Last Train to Beijing

So here I am sitting in an internet cafe in Beijing, writing my last post from China before I head back to the USA in a day and a half.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy but through the fire I have emerged, free of debt and obligation and able to relax as I enjoy my last few hours in Tongzhou.

Lets begin with the last week of school.

I administered the final exam for my students on the 20th of June. They were as nervous as they are for all their exams which I took as a compliment. In my class they get no grade and this, I feel, had caused some of them to lose interest in my class in the face of very important exams for which they receive marks that impact their future education greatly. Seeing all of them nervous and studying before the exam made me happy that they cared enough to do well for me and themselves. The exams went well and everyone in the class improved their marks from the previous exam save one student. I am now convinced he cheated on the last exam but I have no way of proving this theory. I completed my grading and handed in all of my materials on June 22nd. After that I was theoretically home-free. I say, in theory. In theory communism works as well. I was told on the 22nd that I'd have to teach the Korean students for the first week in July. After my initial protest I calmed and resigned myself to facing the sleepiest kids in the world for one last week. To my surprise they were alert and participating most of the week. My lesson planning fell off dramatically even by my own low standards. Each day of that last week I had the kids play Boggle for the first half of the class (a big thank you to Garry Seltzer for providing travel boggle worksheets). The kids loved it and I found it to be a great vocabulary building/spelling exercise. At the end of the week the school year ended, and it was good.

I had been working with travel companies all week to plan a trip to Tibet. I had picked up a book on cheap ways of getting there and all the rules you must follow while in this disputed land. I had done my research and sent at least a dozen faxes to various travel agencies trying to get the best price. I finally found one that was reasonable but the plan fell through due to others and their scheduling conflicts. I was back at square one and now 10 days to my expected departure for Tibet.

Here I will spare you the details of the frantic faxing, permit applications, failed trips to the train station, price gouging, ticket delivery complications, and outright lies that eventually led to the demise of my planned trip. I'll sum it up this way: Nothing in China is easy.

Side note: You must get a travel permit to travel within Tibet and no one is allowed to travel alone. You can only acquire a travel permit through a travel agency. It has been said to me that once in Tibet you can pay your way out of the tour and travel at your leisure.

After my Tibet plan failed I peeled myself up from the floor and quickly threw together a last second trip to Xi'an. Faithful readers will remember that my last planned trip to Xi'an ended with cab with a flat tire not 300 yards from the train station and my flipping out on some poor train station attendant when I was denied entry to the train because I was only 7 minutes early.

I figured that all my bad luck had run out as far as my trip plans were concerned and threw together a quick 4 day trip to Xi'an. I left Beijing by plane on the 10th of July and arrived in the ancient city of Xi'an late in the evening. Xi'an is an old capital of China's. Its most famous attractions, and one of China's most famous, are the Terra Cotta Warriors.

I arrived and checked in at the youth hostel I had booked online back in Beijing. I met some Dutch guys and went out on the town with them. We ended at a Chinese club where I taught them some of the Chinese club games that are wildly popular here. I flashed back to my first weeks and month when these very games were taught to me. I felt old and pretentious. The next morning I met up with two of the Dutch guys and we went to see the Warriors. Xi'an is located right in the geographic middle of China but the Chinese consider it the west. Xi'an was hot as hell. Me and my new found Dutch friends took a series of buses out of Xi'an and one hour later we arrived at the site of the Warriors. I was a giddy little nerd at this point. The Terra Cotta Army and other archaeological finds of that nature were what made me decide on coming to China over Japan, Thailand, and all the other Asian countries where a westerner with a degree can teach. The Warriors themselves were spectacularly assembled. Each one is truly a work of art. Each Warrior is unique. Each has its own facial expression, hairstyle, and adornments and is over 2,050 years old.

There are 3 pits where the Warriors are and several other support buildings and museums that make up the whole of the site. Pit 3 is the smallest with about 20 Warriors, pit 2 is currently still under excavation but is absolutely huge with very little to actually see inside (except 3 Warriors in glass cases where you can get an up close view). Pit 1 is the famous one that houses some 6,000 statues. We were made aware of the layout prior to our arrival and first watched the movie about the history behind the Warriors and then proceeded to the pits, starting with pit 3 and working our way up to pit 1. I would recommend this plan because you save the best and most impressive part for last.

