Dazu

Looking out of the window of the hotel this morning, I should have been able to see a pretty decent view of the Yangtze River and downtown Chongqing. However, what greeted me was murk and I could only just about see the large Ferris wheel the other side of the main street. After breakfast we gathered outside for our daily trip, although a few people decided to stay behind and do their own thing. Given how slow some of them had been during the trip so far, it was a bit of a relief to be honest as we wouldn’t have to wait around for them today.

Our first stop was Chongqing Zoo, just the other side of the downtown area. We were here ostensibly to see the Pandas, and learned on our arrival that one had recently given birth to twins. Despite the level of protection Pandas get, they are probably one of the most deserving animals to become extinct. Their diet consistsmainly of one type of bamboo shoot, the Arrow Bamboo and they will other foods only as a last resort. They are solitary animals and don’t like each other, a serious problem when it comes to mating. When eventually they do give birth, the females are notoriously bad mothers frequently rejecting their young, or killing them through negligence. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Chongqing female was a case in point. She had rejected one of the twins and it was being cared for in an incubator. There has never been a successful case of hand rearing and this was not to be the first as the baby had refused all attempts to be fed by the keepers. Looking at the little scrap of Panda, it was conceivable that by the end of the day it would be dead from hunger. The adult Panda that we did see performed for us for a little while, feeding while lying on his back and browsing round his enclosure.

We moved on to have a look at the Red Pandas next door. These were quite different creatures and clearly did like living together as there were a number of them in the enclosure. Less picky about their food, they were also quite frisky and it was hard to pin any of them down for a picture. Lastly we went over to have a look at the other famous Chinese large mammal, the Tiger. In a very large enclosure, there only seemed to be one animal (presumably the others were asleep inside), and he welcomed us by having a big pooh when he saw us! Unfortunately, there was not time to look at any of the other animals but as we left we did see some fairly upsetting sights, a lion cage that was far too small for its occupant and some kind of circus. Perhaps not having time to look was to protect our sensibilities on such matters.

Our next stop was just outside the zoo, a small art gallery that had a resident English artist who had come to Chongqing some years ago to study Chinese art and stayed. He was the first (and last) foreigner that we had seen who was actually living in China. He was strangely unemotional about the art in the gallery, although he did explain that it is considered to be very good to stay within the conventions of Chinese art. There are several themes that run throughout the pictures, various animals that signify different meanings (cranes = longevity, bats = wisdom etc). Most of the pictures were of course for sale and when we were let loose to have a look around, Erin and I had a young chap shadowing us to find out if we were interested in purchasing anything and suggesting things we might like! Erin was drawn to one particular picture but unfortunately one of the other girls was also attracted and started bidding before we had a chance. She treated it as a little bit of one-upmanship with us, which didn’t go down too well. We did eventually go for some hand painted leaves that had been plucked from a rather attractive tree outside the gallery. Stripped of their leaf tissue, the leaf skeletons were hand painted with various scenes of China and we bought one depicting cranes, one with a tiger and one of the Yangtze River gorge.

By the time we left it was raining but surprisingly the rain appeared to have very little effect on the thick atmosphere and it was then that we realised the extent of the air pollution that bedevils the city. The traffic was appalling and so we had to take a rather convoluted way of leaving the city that involved us crossing and recrossing the mighty Yangtze on a huge suspension bridge.

Our next destination was a town called Dazu, a town almost 100 miles northeast of Chongqing. On the way we drove along a fairly new motorway heading for Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province before heading along a much older and more traditional highway. On the way we got to see some fabulous countryside, largely dominated by rice paddies and carp pools. As the land undulated, the rice paddies had been terraced to use as much space as possible. When we got to Dazu, just over two hours later and after some fearsome driving it was time for lunch. We went to what looked to be the best hotel in town and had a very enjoyable lunch. One of the more memorable items on the menu was a large river fish that looked a right beast, but which tasted absolutely divine, being cooked in soy sauce and chillies.

After lunch we headed into the mountains on a very small road to the Buddhist caves. By the time we got there the sun had come out and it was the more usual scorching weather that we had become used to. We parked at the village near the caves and wandered through the usual hoards of vendors before getting another golf cart to take us down to the site. The caves were in a fabulous setting, a narrow wooded gorge and this had clearly inspired the carver all those years ago. Unlike the Longmen Grottoes the other day, the carvings were there to tell a story about various aspects of Buddhism, Taoism and Confusciousism. The carvings were highly coloured and showed some very interesting depictions of the various levels of heaven and hell according to their belief system.

The specific temple of Baoding Shan (Precious Mountain) is one of the four major sacred mountains in China. The carvings at this site began to be shaped during the Tang Dynasty and continued until it was completed in the Qing Dynasty. The main temple of Baoding Shan is constructed on a ridge above a mountain stream. Beyond the entrance lies the great Buddha Crescent (Da Fu Wan). Zhao Feng, a monk who was well versed in Tantric Buddhism, began this project seven centuries ago. The entire crescent is over a third of a mile long lined with 90 foot sheer cliffs. The oldest temple here, Sheng Shou Si, was built in 1179 and the carvings were completed in 1249.

One of the most artistic carvings in the crescent is the Wheel of Life. The decorative wheel is carved into the solid rock and the scene reflects death in life. The outer two rings of the wheel show the cycles of birth and death as animals live, die and are reborn. Divine figures are cast out from underneath the wheel as it turns. At the midpoint of the crescent there is a Sleeping Buddha (Prince Sakyamani). Further along are thousands of bright sculptures of coloured Chinese figures in the cliff walls also common to the Song period. Notably there is a scene of Heaven, Earth and Hell. Buddha represents Heaven and is devoted to filial piety. Carvings reflecting Earth are based around nurturing and caring for children. Hell is torturous and for those not living piously and who fall away from the teachings of Buddha and Confuscius.

Apart from the wonderful carvings, we had the amazing din of the cicadas once again and the most wonderful display of butterflies that we saw on the whole trip. The butterflies were absolutely huge and were all sorts of colours, including sulphur yellow, black and fritillary-coloured.

