Сибирь (Siberia)

Siberia in March. It was the element of the trip that I'd been trying to mentally prepare myself for since I noticed that it was -40 when I happened to check the weather in January while on the beach in Thailand. It had warmed up a bit since then but when we arrived in Irkutsk at 12:30pm Moscow time* it was still a brisk -12.

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Temperature aside, crossing into Russia after two months in East Asia was most notable for its culture shock. Russia considers itself part of Europe. Irkutsk itself has the nickname "Paris of the East" and the architecture and infrastructure have a notably more european flavour (especially compared to Ulan Batar). When you consider though that Irkutsk is further east than Nepal, Burma, Singapore and even Bangkok and has shared borders and interacted with China and Mongolia for thousands of years it would seem natural that there be some eastern influence.

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So probably the biggest surprise is Siberia's lack of ethnic diversity. Everyone there are Russians and they look like it. So while we still stood out from the crowd due to the wide eyed, camera toting, general touristy behaviour, we were no longer noticeable solely because of the colour of or eyes or skin or hair (especially with my regrown beard, which was rapidly becoming awesome again, I could have easily passed for a Russian). This was a stark contrast to China and Mongolia where I would look like an outsider no matter how well I knew the language customs or culture.**

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I didn't really care about fitting in but I was more intrigued by how instantaneous the change was. In my many travels between adjoining countries I've found that the change between them usually seems more subtle due mostly to language, tradititon and politics than overt ethnic differences. So in this way our first stop after Mongolia was unique.

Geographically, Siberia is also unique especially when compared to the steepes and Gobi Desert from where we had just come. To be honest though I thought it looked a lot like Canada, with an abundance of rocky hills, lakes and forrests as far as the eye can see. Even the types of trees are similar to Canada and provided a nice air of the familiar.***

Did I mention lakes? I did. Excellent. Because the most of the non-travel time spent in Eastern Russia was around the village of Listvyanka on the shore of Lake Baikal. Baikal is notable for being the world's largest freshwater lake by volume*** - home to more water than all of the Canada's Great Lakes combined - and in the winter (in Siberia winter includes March and April and sometimes even May) it is frozen over.

Not the frozen over that you might associate with a world in tumultuous climate change which might mean a small bit of ice on the surface for a few days a year. No. It freezes over properly.

Estimated ice thickness exceeding 1m****being sufficiently stable that you would trust it to keep your Mercedes from falling through:

and a thickness that would take you a good hour or more to cut out a small triangle even with the proper tools.

Why would you want to spend an hour cutting a triangular opening in the ice on freezing cold March morning? Some ice fishing perhaps? Nope. Guess again.

Ice diving was never something I would go out of my way to do but as it was right under my nose I became quite excited when I thought I might be able to try it. After all I even had a mask, snorkel and underwater camera housing that I was still carrying around in my backpack (don't get me started on the Mongolian post office related reason why i was unsuccessful in mailing them home to lighten my load) so getting underneath the ice would have been a real and unexpected thrill.

Unfortunately I never even considered that the opportunity to go ice diving would ever come up in the first place so I didn't book far enough in advance****. I guess the nature and amount of the dive equipment required to say nothing of the crew and tools necessary to cut the hole (triangle) and tend the safety lines, limits the number of divers they can accomodate in a day.

Compounding the issue was the fact that it was a long weekend in honour of Women's Day (which is apparently celebrated worldwide but is an actual holiday in Russia in a manner similar to Mother's Day which I'm unure if they also celebrate) so all the dive shops were completely booked up with long-weekend holiday maker types. So after getting my hopes up and coming to terms with the price (about USD 75- not bad when you think about it) I was pretty disappointed to then be denied the opportunity.

In lieu of diving though, we did get to spend lots of time exploring the the surface of the ice.

The lake was nice and smooth (although with a few cracks) for skating and considering how cold it was there were a surprising number of people enjoying the oudoors, the holiday weekend creating a friendly, family atmoshpere.

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I guess when faced with a harsh climate you can either embrace it and get out and enjoy the winter or sit inside and wait it out. If you live in Russia and you chose the later you wouldn't get out much. So there are a lot of activities and though we couldn't do everything we did get a bit of a taste of dog sledding.

