Sunday, June 30, 2019: Day 8: Xiahe, China Having my own room was a glorious experience and I enjoyed every minut of it. I didn’t enjoy the bed because it was hard as wood, but otherwise the room was very nice. When I went down for breakfast in the morning, I saw some of the group. I sat with them and had the breakfast, which was quite good. Then I ran back upstairs to get my things for the day.
We met our guide for the day, Lily, in the lobby. She was the same lady that served us breakfast and she works for the hotel. I guess the hotel allows her to lead tour groups on the side. She was very nice. First we walked around the outside of Labrong Monastery. Right as we started walking I tried to take a picture and realized that I had left my memory card in my laptop at the hotel. Luckily I still had by phone, so I was able to take pictures.
She also shared with us a story about how girls are not valued here. She told us about a girl in a local school who was being bullied by one of the boys. The girl had enough one day and beat up the boy. Two teachers saw the girl and broke up the fight and started scolding the girl for hitting the boy. The girl wasn’t in trouble for fighting, but was in trouble because she hit a boy. It ended up in the paper and there was a big uproar on whether the girl was in the right or the wrong.
We walked through the different buildings, looking at the statues. There were also several pictures of the 16 year old lama. There were pictures of him when he was 4 and just discovered and then a more recent picture with him in his robes. After the tour we asked Qin what would happen if the 16 year old decided he didn’t want to be a monk. She said that wouldn’t happen. In the monastery, the monks are taken care of. It has happened very rarely in the past that one of the monks decided they didn’t want to be a monk anymore. Many ended up becoming beggars because they had been raised in the monastery since they were around 5 years old so they didn’t know how to survive or do anything to support themselves. It is really sad that the region is so impoverished that the people have little choice in what they can do. There is no changing their minds later.
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. On the way we talked about the monastery and the monks. Marie was very against it. She believes religion is a scam, and that the monks are taking the money from poor people and giving nothing back. I can see her point, especially in this region. The people are very poor, and the monks walk around with no cares in the world. All of their needs are taken care of and they eat in the more expensive restaurants. But you have to view religion as a business. In return for the people giving money, the monks safeguard the knowledge of the people. They also give spiritual guidance in teaching the young people to be good and treat others right. We had a little bit of time until we went to lunch. While we waited we looked around the shops outside of the hotel. There were a lot of them, all of them selling similar items. I also had the opportunity to grab my memory card for my camera.
While we were sitting there Lily told us about the local dishes. On the table there was some appetizers set out. Among the food was yak butter, which is usually only set out when there are guests coming. I tried it, but I wasn’t a huge fan of it. The daughter-in-law showed us how to make tsampa by mixing yak butter, grains, and sugar. It was actually pretty good. Pretty much you just combine the 3 ingredients and mix them together by hand. They then brought out a ton of momos. Momos are the Tibetan version of the dumpling, and women are judged on how their momos look. They were very good, but there were too many to eat. It is usually considered an insult to not finish all the food, but Lily told us that they cooked extra because they didn’t know how much they needed.
When we got back on the bus, the driver tried to start it and it wouldn’t start. He kept trying and trying with no result. Then he got out a toolbox and did some things. We sat there for about 30 minutes. I was starting to get worried, because I have a feeling they don’t have many tour buses that far out and I’m sure they don’t have uber. I don’t know what they would have done to get us back to the town and then take us the 3 hour bus ride we have tomorrow to get to the airport. Luckily though, the driver was able to fix whatever the issue was and we were able to get back to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, Vickie, Cogi, Marie, and I went shopping. There were a lot of shops around the hotel, so we went from shop to shop looking for things to buy and haggling. I hate haggling, but it wasn’t that bad when you are in a group. At almost every stop, one of us bought something so I didn’t feel pressured when I was looking around. Yesterday at one of the bathroom stops there was this really pretty jacket/poncho that I wanted to buy. They wanted 300 yuan for it. I was going to pay it, but luckily Marie spoke to Qin and Qin said there were a lot of them in the town we were going to, and they would be cheaper. I’m glad I waited, because I found the same jacket/poncho and I was able to haggle the price down to 100 yuan. We probably spent a good 2 hours walking from shop to shop, looking at the different items and haggling. I ended up finding another jacket/poncho that I also really liked, so now I have 2 of them in different colors. All of us spent a good deal of money, but at least it is supporting a town that needs the money. We were on our own for dinner, but I was still full from lunch so I mainly stayed in my room for the evening and got packed for tomorrow.
