I arrived in Beijing a week ago (see my previous post), and after a series of delayed flights courtesy of Hong Kong International Airport, I landed in Beijing at midnight. The last time I had been here was in 2008, on a family vacation. This time, I didn't have the safety net of my parents' language skills, and so my abysmal Mandarin was on full display for all.

Because I had arrived so late, the express subway into the city had already shut for the night. I was, and am, far too stingy to pay for a taxi from the airport, so I decided instead to catch a bus into town and walk around the empty streets. Despite walking in the night with all my luggage for more than an hour and getting glares from topless teens straddling their bikes, it was definitely worthwhile. Actually, maybe it wasn't. Anyway. It was still cool to see a bustling city in the daytime full of zombies ambling aimlessly in the night.

I didn't have much time during my first foray to Beijing. I would return there in a couple of days to see the Great Wall, but first it was time to get on a sleeper bus to Xian. When I thought that I had escaped the degenerate behaviour of Beijing, I was wrong. Here, too, were vagrant displays of spitting and slogan tees with bad English and the midriff exposure by fat Chinese men known as the Beijing bikini. The discomfort was compounded by the fact that the temperature was averaging around 40 degrees everyday. I made sure to drink at least 10L of water, because I didn't want to add dehydration to my already debilitating diarrhoea.

What awed me the most about Xi'an wasn't the terracotta warriors though. That was cool, but much too touristy. It's more so the fact that this walled city could have been the current capital of China. Imagine how Chinese culture would be exported, if that were the case. Additionally, this ancient city had mosques and buddhist temples and catholic cathedrals all in such a small space, and as I cycled around the city ramparts, I can't help but think that here was an empire that really valued and cherished multi-ethnicity. So much so, in fact, that they sponsored these places of worship to ensure that their subjects in Tibet and Mongolia and the west and the east would all be able to coexist in harmony. And the food! Imagine if people nowadays viewed 'Chinese' food as what Xi'an essentially offers. Bread morsels in soup, dry bread stuffed with corned beef, side dishes of pickled ginger. Definitely a far cry from dumplings and 'chinese cookies'.

Don't get me wrong, the food in Xi'an was great!! I had my fill of starchy goodness, where you spend your time breaking bread into little pieces and letting them sit in a lamb or beef soup. Also, the Muslim Quarter was also a highlight. I didn't feel particularly overwhelmed, and in fact it was the kind of pedestrian area in Asia that I really appreciate, and whose energy I can really imbibe. Noteworthy was the Mosque: it was like a calm oasis in a city that's so chaotic, and there were few other people that were around when I was there. It was also cool to see a mosque without the usual round dome, and instead decorated in the ornate east Asian way.



Other than that, Xi'an was quite an average city. I don't think I would have visited it were it not for the terracotta warriors. Nevertheless, it was the city that inspired me, and not the rows and rows of painstakingly created soldiers. My best memories would be just ambling in the hot city streets, or baking as I cycled along the ramparts, taking in lungfuls of pollution and exposing my belly to the sun.