I wouldn't say 8 minutes is much more than a taste, but it was enough to get a feel for it, get the GPS up to 28kmph and take some cool photos. It was also just long enough for me because my my feet were starting to get cold and after Argentina I was under strict doctor's orders (and mom's) to keep my feet warm.

Speaking of keeping warm, we got to learn first hand one of the ways Siberians keep warm in the depths of winter. One word: sauna.

This was an authentic Russian sauna, so in addition to sitting in the sauna working up a good sweat and then cooling down with some icy water or a roll in the snow, there was the added element of a "massage" with pine bows.

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Massage is a term used loosely in this context because it basicaly consists of being thrashed with sticks. The trick is that the pine needles soak up some ice cold water first to soften up and the result, while not really to my liking, is an interesting sensation - sweating in a sauna, being smacked with sticks by a nearly naked Russian dude with prickly needles which are actually soft on the skin accompanied by the aroma of pine and then needle bits that find there way into your shorts. Like I say, it was good to try once, and I do like a good sauna, but the whole pine bow massage element is not really my thing.

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Besides sauna there are other ways that Russians keep warm:

but for method number two I had to settle for just looking at the sign so ended up opting for the third way of staying warm during the depths of Siberian winter:

After an hour or so out on the ice testing out the new tripod (obtained from the silk market of course!) and experimenting with photographic settings to try and make a frozen over lake more interesting, nothing quite warms you up like a shot or two of Russia's finest.

Then, in the spirit of the holiday weekend, we went out for a night on the town (the very very small town) where, although not much was happening, it occurred to us that we might have to make our own fun so when someone obeserved that"hey, it's cheaper if we get our vodka by the bottle." We did. And good times were had by all. Just about everyone slipped at least once on the ice on the way home. At least one glove was lost. Trevor may or may not be married to a Russian bride. And more than one person said "I'm never drinking vodka again" the next day.

Photos: 1) A lone figure sets out on a journey to cross the lake in a time when the world was in black and white. It is unknown what became of him but he may have waited 10 seconds and returned to look at the camera screen to check if the shot was in focus and make sure the tripod didn't blow over in the wind. 2) Overlooking the spot where the flowing river meets the frozen lake. 3) Frozen lake as far as the eye can see 4) Close up of ice 5) Where I'm from we take our boats out of the water in winter but whatever 6-7) I had my hood on and didn't hear him coming 2nd shot is on full zoom out. A bit scary at first but not so much that I couldn't take a cool photo. This guy and a pickup truck were doing donuts for about 20 mins. Got some decent video footage as well. 8-9) The tools of the trade used by divers to gain access to freezing cold, crystal clear water 10) A Siberian couple go for a nice romantic walk to the middle of the lake 11) Ice skating 12-13) the howling dogsled team. They went absolutely crazy when a horse drawn carriage passed by. They are somewhat high strung, Siberian Huskies. 14) Entrance to sauna. Note the pine bows hung up by the side. 15) I'm surprised there aren't more traffic accidents near the lake with signs like that. 16-17) Warming up Siberian style 18) It's cheaper by the bottle which really says all you need to know about Siberian nightlife.

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*Trains run on Moscow time which kind of makes sense since the long distance trains all head towards/away from Moscow anyway but is pretty confusing when you are 5hours time difference from Moscow and getting off the train in Siberia. - More to come in future blog on the train journey itself.

**It would be a fascinating study to see if this lack of ethnic diversity is a result of political choices in Russia (I get the impression that Siberia was not the most desireable place to go even if you were Russian during Soviet times ) or if maybe Russians and asians don't mix (pretty unlikely - I mean have you seen Miss Mongolia or Miss China - That's what I'm talkin' about).

***Familiar to me but not to my Aussie and Kiwi travel companions who rarely even see snow nevermind pine and birch forrests and frozen lakes.

****It's 5th by surface area - Lake Superior is 1st! - but 1st by a longshot by depth 1,642m maximum depth and as a result by volume.