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Today we are going to the Tibetan region of China. At the beginning of the week when Qin was talking about going there, I thought for a little while that we were going to Tibet. But it isn’t Tibet, the region was settled by Tibet immigrants so it is called the Tibetan region since the people have a different culture than the Chinese and look different.
Afterward we went back and rejoined the group. One of the places sold ice cream, so I got some ice cream to go. Once we were all gathered, Qin led us up the escalator to the street where we were picked up by our bus.
Dinner was a lot of fun. This time we were split into 2 tables. I was at a table with Cogi, Marie, and Qin. Qin is thinking of purchasing an AppleWatch so I was showing her the different features. Qin also showed us the Chinese social media app. After dinner we returned to the hotel and I went back to enjoying my own room for the night.
Friday June 28, 2019: Day 6: Xi’an, China We got up a little early and had breakfast in the hotel. Then we went downstairs to meet our local guide, Ling. Our local guide went with us to see the terracotta warriors. On the way to the site, she told us a little bit about herself. Her parents were landowners, so when the Communists took over China they suffered. It took a while, but when the Cultural Revolution occurred in China, they were able to start improving themselves again. She experienced this as she grew up. Her parents knew the way for her to succeed was through education, so they pushed her to study instead of doing household chores. It ended up working, since she has a good paying job now. It didn’t help though when she met her husband’s family, as she had to do household choice in order to prove herself to her mother-in-law. But she was able to succeed, and proved herself to her mother-in-law by the end of the visit. She also warned us that as we go into the site there would be a lot of souvenir shops selling terracotta warrior figurines. She said it was our choice, but recommended that we not buy there. She said the ones sold in the museum are better quality and are actually made from the clay at the site. The ones in the market stall will probably break on the way back home. She told us a little bit about the site. The figures were discovered in 1974 by 4 farmers who were digging a well. They were digging and happened to hit one of the warriors. They excavated and pulled out a clay head. They thought they had disturbed a religious site and were afraid it would cause them to have bad luck, so they replaced the head and buried the well again. Later, they spoke about what happened in town and the mayor of the town heard about it. He decided to contact the government of the find, and they sent archeologist. And that is how the warriors who had been buried for over 2,000 years were discovered. The farmers hit the jackpot. The government bought up the land around the site, and sent the 4 uneducated farmers to school to learn to read and write. Their job going forward was to sign books in the museum. 3 of the 4 farmers have died, but 1 still occasionally makes an appearance at the museum.
Once we were all gathered, Ling told us more about the site. She had one of the books from the museum, so she could show us photos. She told us there were originally timbers on top of the pit as a roof, and then a light layer of dirt cover the tomb. However, in the past there was a fire and it destroyed the timbers, causing the roof to collapse on the warriors and burry them. There is also evidence that the site had been disturbed in the past. Many of the warriors are missing their weapons, reportedly by a looting army. Every warrior is unique and varies in height, uniform and hairstyle in accordance with rank.
