Trains, and the great tale of the fish smell

High: Our driver for the day asked if we were athletes from America -- does that mean we look fit? How flattering, but Alden thinks something has been lost in translation.
Low: Alden always says when something smells oddly bad, "this smells like China." I never really knew what she was talking about until we walked into our hotel room in Beijing and despite the plush furnishings and obvious newness, everything smelled vaguely of fish. Today, when we arrived in our room in Xian, there was nothing even remotely vague about the fish smell. Eeeewww.
AHA: While standing in the Shaanxi History Museum, overwhelmed by the shear enormity of China's history we were also struck by our own incredibly brief heritage. We've been impressed more generally about how much the Chinese people we have encountered know about their history and culture, as reflected by the hordes of Chinese people in the museum with us today.


We are coming @ you live and direct from the one of the oldest cities in Asia. Xian, a former capitol of China during the Tong Dynasty (618-907 AD) -- 7 million people, a 14km square city wall, the most comprehensive Asian history museum we have ever seen, and a SWEET Internet gaming dungeon (complete with sweaty, adolescent, smoking children.)

[From Alden]
After we wrote to you yesterday, our tour guide, "Lucky" took us and a family of 4 from Michigan to an area just south of the forbidden city for a hutong tour. He spent the short drive talking about Beijing history, noting the Bell Tower & Drum Tower (prior to clocks, the city was to awake at the sound of the bells from the tower and nighttime was signaled by a series of drums). If you've been paying attention to the news, this Bell Tower was the site of the unfortunate stabbing the day of Beijing's Opening Ceremony. They've since closed the tower to tourists, so we were unable to climb it! [how sad for us] Fortunately, there were still rickshaws to be ridden :) The day couldn't have been more beautiful as Amy and I piled into one -- with a sigh of resignation and the sound of unoiled wheels, our peddler was off. We rode around for about 30 minutes -- narrowly escaping death on several occasions (you'd be amazed at the audacity of some taxis)! Our guide had arranged a tour of a hutong which was interesting. A retired chef (you can retire @ age 60 here) shared tea with us and as our guide facilitated an "open chat session" with this man. With a couple more days under my belt, I was able to have some semblance of a conversation with him. So excited to be speaking Mandarin, he didn't slow down at all. It was exhausting. My face is red just thinking about it. I have forgotten more Chinese then I remember -- note to self: use it or lose it. His family had owned this traditional home for over 100 years -- there were 9 people living there including his 85 year old father -- a true commune.

[From Amy]
Arriving at the West Beijing train station last night was the first time that I have really felt the crowds. Our saint of a guide ushered us through hundreds of hurried Chinese travelers and into the room where we would wait for the train. With over 500 people in ONE ROOM, there were no seats for the only white people there. However, it turns out the train station has the equivalent of VIP rooms at the airport, and for 5 yuan (about 75 cents) we could sit in a spacious room with 3 large flat screen tvs showing the olympics and 2 aquariums full of bug-eyed goldfish. Also, sitting in the special room meant that we got to board the train early and navigate our luggage into the small available compartments without an audience. We decided that such privileges were well worth the 75 cents. The train boarded on-time, and we arrived in our small compartment with beds for 4. Each bed had an individual television and set of headphones for our viewing pleasure, but lying down on the beds was roughly the equivalent of lying down on concrete planks. We were joined shortly after boarding by a rather greasy looking Chinese man, who proceeded to sit down on the end of Alden's bed and stare at us, through his bottlecap glasses, for about five minutes before taking his reading material and sitting in the hallway outside of our compartment (apparently we scared him off -- how AWKWARD?). We were both a little worried about getting to sleep, but Alden's melatonin (miracle drug) had me fairly well unconscious within 5 minutes of consumption and with all the lights still on. We both slept reasonably well through the night and awoke to coffee delivery at 7:15 am, about an hour before the train pulled into the station in Xian.

Today's adventure began with rainjackets and eye-level umbrellas <-- this is death to your eyes if you're not wearing some sort of glasses. Unlike yesterday in Beijing, today has been stark and gray. This morning's tour of the impressive city wall was erie, as we were up in the fog and subject to a fairly constant drizzle. This is the first time that we have really sat down all day. We went from the city wall to the impressive Shaanxi History Museum, which covers Chinese history from the Stone Age until 1901. Our guide is a veritable font of historical knowledge, and literally took us both by the arm and led us assuredly from dynasty to dynasty. Next was the Xian Da Cien Temple, but in 600 AD as an emperor's monument to his mother. The Temple reflects the cultural exchange brought about by the Silk Road, as the emperor traveled to Indian and brought back Buddhist sculpture for the Pagoda.

Tonight we have a dumpling feast, and food is always welcome.