*****Estimated by me from observation without precise measuring tools

******The same day that you find out about it not being really in advance anyway never mind far enough in advance

Genghis Khan and the Yak Attack

Genghis (pronounced by the locals Chingis) Khan is the best thing that has ever or will ever come out of Mongolia and the locals know it.* His warriors conquered 1/2 the world with speed and ferocity and his souvenirs (ie hats) are found everywhere and his likeness is on everything from brands of vodka to...um...other brands of vodka.**

One thing Mongolians do well though is stick to what they know. Around 25-30% of the population are still nomadic moving one or more times a year so their livestock can graze. Also, despite centuries of rule or influence by neighbours China and more recently Russia (who imposed the use of cyrillic despite the existance of traditional Mongolian script which sort of looks like a cross between Chinese characters and Arabic and is written downwards instead of accross), Mongolia has a rich and unique culture based around religion, family, Ger tents, the love of all things Genghis and...yes...vodka.

Take religion for example. Buddhism in general is a very superstitious religion. The version practiced in Mongolia is really really superstitious crossing Buddhist beliefs with nature based Shamanistic practices from times gone by. All of these rituals are performed because they are meant to bring "luck" or "good fortune".

Take spinning these things (I forget what they are called) usually located near or immediately outside temples. The canisters are said to contain sacred scrolls of knowledge which when spun bring good fortune or success. Wouldn't success be more likely if the people actually read or otherwise learned something from the scrolls to then apply to daily life?

Ulaanbaatar

We stopped just long enough in Ulan Battur long enough to marvel at the fact that this is in fact a capital city. It is quite small for one thing and quite noticably dirty looking for another and there is no Starbucks for another!!!. Some "highlights"include:

• All the cars and busses seemed to be hand me down versions of 15 year old Chinese or Russian ones.


• If 4 people are trying to cross the street then you take your life in your hands but if there are five or more then traffic is compelled to stop to let you cross.


• Every car on the road is potentially a taxi but none of them are marked as such.


• In an effort to mitigate alcoholism certain areas of the city will designate certain days (say the 1st of the month) to be alcohol free. This would be a great idea except that not all areas of the city ban alcohol on the same day so from the Mongolian BBQ restaurant where we had dinner (but no drinks) on 1 March it was a 5 minute taxi ride (in some random guy's vehicle) to the pub across the bridge which was allowed to serve.


• Unemployment is said to be somewhere near 30% and even when there were jobs I didn't get the impression they were that good so it shouldn't have been a surprise when, in broad daylight about 100 m or less from the hotel entrance Mike and Ana got mugged (but not hurt) for their pot noodles which they had picked up to take on the train to Siberia.
  

Ger Tents and Horses and Yaks (and Fuzzy Camels)! Oh My!

By far the best part about Mongolia, other than getting a really awesome Ghengis hat which I wore everywhere and which was surprisingly warm for a souvenir hat, was heading out into the countryside and staying in Ger tents. It wasn't quite as rustic as I initially thought (one of the Gers had a satalite dish on the roof and there was a lady who came into our tents and stoked our fire every 3 hours***) but it was still a unique experience.

The tents are set up with a wood stove in the middle and beds all around. In an authentic Ger the man's side (tools, hunting weapons) is the left and the women's side (kitchen) is the right with a wood stove in the middle and you are supposed to enter the ger and walk around it counter-clockwise (for some reason - presumably luck related). Of course nobody told me this stuff until after I had walked in, turned right (clockwise) and selected the first bed (on the ladies' side). Oh well. I did remember to bring the vodka so all was good.

Speaking of vodka...by luck or good fortune (or maybe Buddha's intervention) we happened to be in Mongolia at the tail end of the Mongolian New Year. Mongolians celebrate by feasting with family for 3 weeks or something.

Near the camp where we were staying were some authentic Nomadic camps and we visited an elderly couple who were happy to have us and talk to us about their life and culture. The guy was a former Math professor at the university and tended to his cows while wearing a blazer (classic!!!). He only changed into "traditional" Mongolian garb after we arrived.

Apparently as part of the New Year celebrations it is customary to offer guests food and drink. It is also very rude to refuse. The food being delicious dumplings and the drink, initially being hot milky tea but soon enough the man, happy to have some drinking buddies, broke out the vodka.

So despite being quite hung-over from finishing off a bottle of vile Chinese vodka that I had picked up from the Silk Market while playing Mongolian Monopoly the night before, we were compelled to have 5 shots of vodka each before 11am. Just in time to go horseback riding.