After everyone had finished shopping, we walked down the path and into the city. We went to a nice little restaurant for lunch. Qin really needs to stop ordering so much food, because we can never finish it no matter how hard we try. After eating, we got back on the bus and returned to the hotel. At the hotel, we said goodbye to Ling. The rest of the afternoon we have free. The rest of the group wanted to rest for a while before going back to the Muslim Quarter for the market. I didn’t really care about the market, so I looked online and saw there was a UNESCO World Heritage Site not that far away. I asked Qin and Ling for directions, and Ling recommended I should go to another site that was a museum and better. But I wanted to see the UNESCO site, so I went there. Using the hotel wifi, I put in the address on my phone and took pictures of the route. And then I grabbed a few things and I was ready to go to Daming Palace. First I had to walk to the train station, which wasn’t that far away and followed the path that Qin had taken us on yesterday to go to the market. Once I got to the train station, I got on the #2 train, went a couple of spots, then took the #1 train, went a couple more spots, and then took the #4 train. It really wasn’t that bad or that crowded, surprisingly. I took me a little while to find the entrance, but all the tour buses kind of gave it away. A quick walk and I was in the park.
Today we are going to Xi’an, so we had to pack up all of our stuff to move hotels again. Our bullet train to Xi’an is this afternoon and we have the morning to explore Longmen Grottoes. We got on the bus and drove there. On the way, it was very overcast, with the sun only peaking out a little bit. The bus parked in the parking lot, and we left our stuff on the bus so we could get in a little cart to get driven to the site. Literally as we were pulling into the site it started sprinkling. Since everyone had left their stuff on the bus, I was the only person that had an umbrella. I didn’t want my expensive camera to get wet, so I didn’t offer it up to anyone else. It wasn’t raining that hard.
We walked along the path and up the stairs to see the different caves. There were a lot of them! There are over 2,000 caves in the area with about 100,000 statues. There are big statues, and there are some statues that are only 1 inch tall.
We then walked to the end of the site and across the bridge. It had stopped raining by this point, but it was so humid. All of us were dripping sweat. Qin told us it always humid here, but it is usually hotter. We timed it perfectly since the clouds blocked out the sun. And the rain we had earlier chased away some of the humidity.
It was funny. Qin handed off her camera to an older gentlemen so she could be in the picture, and she didn’t like the picture he took. So then she handed the camera off to a younger guy and apparently he did a good job. She told us that she usually tries to find someone from the younger generation to take photos, because they do it better. That is so true! After pictures we walked over to the place with the carts and took the cart back to the bus. Once on the bus, we drove to the train station. We got there early, so we had to wait for our train to get there. At the beginning of the tour, Qin told us that the reason there are signs at the top of the escalator to move on is because Chinese people will get to the top and stop. Which causes a traffic jam because the people coming up behind them have nowhere to go. It was true, because it happened at the train station! People were lining up, and the line stretched to the escalators. I went up, and I almost plowed right into some people that got to the top and stopped. I was luckily able to move to the side before the person behind me plowed into me.
While we were waiting, we saw another tour group. That group is also on an Intrepid tour, and we had been seeing them when we went to the different sites. Marie went over and talked to one of the ladies in that group. They are on the same tour as we are, but they aren’t going to the Tibetan region. Instead, they are going to Beijing. Their tour guide wasn’t as friendly as Qin was, and the group wasn’t that close. You could see it in the way they sat. Our group sat together, but their group spread out. Even their tour guide sat apart fro them. I got really lucky to be with such a good group! On this bullet train, we weren’t able to sit together. Vicki was hilarious. There was only one group of 3, and the rest of us were spread out among the cars. Originally the group of 3 was going to be Pete, Bev, and Cogi, but when Qin was telling us how many stops we had before getting off Vicki kept getting confused. She couldn’t keep it straight if it was one stop and then get off at the next one, or go one stop and get off. After a couple of minutes, Qin decided she couldn’t be trusted alone and swapped Bev and Peter’s tickets and gave them to Vicki and John. I was in a different cabin than the rest of the group. We had to hurry and get on so we would have a place to put our luggage. I was worried I wouldn’t find a place for my big suitcase, but luckily a spot opened up right as I was walking on. However, when I went to my seat a guy was sitting in it. I pointed at my ticket and the seat number, so convey that he was in my seat. He said something in Chinese, I think he wanted me to take his seat so he could sit with his friend, but I have no idea. He moved once he realized that I didn’t speak Chinese. We were only on the train for about 1.5 hours. Then we had to jump off at the Xi’an station. I was worried we would leave someone on the train since we were all in different cars, but we all made it. Vickie almost didn’t make it out of the train station. To leave, you have to show your ticket. The rest of us gave our tickets back to Qin, but Vicki couldn’t find hers. She had to dig through all of her stuff, but luckily eventually found it.
