"1st Class"

For the rest of Chengdu, we saw the Giant Pandas at the National Breeding Center, enjoyed bottomless cups of Chrysanthemum and Jasmine tea (gave a shout out to Jesmine Choi), and toured a bizarre mechanical dinosaur dungeon for kids in a dank basement at the edge of People's Park. It was admittedly kinda scary when they would let out a pre-recorded roar, but the ferocity was, in the end, mitigated by the occasional decaying plaster and exposed steel rods.

Sarah got her funds transferred, finding the phone easier than the Internet. Go figure. And we booked a "1st Class" cabin aboard a boat to tour the Yangtze River and the Three-Gorges before the river is flooded in a couple of years from the massive new Three-Gorges dam in Yichang. The guy John we booked the tickets with said, "You know this is a Chinese tour don't you." "Yeah," we said, thinking it would of course be a little rough around the edges. Little did we know just how rough.

Took a bus from Chengdu to the concrete-riddled, hot-house of Chongqing (CHON-CHING), where our boat was leaving from. There wasn't much there (even the hot pots they are supposedly famous for were really hard to find and when we did were nothing special). Even the Chinese we talked to said even they hated Chongqing! It would also turn out that we were arriving on the hottest day they had in 50 years. Man, you talk about an oven, that place was crazy!

A guide was walking us to our boat and the one in front of us looked a little dinged, but we thought, 'ok, we can live with it.' Then he turned to the left and we saw our real boat. Pretty much a rusted hunk, that was trying to be salvaged as a tourist boat for its last few runs. And the first class room? Let's just say we didn't even want to think what 2nd class was like. The bathroom was dirty, floors missing tiles, a/c barely blowing a breeze. In hindsight, we would have carried our packs all the way up and demanded something else, but we had a back door trip through southern China already timed out with our Visa entry into Vietnam. And all the boats are supposed to be booked and so then we'd have to recheck into a hotel, and so on. Plus, they say you're supposed to see the boat before you buy the tickets, but what an enormous pain getting down to the dock in searing heat and you have to do it within the couple of hours you're leaving because the boats are continually rotating in and out. Even then, you can never be sure that the boat you bought the ticket for is the one you'll be on!

But then of course we thought this trip IS mostly about seeing the Yangtze and the Three Gorges, which didn't disappoint and were magnificent. But we definitely had a quick education of what a "Chinese tour" was. They also had funny little charges and fees for everything. 50 Yuan to go to the upper deck and cafe, which did have two huge air conditioners blasting. Attractions at each stop was all extra fees, and there were fees sometimes just to leave the boat. A deposit for your key. Even a deposit for the cheap, laminated paper ticket you had to pay 50 Yuan for in the first place. Apparently, they either couldn't build in the cost into the ticket price, or laminated printouts are quite expensive.



The first night was searing hot, so we couldn't wait to leave and get the air moving. When we did, we went up to the cafe to just sit in the blasting A/C for a few minutes, play some cards, bide our time to go back to the room and then silently pray.


The scenery was spectacular, however. Perhaps even the most spectacular was ironically the LITTLE Three Gorges. Named so because the passage is more narrow here, but the height of the cliffs is roughly the same, making for an even more dramatic juxtaposition. We also visited the Three-Gorges Dam, which is really only worth it just to stand in the middle on top of it while they are doing construction. The security is tighter than an airline, though. You can only bring a camera and a passport. We left everything else on the bus.

Later that night an enormous rain storm broke out with lighting flashing all around us and the two other Westerners we met on the boat, Tim and Sara from England. At about 10pm, our boat itself went through the locks, being lowered about 20m to the other side and finishing our journey. All in all it was a great trip, the magnificent scenery better than the experience.

The next day, we would begin a truly adventurous, "backdoor" journey through some really random places in southwest China, continuing to book it south and make it in time for our Visa entry into Vietnam.

Throngs of surging people and chaos.