The cold and fear of falling off a horse because we'd been drinking was enough to sober us up and good thing too because riding these small horsies was another highlight. I couldn't pronounce my horse's name so I just called him "Genghis Jr" and we ruled the plains (for approximately 45mins).

Collectively we had some trouble getting our horses to follow instructions. The main reason for this was that the instructions were in Mongolian, which is hard enough to pronounce at the best of times, but when the instructions aren't actually words but a kind of hissing sound, that makes it virtually impossible to get right. It was probably for the best though that I couldn't instruct my horse to gallop as, for obvious photographic reasons, I had ditched my safety helmet in favour of my Genghis hat.

One of the highlihgts of traveling generally is the opportunity to see weird animals. To the locals a Yak is just a cow and a fuzzy camel crossing the road is a traffic jam.

But to me a Yak is a crazy and exotic creature that I have never seen up close before with an awesome name.**** And a fuzzy camel with round snowshoe feet bigger than dinner plates crossing the road is a fascinating sight.

Going Postal - Mongolian Style

Unfortunately Mongolia wasn't only memorable for positive reasons. By far the worst part of going to Mongolia was my trip to the post office to send home some Genghis based souvenirs. This time I will actually spare the detials but suffice it to say that after going to the post office on a weekday afternoon, the ensuing frustration and chaos made me understand why alcoholism is such a big problem in Mongolia. A wee nip of vodka anyone?

Photos: 1)Genghis and Genghis Jr. Ruling the plains. (or steppes as the case may be) 2) Nothing beats Grand Khan vodka. And don't let anybody tell you differently. 3) Man in traditional Mongolian silk robes outside temple 4) Worshipers spinning those spinny things clockwise. NO. counterclockwise I mean! 5) Ger tents. 6) Inside the Ger 7) Warm and toasty outside ther Ger in new coat and Genghis hat. 8) Ger camp from up on the ridge 9) Blazer wearing nomad pouring some new years shots for breakfast 10) Genghis and Genghis Jr. 11) Yak 12) Fuzzy Camels 13) Parcel finally being weighed. Actually posted much much later.

*Although I must say that Miss Mongolia is not too bad either, eh?.

**I opted for the "Grand Khan" vodka because it came in a funky metal case but could have just as easily enjoyed "Chingis" brand which also looked delicious.

***This was a bit weird actually especially on the first night but as it kept the tents super warm it was service above and beyond. 12 and 6 I can see but the 3am stoking

****One of the best stories the old man told us was how a pack of wolves had taken down one of his Yaks (hmmm...I can't seem to write Yak without capitalizing it...well they are pretty awesome so that's good enough reason for me not to change it) on the other side of the mountain. It had everything, mountains, wolves, Yaks, death, wolves, Yaks, vodka....

Three Days in Beijing

So to recap, my China experience had been somewhat of a whirlwind tour. In 8 nights, one of them was the night I arrived (at midnight in the rain), two were spent on overnight trains and the other 6 nights were spent in 4 different cites which by the time I arrived in Beijing at 7:00am on a Wednesday, spanned over 2,700kms* of overland travel.

Having not planned much of my China adventure in advance other than the Beijing departure for the Trans-Siberian Railway, I think 2,700kms represents a pretty good effort on my part. And now that I've seen two of China's more notable sites outside Beijing (Huang Shan and the Terracotta Warriors) I can take it easy on the next visit.**

Leaving out the details about how the bus system from Beijing's Western Train Station doesn't intersect with the Metro system as one might expect from personal experience with public transportation in other big cities, or the fact that even though the ticket checker girl indicated she would let me know where to get off to actually find the metro but rather than actually do that she let me ride the bus all the way to the end of the line which was 10 blocks or more from the nearest station, I managed to get safely to my hostel. This was thanks largely to some friendly locals pointing me in the right direction and a super nice north-american sounding expat who gave me exact change for the ticket machine and asked nothing in return (I did it again didn't I...started a sentence with "Leaving out the details" then went on and on with all the details...oh well...too late now).

Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City

Certain places hold a global fascination more for what they represent than for the places themselves. Tienamen Square is one of those. It is unspectacular in that it is a wide open square of concrete surrounded on three sides by unspectacular rectangular concrete buildings.

