China Trip - Post #5

He's back!!  It's Dad again.  Before we left Xi'an we made a quick stop at the Muslim Quarter, a very eclectic, ancient but hyper-active street with a mix of ancient China and modern activity.  Hundreds of little shops like you see all over China (just like I used to see in Brazil) selling everything from goat's hoofs to silk scarfs.  Mom and I really enjoyed ourselves - but the only decent restroom (or Happy Room, as our hostess Grace called them) was in a Starbuck's.  Mom bought a couple of Starbuck's cookies for the train trip coming up.

As you recall, Xi'an was the start of the silk road in ancient times.  Consequently there was a significant population of Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, etc. in the city.  Grace said still about 10% of the population today were Muslim.

This is the start of the Muslim Street.  That is Grace with the yellow flag. At one point she wanted to come up with a name for our group and some of the party convinced her that we should be called the "Cougars."  However, when she said it it sounded more like "cookers" (or worse) so we changed it to "Jazz."

This is the kind of architecture that we saw all around.  Hard to comprehend the ability they had to construct such massive structures 2000 years ago.  This is one of the bell towers or drum towers that sounded on the hour in ancient times so they knew what time it was.  It was also used to sound the alarm whenever there was an enemy or an emergency like a fire.

Mom and our friends the Blake's taking off down the street.  It was a bit nippy and overcast, which I think held down the crowds.

After the Muslim Quarter we were on a tight time table to get to the train station to catch our overnight sleeper train to Beijing.  What an experience!!  I don't want this to sound politically incorrect, but the train station gives new meaning to the concept of a "Chinese fire drill."  Masses of humanity, many of the poorer people cuz others would travel by air, crowding, pushing, and jockeying for position to get in front of everyone else to get to their trains.  And in the middle of that was poor Grace with her yellow flag, trying to herd a group of confused and somewhat intimidated Americans together to our train.  And that is with a wheelchair that couldn't get though any of the gates since nobody planed for handicap access in any part of China.  But we made it - BARELY! - Grace came over the horizon with the wheelchair just as the train was getting ready to pull out.  Whew!

This is the hallway in our sleeper car, just like you see in old movies.  Made me think of "Murder on the Orient Express", but we decided not to talk about that.  By the way, the real Orient Express originated in Xi'an.  The car is broken into 12 sleeper berths, into which our group neatly fit.  What needs to be noted, however, is the woefully inadequate restroom facilities.  They had a western toilet in one end of the car and a Chinese toilet in the other end, neither of which adequately flushed.  Gross!

We got to stay with the Beards in our berth.  Very nice, fun couple from Layton.  He was a retired professor at WSU, I think Biology or something related.  We had a lot of fun and laughed as we "farckled" into the evening.  They taught us a new game, Farckle.  It will be fun to play with grandkids.  Anyway, I slept on the top bunk and Mom on the bottom.  Surprisingly enough, we actually slept reasonably well.  We woke in the morning as we pulled into Beijing's train station, nervous about how to find our guide after our harrowing experience the night before.  Imagine our relief when we opened our windows and saw a guy standing with a Utah Jazz flag on our platform.  Hooray for Henry!

He took us to our hotels where we were able to shower and rest for the rest of that day.  Mom and I took advantage of an in-room 90 minute massage (cost about $30 each, deep tissue - we felt beat up)  and spent the day relaxing.  That night the group wanted to get together for an American dinner.  We walked over to a "Big Pizza", the local name for a Chinese version of  Pizza Hut.  Unfortunately the group was having a hard time communicating what we wanted and most gave up and went to McDonald's.  But Mom and I plus two others figured out how to do it and went upstairs for a very good all-you-can-eat pizza buffet - not quite Craigo's, but tasted very good.  Pizza, plus all the Chinese delicacies you could want.

The next morning we took off for our first stop in Beijing - the site of the 2008 Olympics.  There is a HUGE plaza with several different and very recognizable Olympic venues all around.  I can only imagine what it must have looked like during the Olympics - masses of humanity.  Henry reminded us that they took great steps to put on a good face for the world - they even outlawed cars for a few weeks ahead of time to help with air pollution.  You can see that it was a bit chilly and overcast/polluted this day.

You recognize the "Bird's Nest" from the Olympics. 

This is me on the plaza, with the Water Cube in the background.  Very beautiful at night, with bright blue bubbles in shimmering shades.  Note the cool architecture in the modern building in the background.  You see all kinds of amazing new buildings in Beijing - an architect's playground!

This is the other view of the plaza, with the Media Tower on the left and the Olympic Torch (in red) on the left.  You have to imagine it with the flame.

Closer look at the torch.  It is all carved, sculpted throughout, but hard to tell in a photo.

That is enough for now.  Next up will be Ming tombs and the Great Wall!  Stay tuned!  Dad/Jim