When we arrived at the X'ian rail station, it was nothing we had ever imagined. Throngs of surging people and chaos. 'Whoever pushed the hardest' was the order of the day. We shoved with our big backpacks through and they help us deflect others who would have made our trip ten times longer. When we got in, there were masses of lines, including the one 200 deep for our train. You see, in Chinese rail stations, they wait till the last minute (sometimes seconds) before letting the long line of people through to the platform when the train arrives. Maybe it's a control thing, but once they do, everyone pushes forward, with all their bags, boxes, sacks of whatever and cages and make the long, serpentine route to the platform. Ours had to go up and down stairs over the tracks, past reeking public restrooms, up and down another flight, and depending on what car you were in, all the way down the platform as well. We made it as the train pulled in. Found our cabin and the fact that we weren't sleeping in the same compartment as the ticket agents promised, but the gracious people as we always found the Chinese to be offered to trade spots. We ended up in the same cabin a very pleasant English man and a Chinese woman from a non-profit organization for orphan children in China and based in England.

The journey was about 14 hours but parts of it were a dilly. Through the rain, we could see the magnificent Yellow River winding through the mountains as the train followed it and its tributaries for most of the day. Then there was the ascent. Over the course of 100km it seemed, the train kept rising higher and and higher and veered around precipices at sometimes uncomfortably close range to the drop below. It has been said Chengdu is a new city (relatively of course) in Chinese history simply because of its difficult geography.

As darkness fell, we settled in with our dehydrated noodle soup, one spicy, one everything, and fell asleep in the 4-person compartment early as we would be woken up at 4:30-5am and the train would arrive at 5:30.

It did almost exactly on time and that's when an amazing day began. We decided to take a long walk with our stuff from the train station to the guesthouse. It turned out to be exhilirating watching Chengdu wake up to the day, but it also turned out to be a long walk! A little tired, we had the choice of either resting the day or seeing the city we had heard so much about. We chose the masochistic option and rented bikes, setting out for our first taste of Sichuan food and it didn't disappoint: it was a massive (but managable) fire of dryness and spice that filled every corner of your mouth. We meant to go to the golden goat park across the street and walked for hours within a beautiful park, including a wonderfully restored homage tracing the history of Chinese poetry, complete with works by Lao Tze. But it turned out to be the wrong park! We finally left and cycled to the right one and it contained beautiful Buddhist shrines and a garden.

Then it was off the Bamboo Riverview Park but on the way Andy haphazardly jumped a curb and busted his tire. He still wasn't sure if it just needed air to refill it or a whole patch job, so Sarah agreed to stay on a street corner while he found out. Someone had said there was a place down the street. After looking for a while, Andy found a Medical Supply Center. Sounds strange but they did have wheelchairs, decatheters and IV stands in the window with big wheels that at least indicated an air pump. He inquired and was right. The owner obliged him, filled it up, then the tire went back down just as quickly. Disappointing, but at least Andy knew it was a patch job. The owner motioned North, then East around the corner, with gestures that indicated there was a place that could actually fix it. After a grueling mile of walking and asking, he did find an older gentlemen with an air pump, but couldn't communicate to him that he just needed a patch and not just air. The lost subtleties resulted in the man following Andy down the street with an air pump in hand. Luckily, Andy saw what looked like the place with a couple of guys working outside on bikes and cycles. They said they could fix it immediately for 30 cents, US. Well, this was certainly different from the four days and $20 US for a flat in Denmark. They proceeded to start, but then the old man with the air pump that was standing there started to intefere again, thinking Andy was getting a repair he might not need! Rather than wasting time explaining everything, Andy motioned to the repair guy to FORGET the old man and PLEASE keep working and asked the old man if he could find him a restroom or a hose to wash his hands. Sarah was keeping an eye on the other bike and had no idea what was going on.

When Andy and the old man came back, the repair guy said it was fixed. Andy was elated. Such a better system than the rigidness and apparent laziness of the Scandinavian system. Could this represent a microcosm of the new economic world order to come? But upon closer look, everyone noticed the tire was still flat. The repair didn't hold. Hmm, maybe this wasn't quite the new world order -- shoddy workmanship. But the repair guy asked for a few more minutes. Afterwards, Andy came back. The tire was fixed and yes, it held for the rest of the day.

