Slurp, Spit, Shove

After many failed attempts in childhood to dig my way to China I finally arrived by plane in mid-October. I started out in Beijing where the Olympics had just recently finished. So one of my first stops was the Olympic village. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to watch much of the Olympics during my travels but it was still very exciting to see the buildings that I had heard so much about like the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. There definitely weren't as many crowds present as during the Olympic games but the Olympic village has become a new tourist site for visitors to the city. The futuristic buildings and perfectly symmetrical trees lining the wide open spaces made me feel as though I was walking through an architectural drawing.

Beijing is huge enough that what looks like only a short distance on a map can take a very long time to reach. But eventually I made my way to other tourist sites like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. I was so amazed by the Forbidden City that I spent an entire day there and I think I could have spent another. It was huge and a perfect introduction to the architecture and wealth of history in China.

While in Beijing I got my first taste of real Chinese food. One of my favorite things to eat was stuff on a stick. At night vendors line the streets and have tables full of everything you could possible think of that fits on a stick. You pick out what you want and they'll grill or fry it for you right in front of you. And of course I ate lots and lots of noodles that are supposed to be slurped loudly because that kind of noise is not considered impolite.

What is also not considered impolite is spitting. The Chinese looove to spit. Even old grandmothers will make the disgusting sounds of clearing their throat and letting one fly. At first I was intrigued and joined right in but then it got old and it got annoying hearing and seeing people do it all the time. I decided I didn't like it.

After Beijing I headed southwest to my next Chinese city, Xi'an to see the famous Terracotta Warriors. The site is huge and I was surprised to see that most of it is not yet excavated. The warriors that you see in photos have all been painstakingly glued back together once they get dug up. And what's even more amazing is that the tomb was found because a farmer was drilling a well and noticed some pieces of pottery. By looking at the location of where he drilled you can see that if he had dug even just a foot or two in the other direction he would have never found this gigantic burial. I saw some Pagodas, city walls and towers in Xi'an during the next few days but my next destination was Luoyang to see the very impressive Longman Caves.

I was surprised to find that China's tourist destinations are not full of Western tourists but of Chinese tourists. Imagine the busloads of Asian tourists you know and love back home in the US, multiply it by about one billion and you will get an idea of what a tourist spot in China looks like. They take photos of just about anything. Including me. At first I thought that I was just accidentally getting in the way of their photos but it turns out they were pointing those expensive-looking lenses in my direction on purpose. Eventually I encountered people who would ask first or wanted to pose with me and I was more than willing to do so. I was a little relieved to realize that I wasn't imagining it and that that everyone really was staring at me! Especially on the train rides.

My first introduction to train travel in China was quite an experience but I soon got the hang of it. Everyone sits in the waiting area until literally five minutes before the train boards. Then your ticket is checked and you are allowed to pass through the gates and try to catch your train which can be pretty far from the waiting area. Don't be afraid to push and shove because that's the best way of getting a seat if you haven't been assigned a seat number. Be sure to bring a container for your green tea. Boiling water is provided so you can also make instant noodles for yourself whenever you get hungry. Be sure to pack lots of seeds whether they're sunflower, pumpkin, or pine nut because cracking them open and spitting the shell on the floor is a perfect way to pass the time on your long journey. And bring enough to share. One of my favorite train rides was when I sat next to a woman who shared her pumpkin seeds with me. She spoke no English but seemed to be very intrigued with this western girl sitting next to her. She even checked the roots of my hair to see if it was the real color. She had no hair of her own because she was dressed as a monk and had it all shaved off. Another time I had a conversation with a guy and we were talking about how so many things are made in China. "Yes" he said, "and very good quality too." I think he truly believed that. My past experience with Chinese products would prove otherwise but I didn't have the heart to contradict him.

Anyway, back to the Longman Caves in Luoyang. They reminded me a lot of the caves I had seen back in Turkey minus the gigantic statues. It's incredible how two "cultural relics" on opposite sides of the world can look so similar. I say cultural relics because that is what all important historical objects and sites are called in China. Signs will tell you "Don't score on the cultural relic" or "it's duty of us that obligation cultural relic". Couldn't understand that last one? It wasn't a typo. The Chinese struggle a bit with the translation on signs. I've seen signs that say "Be careful of your treasures" to mean you should watch your belongings or "Don't throw something dirty on the floor". It's as if someone was handed a thesaurus and told to go crazy. You can kind of understand what they mean and they're good for a laugh so I hope nobody ever decides to correct them.

It's not as if I hadn't made a few mistakes of my own in China. One day I stopped in a restaurant mainly because it had a picture menu and that usually makes ordering food easier. I pointed to the meal that I wanted and was startled to find that I had accidentally ordered not the drumstick-rice-veggie-duck egg meal that I had intened but the duck head-rice-veggie-duck egg meal that I was served. Oops. A second glance at the picture and I figured out that it really is a duck head in the picture. I ate everything else on the plate besides the duck head and the guy even complimented me on my chopstick abilities (many Chinese seemed to be very impressed that I knew how to use chopsticks) but noticed that I didn't finish eating my duck head when I was ready to pay. I think he was asking me if I wanted to take the duck head with me but I just smiled and vowed to try some duck at a different place next time.

Eventually I found myself in Shanghai where the smog is think, the buildings are tall and the bikes are plentiful. Actually that probably describes a lot of cities in China. Actually I could probably describe Shanghai with two words "under construction". The building frenzy is completely out of control. Anyway, there were some interesting sites to see in Shanghai like the French Concession, the Bund and the Shanghai Museum. I was in Shanghai when the results of the American election were announced. I had to find someone who knew who had won. Needless to say I did not see any dancing in the streets like I heard about back home.

My next stop was the very pretty town of Fenghuang. I met some Chinese people who were about my age and were spending the weekend in Fenghuang as well. They invited me to join their group and we spent some time seeing the sights and of course singing karaoke. I am embarassed to admit that they convinced me to sing Britney Spear's "Hit Me One More Time". I was sober. The drinking came later in the night when we had some good old Budweiser beer brewed in China.

I made a stop in the city of Kunming and then visited a smaller village where I made some conversation with the locals with my phrasebook and did some hiking where I saw lots of rubber trees. At night I ended up being invited to someone's birthday party which was of course celebrated with lots and lots of karaoke.

A month is really not enough time to see very much of China since it is such a huge country. But the weather was getting cold because it was mid-November and I was ready to head someplace warm. It was time to head south to Laos.