DAY FOURTEEN: XI'AN-BEIJING (7 JAN 2009) - HOMEWARD BOUND

Left the hotel really early (before 6 am) to catch the first Airport Bus out from in front of Melody Hotel. There were actually 2 buses, both leaving at almost the same time. I supposed they had factored in the fact that there would be more people taking the early flights. The time taken to reach the Airport was about 40+ minutes only because the roads were almost empty!
Took the 7-plus A.M. Shanghai Airlines flight to Beijing Capital.
Upon reaching Beijing Capital Airport, it was too early to check in the luggage for my onward SQ flight. It would be too rush to go downtown Beijing and return back to the Airport in time for the flight home. Instead chose to visit the closer computer mart where there was a direct Airport Bus to-and-fro. Drop off all my luggage at the deposit counter of the Airport and headed off to catch the Airport Bus.
The computer market was massive, several buildings in the area with floors after floors of shops. I spent less than 2 hours there including lunch at a chinese fast food joint before heading back to the Airport. Managed to get about 10+ Wii games including Wii Sports.
Along the way, caught sight of the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the bus. The Water Cube looked spectacular too under daylight, reflecting the sun rays!

Some skyviews of Beijing taken from the flight Xi'an-Beijing:

The flight home was on a spanking new airbus with large LCD screens and even power sockets for charging your devices or to plug in your notebooks. I had the entire row of 3 seats to myself which I fully used all of them for a good night's sleep!

Some photos taken from the SQ flight during and after take-off:

DAY THIRTEEN: XI'AN (6 JAN 2009) - WINDING DOWN

No specific plans today except to get a set of Wii from the computer mart which I went to enroute to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Took my own sweet time savouring the breakfast spread of the hotel which were more than adequate yet not too lavish and wasteful like those at 5-star hotels. A nice spread of chinese and western stuffs, only thing lacking was toast bread.
A must-do today was the 灌汤包 at 老海家, having missed it two days in a row. Today 110% cannot miss out anymore...........'cause going there in the morning, no chance that it will be sold out or closed this time 'round!!



My chinese breakfast spread, the plain porridge was extremely fine and smooth.


The alleyway leading to the hotel entrance on the left side.


This particular Starbucks - most memorable for me!


The street adjacent to the main street of the Muslim Quarters with lots more good food!


These were Persimmon Cakes with different stuffings, freshly made, freshly cooked.
There was a shop along the main street that sold these in vacuum-packed which could last a week to 10 days.

Having tried both 贾三's shops and now this 老海家, must say this last one is the best of them all. Here you could actually see them making the dumplings at close range and the helpers were all females that do multi-tasking such as serving, making the dumplings and cooking noodle dishes etc. This place was definitely very "yin" (阴) or feminine. The 8-treasures porridge (八宝粥) was by far, the best of them all! The prices were also lower than at 贾三. This shop is more family-like while 贾三 veered towards commercialised fast food type of operations. The essence of 灌汤包 is all about the insides - the meat fillings and the right amount of steam retention in the dumplings that translate into 汤 (soup) that make these little things so lovable. 老海家's dumpling skins were thicker, some may like this, some may not. So just let your own taste buds decide.

After that dumpling sampling treat, was trying to check out the local CD stores for Bibi's records but no luck, also could not locate the music shop near the university area mentioned on some city guide which was said to carry imported western CDs. Eventually wanted to head to the computer mart for the Wii when along the way, a phone call came which had me scrambling to find a shop to top up the depleted SIM card value and to do an about-turn heading back to the hotel as my dear local friend had just finished the first part of the driving test and meeting up back at the hotel. I was late rushing back to the hotel, she was already waiting at the lobby for quite a while! We headed out for a lunch at the basement eatery just round the corner of the hotel which serve great value steaks. Thereafter she accompanied me to the computer mart to pick up the Wii. Prior to that was trying to locate a bank that would do foreign exchange of SGD to RMB. I was quite surprised that only Bank of China would take SGD, even ICBC could not do it and they were like the 2nd or 3rd largest bank in China! The procedure to do the exchange was very tedious, not only forms to fill which had to state reasons for exchange but also they were doing some checks on my passport as well. Finally a manager had to endorse the form before the counter staff could proceed. Lesson learnt: Do all your forex before you come here, use credit cards whenever possible because most places can only take Unionpay card or local credit cards only. I am not so sure if Visa card cash advance will work here using a foreign-issued card. My suspicion: it may not.