After the tour of the market, she took us to a little restaurant just outside the Muslim Quarter. The food was very good as always! However, none of our dishes had pork, because Muslims are not allowed to touch pigs. Still, I enjoyed the food. I felt bad for the other diners though, because our group was very loud. We had a fun time though!
Today we are going to Shaolin Temple, which is the birthplace of kung fu. We had a bit of a drive from the hotel, but the views were beautiful from the bus as the temple is up in the mountains. Surprisingly, there was a bit of traffic to get there. I don’t know how the bus driver managed, but we made it up in one piece. On the way, Qin told us a little about the temple, like the fact that it is a school. Parents will send their sons there for a couple of years to learn kung fu and discipline from the monks.
We finally got to the building where we were going to watch the kung fu show. We had to stand in line for at least 15 minutes. Chinese people do not know how to orderly stand in line. They just keep pushing in front of you until it is just a huge mass of people standing close together, which only made it hotter. Vicki couldn’t stand it, and decided to skip the show and go sit in the shade away from the mass of people. And then when it was time to go inside, there was no escape from the pile. There were iron bars and I got swept in with the mass of people pushing and shoving to get in the entrance.
As part of their final act, they brought 3 volunteers from the audience. Each volunteer was paired with a student. The student did a move and the volunteer was supposed to do the same move. It was hilarious! Kung fu is a lot harder than it looks because the volunteers were having a lot of issues. Luckily, they knew they looked ridiculous and they were laughing with the rest of us. Since I was on the opposite side of the area from the door, I was one of the last people out. On my way out I saw Vicki, which was a surprise since she got out of line. She said Qin talked her into coming in for the show. When she came in, some random Chinese girls waved her over and gave her a seat. After the main crowd had left, we followed them out. On the way out was a huge gift shop with different vendors. We knew Qin was waiting for us, so we didn’t stop to look around.
When it was time to meet up, I went to the exit. But when I got there I didn’t see anyone. I stood just outside the entrance for about 5 minutes trying to find the rest of the group. I got very worried since I had no way to contact Qin or getting back to the hotel. Luckily I eventually saw the group sitting on a bench so I went over to join them.
We had 20 minutes to explore, but there really wasn’t much to see so after a couple of minutes for photos we started heading back to the meeting spot. With the exception of Marie, who went exploring somewhere. Qin said to meet up at the bus, but the further down the path we went, the more unsure we were of the meeting spot. So we decided to wait at a seating area outside the main temple where we had a clear view of the path to watch for Qin. We waited what felt like a long time until we saw Marie heading down. She said that Qin had already headed down but we didn’t see her. We thought she may have taken another path down, so we started walking towards the bus again. When we were almost to the bottom of the path we stumbled upon Qin who was walking down the same path.
On the way back to the bus after lunch we looked at their food display. They had the vegetarian food items carved and shaped into different animals or flowers. It was really cool! I don’t know how they carved these designs, but they have a lot of talent and patience.
Today we spent most of the day traveling to Luoyang. To get there, we had to take a bullet train for 6 hours. Last night, Qin told us that we couldn’t bring any knives or scissors on the train, so I had to throw away my pocket knife this morning. They didn’t even notice the scissors. I should have tried to get my pocket knife through. After we got there, I had lunch with Vicki and John at Burger King. I didn’t know how we would order since we don’t speak the language, but they had a laminated menu with pictures. So we just had to point at the picture to order. Same with the drinks. They had pictures of the drink logos, so I just had to point to the Sprite one to order.