After our tour round the caves we headed back up to the golf cart to take us back. We drove so fast that one of the girls lost her hat in the wind and had to run back for it. When we got back to the village, we were among the first and Marco took us over to the edge of the car park to look out at the view. It was truly amazing; we were really high up and overlooked the valley that we had travelled up earlier. All we could see before us were crops growing in terraces up the side of the mountains. Of course we were bombarded with more vendors on the way back to the bus, but I had a new tactic – I had no money in my pockets. I repeatedly showed them my empty pockets but they continued to laugh as if to say ‘I don’t believe you’.

Going down the mountain in the coach was almost scarier than going up as many tourist coaches were coming our way and there was little room to pass. When we got to the bottom of the mountain we stopped at a small cluster of houses to see how the locals lived. I felt slightly uncomfortable about this, especially as this practice is apparently frowned on by the authorities and we were not allowed to stop for long in case the police came and moved us on. There were two different types of house; one was obviously owned by someone who had managed to become fairly wealthy while the others were much more ramshackle and presumably were rented. In the courtyard, there were several women in evidence – presumably the men were all out in the fields or the city working. In the middle was a large mat covered in dry chillies, a very colourful and probably common sight in this province. After nosing about in the houses for a few minutes we got back on the bus and made our way back to Chongqing.

Most of us took advantage of the long ride back to the hotel and had a bit of a kip on the bus. When we got back to Chongqing we were very surprised to see that the smog we had left behind in the morning was still there and hadn’t burned off in the sun as would have been expected in a place of such intense heat.

When we got back to the hotel there was time for some wash and brush up time before going across the road for some dinner. We had some proper Sichuan cooking, which was a nice change but we didn’t have the famous hotpot from these parts, which was a bit disappointing. One dish that really stood out was very colourful, consisting mainly of chilli (or so it seemed). There were pieces of chicken in amongst the chillies although it was almost hidden. The chillies themselves tasted rather odd, with a distinctive slightly soapy taste.

After dinner we decided to go out on the night-time outing – Chongqing by night. The first part of the tour took us to the main square in the city centre where we stopped for a look around. What we were greeted with shocked us. There were something like six or seven thousand people (the majority seemed to be women) all dancing to music playing over a loud music system. The people were all dancing in unison, obviously with moves that were well known to all the locals.

After walking around the dancers we plucked up the courage to join in which amused the locals no end. I had a hard time keeping up and so dropped out during the second number and took photos instead. After about ½ hour we left the dancers behind and continued on our tour. Apparently the dancers have been coming to the square for 5-6 years now and is a unique activity in the whole of China. It became so popular that the authorities took note and laid on the music for the dancers. Dancing now takes place every night of the week, with over 8000 people expected at weekends.

Our next stop was the highest point of the city, a hill on which stands a pagoda from which we had a good view of the lights and could quite clearly pick out the Waile River and the Yangtze despite the murkiness of the valleys. While we were at the top of the hill we also went to an art gallery featuring a painting several hundred feet long that portrayed the Yangtze River Valley from Chongqing through the gorges down to the Three Gorges Dam. The painting was completed fairly recently by an artist that had spent many years researching and visiting the many parts of the valley to try and ensure the accuracy of the painting. Seeing the scale of the picture gave us the first indication of what damage will be done by building the dam. I boufght a copy of the picture to remind me of what the valley will look like. All the way round a young girl told us how important the dam would be and casually brushed over the negative aspects of the project.

Our last stop was back in the city centre where we had some free time to look around the shops. We were dropped in what looked like the richest part of the city, where all the western shops could be found. It didn’t hold too much appeal and certainly wasn’t as interesting as the city centre of Beijing. After ½ hour of wandering around we assembled by the coach. While we waited for everyone to join us, a fight started just by us, evidently caused by a gambling debt. It was just another example of the aggression that simmers just below the surface here.

When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the cocktail bar and sat on the balcony and passed the rest of the evening with Christine and Robert, a couple that we had become quite friendly with.

On to Chongqing

The Little Wild Goose Pagoda

We had the rare luxury of having a lay in this morning and after breakfast we had a fairly short morning of excursions.

Our first stop was the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, which was apparently more impressive than the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, hence our visit. The Little Wild Goose Pagoda was built with 15 stories and is about 50 metres in height. About 300 years ago however, the top four stories collapsed during an earthquake, taking some of the decoration on the sides down with it. The Pagoda was constructed during the time when Buddhism was firmly established in China. It was also used to house the Buddhist manuscripts and is part of a monastery. Buddhism began to have such an influence on the Chinese culture that Daoism, based on the teachings of Lao Zi, adopted much of its culture. Although both the Great Goose Pagoda and Little Goose Pagoda are of simple architecture they are still viewed as masterpieces of building among Chinese people. Their structure has also held up and they retain their original appearance. A complete view of Xi’an can be seen from the top. For the first time on the trip so far not everyone came with us on the outing as some people took the opportunity to go shopping instead (they obviously wanted something other than what the hawkers had to offer). The visit did speed up as a result since we didn’t have such a big retinue of people to drag around. While at the Pagoda, Erin and I did some of the cheesy tourist things such as ring the large bell in the garden six times for good luck. We also climbed the eleven floors of the Pagoda, which was quite a slog, especially as the weather was already starting to heat up. The upper stories were quite obviously not built for Western People due to the restricted headroom and I had a hard time contorting myself through the gap in the roof onto the viewing platform.

We shared the view with a couple of young Chinese girls and swapped pictures with them. The view was ok, although in common with most of the views we had seen so far, was covered in mist and so we didn’t see very far (although I am pleased to say that we had a good view of the library).

After dealing with the hawkers and watching the locals doing their morning exercises (including fan and sword dancing) we moved on, this time to the local museum to have a look at relics from the Tang and Ming Dynasties. Initially, I gave John a chance but when he lingered over cooking pots for ages at the beginning I decided I’d had enough and went at my own pace. I was rather glad I did as I got more time looking at stuff that was actually interesting. It was not a very well set out museum, being full of relics but a bit on the dry side. The best stuff was the grave goods – camels and guards in glorious colours, probably as good as the day they were dug up.

After a trawl round the museum we had a very early lunch at about 1130. Surprisingly, after only having breakfast a couple of hours ago, I still felt like eating and found that the food was particularly tasty. The lunch was at the Tang Dynasty, where we had been last night and consisted this time of a very tasty buffet including dishes that we hadn’t had elsewhere, like curry.