But it represents the beating heart of the one country where communism not only still exists but appears to be flourishing.

It doesn't hurt either that 1) it is huge. and 2) on the 4th side, across the street lies the entrance to the Forbidden City with the giant portrait of Chairman Mao overlooking the Square generally adding a colourful and pictureqsque and unique atmosphere to an otherwise grey concrete pavillion.

Like any big city, where there are tourists there are touts. Most of the stuff they are selling is absolute crap with two exceptions.

1) It was February in Beijing and the wide open square allowed the icy cold wind to freeze my fingers off while taking photos which I was doing more or less continuously while I was there. Whether or not the gloves I bought for a reasonable price were actually North Face brand or contained Goretex as the labelling purported is debateable but they were warm gloves on a cold day at the time and place I needed them so it was money well spent.***

2) Even though guidebooks warn you about scammers trying to sell you art, the so called scammers do actually have art to sell, some of which is quite good**** and once you bargain them down to a reasonable price (somewhere in the 10-15% range of their starting price) then I figuered "why not buy some" and so I did.

That night I met the group I would be traveling with for the next three weeks and despite us all being at different stages of our voyage we unanimously agreed that the Great Wall should be the first thing we saw the next day. We celebrated our likemindedness by having Peking Duck for dinner. Mmmmmmmm, duck.

Great Wall (Starbucks et al.)

Four things struck me about the Great Wall.

1) It is pretty much the coolest non-mechanical thing***** ever built by mankind.

2) To me it makes absolutely no sense that they built it in the middle of the mountains.

Mountains make a kind of natural barrier or "wall" if you will (Switzerland doesn't need a wall for instance) so why not build a wall on either side of the mountains. Or I can see having watchtowers up on the tops of the mountains and connecting them all together for ease of transport makes sense so why not go from peak to peak in order to rain arrows down on the enemies from above. And surely a straight line would have been a much more intimidating and efficient barrier.

Maybe the Emperor just wanted it to look cool and envisioned that in 2000 years it would be a mega cash cow for the nation and would look significantly better on a postcard if it kind of slowly meandered all around and up and over the mountains.

3) The Great Wall Starbucks is pretty much the world's best location for a Starbucks. It's not actually on the wall and the guidebook that says it is the only place to get a coffee is seriously out of date (there are loads of competitors now) but when you visit the wall in February and there is still snow on it, a nice hot cup of Starbucks really hits the spot.

4) It would have been nice if they had taken down the Beijing Olympics - One World, One Dream sign. They Olympics had been over for 6 months by then and it kind of hindered the ancient and timeless feel of my photos (I did take about 150 photos so some of them are ok) besides none of the events actually took place at the wall so I'm not sure the sign was really necessary in the first place.

Olympic Village

Though we were all on the same page with the Great Wall, some people had not yet seen the Forbidden City and some wanted to see stuff other than the Olympic village so it was their loss that I went this one alone.

The water cube might be the 2nd coolest man-made structure ever. Although the whole ticketing system which made me walk about 2kms back the way I had come to queue up and pay £15 just to wander around was pretty stupid (it did take me past the building they used to house the athletes which is now a 7, yes 7 star hotel), the place was pretty amazing. If wandering around inside six months after the Olympics had been over was this cool, competing there must have been off the charts.******

In fact the whole Olympic village had an amazing aura to it. Still. In February. Months after the games had been over. When it was freezing out. It must have been unreal to be there when Phelps was dominating the pool or Usain Bolt was lightning-ing up the track.

It helped that so much of the area had been specifically designed just for the games. Only in China could the appropriate so much land in the middle of what was previously a business park specifically for the Olympics.

The only disappointing thing was that, having paid to tour the Bird's Nest Stadium, I was unpleasantly surprised to see that the track had been covered up by artificial turf and in place of a podium where elite athletes might have recieved their medals there were stupid inflatable animals and displays for children. Didn't stop me from having a go at the 100m record though.

Silk Market - Why is everything so cheap? Is this stuff fake or stolen or what?

I didn't actually see any silk on sale here but that was the only thing. Specifically I went there to get a winter coat for the wintery climate ahead******and I was successful in that mission but even with a bit of forewarning from others I was shocked at both the selection on offer and the pressure sales tactics.