I woke up at 3am this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep, which isn’t too bad considering it was 2pm in the States. Since I was awake, I finished reading a book on my Kindle, and then reorganized my suitcase a little to get ready for the day’s adventure. Then at 7am I went down for breakfast. At breakfast, I saw Vicki and John and asked if I could join them. John’s sister lives in Perth, so they gave me several suggestions of places I could go while I was there. They suggested taking a tour bus up the North coast and the south coast. After breakfast, I went back up to my room to get my stuff for the day’s adventures. Our first adventure was a walking tour of Shanghai. Qin tried to show us some of the old apartments, but it was blocked off so we had to walk a little further to another block. On the way, she showed us flyers that were advertising for places to live. To rent an apartment, it was 6,000 yuan, which is about $1,000 per month, so it is comparable to living in the U.S. However, if they wanted to buy the apartment, it would be about $1.2 million, which is outrageous! And that is for a small apartment.
After the gardens, Qin showed us a little booth that was selling dumplings. I wanted the dumplings, but the rest of the group wanted Starbucks so Qin took us to Starbucks. Marie then went off to go back to the Bund for the ferry, and Bev and Peter went off somewhere as well. After Starbucks, John also wanted dumplings so we all went back to the dumpling place. They were really good! They were made to order, so they were very hot when we got them. We had to be careful, because the broth was inside the dumpling. So you had to take a small bite, let the broth cool a little bit, drink the broth, and then eat the dumpling. It was also challenging because we were eating with chopsticks. Let’s just say that most of the broth ended up in my container instead of my stomach. After lunch, Qin took Vicki, John, and Cogi to the metro to go back to the hotel. She also directed me on how to get back to the Bund for the Huangpu River Cruise. By the time I got back to the river, and bought my ticket (60 yuan, less than $10), it was 2:10pm. The cruises were every hour, so I had to wait until 3 for the next one. While I waited, I sat up on bench overlooking the river and read my book a little. I also saw Marie, Bev, and Peter as they were going to the ferry. They left way before me, but I somehow beat them to the Bund. I guess they got lost or found something on the way.
After the cruise, I went back to the hotel. I tried to follow the directions that Qin gave earlier but I was uncertain about them. Luckily I signed up for the international plan which includes data before I left, so I connected my phone to Data Roaming to make sure I was going the right way and then logged out of the Data Roaming. It worked, because I was able to make it to my hotel. I relaxed at the hotel for about an hour, and then we all went to dinner together. It was a bit of a walk to get there, but the dinner was really good! Qin ordered several dishes for the table. I really like the set up. You order the dishes family style, and on the table is a huge glass lazy susan. They put the food on the glass, and then you can spin the dishes around to everyone instead of passing them. I wanted to do the optional acrobat show, and I was the only one so Qin and I had to eat fast in order to make it on time. To get to the show, we had to take the subway, which was an experience. It only costs 3 yuan for the trip there, which is about 50 cents U.S. It is like the subways that I have used before, but it was very crowded. It reminded me of the subways in Italy. Also, there was a lot of pushing and shoving. People don’t wait for everyone to get off before boarding. Instead, as people are trying to get off, people are also shoving to get in at the same time.
There was one really funny part of the show. One of the acts was a knife thrower. He and his assistant were hilarious. The assistant acted like he was going to stand there while the other guy threw the knife, but then he would keep moving. Finally the assistant went into the audience to get a volunteer. No one wanted to volunteer, but one guy eventually did. Then they kept acting like they were going the throw the knife. Finally, they covered the volunteer’s head with a jacket. Then the knife thrower would count, toss the knife to the assistant, and the assistant would stab it into the board at the volunteer’s back. It was a really funny show. After the show, Qin walked me back to the metro to go back to the hotel. On the way, she asked me about the gun laws in the U.S., so I explained to her the different laws the states have. Guns aren’t allowed in China, so she was having a hard time understanding why we would want guns. We talked about it all the way back to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, I paid her 280 yuan for the show, and then went up to my room for bed.