Leaving Xi’an

As soon as we were done with lunch we headed off to the airport to catch the flight to Chongqing. As with many of the airports in China, the one at Xi’an was pretty new and had superseded one closer to the city centre. It was quite a drive to get there and on the way we saw many more tombs from Emperors and the high officials from the Han Dynasty. At the airport we had the usual shenanigans of having to mix and match the tickets, since the Chinese seem incapable of sitting people with the same surnames together.

When the flight got underway, we soon got into the clouds and didn’t see much. Every so often we would enter a clear patch of sky and below I could see a vast forest. The flight was extremely bumpy and I felt very nervous for the first time. After an hour’s flight we landed at Chongqing among the mist. From the window of the aircraft I could see my first terraced paddy fields! We met our guide Mary outside and then drove into the city, some distance away. As we drove the mist got greater and greater until by the time we got to the city centre we could barely see anything. This apparently is not an unusual occurrence and this was one of the reasons why the airport was moved so far away, since the old airport suffered from chronic delays to many of its flights.

On the north side of the city we stopped at a silk weaving factory. As usual we were jinxed as our arrival coincided with a power cut and so it wasn’t possible to see the machinery in action. The process was fascinating – cocoons from the silk worm are collected from the mulberry trees and put in boiling water to kill the larvae. The cocoons are then unpicked by hand and the threads are wound onto spools for weaving. Unfortunately, on account of the power cut we were unable to look at the merchandise either and so left empty handed.

On the way to the hotel, Mary told us some information about Chongqing and the people living there. Chongqing has recently become the biggest city in China, although this is mostly on account of a new metropolitan area being created. The city is on the confluence of the Yangtze and Jiarni Rivers and is quite hilly. Unfortunately because of the topography, the smoke created from the local industry doesn’t have anywhere to go and is trapped in the river valley, causing the terrible smogs in the city.

By the time we got to the hotel, we were absolutely exhausted. We had a bit more time to get ready than normal, which was really nice. We had dinner at the hotel and had several Sichuan dishes to eat and the spiciness of the food made a nice change. After dinner we went down to the bar with several of the others and had a very enjoyable drink and listen to ‘soft rock’ being sung in broken English by some very androgynous looking women.

The Terracotta Army

The City Walls

Another early morning and soon after breakfast we were off out for our long day of outings. The first stop was one of the gate towers of the Xi’an city walls. The weather was pretty grey and misty when we went out, which meant that the city was quite hard to see although that also gave it a certain atmosphere. The Drum and Bell Towers were quite hard to see from the city walls and could only just about be picked out through the gloom. While we were there some of the others rented bikes and went for a spin around the city walls. Erin and I didn’t fancy being shaken about by the cobbles so we walked instead.

Once we had climbed the gate tower we soon realised that it was just another shopping opportunity! The view from the top of the tower wasn’t any better because of the mist and so we decided to walk along the wall for a bit and soak up some of the atmosphere about the place. We watched folk at the bottom of the wall below going about their daily business. Some were playing checkers, Chinese chess and Mah-Jongg while others were doing their morning exercises. On the other side of the wall, we were able to see into the backs of some of the other buildings and I watched some men tending their printing presses dressed only in their underwear. Other things also caught my eye, such as a very long and flimsy looking bamboo ladder. For the first time on the trip I also saw lots of birds, with many sparrows and birds resembling blackbirds the most common.

Once done at the city gate we went on to a jade factory just up the road. Initially we were excited about this, but soon became annoyed when we realised that guide had taken us to a very expensive place, possibly because he had business dealings with the owners. After a very perfunctory look at the manufacturing process (which consisted of lots of workers grinding and abrading the jade into sculpture) we were led into the main shop for the serious business of selling us jade. True, most of the pieces were absolutely fantastic, but they were so expensive that none of us were realistically going to buy that much. There were sculptures that we wouldn’t even have considered, such as a plate with fish arranged on it like a dinner and the most enormous dragon boat costing thousands of dollars, but who would buy such a thing? To get it home would be virtually impossible. Taking us to this particular factory was counter-productive since most of us actually didn’t buy anything. Luckily shopping time was curtailed by a power cut, which meant that we could get on our way to see more interesting things.

The Banpo Village

Next stop was on the edge of the city at a place called the Banpo Village. On the way we saw a whole load of farmers waiting on the side of the road waiting to be picked up for construction labour. Being a fairly quiet time of the farming year, many farmers are out of work and as they don’t get any sort of unemployment benefit, they have to seek alternative work to support their families. This was just about the only morsel about daily life our guide John shared with us, who by now was beginning to seriously repeat himself, especially about some of the buildings we passed.

When we got to Banpo, the mist was gone and the heat had begun to become much more noticeable. The Banpo is a Neolithic village that had been excavated some time ago. Around 5000BC, a sedentary agricultural community was built by a late Neolithic people. Discovered in 1953, Banpo is the first known village to have been lived in by the Yangshao culture. Unearthed artefacts are all that remain of this prehistoric community.

Banpo had about sixty buildings that covered a span of 50,000 square metres and housed over 200 people from the two different clans. The ruins are divided into a residential area, a pottery manufacturing area and a cemetery. Five excavations that were conducted from 1953 to 1957 revealed the remains of 45 houses, 200 storage pits, 6 pottery kilns, 250 tombs and more than 10,000 stone tools and everyday articles. These artists are most significant because they provide solid evidence of settled communities in prehistoric China.

Banpo was a farming based matriarchal society. The houses differ in structure depending on when they were built. Earlier houses had floors that were sunk two to three feet into the ground whereas the later houses stood at ground level. All the houses had frameworks made of wood and walls composed of mud and straw as well as a central fire area to provide heat for the family. The Banpo also dug underground caves in order to have a place to store their food and protect it from wildlife and insects.

In order to combat the threat of rainfall, the Banpo worked together to dig a trench about two metres deep and two metres wide. This trench surrounded the entire complex and provided drainage in addition to protection from animal attacks. Another trench was also dug through the middle of the village. A large meeting hall and a central storage area were placed in the centre of the village. To the east were six pottery kilns and north of the village was the cemetery where the adults were buried. Accompanying them were objects of all sorts used for daily life. The children however, were buried alongside the huts in special clay urns. The reason for this separation is unknown.

