Tales from the Qin Dynasty

Xian. Perhaps second only to the Great Wall in fame, Xian is a city literally teeming with
history. Of course, the jewel in the crown is the famous undergraound army of terrocatta
warriors. Originally only a small part of the legenday Emperor Qin's (259-209BC) monumental tomb, the clay army is now but a tantalising snapshot of the vast empire that rose and fell over two thousand years ago. It was under Qin's sword that China as we know it was first united under one banner - the mighty Qin dynasty. Apparently Qin shared is modern counterparts' soft spot for enormous construction projects - along with his own tomb (which apparently consumed one-fifth of the entire workforce and nearly bankrupted the fledging nation) he also oversaw the construction of the Great Wall. (BTW, to forestall the obvious criticism, no I'm not quoting Lonely Planet... This comes from the tacky "official" tourist book that I folded and bought :)

Our journey back in time began, quite literally, as we stepped aboard an old-style sleeper train
for the 14 hour marathon to Xian. As it turns out, the bunks (4 to a room, 2 below, 2 above) we
quite comfy, and the journey breezed by. Day one was the moment of truth, the much anticipated visit to Qin's grand army. I'll get mstraight to the point - I was disappointed. For starteds, the army just isn't as big as one imagines. Sure, it dills a huge aircraft hanger sized building, but the problem is only about the first 100m or so is excavated. Unfortunately, after they dug up the whole thing they found the smoggy Xian air was causing the warriors to deteriorate far to quickly, so putting archelogical interests ahead of the gripes of foreign tourists, they filled back in the majority of the pit while the research better ways of preserving the treasures. Nonetheless, the soldiers that are visible are still pretty cool - each one has a unique face and stands frozen at attention, just as they have for the last two millenia, keeping a silent vigil over the secrets of their ancient master (cue Raiders theme). Feeling a bit ripped, we retired to the comfort of our "so cheap" (the price tag of 70 kiwi bucks went a little ways towards brightening the mood :) 5 star hotel.

Any lingering feelings of disappointment, however, were well and truely quashed on day two in
Xian. That was the day we conquored the second great peak of our journey. The Huashan mountain is a majestic peak rising 2160m above the fragmented ruins and semi-submerged rice paddies that stretch over the ancient Xian plains. The first 5.5km of the ascent is a comfortable cable car ride (well, as comfortable as being suspended in a glass capsule half a kilometer above jagged rocks can be - quite frankly, it's terrifying). However, the next 2km to the summit was the stuff of legends. Unlike Huangshan, there wasn't a hint of fog, and the view was quite simply like standing on the roof of the world, with peak after peak stretching out below off to the hazy
horizon. The climb to get there was worth a mention - once again safety seems to be a word lost in translation - most of the climb was up ladder-like stairs hewn by hand out of the cliff face,
with only a rusty chain separating the living from the dead. Particularly epic was the ascent up
the Blue Dragon Ridge, and aptly named spine of solid stone jutting from the face of the mountain with a winding ladder of stairs along the backbone. Breathtaking.

And, as you can tell by the infrequency of updates, and generic prose, and appaling spelling, that brings us pretty much to the end of this adventure. From here, it's back to Wuhan by train, then another 18 hours by train to Shanghai, and then, assuming we survive the China Eastern Airlines experience, home sweet home.

Thanks for reading folks, thanks for commenting, and watch out for the Collector's Edition VCD coming to a computer near you very soon. About the same time as your tacky piece of China memorabilia is delievered ;)

Over and out from the Far East.

Fried eggplant and pigs, in no particular order...

We've been in Wuhan 3 days now. Finally I feel like I'm living in the
"real" China, as opposed to the China the wisks by behind the tinted
window of Mei's dad's air-conditioned Ford Mondeo, or bustles below ma 5
star hotel window. It's only when one walks the streets of Mei's Wuhan
neighborhood that one truely appreciates just how different, and yet at
the same time similar, this culture is.

Rather than document a day by day of our doings in Wuhan, I'll jot down
a few observations about life in China, and Wuhan in particular. And
where better to start then the food? Having thus far only experiences
restaurant (and the odd street hawker) fare, I approached my first home
-cooked meal with much anticipation (of course, as my critics have been
quick to point out, this in itself is nothing out of the ordinary :). I
was not to be disappointed. Let me outline last night's menu for you.
First up, a crispy roast chicken literally glistening under a glaze of
spices and tangy sauce. This presented a test of will power for your
author as he sought the self control to leave room for the rest of the
meal... Dish 2 was a steaming plate of fried eggplant in chili sauce.
Many of my readers will know I'm partial to a certain eggplant hotpot at
KC Cafe a world away on Wellington's Courtney Place. Let me tell you,
these garden fresh eggplants make KC Cafe's offering look like a stale
McDonalds cheeseburger next to a flame grilled Whopper (not the most
classy comparison I know, mainly just wrote that to annoy Ian... ;)
Let's move on to dish 3 - freshly caught Black Fish out of Wuhan's East
Lake. Grilled to perfection and served in a juicy ginger sauce with
sliced bamboo. But wait, there's more. What meal would be complete
without the requisite side dishes? A heaping plate of spicy Chinese
sausages, a big bowl of squid sauteed with bok choi, and a steaming bowl
of tofu soup... Alas I fear such a feast on a nightly basis was never
designed for a sluggish Western metabolism.

Moving on, Wuhan is a pleasant (as pleasant as 8 million people crammed
into a teaming metropolis roasting under 25 degree heat can be) urban
spral situated on the banks of the Yangzee River and a big lake
imaginitively named the East Lake (no doubt the dummy translation, the
actual name is no doubt far more poetic). The riverbank along the
Yangzee has been done up into an incredibly flash marble promenade
interescted with fountain gardens and monuments. An evening stroll as
the sun sinks over the myriad of barges plying their trade on China's
longest river is a sight to behold. That's when you realise this place
isn't so different after all - young couples walk hand in hand, kids
race to the playgrounds dotted along the river, Mei complains about
something or other... This could just as easily be sunset over Darling
Harbour in Sydney, or even Palmy's good ol' Esplanade.

I'm starting to pick up a bit of the lingo here. For example, "fei"
means "fat", as in "fei mao" ("fat cat"), or "fei Zhu Mei" (somewhat
obviously, "fat Mei" :). Another one I quickly picked up travelling with
the Zhu's is "shau", pronounced "sow" as in the female pig. This means
"stupid", as in, for wont of a better example, "shau Zhu Mei" (I'm sure
I don't need to translate this here... more colloquially, we might say
"dumb j00" :). Even better, I also learned that "Zhu" (pronouced "Joo"
as you all know) sounds the same as the Chinese word for pig! Thus one
is in the unique position of being able to call Mei a pig and not get in
trouble >:p

That's it for this collection of random thoughts. Some more photos from
the SuHang area are up, apologies again for the slow upload, this
connection ain't the fastest.