We saw the beautiful Bamboo Park, had famous Chengdu hot pot in the market corner and cycled our way back to the guesthouse only to find it had turned into a full-fledged party. Tons of Chinese were drinking, talking, laughing and eating in the street. We weren't even sure we were in the right place! But, we decided to join them and end an unbleivable day in one of China's most intriguing cities.

China Redeux

Arrived in Qingdao very smoothly. Although they seem to keep examining Andy's beat-up passport, bending at the edge, in-between the laminate where the picture is. Smartly, Sarah has managed to keep hers pretty pristine. After much discussion with the custom guy's partner/superior to make sure it was legit, we were finally let through. After changing money and getting on the bus, you immediately notice China is a little rougher around the edges, but also less than half the price.

Caught a bus then walked and caught another bus to the downtown train station hoping to maybe even get a train that night to X'ian (SHEE-AHN). Ahh, hope, the wonderfully naive notion.


Andy waited in this seedy line outside (it was absolutely immovable inside and the 'Information' booth was in name only) -- it was the only way to find out anything. After tons of people staring at us in the line and one drunk guy up front occasionally beating off people that cut in front for tips, Andy managed enough broken Chinese to find out that there were no trains to X'ian that night and only hard seats the entire next day. It would be an all nighter packed on wooden seats - for 16hrs. Since we wanted to see other distant parts of China overland and still make it to Vietnam in time, we decided to check planes. Plus X'ian was just a two-day stop and there's no way we'd be rested after that train trip to make it worth it.

Out of desperation, some exhaustion and still getting used to the currency, etc., we checked in to perhaps the worst hotel of the trip. Without going into the sordid details, let's just say we learned our lesson fast about getting stuff sorted out beforehand.

Then we had to get plane tickets. We didn't even know if we could get on a flight the next day, much less how much it would be. We found a Chinese travel type place, they had the seats and the price was cheaper than in Korea, so great! But they would only take cash. So we found a Bank of China, and thus spawned another big problem that wouldn't manifest itself fully until later.

The buttons for the PIN code at the ATM not only didn't have the corresponding letters on the number keys (a first in our travels and this is how Andy always remembered his PIN), but also it was in reverse, making it difficult to even mimick it by spacial relations on the key pad. (We also learned quickly just to memorize the number as well as the letters.) After the third or fourth PIN entry failure, Andy's card locked up as the bank assumed it was a security breach. There was no hope for the card now without contacting the bank and who knew how long that would take. Sarah, tried her card a couple of times and also couldn't quite figure out the new keypad. So we wrote on a piece of paper a keypad with what the corresponding letters would be on it, then tried to figure out the numbers from there. We just couldn't remeber if Zero had any corresponding letters.

We also went to another bank machine just to be safe. This time, Sarah's PIN entry worked. We sighed a deep sigh and got the tickets. However, the bank problem would come back to haunt us later.

Tickets in hand for the next day, we caught bus #26 out to the Quindao (others might know it as 'Tsingtao') beer festival. It was a loud raucous night, but we did meet our first black person living and working in China. He was from Ghana and was manning one of the booths at the festival and spoke good English. He said there were probably 5 others from Ghana in the city and that they moved to China for economic reasons, but discovered it was just as bad as Africa, he said!

The next day we hit the 'beach.' It was really more like tepid polluted water, but we walked on the pier and we both tried to go in for a little bit but you couldn't really swim. Well, you could if you liked touching things the whole way.

Later, leaving for the airport, we couldn't figure out where exactly the private airport bus left from so we opted for the public bus then we thought we could take a cab from its end point. It went through some fascinating neighborhoods and one enourmous 'suburb' that must have had a million or so people. Finally, made it to the airport in plenty of time.

The flight to X'ian went incredibly smoothly, although for some reason on Chinese planes they seem to want to update you a lot. They keep giving information like, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ten minutes into the flight, we have 45 minutes of flying left." There was also a bizarre statement that sounded like, "Also, please be aware of the attacking mirrors" but we weren't sure what it was.

We were the only westerners on the flight, but that changed after we touched down. X'ian is a pretty big tourist draw. Our bus took us into town and we walked from the hotel from there.

