4/29: Xi'an, Luoyang

Good day today. At least I was in a good mood, although it might not strike the reader as a particularly good day.

I woke up just a bit late (which really just means 9:30 - I'm on old people time this semester), got showered, checked out, left my stuff in the hostel's baggage room, and had a pleasant cup of coffee in the hostel's restaurant. Then I headed over to Xi'an's forest of stelae museum, which is housed in Xi'an's old Confucian temple. I'm really glad I did this today, as it soothed my museum craving. Say what you will about the rigidity of the Western Canon, at least it's not literally carved in stone, like the Chinese canon. The Forest of Stelae museum is home to the Tang dynasty official versions of the Confucian canon, as well as some beautiful examples of calligraphy (the chinese character for longevity done in one sweeping stroke!) and a very interesting tablet of Nestorian scripture, with Aramaic (what looked to me like aramaic, anyways) and Chinese carved on the same tablet. It also had some truly magnificent sculpture: Han tomb carvings and giant Tang dynasty horses and lions. It's good to see truly exceptional art, and it reminded me that I should check out the Yunnan Provincial Museum in Kunming before I go.

After that, I went for a stroll on the city walls. There's not much to see because Xi'an's air is so bad and the walls aren't much higher than Xi'an's buildings, but it's still quite a spectacle. The walls are really well preserved, and the combination of the very modern city with a full set of stone walls is really mind boggling. I walked up and down the walls, contemplating things, and then crossed an extremely dangerous street, collected my stuff and grabbed a cab to the train station.

Or I should say that I attempted to grab a cab to the train station. After a few minutes of unsuccessful hailing, an old man who spoke some english ushered me, his "american friend", onto a motorcycle that had a cab welded on the back. I kept saying, as we rushed to the airport, that this was insanely stupid, holding my luggage on to the car for dear life. The driver drove on the sidewalk, in the bike lane, in opposite lanes, whatever suited him at the moment. It was kind of like being in the car from the credit sequence of the "Naked Gun" movies. But I laughed the whole way, and we got there safe and sound, not to mention on time for the train.

This was by far my worst experience riding the trains in China. My ticket said I was supposed to be a window seat, but so much for that, I was hanging off the aisles, and the train seats on hard seat trains are slightly slanted inward for whatever reason, making you hunch forward in your seat. So it's virtually impossible to sleep unless you have a window or at least a middle seat. I also tried to turn on my iPod, only to find it out of commission for some reason. So I couldn't sleep, couldn't listen to music, and basically could only read and hope and pray that I wouldn't get sick. On top of that, there was no air conditioning, and for some reason, the train conductors were trying to sell us all tchochkes. The most tiring thing about China by far is the constant hustle. There is just nowhere you can go where people won't try to sell you something, and be irritating and insistent about it.

Getting from the train to the hostel was another adventure. Luckily, the hostel owner met me at the train station with a clear "die-lan". I thought he was going to give me a ride back to the hostel, but instead, we got on a city bus, which was weird, but I figured, ok, I'll roll with it. I made some conversation with him in Mandarin. He's a really great guy, really friendly, and excited that I had some American coins to add to his collection. The bus ride kept going and going, and though I was still well disposed, I was getting a bit alarmed. We finally got off in the middle of nowhere. He treated me to some street food, since I told him he hadn't ate, and then we started walking down a dark alley to the "hostel". At this point, I'm figuring what the chances are that he'll rob and kill me, and keeping track of escape routes. Eventually, we get to the "hostel". Except the "hostel" is not a hostel. It's basically just his apartment, and I'm staying in one bedroom. I don't even think it's legal. But it's not too bad, he's a great guy, he gave me free coffee and I have internet and a computer in my room. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow, at least it'll be interesting. I'll check in tomorrow!