I was rather apologetic to my dear friend for having to wait so long while I was doing this.

After happily getting the Wii (minus the Sports disc which was the only game I wanted), arranged with her friends to go to Partyworld KTV for a singing session which I had no plan to sing anything but ended up breaking my long-standing fear of doing karaoke and belted out a couple of English ones that must be quite a torturous earful for those in the room. The rest of them were all well-seasoned K-singers, including 2 who were like professionals who had been vocal-trained who unbelievably belted out Faye's "Bored" amazingly well!

Brent and Dathy

This is Sophia, equally "crazy" fella but.........surely a friend indeed!

How can I put it? If you had to select a person to fight a war, you will not go wrong taking this fella with you.

These two were the vocal-trained singers!

Brent is from New Jersey, here on a 6-months teaching assignment which he had chosen instead of a well-paying job back home. His peers were rather baffled by his choice but I believed he had chosen wisely. I mean how could you give up an opportunity to immerse in the local life of the most populous country on this planet? The experience alone is truly priceless.

After the K-session, parted ways initially with them and the two of us were heading to Muslim Quarters for dinner when Sophia called to say that Brent would be joining us instead. Met Brent at the front of the Drum Tower and headed to 老海家 again for the same which I had in the morning. This time ordered different meat stuffings. It was Dathy's treat!

After dinner, she helped Brent flag for a taxi with the destination written in Chinese and informed to the driver. We then headed back to the Muslim Quarters where she picked up a packet of vacuum-packed Persimmon cakes and packets of Prune Juice powder for her secondary school classmate 李海, who is currently working in SG. That was to be my last night in Xi'an before saying au revoir very early next morning. I had grown to like this place very much, definitely THE CITY which had left me with the most impressions.

DAY TWELVE: XI'AN (5 JAN 2009)

In the late morning went to check out Walmart across the street from the hotel. This had been a habit of mine for many years - checking out hypermarkets such as Walmart, Carrefour, Makro etc. in places where I visited where any of these existed. Just like checking out McDonald's in every city is a very good guide to the rough cost of living in different cities, checking out the hypermart is also a good gauge on the general standard of living and purchasing power of different places. It is very interesting to see the merchandising mix of these hypermarts in different countries. The Walmart that I visited in Xi'an was rather small in size as compared to the typical size of a hypermarket. The most interesting thing I saw was the price of a bottle of beer (on speciall offer) was cheaper than a 1.5 litre mineral water!

After that Walmart "tour", went over to the computer market area via local public bus. This was yet another "bad" habit of mine accumulated over the years. Again it was to see the merchandising mix as well as the price parity between different places. Heading further southwards was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. I was there previously to watch the night musical fountain but this time around I wanted to mount the pagoda itself and also to see the temple (Famenshi 法門寺) as well. Lucky I made the decision to re-visit Xi'an a 2nd time, otherwise I would have missed out this place totally. Definitely worth visiting, for the great views atop the pagoda and the buddha relics inside the pagoda which I managed to take some very good detailed shots of the relics. I also spent quite a period of time at the highest level, alone with no one else around (it was near closing time). The feeling of peace and tranquility was unspeakable. I even laid flat on my back quietly taking in the view of the ceiling of the pagoda roof.

Statue of Tripitaka at the entrance to the temple.

The entrance to the pagoda.

Buddha relics (舍利子)

Buddha's footprint in stone tablet.

Views from the pagoda:

This was on the ceiling at the uppermost level of the pagoda. I took this while lying flat on my back on the wooden floor. The words were commemorating Tripitaka who went to the West to obtain the buddhist scriptures.

The pagoda at dusk.