The people of Banpo initially survived by gathering wild fruits, hunting and fishing. However, the use of gradually improved upon stone tools initiated the end of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the beginning of a settled agricultural community in which the Banpo farmed millet. In addition to the tools, skeletal remains of pigs, dogs and cattle were discovered buried within the boundaries of the village. These remains indicate that the Banpo had started to raise domestic animals. Deer bones were also found, but it is unclear whether these were hunted or domesticated.

Most of their tools such as axes, knives, shovels and arrowheads were made of stone, but some such as needles were composed of animal bone. The Banpo also had ornaments for personal decoration such as hairpins, beads and rings. All were made of bone, shell, stone or animal teeth.

The Banpo spent a great amount of time producing pottery designed for drinking, storage, cookery and burial. Most of the pottery was coloured and adorned with either geometric patterns or animal-like figures. The edges of some of the pottery were carved with what seems to be like a primitive form of writing. Because of this and many other reasons, the people of Banpo deserve recognition for developing one of the oldest known cultures in the World.

Inside the excavated area, which was undercover, the amazing thing about most of what was discovered was that it was so similar to finds in Europe. As far as Erin was concerned, the most exciting part of the exhibition was the bodies. A number of skeletons had been dug up and some pretty fanciful suggestions of how they died were put forward. A group of children were found and presented as a group of boys although this could not be determined from the skeletons themselves and could only have been deduced from the grave goods. Erin had aroused some interest at this point and held audience with almost anyone interested. By the time Erin had digested the exhibition we had very little time for the mock up village outside. We had a quick tour round before going back to get on the bus, carefully avoiding the inevitable hawkers outside.
The Terracotta Warriors

We made our way to the Terracotta Army at a town about 30km from Xi’an. On the way we got a good glimpse of country life and passed some pretty ramshackle houses, a grubby looking power station and a large collection of filthy looking factories on the way. Before going to the warriors we of course had to go to lunch and have our first Chinese banquet of the day. John apologised for the food not being great, but when it came we were more than pleased with the fare. The meal was very tasty with one of the highlights being some very enjoyable potatoes covered in a sticky toffee sauce.

Early in the afternoon we went to see the warriors and were greeted by the biggest area of hawkers yet seen. Many of them were farmers that obviously make far more money from tourists than from their usual work. After wading through we went first to the film hall where we saw an excellent 360 degree film about how the warriors came about.

Over 2100 years ago, Emperor Shih Huangti or Qin Shih Huang’s terracotta army sculptured during his reign was laid to rest in a magnificent tomb. Creator of the first unified China for which he gives his name (the Chin Dynasty); the Emperor ordered the construction of this extraordinary mausoleum when he was only 13 years old. Thirty six years and 700,000 construction workers later, the Terracotta Army of Xi’an is one of the World’s most impressive displays.

In March 1974 the Yan Zhai Commune was drilling a well and came across a life-sized pottery figure of a warrior buried upright in the earth 4.8 metres underground. What was discovered next far exceeded anyone’s wildest dreams. An underground city with inner and outer walls lined with copper, a throne room and seats for officials in Shin Huangti’s government as well as a rich treasury of jewels and other precious objects was unearthed.

There are three vaults that contain the sculptured legion of the Emperor’s Terracotta Army. The term terracotta is Italian for baked earth. It is a hard, durable kind of baked clay. The first vault measures 210 metres long, 60 metres wide and 4.6 to 6.5 metres high and was built with wood and earth. This area of 12,600 square metres contains 6000 figures of life-sized warriors and horses arranged in rectangular battle formation. All of the soldiers are about 1.8 metres tall and wear helmets and armour. They also carry battle weapons like swords, lances, crossbows, javelins and bows and arrows. Separate facial expressions and features accompany each warrior. Horses of actual size are also contained within the vault, with each chariot being drawn by a team of four. The vanguards are comprised of three rows of seventy warriors. Thirty eight rows of troops follow making up the main army. A modern arched dome silver-grey building 204 metres long, 70 metres wide and 21 metres high has been constructed over this vault, built in 1979 in order to preserve this vast collection.

Discovered in 1976, vaults two and three are comprised of warriors and wooden chariots also. A sizeable 1.2 acres, vault two contains four separate units of chariots, cavalrymen, archers and foot soldiers. The two wings on either side of the archers include chariots to the right and cavalrymen to the left. In the rear are foot soldiers and war chariots. Vault three is described as more of a gallery than an army. It has 69 pottery warriors with defensive weapons and a wooden chariot pulled by four magnificent pottery horses. The structure of the gallery and the line up of the soldiers suggest that this was likely to be the headquarters for the troops of the other vaults. In the future, archaeologists expect to excavate the remaining parts of the mausoleum. So far, ten thousand pieces of actual battle equipment have been excavated from the three vaults.

Amazingly most of the warriors had been smashed to pieces not long after they were first crafted by disgruntled peasants. Since being discovered, archaeologists had painstakingly put the warriors back together and arranged them back in their original columns. In the halls containing the pits it was very cool much to our relief for it was getting fearsomely hot by now. Erin was also losing her cool with the guide by now as we were hearing the same information time after time, although he insisted that we kept following and listening. By the time we got to vault two, Erin and I had lost patience and made our own way around the rest of the museum.

Before leaving we went to see the famous bronze cart that had also been found, along with an exhibition of paintings in which Terracotta Warriors were depicted taking part in modern day sports. We did buy an official guide book, supposedly signed by the farmer who found the site, but in truth it could have been signed by any old farmer chancing his arm for a few extra Yuan. How were we to know?

When we left the museum, we were immediately mobbed by the most aggressive vendors ye, all trying to sell us replica warriors and shouting ‘one dollar, very cheap, only one dollar’. They were very insistent, highly irritating and slightly intimidating. So much so that they had the opposite effect since it made us not want to buy anything. We did see some Chairman Mao watches and thought they would make good presents. Luckily Christine and Robert wanted some too and so we bargained together. Initially the woman wanted 150 Yuan for each watch but by the time we finished we had four for 110 Yuan! Feeling buoyed by this we did have a look at other stuff not feeling quite as pressed, but in the event we didn’t go for any of the replica warriors as they all looked a bit cheap and nasty.