From the minute you step off the escalator from the metro you are offered everything from shoes ("shoes? shoes? you need shoes?") to gucci handbags ("how about a present for your girlfriend") at a "good price" and all in perfect english right up until you have another question or want to question the validity of a brand name item (although "it's real" is definitely part of the vocabulary lesson).

Bargaining is essential at the silk market. You would loose a lot of respect if you paid the initially quoted price. Not that gaining the respect of random vendors in a Chinese knock-off market was particularly important to me but paying the lowest possible price was and besides which the initial price was outrageous anyway. From the Y5,000 price initially quoted for my "real" Canada Goose winter jacket finally set me back a mere Y300. And I probably still overpaid.

I'm obviously no expert but as far as I could tell it was real as well. The labelling all apeared genuine and was even bilingual as you would expect from a Canadian product and it is the warmest article of clothing I've ever owned. There are a few things wrong with it which make me think that a lot (probably not all) of the brand name stuff here is genuine, the reason everything is so cheap is that the silk market is where all of the finished goods that don't quite meet the quality control standards end up.

The main defect with mine was that every time I took off my coat I would be covered in goose down feathers. A small price to pay considering the price I paid.

Photos 1) DG outside the Forbidden Palace. 2) Finally made it past security and into the square. 3) Little girl with 2 China flags just in case you weren't sure this was China. 4) In the 21st century Mao keeps an eye on things from beyond the grave. 5) If there's another photo that says "China" better I'd like to see it (not including Great Wall shots). 6) Me and Mao. I tried to read his little red book but it's really hard to get through. 7-13) Some stones that someone arranged in a sort of fence type thing. I'm led to believe it took several weeks to set up.14) Water Cube exterior. 15) Water cube interior. Note the revised olympic slogan "Go Beard or Go Home. 16) Water cube interior. Not pictured here the souvenir water cube kleenex box which I nearly bought but didn't and now wish I had. -17) Foreground Water Cube. Background Bird's Nest Stadium. 18) A light jog in the Olympic Stadium 19) DG modelling the new coat. Not shown the thousands of feathers that escaped from the lining and stuck to the wool sweater.

*Hangzhou to Huangshan 206kms,Huangshan to Nanjing 307kms,Nanjing to Xi'an 1,144kms, Nanjing to Beijing 1,125kms (according to google maps driving directions)

**The winter festival in Harbin looked particularly awesome from the highlights on Chinese tv and the Great Wall Marathon caught my attention though I'll probably never actually do it after getting tired from just climbing the stairs on the great wall as a tourist.

***I set my other gloves down on the steps of HuagShan to take a photo and they miraculously disappeared by the time I was finished. With a tour of Mongolia and Siberia in the winter time awaiting, replacement gloves were a good investment.

****I may not know much about art, but I know what I like!

*****I had to qualify it a bit because the space shuttle, porches and dive gear are all seriously cool. And while the mini skirt is really really really awesome I wouldn't say cool exactly.

******It was probably a bit optimistic of me to have brought along my swimsuit. I knew from experience though that the outdoor pool used for the Barcelona games was now a public pool but I guess it's still too soon for this one especially when so many people will pay just to see the place.

*******The last time I checked it was -40 in central Mongolia and while that was a few weeks beforehand I sort of thought that my NBE hoodie and polar fleece might not be warm enough.

The Smokey Train to the Ultimate Warriors

After a rainy trip to Nanjing I made my way by train up to Xi'an, the jumping off point to see the Terracotta Warriors. Traveling by train is a cost effective and efficient means of traveling overland in china especially taking the overnighter, but in every other respect it is absolute chaos.

The waiting area for a train that can carry thousands* of passengers only has about 50 chairs. Everyone else is relegated to jostling for position to wait in line because, unless you have a guaranteed sleeper bed, which I'm happy to say that I did, you don't even have a reserved seat.** So if you're traveling overnight you could conceivably spend the entire time standing or leaning against someone else's luggage. As a result, once the gates open to begin boarding it is an absolute chaotic pushy-shovy free-for-all. Even little old ladies are cutting in front of you and shoving from behind.

