Independence Day in October

In the United States, we celebrate our Independence Day on one day at the beginning of July... with red, white, and blue everywhere; with fancy fireworks; with a little charcoal and a grill!

In China, we celebrate our Independence Day on one WEEK at the beginning of October... with red and yellow everywhere; with explosive fireworks; and with TRAVEL. People from all over China take the opportunity of this "golden week" to visit places near and far. In fact, China's GuoQing Jie (国庆节) is as much a celebration of the country's independence as it is a celebration of all the varied cultures and landscapes of the motherland... and in this way, I also suggest that it is a subtle celebration of the ever-improving quality of the transportation system that fascilitates such mass travel!

Now I and the other foreign teachers had decided before we even left Xi'an in the beginning of September that we intended to return to Xi'an for GuoQing Jie vacation. We knew from the moment we entered the city walls that this was a place we could spend a week well. It was decided.

We returned to the XiangZi Men quarters and to the XiangziMen Youth Hostel. If you take out the magnifying glass, you can see the gate to the XiangziMen quarters to the right of the large hotel. This area is right next to the South Gate. In fact, I was standing on the South Gate to take this picture.

I took a bus from HuaiYa to MeiXian to Xi'an (no more than 2 hours). It was smooth. The cost was 35 yuan... roughly 6 US Dollars. It was easy to communicate with the conductors at each stop; they were friendly and tolerant of my slowness (not only in speaking, but also in counting the money). It was crowded, but not unbearable. My return bus ride home, honestly, was even easier. Now I did not encounter the train system this time around, but from what I heard from the other foreign teachers, it was not bad. The lines were longer, but there were seats available if you had the patience to wait. I can't speak for the airlines, either, but we did have two foreign teachers arrive by air even though they booked tickets at the last minute. On this round, I give a high thumbs up to the public transportation system of PR China. The final verdict won't be due, however, until I experience Spring Festival madness in January...





"Golden Week" Traffic...When 1.6 billion people travel, you have to wait just a little bit longer.



What a spectacular city! Xi'an is a feast for the eyes... and the tongue!









I don't want to bore you with the details of the vacation. We crammed in a lot of activites... but at a relaxed pace. It was perfect. To sum it up, we dabbled in a little of everything:




--dining: street vendors, hole-in-the-wall joints, fast food, fine dining... we had it all!



--shopping: the art of bargaining!



--Journey to the West: McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Subway, Walmart!


--site-seeing: Qin Dynasty Terracotta Warriors, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Muslim Quarters, Great Mosque, Drum Tower, Bell Tower, city wall, XiangZi Men temple


--relaxation: the vacation was perfect for sharing in each other's experiences so far... venting a little, laughing a lot... we stick together...





Xi'an is spectacular... BUT after five days, you realize it... all that is wonderful about Xi'an is just the yang to Xi'an's yin. Like any other place, Xi'an is a balance of good and bad. The bad? In Xi'an, we were constantly cheated... the "foreigner tax" is strictly enforced in a place with this many foreigners to exploit. Here are just a few examples:
--we went to a restaurant and were served only one of the five dishes we ordered for about 30 minutes before the remaining four dishes arrived. Nearby Chinese patrons who arrived AFTER us were served all their dishes before us. The waitress couldn't even bring the bottled water in a reasonable time! To add salt to the wounds, two of the dishes we ordered were entirely wrong.
--one of the foreign teachers stood in line to order Coca Cola from a vendor... as she watched all the other thirsty Chinese people pay 3 kuai for their bottle, she expected to pay 3 kuai too... nope, 10 kuai... price just went up...
--the worst experience of all of them: to keep the story simple, a nightclub DJ (whom we shall call the "Singapore Asshole") encouraged us to visit his nightclub on the promise of 5 kuai beers (very cheap!). Well, it turns out, when the bill arrived, that he never offered that... 10 kuai beers each round. After a long, heated argument with the nightclub owner (who was as condescending as can possibly be) and two threats--our threat to leave without paying and their threat to call the local police--we left at 10 kuai each, scammed and humiliated.



This is the notorious "Singapore Asshole" (above, center singing). Master of the art of singing and scamming. If you are ever in Xi'an in the nightclub district, avoid this snake enterpreneur.

Oh well, you take the good with the bad in life. Savor the good. "Mei guanxi" the bad! That is my attitude... :-)

Xi'an is a spectacular city, and we enjoyed a spectacular vacation that was just long enough to make me glad to return to HuaiYa. Smiles all the way around... How can I possibly complain?