A nasty storm

On the way back to the city we heard much of the information regurgitated for about the third or fourth time and by now it was getting to be a bit of a joke, especially as we had the library pointed out every time we passed by it near to the hotel. As we got back to the hotel, we had a rather exciting and yet frightening experience. As we got closer we could see a dust storm coming towards us and it was a bit of a race against time getting to the hotel entrance. As the storm got closer, a number of cyclists were knocked off their bikes and loose fittings on buildings were blown away. We managed to get in the entrance just in time but as we looked outside we could see the damage this sudden storm was causing. After the storm we had just missed the other day, it was yet another example of the frightening weather patterns experienced in this vast country.

The Tang Dynasty

We had just enough time to freshen up on our return before going out once again for dinner and entertainment. Once again we passed the library, a fact we weren’t allowed to miss and on to a place called the Tang Dynasty, a venture obviously catering exclusively to tourists. It was essentially a cabaret, albeit with an Oriental twist and bordering on the cheesy. Before the show we had dinner, which was accompanied by hot rice wine, a very strange sweet delectation. For a change we were mostly served the food on a plate and I had the luxury of a knife and fork. The sweets were truly awful, being dough balls with only a vague sweetness to them.

As soon as the meal was over the musical accompaniment finished and the show proper began. There wasn’t much of a story but plenty of music, singing and dancing and the costumes were truly wonderful. However the performance did get rather sentimental in places and tiresome in other places, especially one bit where an obviously talented player of what could only be described as Chinese panpipes got a bit carried away and ended up sounding like Cyril Fletcher or a demented bird.

When the show was over we went back to the hotel and Erin and I went straight to bed, feeling absolutely exhausted after such a full day.

The Train to X'ian

The Cave Dwelling

It was an early start again this morning and after breakfast we bought ourselves some locks for our cases and packed them up for our next stage of the trip.

Before leaving Luoyang we had a couple more excursions to do and on the way to the first Wan taught us a children’s song, which we all joined in. The song was to the tune of Frere Jacque and was about two tigers, one of whom had one paw missing and the other only had one eye. Rather a lovely song!

After about 20 minutes we arrived at a small village and got out of the coach. We were here to see a family living in an old cave dwelling and I wasn’t sure how I felt about being a voyeur. We had to go down a ramp and into a large courtyard where all the caves led from. The whole complex was tunnelled into the loess, a snady clay that covers the whole area. Immediately it became clear that the cave was much cooler than the weather up at the surface.

The only occupant of the cave dwelling was a 92 year old woman called Lee Yang, which translates as ‘pretty flower’. She was incredibly small and wrinkly but very bright and alert and far from us being voyeurs into her life, she had obviously spotted her potential as a local tourist attraction. Wan explained that she had many children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and even a great, great grandchild! She had lived in the cave dwelling ever since she got married as a teenager and had witnessed many changes in her life including World War 2, the Mao Revolution and the Cultural Revolution.

During World War 2 she had had to house several Japanese soldiers in the house, obviously a scary prospect for a mother and her children. She had not been much affected by the Cultural Revolution as she explained that she was poorly educated and from a farming family so had nothing to lose.

The cave was a warm place to live in winter and cool in summer she explained. She had many people to visit, partly because she was the last person in the village to be living in a cave. The cave still belonged to the Government and it would revert to them when she finally died.

The visit was fascinating and after looking at some of the caves she lived in, we headed back to Luoyang. All along the road were hawkers, waiting in the vain hope that we might stop and buy a pottery horse or some other such trinket.

On our return to Luoyang we visited the local museum, which was full of archaeological relics that had been dug up by various farmers and builders. These included various articles of pottery, grave goods and statues of people and animals. The museum was vaguely interesting but I was glad to spend only 40 minutes there.

The Train Journey

Next stop was an impossibly early lunch at about 11.30am in a local restaurant before going to catch the train to X’ian. When we got there we were directed to the first class lounge (presumably so we didn’t have to mix with the locals). Of course the first class lounge doubled up as a retail opportunity and there were the usual array of souvenirs available for our pleasure and convenience. One picture did catch our eye, but it was a bit too pricey so it was left behind. When we got onto the platform, the busyness that we had avoided by being in the first class lounge soon became apparent. As well as hundreds of passengers waiting for trains there were lots of staff and people selling all kinds of food from watermelons to roasting meats.

We settled into our soft seats ready for the long journey ahead, sitting with Graham and Ann, a couple from Derby and a house auctioneer and French Teacher respectively. We chatted about our respective jobs, trips we had done and would like to do and our experiences of China thus far. As soon as we got underway, the music started. This was to continue most of the way to X’ian and was perhaps one of the perks of being in first class. Some was nice and soothing but a lot of it was quite manic! We were also treated to some Chinese comedy, which of course meant nothing to us. Every so often the stewards and stewardesses would come around and try to sell us food, tea and in one particular case some pretty awful goods that included a spinning top type thing that played ‘Happy Birthday’ over and over again, and some supposedly indestructible socks. These were set on fire and ‘ripped’ by running a needle through them before being pulled as hard as they could be. While the demonstrations were very entertaining, there was no getting away from the fact that they were an awful colour and I don’t think he made many sales.

Outside the countryside changed fairly little along the way. The main crops were maize and fruit trees planted to keep the loess in place (it has a nasty habit of blowing away if not stabilised). Much of the loess had already been removed for brick making, but every available space appeared to be planted with some crop or other, no matter how small the space. It made me realise why the natural environment is so threatened here – there is precious little space for wildlife of any description. At first there were hardly any farmers working in the fields but as time progressed we saw more and more people out and also livestock, mostly goats and cattle. All along the length of the railway line we also saw lots of grimy looking coalmines and associated trains. We passed a couple of cities and from the window of the train we could see that although the main streets looked ok this was often just a façade, as behind the fronts the houses were really squalid looking.

At each station we stopped at there was a hive of activity with lots of people selling stuff, mostly produce to the weary travellers who in some cases were probably travelling many hours to get to their destinations. Selling directly from the side of the track was clearly acceptable as none of the railway officials did anything to stop this practice.