For dinner I went (yet again) back to the Muslim Quarters hoping to check out 老海家灌汤包子店 which was closed the night before. Could not believe it, it was closed early again! Really frustrating. Ended up checking out the main 贾三shop instead. It was a bit different at this main shop, no need to place your order at the cashier's counter. Order was placed with the waiter or waitress. Also there was some disparity in taste between this main shop and the branch which I ate last night. The main shop's dumplings, although smaller and not as much meat fillings as that at the branch, they did taste better. The 8-treasure porridge was much much better than the branch - thicker and sweeter. Of course accompanied by the standard fare of prune juice drink 酸梅汤.

After that was attracted by the Hot and Sour soup in another small shop. However this was a big mistake in judgement - I asked for chilli! The soup was already pepper-hot (very) and so the chilli made it burnt my taste bud like a volcanic explosion! My lips were dancing after finishing the small bowl of soup. I did like the pepper-hot taste of the soup though. I recovered by drinking hot tea to "kill" the burning sensation in mouth.

Was curiously attracted by the long queues at this shop and the shop name "South East Asia steam cakes". Did not knew anything like this ever existed in South East Asia hence simply joined the queue and bought a pack to find out what it was.

It was steamed glutinous rice with red bean paste, sweet stuff. Probably adapted from Thai, Burmese or Vietnamese.

The Drum Tower in night-glo.

DAY ELEVEN: CHENGDU, BACK INTO XI'AN (AGAIN!!) (4 JAN 2009)

The place which I did not managed to visit last March in Chengdu was the Wuhou Temple (Ancestral Temple of Marquis Wu) 武侯祠. Visiting hours were over when I made it there last time. I had to visit this place having been entrigued by the Chinese classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三国 ever since I read the first dual language copy of the book. Coupled with the captivating Made in China TV series (not even Hongkong or Hollywood could have made this into celluloid by any commercially-viable means!) ,I have been forever an admirer of this classic. One could learn a lot from this book, why it was never essential reading in schools here is a big mystery to me.

My favourite hero of the Three Kingdoms was Guan Yu - an epitome of honour, loyalty, bravery and righteousness. There were stone slabs carvings of some of Guan Yu's heroics worth checking out in this place.

The brains of the Three Kingdom was undoubtably Zhuge Liang (孔明), this temple was built in his memory.

The carriage and fan that were synonymous with Kong Ming.

Life-sized bonsai.

Jinli street, adjacent to the Wuhou temple.

The last time I was here was it was in the evening, not as crowded in the morning-early afternoon. Just as colourful without the neon lights though. Re-visited the one and only book stall inside this street and picked up a couple of books. The food street still as delectable as ever.

Amazingly, I booked the air ticket Chengdu back to Xi'an through mobile phone and the ticket was delivered to Wuhou Temple main entrance while I was breezing through the place. It was for the late afternoon flight on the same day! Orginally was contemplating on the idea of taking the train to Xi'an but it was more feasible by air as the costs were nearly the same and it was difficult to get a decent priced train ticket departing in the same day in this country!

And so I headed back to Xi'an enroute to Beijing for the heading-home leg of this trip. I was unable to make any headway with the original plan to get into Inner Mongolia to visit the grassland in winter hence I took the easy route back into familiar territory, which is Xi'an. The reasons remained mostly the same as in this earlier post.

Checked into the same City Hotel in Xi'an and immediately headed straight to my beloved food street in the Muslim Quarters. This time to check out the mouth-watering 灌汤包 at 老海家 which was recommended by the Huashan guy from Shenzhen. It was before 8 pm but the place was already closed! Business was that good!

No choice went over to another one called 贾三. There were apparently 2 shops, I went to the newer branch instead of the main shop. Ordering was fast-food like - stood in line at the cashier's counter, select from the menu on the walls, pay and take your seat. The service was really fast. I ordered 1 serving of mutton-filled dumplings and a bowl of the incredibly delicious 8-treasures porridge. Just look at the pictures below, no need to say any more about what I thought about this treat!

Also took a serving of their irresistable version of shashlik (Russian)/satay (Singapore/Malaysia) - 烤肉串at a nearby street stall downed with cold sour prune juice drink (酸梅汤) - Heavenly!

