Week 8 – How it must feel to be a rock star.

The first thing to sort out in Xi’an was something for Tina’s birthday. As we arrived the evening before the big day, there wasn’t much time and she had to make do with presents from the tourist shops along the way. The tank made out of bullets from Jamie (Andy) was a real highpoint in gift giving. During the days before though, we had struck up a plan to organise a surprise picnic at the Big Goose Pagoda. I think they named it this because you sure feel like a big goose when trying to find the 2 people who have set up the picnic amidst the 2 million or so other visitors to the park that day. After 2 hours of searching and borrowing mobile phones, we found Andy and Shaun, cracked a bottle of wine and settled into a really nice afternoon. At some stages we really felt like royalty/superstars. Skye and Jamie had some little soapbubble guns and were having so much fun blowing bubbles that they drew a crowd of a couple of hundred people. No kidding, we had a ring three deep around us, with more and more coming to see what the fuss was about. It was actually really daunting, and the only way we got rid of the crowd was when Andy told them they had to pay for the spectacle.

Xi’an was pretty much our favourite city in China. It has a really cool vibe about it and the hostel we stayed in was the most impressive I have ever been in. The day after Tina’s birthday, we rented some bikes and rode around the top of the city wall. About 1k into the 14k round trip, some woman swerved to miss a little golf cart bus and managed to sideswipe straight into the bike Jamie and I were riding. We managed to come out of it unscathed, but the girl blocked her front wheel and went catapaulting straight up. I’m really surprised she managed to get up without any (apparent) broken bones. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after we started to get going again that we realised she had buckled our rear wheel enough to make the brake lock for half of the revolution. The rest of the journey was a real struggle just to peddle and by the end of it I never wanted to see a bike again. It was like riding an exercise bike with the resistance right up, but I also had Jamie on my back in the babycarrier.

For most people the highlight around Xi’an are the Terracotta warriors. I have to say though that this was a real let down for me, and much over-hyped The warriors you see in all the photos are actually freshly produced in the surrounding factories. As an archaeological site, it is truly an amazing find. I would have liked it much better though if I wasn’t expecting something more from all the marketing. Much more fulfilling was the visit to Xi’an’s mosque. This place is an absolute oasis amidst the hustle and bustle outside. When you are within it’s walls it is almost impossible to believe it is smack in the middle of the town’s bazaar.

On the day we left Xi’an we had another nice visit, this time to a teahouse that wasn’t set up to rip off tourists. The kids loved the monkey magic shadow puppets and even managed to sit through the whole tea ceremony and actually enjoyed some of the teas they tried. The most interesting for me was the Bitter-Sweet tea. The first infusion is quite bitter, then just by seeping the same leaves in hot water again, the tea turns quite sweet.

After a relaxing day, we had a hectic run to catch our train. Despite leaving plenty of time, it turns out there is a “shift change” were no one wants to go out of the centre of town and won’t take anyone to the train station. After getting a bit anxious, we ended up piling everyone and everything into one tuk-tuk and made it on time, much to the amusement of the other traffic.

Despite some trepidation, the overnight train was really comfortable this time. We had a whole compartment to ourselves and the 17 or so hours actually passed easily.

Shanghai itself was pretty much as expected. We walked along the “Bund” and got a feel for the transitions this place as made over the years. By far the weirdest thing in Shanghai is the tunnel that crosses under the river – definitely though up by someone on an acid trip with lots of flashing colours and lights accompanied by random sounds/voices. You’d get a little laser display with someone whispering “Magma” out of the speakers of the gondola.

Apart from the sights we also tried to do the obligatory shopping run. Unfortunately, “Made in China” doesn’t mean “Sold in China” and it was really hard to find another worth buying, despite stumbling across a wholesale wharehouse of the crappiest clothes in the world. This place is basically where the people who run “1 dollar” shops come to get their gear.

We had a bit of fun buying a watch and then returning it the next day because it had already stopped working. This from the same people who tried to sell us an i-Phone with wifi, which didn’t actually have wireless. At the end, we got our money back, but Tina would have really preferred the phone and I would have looked great with a Breitling on my wrist.

Oh well, $50 well saved. We’ll need that during our next step – Australia. Home to see Grandma and Poppy!!! From all experience Australia just keeps getting more and more expensive (as I am writing in hindsight, I can compare to NZ which is on the whole a good 20% cheaper than Aus. I can’t believe there is any justification for the big gap in prices – GST’s are at the same level. Aussies are just getting ripped off, I guess. RISE UP PEOPLE!!!!)

Before leaving though China, we got to experience one last highlight, which was riding on the MAGLEV train.   Top speed 430 km/h sees you cover the 35km journey from Shanghai to the airport in 8 minutes. Cool.