Beijing to Xian and onwards to Guilin - 23/01/11 to 30/01/11

Wow, how can Japan and China be neighbourly close, yet be so wildly different! Foolishly, we have only just realised China is a huge huge country, as we have taken one very interesting 14 hour train journey, a 3 hour flight south and we have only just arrived two thirds of the way down the country. Oh and its still fffffffreezing!! I suppose thats why it is low season here at the moment. Although, it does make us one of very few westerners anywhere in China and much cheaper!

I have never seen a country like it or a race of people quite like the Chinese! I think we were in shock when we first arrived in Beijing, having spent 3 weeks in Japan where cleanliness, welcomeness, helpfulness and politeness all come naturally. We found ourselves in a wholly different environment where people clamber and shove for space, habitually spit on any floor inside or out (apparently it rids germs!), chain smoke (on trains, in supermarkets, in restaurant kitchens and offices!!) and will try anything to sell you something at a higher price (called the foreign price) even though it is often clearly displayed! More aptly, we had come from heated toilet seats to squatting over holes in full public view with no paper! However, it is dam cheap here; £3 for dorm room, £3 for a top meal with beers, 20p subway ride anyhwere and 5p to ride the bus!! There was even a tramp who was sporting a pair off 'knock off' uggs riding our bus today, thats how cheap it is!

There are 1.4 billion people living in China, with 40 % of those residing in urban areas. Crazy eh! Although what is even more crazy is the fact that at present the whole country is on the move as its Chinese New Year. Travelling anywhere is chaos and nigh on impossible to get a ticket by plane, train, bus, automobile etc, which is obviously just great for us! I have never seen anything like it, the only thing I can compare travelling here to at the minute is that akin to a Hollywood movie where a virus attacks the city and everyone flees to escape! Frantic chinese of all ages rise early to start queuing for any sort of bus/train ticket and if lucky, their joy is is insurmountable as they reel away clutching their equivalent of a Willy Wonker golden ticket! We queued for 2 1/2 hours in order just to get a standing ticket (yes thats standing for 14 hours on a packed out train!) from Beijing to Xian.

Our first impression of Beijing wasn't at all complimentary mainly due to unhelpful and scamming locals, however after a 4 days we left Beijing with lots of great memories! To be fair you would do well to scam street savvy Micki and get away with it, just as one unruly market seller tried to overcharge for a street snack. Micki stood in protest at his stall until he relented and gave her money back (advantage foreigners!!). The chinese are aggressive hagglers to say the least and they always start off at least 1000% above the going rate! We visited Silk St (a renowned chinese market) only to walk into a vendor fighting with a western guy, then seeing an Aussie reduced to a quivering mess after the stall holder had verbally battered her because the price she wanted to pay was too low! Its very funny because even the shop tannoy advertising announcements give the impression of ''buy or die''. Micki eventually made off with fake converse and I settled for the peking duck banquet on the 6th floor. Super lean duck fat, awesome!

We donned our tourist hats in Beijing and found the biggest map possible so as to draw maximal attention to ourselves, which clearly worked as within 2 minutes we were being harassed by a pesky art student trying to sell us some of his paintings! In Beijing we managed to take in the following sights: the Forbidden City (a massive 600 year old former palace of the emperor who forbid anyone else entering here other than himself, family and dignitaries for over 500 years), Tiannamen square (largest public square in the world and site of much political unrest), the Birds nest olympic stadium (wow, wow, wow) and of course the Great Wall (at Badaling, ouch my thighs and calfs are nipping!). The latter trip being our official nightmare day where everything seemed to go against us, i.e. bus drivers ripping us off, bus drivers telling lies, bus drivers leading us on dodgy tours of jade museums, and finally, yeah you guessed it, a local bus driver taking us on a 2 hour detour of Sarajevo, I mean Beijing's less popular neighbourhoods. However, time spent climbing the wall was priceless.

Beijing is a bustling city that has two very different stories to tell. The first is a city that is a thriving metropolis built on its current position as a global economic force, with its state of the art architecture and shiny new districts. The other is a city that could almost, in parts be third world. The city is predominantly thriving and those who are riding on the wave of dollar bills are pulling the city ever further from the grasps of those who live in its poorer suburbs. Everyone wants to be part of the booming economy from the high flying business execs to the street vendors and hawkers who try to squeeze every last yuan out of your pockets! Beijing looks to be bulging and at breaking point, with so many people populating it the transport system is manic (think London rush hour every minute of the day) and people shove/bustle for space, wherever they maybe.

We left for Xian 5 days later and arrived shattered, battered and well and truly narked after 14 hours standing on a packed train. Space was limited, although luckily I was able to spin 360 on my tip toes every 30 minutes just to stave off DVT! Micki joked about whether the trolley cart would be doing its rounds, we both laughed, then I swore under my breath for the next 14 hours as a crazy chinese train steward who was hellbent on making everyones life misery thrusted his cart 3 times every hour down the aisle selling everything from miniature chairs to noodles to kids toys! The chinese just took it in their stride, smoked, gambled and more oddly stared at Micki and I for hours on end. Probably fascinated by Micki's big eyes and my big western nose!! I did manage to teach some young chinese guys english however, whilst they attempted to teach me chinese, to the which they laughed hysterically!

We loved Xian. The former capital (an ancient walled city) was being prepped for New Year and it looked incredible with lanterns adorning every street post. We managed to walk the 20m high city walls (a whole 14km built in 600ad) that envelop central Xian and provide stunning views. Later that night we strolled Xian's muslim quarter where 'fezzed up' chinese men served street snacks such as; quails eggs, spicy bread, noodles, kebabs and yangrou paomo (combo of veg broth, noodles, mutton and crumbled loaf dropped in, delicious and pure stodge, yum!

The highlight though had to be seeing the terracotta army just north of the city. For those unaware this was a stunning archeological find only 30 years ago. Local farmers attempting to drill a well unearthed a tomb which contained over 6000 terracotta warriors, 6ft tall, all in clad in military wear and assembled in battle formation! Apparently the emperor feared for his safety in the afterlife so he ordered 700,000 men to build his huge tomb measuring 56sq km, along with an army of warriors to protect him (fool!). It took them 40 years to complete and lay untouched for over 2300 years until the 70's! Had to pick my chin up off the floor several times that day!

So we head to Guilin next, flight and no train! We are hoping for warmer weather for Chinese New Year but looks doubtful! Ah well onwards and upwards!

Til next time, Happy Chinese New year!

Tom and Michelle x

Ps. still cant Facebook!