There was one thing that I totally hated about this otherwise fantastic experience. China ruined the potential for the find. Let me explain. The Warriors were first discovered by a farmer who was digging a well in 1974, he alerted the government and a preliminary excavation was conducted at the site of well. They found about a half dozen statues and immediately build the complex that is pit 1. When they built this large building they did not consider what else lay beneath their feet. Several other test pits were dug and two yielded significant enough finds to warrant complexes constructed over them as well. What I am saying here is that the government recognized the value of the site (both culturally and economically in the way of tourism dollars) and rushed to prepare it for the world to see. In this rush they did not consider what else could be found and now it is said that around 6,000 more soldiers exist under the complex. This type of action is quite predictable in China. Mortgaging your past and future for the present is a common practice, one just needs to look to the hutong neighborhoods in Beijing. They are over 700 year old houses that are being destroyed in favor of sky rises. At least the Warriors got a complex.

So after I got off of my soap box I returned to Xi'an and met a few more people at the hostel and went out again that night. The next day I traveled around Xi'an exploring on my own. The hostel where I stayed was in a favorable location for walking to the major sites in the city. Xi'an is a walled city and unlike any other walled city I've come across it actually maintains its wall to this day. Even stranger than that is the fact that the modern city of Xi'an actually exists within the walls of the old city. Within the walls you have high rise apartment and office buildings, malls, fancy shopping districts, slums, and movie theatres. I really liked the layout of the city, a good mix of the old and new. The major sites in the walls are the old Muslim Quarter, the Bell Tower, and the Drum Tower. The Muslim Quarter was fun and had great food and markets where you could just spend hours shopping and bargaining and generally taking in the sights, sounds, and smells that (in China) are unique to this bustling city. After this I took in the Drum Tower. In ancient times the drum was used to coordinate the opening and closing of the city's four giant gates. They had a short performance that equated to a drum circle which showcased different types of drums. After that I went to the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower is located right smack in the middle of the walled city. There is a giant roundabout circling the tower so you must enter from the underground walkway. The Bell Tower has housed the same bell for the last 1300 years, or 750 years after the Terra Cotta Warriors were created and promptly forgotten about. At the Bell Tower there was a short musical performance using traditional Chinese instruments which I found soothing. This marked the first time since I've come here that really enjoyed that type of music. I am so Chinese now.

That night I broke down and went to a movie in the theatre for the first time in almost a year. Some guys from England mentioned that they saw a movie theatre near the hostel and it looked like it was playing the Transformers movie. I was excited about the prospect of seeing a movie in the theatre, plus, it was the Transformers so I had to go. Turns out the movie was dubbed with no subtitles so I sat through the whole thing in Chinese. It looks very cool but the plot line seems thin. I can't tell but I think John Voigt is actually a marionette at this point.

The next day I slept in and played on the internet for a while before boarding my overnight sleeper train from Xi'an to Beijing. The sleeper was a blast. Six people crammed into a stall with six bed. I spoke a lot of Chinese and read my book before nodding off. When I awoke we were still several hours form Beijing so I walked between the cars observing. Chinese people are ready for anything. Nothing really phases them. They are always very social, making conversation with everyone around them, holding their children over buckets while they excrete through a slit in their pants, laughing, smiling. The train was a great time.

This morning I arrived back here in The Jing and tomorrow I say my final goodbyes before leaving for the US. I keep thinking how different things will be when I get back. The more I think about it things and people are really the same. People will still be obsessed with their cell phones, the internet, and their love lives. The only difference will be that in America I will understand all the inane and vapid conversations that happen in bars, restaurants, night clubs, and everywhere else people congregate.

When I get back to the US I'll post about changes, differences, things I've forgotten, and maybe things I understand a little better. I'll also have a chance to upload more pictures. Take care my faithful readers. Papa's coming home.