We saw the X'ian History Museum, basically a nice, clear and 'concise' history of China and the dynasties, since X'ian was the ancient capital for so many years. Later, we realized the bank card thing was coming back to us. We were running out of valuable cash. The hotel wouldn't take credit cards or travelers check - and we needed to pay for our room, ongoing train tickets, and buy the tickets to the Terracotta Warriors the next day. We used the last of our cash to buy the train tickets to Chengdu, in the Southwest, in the province of Sichuan, because we had learned that you can only get the upgraded sleeper seats days in advance. And the train station in X'ian was even more of a madhouse than Qingdao.



Also, now we learned that even Sarah couldn't get money because her Citibank account was empty and she was having trouble transferring funds from her main bank to there. Andy finally had to try to call the bank about his card, while Sarah tried numerous PIN combinations and usernames she had forgotten to transfer the money from her main bank to her Citibank.

On the phone, Andy first tried to use the calling card he bought in Qingdao, but the PIN they gave him didn't work and he wasn't sure what other glitches there were to get past it, so that was pretty much a waste. Now he tried to use his original calling card from home. Luckily, the international access number worked and he got through. After 10 minutes and three or four levels of people who said we would have to either go back to Beijing or Shanghai and settle it there OR wait in the mail two weeks for a form to fill out to get a new PIN sent to the New York address, Andy finally got through to an emergency guy in Dallas who said this is 'not normal procedure, but we can reset your PIN over the phone.' Exactly what we needed to hear. He then said, he'd just have to wait till business hours ( 1.5 hours later) to have a second 'unidentified person' come on the line a do a 'dual key turn' to reset the PIN. After that, it would be another two or three hours before it cleared through the system and Andy could get cash. Andy said he would call back in an hour and a half.


He did, and after going through all the levels again, was transferred to a 'mystery woman' at the other end of the line that just said, "Go ahead..." Andy said the new PIN into the phone and that was it. There was not even a 'thank you' or repeating the PIN or anything. She just hung up. Like some kind of espionage scene in a movie or something. A couple of hours later he tried to get cash. No luck. We figured we'd just try in the morning. When we did, about 8 hours later, it finally worked. We were back in business.


The next morning, we paid our hotel bill, plus an extra night and set out on bus to see the Terracotta Warriors. The site was discovered by peasants digging a well in the 70's; there were no real written records of it, and it turned out to be one of the greatest archeological finds of the century. Constructed thousands of years ago to guard the Emperor in his tomb in the afterlife, this place was no joke. The massive first excavation yielded a 2 football field-sized plot with thousands of restored warriors there and many more waiting to be dug out. These are all life-sized warriors (and horses and chariots) made from terracotta clay from the region and baked into present form. No two warriors, however are alike, and each are said to reflect the unique facial features of the actual standing warriors at the time. Moreover, if the statues weren't perfectly executed by the artist, then the artist was. Killed that is. If that weren't enough, even the tomb's builders and architects were murdered and sealed into the tomb, enabling the secret to remain hidden until the mid seventies. Pretty brutal stuff. The originals were colored with a patina which apparently fades upon contact with oxygen, which is why they are delaying excavation of the thousands more warriors believed to be hidden in the new buildings, in hopes of developing the proper technology to preserve them.

The next day, we decided to rent bikes before boarding our 12pm train. X'ian is a crazy city, especially near the train station where we were. But along the city walls, it's actually quite peaceful and a great place to ride. We managed to ride around the inside of the entire city wall, about 15k in an hour until we were back in the bedlam of X'ian's train station. It was so bad, Andy looked back after looking away for 30 seconds and Sarah was gone. Granted Sarah would be the only blond hair in a sea of dark hair, but it just shows how many people there were! Andy retraced his route several times, even jumping over to the hotel. No luck. After 25 minutes and the boarding time to the train approaching rapidly, he figured she would be able to find the hotel and just meet him there. It turned out to be true. There she was, also finding it impossible to see Andy's brown hair in a sea of black! There was no time for small talk, however. We had to pack, check out, then barrel our way through the nightmare train station and it in time for departure or who knows how long we'd be stuck in X'ian because there's only one a day and it's almost impossible to get train tickets on short notice.