DAY NINE & TEN: CHENGDU-RENSHOU-CHENGDU-MIANYANG-CHENGDU (2 & 3 JAN 2009)

Chengdu: Foggy and wet weather.

Following are photos taken in Renshou:



A bird's eye view of the main town area of Renshou


Photos with friends


The marketplace - very interesting perspectives of local life.


The home-cooked dinner! My very first and what an experience dining at a local home. The food were fab!


Night dancing at the public square - quite a common thing it seems in this giant of a nation.


Shots taken on the way back to Chengdu in the morning of 3 Jan 2009.

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Mianyang 3 Jan 2009:

The place where 宋馨懿 lives with her uncle and grandparents.






Playful and adorable! Don't you just love her?





Camera-shy or was it peek-a-boo time?






The way she uses the chopsticks truly put me to shame!




Photos with an angel! Lucky me!

Back in Chengdu late in the evening of 3 Jan 2009, the weather remained the same!

Tourist road signs? Damn confusing if I may say!
It's just pointing the general direction like a compass needle only!

DAY EIGHT - XI'AN; XI'AN TO CHENGDU (1 JAN 2009)

In the morning went up to the South Gate and did the cycling route round the city walls. The weather was cold and there was another New Year's Day event atop the South Gate.

Checked with the bicycle rental guys on roughly how long it would take to go round the entire wall and how fast this could be completed. The fastest with minimal stops of viewing the places around was about an hour 15 mins to one and a half hours. Typical time to complete should be around an hour 45 mins to 2 hours. I was up and cycling before 9 am and completed the whole route, with quite a few stops at some of the other main and minor gates along the way, well under 2 hours (about an hour 50-plus mins.) at a relatively easy pace and speeding up in parts where there was not much to see. Partly because of the cold weather and probably due to the early hours, the walls were quite deserted for most parts. I spent some time taking photos at the main gates (North, South, East & West) as well as some of the other larger gates. It was worth doing this round-the-walls trip because you could see the old within the city walls and the new outside of the city walls and it was also the best way to take in the city centre views from an elevated area.

My signature shot of Xi'an - I love this place!


I reached Xianyang Airport late by a whisker as the check-in had been closed for the China Eastern flight to Chengdu and the airline ground staff allowed me to change to the next flight which departs at about 8 in the evening with no additional charges (my ticket was a discount ticket with no changes allowed). I ended up surfing the net (free Wifi access at the airport) and subsequently went into a coffee bar to use their desktop computer to watch the DVD given to me by WJL. It was sort of fated that I missed the flight to Chengdu and ended up watching this special DVD, it added a special meaning to the visit which I was about to make next.

Believe in love, believe in human grace

Believe in hope that exist among us, the helpless human race

Reached Chengdu at about 9.30pm, the weather really sucks! Drizzling and wet.

Took the airport bus to downtown and located the 7 Days Inn at 梨花街 branch. This was the first time I tried this hotel chain and I was quite impressed by the spaciousness and cleanliness of this no-frills hotel, it's like McDonald's I suppose, i.e. the consistency in the delivery of its services that brings a ring of familiarity any branch you check into. It's a comfy place to be in. The downside was the constant unwarranted phone calls each time you return to your hotel room - offering "lady companion" services. At least the "caller" will disturb you only once, when you reject the "offer" on the first call. The broadband service was really good! There were vending machines for drinks and snacks if you need them. The best thing was that bookings can be made online easily but do note that this place do not accept foreign credit cards, so everything will be on cash basis including the required deposit.

Made the phone call to fixed up the schedule for the next 2 days - one to 仁寿, the other to 绵阳.

Went to check out the 春熙路步行街, as it was past 10 pm, most shops were already closed except for the food and eating places. This place is like the Orchard Road Shopping Area back home, hence nothing special worth mentioning just like Orchard Road.

