Xi'an, China - snake wine, warriors, Muslims

Xi'an, near the center of China, is steeped in history as well as, at least when I was visiting, near monsoon-caliber rains. Though of course, I did get out to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.



It's very difficult to capture in a picture the size and grandeur of this place. You can walk around the outside of the complex, which resembles a giant stadium, and look down on the the warriors inside. There are some places where you can get a closer look.



The Emperor Qin Shi Huang (around 210 BCE) constructed these warriors and had them placed in his future tomb, so that he'd have an army even in the afterlife. Quite soon after they were built, the emperor who ordered their construction died. Not surprisingly, the peasants soon revolted and ended up looting the tombs and smashing all the Terra Cotta Warriors they could find. Some survived, most did not, and almost all that are on display now had to be pieced together from parts.



Not all the warriors were locked up in pits, however. Some had made it out to local bars and hostels in Xi'an - there was one Terra Cotta head in our hostel bar, who gratefully accepted a beer when I offered it. He must have been thirsty surviving for over 2,000 years (not to mention being made of dirt).



Also in that hostel bar was a very interesting jug of ... pickled animals?? Upon closer inspection:



There was a very visible turtle in there as well, don't know why it wasn't mentioned on the list. :P The bartender told us it was medicinal baiju (Chinese liquor). What with the rainy weather, a few guys and I thought it would be a good idea, for the sake of our health, to take a shot. Mmmm ... just what the doctor ordered!



The next day, all rested from my medicine the night before, headed out to explore the Muslim quarter of Xi'an. It was my first visit ever to a mosque.



This one was, to be expected, very Chinese in style - it was very interesting to see the juxtaposition of Muslim and Chinese architecture, Muslim and Chinese writing everywhere.







Also in the mosque, saw an amazing tree!



Next stop - Beijing!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

I know this might seem a little out of order, but I'm doing a little retrospective of my Chinese trip, since I didn't have the bandwidth to blog about it in China.

Tiger Leaping Gorge! The place is as cool as the name sounds. The Yangtze River flows at the base of the gorge, which is the third longest in the world and spills out eventually into the Pacific at Shanghai. According to local legend, there's a rock in the gorge which sticks out over the river, and long long ago a tiger once jumped from one side of the river to the other, from that rock. Didn't see the rock, but I see a whole lot of other breathtaking sights.



Right after I started the hike I was closely followed by a man on a ... is that a mule? I think so. He didn't say much, and my little attempts at Chinese conversation were just met with a smile. It was creepy how close he stayed behind me, stopping when I stopped, but talking with other travelers I discovered that these locals are eager to step in and offer assistance to weary / injured travelers on the trail (for a price of course). They're not highway robbers.



Huzzah! Note to self - leave the heavy bag at the hostel at the trail head next time, and take a day pack.



I met up with a couple of Koreans on the trail who were great company (and I got to practice my Korean!) They told me w/ some guilt about how they lied to their children and left them w/ grandparents before coming on this trip to China. Hey, you gotta get out of the house somehow! Here they are looking out on the gorge.



This was the place I stayed at, close to the half-way point on the trek - 茶馬 "cha-ma" meaning "tea horse". It was amazing, I've never stayed at a guest house on a mountain before. We all ate together - the trekkers who crashed there that night - and I felt bad that I was feeling so sick, it was hard to leave the good conversation.



Sunrise at the guesthouse was glorious but late (maybe 9:00?), since the sun was behind the mountains.



Found a Tibetan temple close to the end of the hike (Tiger Leaping Gorge is fairly close to the Tibetan border and there are a lot of ethnic Tibetans in the area).





Definitely one of the highlights of my trip, maybe someday I can go back when I'm in better health!

down to 서귀포 for the weekend

Sum up Korea in three things, you ask? Easy - kimchi, hanging out at Family Mart, and lots of green green money. ^^



Hanna and I went down south to Seogwipo this weekend, to walk along the newly built Olle coast road and visit my homestay family.



I realized how much I miss Kyeong-hwan, every time I see him he's taller, but he's still got the same enthusiasm and happy go lucky nature he's always had. I first met him in elementary school and now he's a freshman in high school!



Also, Jeju flowers are glorious. I love this island!

so what have I been doing in Jeju?

Hanna's got a new way to seduce a man ~ tattoos!



(made from shaving cream)

arrived in jeju & busy & lazy

Well I've arrived here in Jeju, South Korea, it's been ages since I updated things here on Teadiaries, mostly because I was busy trying to fit as much tourist-time as I could in Beijing and Tianjin and then when I arrived in Jeju I've just been - lazy. Yep, no excuses. :-D

I took a lot of pictures in China, over 1600 it looks like, I'll be going through them in the next week or so. And I've got almost as many stories to tell, I think. I went through a notebook and a half of journaling, jotting down Chinese phrases, shopping lists, random stuff on the street - all kinds of junk. I can't wait to go through it, and put some of it up here. But for now, let me start where I left off ...

From Dali I journeyed north to Lijiang, the "must-see backpacker mecca" of Yunnan Province. Lijiang is a difficult city to describe, probably because I didn't see too much of the modern city. The "old city" of Lijiang is a maze of cobbled streets, incomprehensible maps, and absolutely no cars. It's glorious and strange at the same time. My first morning in Lijiang I suddenly couldn't eat anything (and for those of you who know me, you know how out of character THAT is. ^^ In this tourist, no car dreamworld, there were no pharmacies, no convenience stores, and a 15 minute walk to a taxi to take me to any of those places. And considering that I didn't know what was wrong with me, or how to explain it in Chinese, I mostly stayed within my cobblestoned paradise. The picture below is from the main square in the Old Town, it was so hard to navigate around, but I DID know that the street which lay between the "Octopus Pill" shop and the "Dried Meat Yak" shop (zoom into the pic to see the names) was my way back to the hostel. Before you say "oh hey look there's a car" - that was a police van, he was seriously the only one I swear. :)



Met a Korean couple and two Korean students on a hike and we roamed all over together (and they actually gave me some medicine as well!).



At one point I got trapped down a well.



Lijiang is famous for its water canals, running all over the Old City. On the restaurant boulevard, I met a very photogenic cat.



And of course I had a cup of tea (ginseng), at a tea shop which overlooks the traditional roofs of the Old City.



My last night in Lijiang, weak from not eating, I realized as I stepped out of the internet cafe that it was in fact Friday night, and the city was alive. Sick as I was, I pulled out my camera and lurched around the streets, feeling like Hunter S Thompson in Fear and Loathing, caught up in the carnival of lights and sounds.



Despite my sickness, whatever it was, while I was in Lijiang I took the bus out to Tiger Leaping Gorge and did an overnight trek - more on that next time!