Day 4
Day in Xian. (She-en) I was expecting a small rural city in Xian after leaving the 27.6 million people of Beijing. I was shocked to learn that Xian has 8 million people. This was obvious as soon as we got off the train. Xian would be equivalent to our NYC by population. Xian is definitely a step up on the higher quality scale. I anticipate Shanghai to be another step up. Xian was very pleasant to walk around so we decided to wonder out and find breakfast.
Everyone walking around was eating street vendor breakfast. Picture pancake/pita with vegetables, meat and eggs wrapped in it. It looked and smelled delicious. However, we decided not to try since it is advised against eating anything uncooked. After about 30 minutes, we settled on Dico's which felt like a cheap McDonalds. KT had egg soup and a potato cake/egg sandwich and I the corn soup and same sandwich. We split what looked like a doughnut. Holy cow, it puts Krispy Kremes to shame. It was awesome. The whole breakfast felt Western despite it obviously not being so.
When we finished, an entire Chinese family asked to take their picture with us. Interesting, the females wanted a picture of KT and the men with me. We got a lot of camera shots and stares today. I am guessing being much more "rural" caused this.
We made our way to the Terrracota warriors after an hour taxi ride. Upon getting out of the car, we were immediately asked by a very well English spoken tour guide if we wanted a guide. We had not planned on it but decided to go for it. Ended up being the best decision we made today. Not only was she able to teach us efficiently about the warriors she answered all of our questions that we had about China.
The warriors were unbelievable. I am not going to tell their entire story on here but an Emperor had about ~8,000 slaves, soldiers, generals, and horses (an entire army) made out of Terracota clay under ground to protect him in his after life. All workers were eventually killed to keep it a secret until a random farmer in 1976 found a buried soldier when digging for water. Unbelievable to see these in real life and learn soo much of China's history.
We learned soo much from the tour guide. She clarified that the horrific pollution and smog problem has gotten worse over the past few years with soo much increased factory work. It was just reported that factory output continues to grow in China. The air was soo horrible that Kristen has had trouble breathing at some moments. Check out this article that we just read:
http://world.time.com/2013/10/21/kids-get-smog-day-as-pollution-shuts-down-chinese-city/
The air pollution is unbelievable. The factories, the coal being burnt, and the car emissions all contribute. Us in the states recycling newspapers is just a bandaide on the global pollution problem. I am not going to go on and on, but seeing the unacceptable air quality is eye opening. There are huge mountains and sky scrapers here and you can barely see them unless you are within 1/8 mile from them.
Another topic worth describing from today is irony from planning and being flexible.
Had we realized the Xian wall was only a few blocks from our hotel, we would have visited first thing in the morning vs paying a taxi to wait on us. However, had we went earlier, we would not have been able to ride bikes on the wall as there was a marathon that morning. Additionally, we wanted to go to the warriors first then ride bikes on the wall. However, the driver didn't want to battle traffic both ways, which we agreed. Had we done it in our order, we would not have run into the EXACT same OSU grads that we pictured on the Great Wall. How crazy to run into them twice in China in two different cities a 5 hr train ride away?! Additionally, had we not gotten the guide at the warriors as we originally planned on doing the tour without, we would have taken twice as long to learn half as much. What a great experience we had with her today. Not only learning about the warriors but about life as a Chinese citizen.
Leaving today makes me happy to be American. Our country is not perfect, but holy cow is it great compared to China. We get to be whatever we want when we grow up. Corruption is at a whole other level here. The rich are super rich and the poor are super poor. It is virtually impossible to become rich if your family isn't already. The government owns all of the land and citizens who build on their land only have rights to the building for 70 years! We also learned that it is virtually impossible to have more than one child in China as the tax on a second is only possible if super rich.
We board an overnight train to Shanghai in 2 hours. Hoping that we are booked in a double sleeper instead of a quad sleeper! I am pumped to see a "newer", cleaner, and more advanced Chinese city. At least that is my perception.
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