From asking around, this level of chaos is completely normal and accepeted in China. It seems that when your country has over one billion people in it, waiting patiently in a queue doesn't get you anywhere.It difficult to get used to though, this pushy shovey attitude (although there is something sort of humourous about getting shouldered out of the way by two 60 something ladies carrying giant handbags that look like they weigh more than my backpack), and when you combine it with the overt stares from curious Chinese who don't see westerners much it makes travelling a bit stressful.

I won't say too much about the toilets on the chinese trains except to say that if you can hold it in then that is probably better. But toilets and tight confines aside (bunks are stacked 3 high in the same space that normal trains fit two bunks) the worst had to be the smoking. Technically smoking is not allowed on trains except in the area between carriages or in the bar car. But since there are a billion people in China and all of them smoke and there are no doors separating the carriages from the tiny platform in between carriages then smoking is essentially allowed or at least tolerated. This meant it was very uncomfortable sleeping on the top bunk where all the smoke would rise and just hang there and suffocate would be sleepers.

Xi'an is a former Chinese capital and one of the few ancient cities to have it's stone walls intact squaring off a 12km perimeter. These walls are something like 18 metres tall and wide enough to have 2 lanes of traffic on the top with cool looking watchtowers evenly spaced for defensive purposes and surrounded by a moat.


For me this was an equally impressive legacy to the Ming dynasty as was the Terracotta Warriors are to the Qin dynasty. Interestingly one of the main reasons that the current walls are so well preserved is that no one attacked them once they were finished so it's unclear whether or not they would have stood up, although they do look pretty impressive even now.


Once again my laissez-faire style of tourism had me pleasantly surprised since the only reason I went out of my way to go to Xi'an***was to see the Terracotta Warriors so the cool ancient wall was a bonus and walking around it, (even though it was raining) was pretty unique with the ancient and classically designed buildings on the inside of the wall and giant glass skyscrapers on the outside making for an interesting contrast.

The Terracotta Warriors are easy to access with tourist busses leaving from the Xi'an train station regularly every day. An entire tourism industry has been built up around the clay pits where the warriors were discovered. Thirty years ago the area was a farmer's field until one farmer happened upon the warriors while drilling a well.**** Now there are climate controlled hangars surrounding the pits with all the tourist amenities including KFC.*****

There are also relentless touts selling all kind of crappy merchandise or offering services such as tour guides. I was pretty disappointed in my guide because, even though I negotiated a reasonable price and she spoke english very well, she didn't really provide me with much factual information that I couldn't have got just from reading the displays and she had absolutely no passion for the site that some call the "8th wonder of the world". And when you've been up all night on a smokey train some infectious enthusiasm would have been welcome.

I did buy a crazy hat to add to the collection but stopped wearing it as it turned out to be a magnet for vendors and may as well been a sandwich board that read "Come and bother me. As you can see by my hat I like to buy stupid crap."

The statues themselves lived up to the hype and were incredibly impressive with one exception: They estimate that there are about 8,000 individual statues and they quote this figure in all the tourist publicity brochures and guidebooks etc. So far though, they have only unearthed and repaired something like 2,500 of them. So when you are expecting from the publicity to see an army of 8,000 strong and only 1/3 of the troops show up is slightly disappointing. Although it's difficult to argue 2,500 unique statues lined up in formation to "guard" Emperor Qin's tomb (a few kilometres up the road) is still pretty impressive, if maybe just a touch egomaniacal on his part.


Photos: 1)One of many different angles from which I took photos of the statues. 2) Crowded train from view from the top bunk. 3-5) Xi'an city walls. Note the raincoat...6-9)More views of the 8th wonder. Not shown here the 40 other "keeper" photos of statues.


*Or however many.
*The general admission seats are a lot cheaper though so that's something at least.
***And it really was out of my way. If you consult a map you won't see many routes from Nanjing to Beijing that go anywhere near Xi'an but hey that's just how I roll. It could be a while till I'm back around this way.
****The farmer is now quite a celebrity in China and was available to sign autographs, I would have except paying for the autograph of someone who essentially made a lucky find does not agree with me. It's like getting the autograph of a lottery winner. It's not like he did anything remarkable. He didn't even get the well dug!
*****KFC is by far the most popular western franchise in China and since it was everywhere else I wasn't all that surprised to see it at the Terracotta Warriors complex.