I'm doing the highlight tour of China. (Beijing, Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors, Guilin and Hong Kong)
No access to Blog, Facebook, Picasa, etc, so email it is.
In Xi'an (Terra Cotta Warriors) for a few days, then taking a 26 hour train to Guilin. Will chill there for a few days and then make my way to Hong Kong. Will skip out of town before the Chinese New Year. I have someone to see there but will not try and stay for the New Year. Need to be heading westward. Running out of $$$ (of course, that has always been true, but now I can count the days left within a few weeks. Looks like I'll head back by the end of April. Of course, I am still very open to possibilities. Travelling is still too much fun to think about stopping.
China a bit more work to deal with than say New Zealand, but the experiences makes the work worthwhile. I am currently staying in one of the coolest hostels I've ever been in (Shuyuan). They wrote my train details to Guilin in Chinese for me, so that when I bought my ticket, I didn't end up in Shanghai. No English on my ticket, I just believe it to be true. (JiaJia assures me).
I am introducing tipping into this country whether they like it or not. I got all the people on the tour bus (Terra Cotta) yesterday to kick in some $$$ to tip our guide. They do not like to to take money for nothing, but I assured her that it was the customs of the countries represented (Argentina, Italy, US and Canada) and she had to accept. The tip I foisted on my waiter in Beijing (I ate same place for 4 nights and he helped me out a lot) took 10 minutes to convince him he had to take it. We even had to get his friend involved to translate a little bit. It was fun). On the Great Wall hike (Jinshanling to Simatai), we had 15 or so hustlers follow the group for 5-6 Km. I bolted ahead of the group about .5 km and had the place to myself most of the time (3 hours). A few time I stopped to take pics or jst look around, the place was absolutley silent, an experience to rememebr forever. At the mid-way point, there was Jiang-Li,a local who hikes a few hours perpendicularly to the Wall from a small viallge to sell his stuff (which included beer!). I bought a beer, we excahnegd camera photos and stories about our kids (he is same age as me and has one boy and oner girl). He would not take a tip, but I paid him an exorbitant amount (5 times what he was asking) for a little book). One of the more enjoyables beers in my life.
The Terra Cotta Warrior sight is not as expected, but the actual pit was as stunning as advertised. All those completely different faces. I am still quite shocked. Easily worth the trip here to see therm
The smog in Xi'an is intense, it is claustrophobic, you can see about 2 km if you count outlines and shapes, then it is just a wall of white. It is upsetting me quite a bit. Kids here think that this is normal. Flying Beijing to Xi'an, I never saw the ground once, altho we were only a few thousand feet up on a nice day. Buddy on plane trying to tell me it was a cloudy day. Even taking a picture of my hostel, if i back up acrsoos the street, you notice the lack of clarity in the picture.
Finding English newspaper here Ok. Lot of politics (cool) and business. Everyone here has a cell phone (about 30% ) You use dirty words in a text, they can take away your number forever (I'm sure some fine fixes that). Lots of security checks in Beijing and at tourist sights. Other than that, seems just like a bustling economy, altho miles behind say Korea.
Meeting lots of teachers. They are all on break and travelling. People scurrying to try and nail down New Year's stuff. Playing Foosball and pool with the locals in a local bar. Pretty funny. Sports and light competition do not need a language. Beer helps too. Can only relax so much, there is always a background of someone trying to take advantage of you. Got dinged in Beijing by some art students and have had odd offers here in Xi'an. Part of the situation you must deal with
This has been a hell of a trip so far. Lots of new experiences. The underlying sense of freedom is just too cool to explain.
Bruce
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