When I got to China, I had to go through Immigration and get fingerprinted. It wasn’t too bad and everything went smoothly. Since I tried to sign up for the airport pickup too late, I had to arrange my own transportation to the hotel. I was following the path to the taxi station, when a lady speaking English asked if I needed a taxi. I said yes, and she and another guy took me to a car. It wasn’t a taxi, but it was a private car rental with a driver that took me to my hotel. It was a lot nicer than a taxi, but I totally got ripped off. A taxi would have cost about 200 CNY, which is about $35. I ended up paying 550 CNY for the private car. And then when we got to the hotel, the driver said I had to pay an additional fee for the airport pick up plus tip him. So I gave him an extra $35. I totally got ripped off.
I got checked into the hotel with no problem. It was 4pm by this time, so I decided to relax a little before we had the group meeting at 6pm. I took a shower and waited for my roommate to show up, but she never did. I also tried to use Facebook and Google during this time and neither work. They really do have the sites blocked here. At 6pm I went down for the group meeting. There are 6 other people on my tour: Bev & Peter: a married retired couple from Sydney Cogi: an accountant from South Africa Vicki & John: a married retired couple from Melbourne Marie: a solo traveler from Ireland. We got to know each other a little bit before Qin (pronounced Chin) walked us through the meeting. She went over the itinerary to let us know the specifics of what we would be doing and how long everything was. She also let us know about the culture in China, like that they don’t use credit cards, they don’t have toilet paper in the public restrooms, and to be respectful of the culture. She also told us that they don’t use Facebook or Google, but that they have a search engine called Baidu that we could use. After the meeting, we had the option of going out to dinner as a group. As I had already spent all my cash, I passed since I won’t have any CNY until tomorrow when we stop at an ATM. I was really tired anyways from the time change, so I read for a little bit and then went to sleep. I had to get up early this morning to catch my flight. My flight leaves at 8:10am, so I had to get up at 4am to leave by 5am. I was so excited that I didn’t get much sleep during the night because my mind wouldn’t shut down. So when my alarm went off at 4, I got up and took a shower, and then packed a few last minute items and I was ready to go.
I didn’t want to eat plane food, so we stopped at Whataburger on the way to the airport so I could have a Honeybutter Chicken Biscuit before I left. Then Mom and Joe dropped me off at the airport. I only got there 2 hours before my flight was supposed to leave and the line to check in and check my bag was really long. I was worried that I wasn’t going to make it. But I did, and I got to my gate with almost an hour to spare. Since the airport had free wifi, I used the time to email Julie her taxes and clean out my work inbox. I also bought some trail mix for the plane. Then I had a short flight over to DFW. I didn’t want to pay extra for a window or aisle seat on a 1 hour flight so I was assigned a middle seat. I guess no one wanted to pay the extra or the person didn’t show up because the aisle seat was empty so I got to move over. At DFW airport, I got a honey-chicken sandwich from Stampede 66. I wasn’t really hungry, but I wanted food in my stomach so I wouldn’t be hungry on the plane. I had no issues getting on the plane to China. I got lucky again and there wasn’t anyone sitting in the middle so me and the guy on the aisle got a little extra room. It also gave me a place to store my supplies for my cross-stitch. I had to drive to Houston yesterday so I could get my Chinese visa. I stayed at a hotel so I could get to the consulate when they opened. However, when I went to print my documents at the hotel I found out that their computers weren’t working because a kid decided to unplug something and they have to wait for someone to fix it. So I forwarded the documents I needed to be printed to the hotel reception so she could print it and then I went to Walgreens to get a passport photo. After waiting in line at the Chinese consulate for an hour I found out that the hotel didn’t print my flight info. So I had to leave, drive to a place to print it, and then stand in line for another 40 minutes to go through the process again. Luckily I had everything I needed this time. Now I just have to come back in 4 days to pick it up.
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June 2022
AuthorThese are details from my adventures around the world. |