By the time we got to X’ian we ere ready to get off the train after our 6 hour journey. We were greeted by another madhouse station and we found it difficult to find the guide. By this time Marco was seething as he didn’t secure the guide he wanted and there had been a switch at the last minute. This, and the fact that the guy was not at the appointed place at the right time meant that the poor chap was on to a loser straight away. At first we liked the guide’s manner and he explained the sights to us on the way to the hotel in a rather jovial manner. We drove through the city walls and on to the hotel.

When we arrived we didn’t have any obligations for the evening except dinner. This we had in the hotel and we had a bit of a surprise as it was a European style buffet and not the usual mixture of sweet and sour and rice and vegetables. After dinner we were really tired after another packed day and so we went back to our room and rearranged our luggage before turning in early.

Moving on to Luoyang

Leaving Beijing

I got up way before the alarm this morning and we decided to go down to breakfast early to see if we could spot Marco. He wasn’t there but Erin sweet-talked us into the restaurant and we had breakfast nice and early.

Today we were on the move so we had to pack our cases and get going immediately after breakfast. We drove over to Beijing Airport and on the way we had a last look at the city until the end of our trip. The scale of Beijing is enormous, full of high rise flats and the first signs of gearing up for the Olympics in six years time. A large monorail or metro line was in the process of being built close to the hotel, along with some very nice looking complexes of flats (at least according to the very nice advertising posters, which made the new complexes look like some sort of paradise). Then, in between were much older slums that had mostly been cleared of people and were scheduled for demolition to make way for more flats.

On arrival at the airport we said goodbye to Elena for 10 days and went through to get our plane. The whole process was remarkably trouble free, despite what we had heard about domestic flights through our reading. I got a bit of a view of Beijing before we disappeared into the gloomy murk which seems to hang over the whole country. I then settled into reading a bit before the ‘refreshments’ and entertainment came on. The former consisted of the strangest dates I had ever tasted and the accompanying coffee was unbelievably sweet. The entertainment was even more unexpected – old re-runs of Benny Hill, Russ Abbott and Mr Bean, with Chinese subtitles. Every few minutes the film would be interrupted with announcements from the stewardess of China Southern Airways, almost exclusively in Chinese, although occasionally in broken English telling us to keep our seatbelts fastened. After an hour or so’s flight we landed in Zhengzhou. We collected our baggage and went to find the next tour guide.

Wan was a very different character from Elena, a straight-laced sort of a chap about 30 years old. His English was not nearly as polished as Elena’s and was not as easy to follow. Our first port of call was the restaurant for a particularly early lunch at 11.30am. The food we had was quite different from Beijing, partly as it included fish for the first time and partly because the vegetables and sauces were a little more spicy.

As soon as lunch was over we embarked on our 3 hour trip to Luoyang, and were told that the highway was open so we wouldn’t have to use the bumpy road that the previous group had to use. This was definitely a good thing since shortly after we got going the heavens opened and the journey was really wet and horrible, exactly how I imagined monsoonal rain to be. Apparently, the area had encountered some really bad storms over the past couple of days and there was much evidence of this. The coach had a smashed window, which hadn’t been able to be repaired in time for our use so we drove along with a seal over it. Many buildings alongside the road were also really badly damaged, including a petrol station that had a completely collapsed roof. Once we left the built up areas though, apart from seeing the crops of maize all along the road, the scenery was not very interesting and so I escaped into my book for most of the journey. The only time I perked up was to see the Yellow River but alas it was completely lost in the mist. Here though we did encounter several tunnels which interrupted my reading and forced the coach to slow down, since they were all being repaired following the serious rain damage.

Not long after this we stopped at a motorway service station for a comfort break. It wasn’t exactly Watford Gap! Only 2 other vehicles were parked and there was only a small and sad looking shop and some toilets, quite a contrast to the hoards of vendors which lined the car parks at any tourist attraction. I declined the toilets, which didn’t look very inviting, and decided against the shop. A couple of the others went to the shop but came straight out again, complaining about being stared at as though they had dared to enter a country pub without being a regular. I did stretch my legs as the rain had passed, although the sky was still very threatening. Dragonflies and swallows buzzed about catching their food and mating.

Some time later, we entered Luoyang, a very chaotic looking place and apparently a city of 7 million people. One of the amazing things about China is the number of immense cities that most people in the West have never heard of. The city is located on both banks of the middle reaches of the Yellow River in the western part of Henan Province with a history spanning 5000 years. Louyang is one of China’s seven ancient capitals serving for 13 dynasties such as the Xia, Eastern Zhou and Tang for just over 1500 years. It is the earliest ancient capital with the most dynasties and the longest history in China. In the prosperous Sui and Tang dynasties, the population of Luoyang reached one million and was one of the finest cities in the World.

The Longmen Gottoes

We made our way straight to the Longmen Grottoes, one of the three great treasure houses of stone sculpture in China. When the Wei moved to Luoyang in 494 they chose the sandstone cliffs on either side of the Yi River as the site for a series of Buddhist temples and grottoes, the successors to those at the previous capital at Datong. Work on the caves continued long after the dynasty had ended and now there are over 1300 grottoes and more than 100,000 images of Buddha, 2300 carved stone niches, 40 Buddhist pagodas and 2800 pieces of inscription engraved on stone walls or stone tablets cut into the rock. Unfortunately, many of the sculptures – especially the heads – were stolen by 19th and 20th century tourists and now grace museums and private collections in Europe and America.

When we got into the area we got very frustrated with the guide as we were only able to catch a small part of what he was saying. A few diversions didn’t help, such as the sight of a wasp taking down a dragonfly, removing its head and proceeding to eat it. This was one of the most savage and unnerving natural sights I had ever seen, even though it was only insects involved.

The first part we came to looked like the side of a building carved into the rock. It was almost as if the exposed part of the building had been taken away. In the walls were seemingly hundreds of cupboards, each of which contained a statue of the Buddha. Moving further on we came across the cave of 10,000 Buddhas, of varying sizes and dominated by one big statue. Further along was the Lotus Cave, containing a large faceless Buddha and with a ceiling decorated by a large lotus flower. Eventually, we came to the centrepiece, a huge statue of a Buddha in what looked like a quarry. This used to be a cave until the ceiling collapsed during one of China’s frequent earthquakes.

