On the Road with Brent & Erika

We left Lijiang on a morning bus for a full day of travel to Xi'an. After a nine-hour bus to Kunming, we had dinner and waited for a few hours until our 11:50pm red-eye flight. It was 50% off. That put us into Xi'an around 1:45am where a driver from our guesthouse met us with a sign bearing the name "Brdst Hnghps" or some similarly butchered version of my name. This young guy was blasting some dance music in his cab (these songs are now stuck in our head continually--ahhh!) and sped very quickly Mad-Max-style through the mostly empty streets to our guesthouse.


The anime style on-flight safety video

We spent our first day in Xi'an walking around and seeing the sights. It's a city of about 7 or so million and hazy with smog, but we found a neat little area that was home to the Muslim population and a very cool little antique street full of old-looking Chinese goodies. We picked up a couple bulky and heavy items to weigh our bags down for the next 4 weeks (but hopefully fill our home with happy memories!) and ate some cheap noodles on the street. After a trip to the Shaanxi History Museum to freshen up on our knowledge of the plethora of Chinese dynasties, we headed back to our hostel to try and avoid the overly affectionate Irish kissing/hugging/spooning couple in our dorm room. Get your own room!


Fans on antique street


Muslim man reading the paper


Ricky perusing the goods


Erika in front of the flower display at the downtown Bell Tower


Bell Tower at night

Day 2 in Xi'an took us to the Army of Terra Cotta Warriors--"The Eighth Wonder of the World." These life-size clay figures, horses and chariots were buried underground 2,200 years ago to guard the tomb of an old Chinese emperor. They number upwards of 7,000 and were just discovered in the 1970's by a local farmer digging a well. They are remarkably well-preserved and each has unique facial features. It really was rather amazing. Excavation continues and will for several decades to come.

The Army of Terra Cotta Warriors...








Then we, somehow in a momentary lapse of all traveler's common-sense, decided to book an overnight train to our next city without sleeper tickets. We got the common hardseat. "It'll be an adventure and at least it's cheap," we told ourselves. Well, of course, we soon regretted this decision. The train was oversold by the hundreds and running people shoved their way onto any and every car and took every available extra space to place themselves for the night, filling up the ailes and even seatbacks to beyond capacity. We shoved ourselves, at times filled with a claustrophobic panic, to our cramped seats (with the help of shouting and pushing Chinese train attendants) and parked for a night of fitfull sleep at best. At first it wasn't bad. We tried to teach our trainmates (four Chinese men--there were no foreigners dumb enough to get on this madness of a train) Uno and exhausted the Mandarin phrase section of our Lonely Planet guidebook quickly. This left us to nod off, hang our heads in our hands, lean on whatever and whomever to try to get some sleep. Anyway, the sun came up and we made it to our destination a little wiser about what types of train tickets not to get.


The crowds arranging themselves for the long night


Us looking deceptively happy


Erika no longer looking happy as morning dawns


Various sleeping positions

That destination was a small town named Pingyao. It is the best preserved ancient city in China. Built during the Ming dynasty (about the 14th century) the city sports old wooden buildings and a complete city wall. We rented bikes and headed to a temple outside of town passing treelined lanes with herding sheepsman. Very pleasant. Then we just wandered around. This city itself is somewhat of a museum, never being torn down for bigger and better buildings. The cobblestoned streets team with bikes and scooters (no cars!) and people hang out on doorsteps and go about their day at a slow pace. We observed the timeless work of separating wheat from chaff and just soaked in the ancient atmosphere.


Central Tower and Main Street of Pingyao


Erika and Ricky donning bikes along with our new English friend Louise


Me riding along treelined lane


Erika on the main strip


Scenes from the streets of Pingyao:










One little extra this post. We have noticed some things about China so far that are a little amusing and somewhat interesting. We've categorized several of these cultural differences and will put them on the next few posts. The first cultural observation is that men openly and unashamedly wear shorts with dress shoes and dark socks. Now although our dads might sport this from time to time, this trend is running rampant on the streets of China. It must stop for progress to continue in this country. Here are some examples:







Okay, tonight we leave on a sleeper train (yeah!) to Beijing and The Great Wall. This is the northernmost point of the trip before we head back south. It'll be a change of pace from sleepy Pingyao, but we're both excited for some new and classic Chinese sights. Until then...


This man was discovering a new way to reach nirvana at the temple outside of Pingyao.

--Brent