crowd made it smell like everything you can think of in this situation. But to change the carriage is a problem because the beds were all sold out as the conductors told us. So we just brought her to the restaurant and let her there. That’s of course against the rule and some of the staff got really pissed of. But since we are foreigners we got some better position. That’s the advantage in China. It is sometimes really helpful. So we just ignored them. But one our later they really moved us away and since my friend could go back we just brought her to the first sleeper class and put her in the aisle over there. You guess right, that pissed of the stuff over there, but we didn’t move and they couldn’t put us of the train without getting big trouble. So she was there for another 3 hours until finally the staff gave us a whole compartment with four beds. I wonder why suddenly there were places free. Anyway, I was never that much shouting and Chinese before, but it helps.

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So we survived the most awful train ride I ever had and were welcomed in Xian by extremely hot weather. Xian is the place of the Terracotta Army. A place with over 2000 years history, but the city itself is now a typical modern Chinese city = nothing special. Only the Muslim quarter with the mosque could keep its character. Quiet, relaxed and friendly people enjoying the afternoon in the shade of the buildings or trees. More or less it was the same picture as in pingyao, but much more cleaner.

The Terracotta army itself is outside the town ...

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