Before leaving, we had a little time to wander and we found it interesting watching Chinese people at play. One little girl managed to catch a little frog and was so exited about it, showing it off to all her family. Some boys were swimming in the nearby river and while we watched a young Chinese boy came and introduced himself to us and told us all about his city.

The Hotel Peony

We then went back into the city of Luoyang and learned more about it. The city is famous for the peony flower, and indeed our hotel was named after it. The Luoyang Peony is apparently the finest and has a planting history of 1500 years. The flower now has more than 500 species and blooms in mid-April. During the flowering season floods of visitors come to the city and in 1983 the local Government started the annual Peony Festival.

The Hotel Peony was not as nice as Xindadu in Beijing and the room definitely had signs of wear and tear. The view from the window was of the main street outside and hundreds of people cycling backwards and forwards. Shortly after checking in Marco took us round to a supermarket around the corner. Walking over there was an experience in itself; there were men gathered outside bars and cafes playing Mah-jong and Chinese Chess. There were also a lot of roadworks going on and health and safety appeared to be very relaxed, with only a small piece of pavement left over a long trench, no fences and men working quite happily with welding torches very close to pedestrians.

Once in the supermarket, the array of goods was quite bewildering. There were big bags of all manner of dried fruits and nuts, vacuum packs of prawns, bags of dried fish and an assortment of exotic vegetables as well as many items that were simply unidentifiable. We bought some banana chips, prawn crackers, biscuits and drinks for our trip tomorrow.

We went back to the hotel with all our loot and just had time to have a shower and get changed for dinner. Dinner was in the hotel and was the now expected spread of rice, sweet and sour, various vegetables and meat. All this was accompanied by a chap playing the piano in the corner.

After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening in our room feeling exhausted and tried our best to watch television, although not being in Beijing meant that there was a lot less choice of international stations available. Part of the way through the evening, the heavens opened again and we looked out at another tropical rainstorm and people struggling to get through it outside.

The Great Wall

After waking up in the night I did manage to get off back to sleep until 7am. After a shower to wake me up we went down for breakfast, forgetting our coupons to begin with, so Erin went back up to the room to collect them. Breakfast was interesting, with a fusion between Chinese and English food and included some pretty strange things such as cabbage and dumplings.

Cloisonne

We set off on our day out at about 8.30am and our first stop was a factory selling special copper and enamel ‘pottery’ known as Cloisonne. We saw several stages of the manufacturing process which looked fiddly and hard work. The finished articles were absolutely fabulous and it was extremely hard to choose something from the many things available. It also transpired later that we hadn’t quite mastered the art of bargaining and we probably could have bought things for a lot less that we ended up paying.

The Ming Tombs

After stopping at the Cloisonne factory for an hour or so we continued onwards to the Ming Tombs, on the edge of Beijing. The journey there was interesting as we got the first glimpse of the countryside and the crops being grown seemed to be dominated by corn and fruit trees, rather than the rice we might have expected. The fruit trees looked a little strange as the fruit was covered with plastic bags that resembled handkerchieves. Before arrival at the tombs we stopped at the Sacred Road, which acted as the entrance to all the tombs when they were built. We went and had a look at the main gateway, and inside was a huge stone turtle that acted as the guard for the tower. Turtles are supposed to represent long life and are considered to be a lucky charm. From the gateway we walked along the remainder of the road, which was guarded by a series of statues of animals and guards.

Amidst the impressiveness of the statues was the atmosphere created by the cicadas, cricket like creatures that caused the most incredible din. As we walked along the Sacred Way we couldn’t help but be impressed by each of the statues. Each pair of statues were different from each other to satisfy the ancient philosophy of yin and yang. Most of the animals had one sitting and one standing example. This was to symbolise the fact that there was a guard at all times, even when one was asleep or resting. At the end of the Sacred Way, we emerged back into the real world and were almost immediately accosted by a myriad of hawkers selling all sorts of stuff. We were only tempted by a bottle of water but were disappointed when it wasn’t very cold.

Next stop was the tomb of Emperor Wanli, the only one of the Ming tombs to be excavated thus far. The Dingling Tomb is the tomb of Emperor Wanli (reigned 1573 – 1619), the 13th Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, whose personal name was Zhu Yijan, and of his two Empresses, Xiao Duan and Xiao Jing. The Tomb was completed in six years (1584 – 1590) and occupies a total area of 1195 square metres at the foot of the Daju Mountain southwest of the Changling Tomb. We didn’t stay long, only long enough to have a cursory look at the pagodas and admire the view across the whole complex.

The Great Wall at Badaling

After the Ming Tombs, we moved on to Badaling to see the highest and most visited part of the Great Wall. On the way we were able to see the other Ming Tombs dotted across the mountainsides across the valley from the road.

The terrain became rugged quite quickly and before long we got to see our first glimpse of the wall snaking across the mountainsides. It was soon clear that the famous view of the wall was slight illusory since the only truly restored parts were closest to the car parks and the remainder was left rather more rustic.

Located 11km away from the Juyongguan Pass and 60km north of Beijing, Badaling, which means ‘giving access to every direction’, is the best preserbed section of the Great Wall. First built in 1505 with an elevation of 600 metres, the wall averages 7.5 metres high, 4 metres thick, 6.5 metres wide at its base and tapering to 5.8 metres at the top.

Stretching out for almost 5km along the rolling mountains, the Badaling section of the Great Wall is dotted with 19 strategically located watchtowers, which were used to protect the capital against attack in ancient times, bringing Badaling the name of ‘key to the north gate’.

On the top of the wall is a road paved with square bricks, wide enough for six horses or ten soldiers to march side by side. Outer and inner ramparts were built along the road. The outer fortifications were outfitted with openings almost two metres high. These were used as vantage points and below each eyehole were weapon mounts. The inner fortifications, built 1 metre high, were used to prevent the horses and carts from overturning along the steep mountainsides.

