Experiences

Tuesday, June 17, 2008--Pingyao (Continued)

For dinner, I ate beef (a local specialty). (Note: I may have already written this, but my blog is banned in China now. Therefore, I cannot read my previous posts to see what I have written and what I haven't.) It was chunks of beef with vegetables. They said that the beef comes from Mongolia. I wonder if it is from those cows they have there with the long, wooly hair. Anyway, the beef was a bit salty. But it was tender and tasty.

My ticket I bought for touring the sites in town was also good for a theater performance in the evening. I am in Shanxi Province, and the story of the play is said to be the Shanxi Romeo and Juliet. The theater was very nice, and I was seated in the 3rd tier of tables (out of 7-8 tiers). A pre-performance included a male singer and another male playing a Chinese horn. They play was a musical with recorded music. It had a huge cast, and the sets, lighting, and costumes were wonderful. The title is Wild Jujubes in English. It was a strange performance in that it combined pantomime, dancing, singing, 30s musical-type group performances in patterns, acrobatics, etc. It was a bit disjointed in that there would be big production numbers that did not seem to be connected to the story, then it would continue the storyline for a while before there would be another big production number not connected. I would have loved to have seen the whole performance, but it was after 22:00, and they were just finishing Act III out of 5 acts! I knew I had to be up at 5:45, so I left having seen the prologue and those first 3 acts. I had a synopsis of the whole show, so I know what happened in the storyline after I left. It was a big strange that there was no intermission. That meant that people left their seats and returned occasionally. But even more strange was that people were holding up their phones and video recording the performance. All those screens between me and the actual performance were distracting. And even worse, people were taking mobile phone calls during the performance and talking coule be heard in the audience throughout it. It was fun to see the production, though.

Walking back to my guesthouse was magical that late in the evening. The streets were quiet. It was just me and all the old Chinese tiled-roof buildings. But what made it so special is that every house had lighted red silk lanterns hanging along the front of the building!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008--Pingyao to Dangjiocum to Xi'an

Well, my plans for today both worked out and didn't work out. I had no problem catching my train and getting a seat. And the people around me were nice and friendly (although there was little to no English spoken). But they smiled at me, helped me put my luggage in the overhead rack, shared sunflower seeds with me, etc.

We arrived in Hangcheng on time and caught a mini bus going to Dangjiacum, the village where I intended to visit and stay overnight in a homestay program. The mini-bus let me off at the road to Dangjiacum, and I walked the 2 km from the highway to the village. It didn't look like anything special as I approached. Then I came to an entrance where it is now necessary to pay a fee to walk through the streets. Well, I could see that some of the streets were unpaved and muddy from the recent rains. And nothing looked appealing from the gate, especially after the time I had just spent in Pingyao (where one can walk the streets for free). So I turned and walked back to the highway. I think Dangjiacum has decided it is better than it is worth to me as a tourist.

I was lucky to catch a mini-bus back to town just as I got to the highway. I had read my guidebook and knew that the hotels in town were as expensive as I had paid in Beijing. And it was still only about 14:45. I decided I should just continue traveling all the way to Xi'an. So I switched from the mini-bus to a Xi'an bus at the station, and left at 15:40. We arrived in Xi'an at 18:40, and I immediately caught a bus to the Bell Tower. Then I walked to a guesthouse that had been recommended to me by the one in Pingyao. It is only a year old and is in the syle of an old Chinese home. To get to my room, it is necessary to go past the second courtyard. The room is clean and nice with a big bed, a big TV, and a private bath. And the price is only 60% of what I would have had to pay in Hancheng for the night. So I am glad to be here. I can continue with my trip in a positive way.

I had dinner right across the street at a restaurant that was full of people. I sat on the 3rd floor and had a spicy vegetable dish (two kinds of mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, and other kinds of vegetables in a spicy sauce. It was good. And it was so hot that my lips were quivering at the end of the meal.

Now I will go to the room and think about the next few days. I have to decide what I will see and when. Also, I have to decide whether to stay at this guesthouse or to move to a nicer hotel for the rest of my stay. There are some good hotel bargains here in town, so I will check out some of them tomorrow morning.