Along the wall, there were many signal towers, which were used to transmit military messages. Prior to the availability of electricity, fire and smoke were the most efficient ways for communication (normally fire was used at night and smoke during the day). In 1468, a series of regulations were established to standardise these signals; a single shot and a single fire or smoke signal denoted about 100 enemy soldiers, two shots and 2 signals warned of over 500 and 3 shots/ signals warned of over 1000. Passed from tower to tower, in this way the message could be transmitted over more than 500 km within a few hours.

The Badaling fortress, with an elevation of 600 metres was built in 1505. The walls, built in 1571 are 10 metres high, 4 metres thick and over 1km in circumference. The fortress has two gate towers. A tablet inscribed with ‘Outpost to Juyongguan Pass’ is hung on the eastern gate and another one ‘the lock on the Northern Gateway’ on the western gate. As the entrance to Badaling, this fortess is an important defensive position on the north side of the pass. If Badaling were to have been seized, it would be very difficult to defend Juyonggian Pass. During the Ming Dynasty, powerful defensive armies were stationed here.

East of the fortress lies the Watching Beijing Rock, 7 metres long and 2 metres high. It was said that the Empress Dowager Cixi once passed here as she fled to the north when the Eight Allied Forces invaded Beijing in 1900. Making a short stop here, she looked back towards Beijing and recalled her comfortable life in the Forbidden City, hence the name.

Badaling was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. In recent years, this section of the wall has undergone repairs. In addition the Great Wall Museum, the Badaling Great Wall Cableway and other facilities have been built near the Wall. So far about 80 million visitors from all over the world, including 300 heads of state and other celebrities from foreign countries have visited.

When we arrived at the visitor centre our first move was lunch. We were rather shocked to have a very large spread for us, reminiscent of what we would normally expect for dinner. Once we had eaten our fill we left the rather sedate confines of the restaurant and headed up to the Wall and passing all the noisy vendors.

Once on the Wall, we immediately had a group picture taken, although not everyone was included as we had already lost some people in the huge crowds. Everyone split up thereafter and did their own thing, which was quite a relief after being led by the hand for most of the time thus far. Erin and I decided to head east, where the biggest crowds were since we were told that we would see the best views from that side. In places the Wall was incredibly steep and at one point we needed to use our hands as well as our feet to climb up. All the way we had to fight our way through the huge crowds and past the vendors trying to sell us baseball caps and shirts proclaiming that we had in fact climbed the Wall. Luckily as we climbed the view got better and better, and the sight of the Wall snaking over the mountaintops more than compensated for the madness of the number of people clambering up alongside us. By the time we had got to the top of the Wall, where it turned and went back down the mountain the rain started and for a few minutes it really belted down, a welcome relief after our hot climb.

Coming down the hill was actually harder than going up and the job was made more difficult by the number of Chinese people stopping us to have their picture taken with us. One chpa even wanted me in his home video and would have filmed me all day if I had let him!

Eventually we got to the bottom and I had my first taste of bargaining with the locals when we bought some postacards. We did beat them down a bit but still came away suspecting that we had been diddled.

We travelled back to Beijing late in the afternoon and on the way I had a bit of a nap after our hectic day. When we got back to the hotel we had enough time to get showered and changed before dinner. Jet lag was still a bit of a problem so it was good to take a little time out before dinner.

An hour or so later we were back on the coach and travelling across the city again. We went past the hotel where people had changed money yesterday and then the new monorail station being built for the 2008 Olympics. Then we drove between an ancient canal and old part of town containing low rise buildings that are fast disappearing from the Beijing skyline. Eventually we reached the restaurant and unsurprisingly found a very large Chinese banquet waiting for us. It was now clear that this is what we could expect every day for the whole trip.

Beijing By Night

After dinner, Erin and I opted to take the ‘Beijing by Night’ tour. The first stop was in the downtown area, where we stopped by a food market. Erin and I walked on to the Beijing equivalent of Oxford Street and probably unsurprisingly many of the shops were the same as you would find the World over. The atmosphere of the Chinese people doing their evening shopping was most enjoyable.

Just as we started to head back to the food market to have a look, we ran into a chap and his two students who wanted to show us his art studio after introducing himself. We were impressed with his friendliness and probably unwisely got caught up in the moment and agreed. Once inside the studio he showed us his own art as well as that of his students. The composition of the pictures was interesting; there were many variations on the same themes. The teacher told us that individuality in Chinese art was frowned upon and the skill of the students is judged on how well they are able to reproduce traditional Chinese themes such as pictures denoting the four seasons, a particular favourite. It was a fascinating 20 minutes or so, although the outcome was somewhat inevitable when we were offered one of the pictures for sale. We did succumb to one of the pictures painted by one of the students. She was absolutely thrilled that we had picked out one of her pictures and it turned out it was the first one she had ever sold. For good measure, her teacher gave us some calligraphy to go with the picture.

The Food Market

Once we had prised ourselves away, we walked through the food market and experienced the sights, sounds and smells. Some of the food on offer looked really good, especially the roasted chickens and dumplings. Some looked mysterious (especially some items that looked like pupae) and others that looked just plain awful, like great rubbery squid that wobbled in comedy fashion on the skewer. We saw grasshoppers on sticks, birds that looked as big as sparrows and snakes wound around sticks. We weren’t tempted!

Before getting back on the bus we popped into a Chinese pharmacy where we got ourselves some tiger balm. The place was full of all sorts of concoctions and potions, although we of course couldn’t read what most of it was. One packet that caught my eye was sheep’s placenta, although I had no idea what it should be used for.

Once back on the bus we headed off to Tiananmen Square, the largest public space in the World. It was certainly vast, although to our disappointment it was closed off. Marco encouraged us to go and have a look but despite our best efforts, a Chinese soldier turned us back and didn’t look like the sort of person that you would want to argue with. It transpired that there was an important function with prominent politicians tomorrow. Elena took us to the other side of the road and answered our questions. One young lad, Robert, decided that he would take her to task a bit and asked several awkward questions about human rights issues, modernisation and the Government. Although this made many of the party feel quite uncomfortable, it was a measure of the progress of modern China that Elena answered many of the questions with a good deal of candour and good humour and did not try to hide from difficult issues.

We finally got back to the hotel at about 11pm and went almost straight to bed. However, we discovered that we didn’t have any breakfast tickets for tomorrow and this caused me to lay awake most of the night worrying about how I would deal with this in the morning.