DAY SEVEN - BACK IN XI'AN, NEW YEAR'S EVE (31 DEC 2009)

We made it to the foot of Huashan at about 1.45 pm and took the Huashan mini buses out to the main road. From there it was within walking distance to the bus departure point back to Xi'an. It was funny that the buses heading back to Xi'an from Huashan did not require a minimum number of passengers to push off. In fact the bus came to ask us while we were walking, picked us up and saved us the trouble of walking to the departure point. After about 5 to 10 mins wait, the bus departed for Huashan with less than 10 persons on board!

Reached the Xi'an train station bus terminal after 4 pm and thereafter was having a hard time flagging down a cab that would make the trip to 南大街 area as it was peak hours which strangely enough coincided with the changing of shift for most cabs! Finally managed to flag a lady cab driver willing to go somewhere near the Drum Tower so boarded it with the Shenzhen lady, 小麦 who was meeting someone near that area.

By the time I got back to the hotel it was nearly 5 pm. Feeling not too tired at all, I headed straight out to see the Great Mosque after a quick bath. The signs were not so easily seen inside the Muslim Quarters, I spent some time going back and forth after getting directions from the helpful stall owners. The Mosque entrance was inside a small lane which could be more easily accessed from the bazaar market than from the main food street. I did not expect the Mosque was styled like a Chinese temple with Tang Dynasty architecture! Before coming here I was imagining it to be something closer to the Mosques in Samarkand (another famous Silk route stop) in Central Asia/Uzbekistan. But this Great Mosque was uniquely one of a kind - a rare fusion of Middle Eastern and Chinese cultures. I managed to see the insides of the main prayer hall and took some photos too! This is a must-see!







The main prayer hall



The Quran carved into the wooden walls around the prayer hall.






Local kids willingly posing for a shot! This is what I admire about the camaradie and close-knit relationships among the China kids, due in part to the one-child policy which makes cousins closer like brothers and sisters, friends more like close relatives and there on. Compare this to Singapore where the majority don't even know the names of our neighbours even though our paths are crossed on a daily basis and corridors so void of life! We have lost something even greater than the prosperity we worked so hard towards. The roots of our society will eventually disappear altogether in no time especially with the free-for-all PR policy of our sick government. How ironic a modern nation striving for excellence forgetting its roots about nation-building, falling prey and succumbing to the lure of progress at any cost.


The bazaar adjacent to the Great Mosque.


By the time I was done at the Great Mosque (清真寺), it was nearly 7pm, had to rush back to prep myself for the dinner appointment at 8pm. Strange enough, still not a shred of tiredness after that hectic Huashan climb! Perhaps the anticipation of that dinner date pumped the adrenalin so much that I was full of excitement and forgot about any physical wear or any muscles aching. Mind over matter really!

Dinner exceeded far beyond my expectations! A picturesque view overlooking the glowing Bell Tower in the night, candlelight settings in a French restaurant (La Seine), sweet red wine, French cuisine (baked escargots, goose liver etc.), a lovely companion looking as angelic as the first time I saw her............WHOA! I was in seventh heaven! She arranged this to perfection! ! Kudos to her! This experience and those moments I shall take with me to my grave.

I did not bring her flowers! That was my ultimate crime. I really should have............

The other downside was my camera, which failed miserably under the low light settings. I had not a single proper photo of HER that evening! Even more disastrous was that we did not even take a photo together..........me too preoccupied enjoying the company and the moments.

To think, all the time I was so worried that I would bore her to death! It turned out OK, nervous and exciting at the same time. THANK YOU!

From the glass window.


This was the best shot I got.


But this one I like the best! Couldn't re-produce the "special" effects even if I wanted to.

After dinner went over to one of her friend's place where a bunch of their "crazy" friends were gathered for the countdown to the New Year. Beers were flowing, hard liquor too, food, cigarette smokes filling the room, music, card games..............leading into 2009! The drinking was way too crazy but then again it's the New Year, a new beginning............

DAY SIX, DAY SEVEN - HUASHAN (30 & 31 DEC 2009)......AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME!

We five musketeers started the ascend up Huashan at around 9 to 9.30pm, the objective was to make it up in time to catch the sunrise. We checked with the ticketing staffs (would you believe they are open 24 hours even in off-season?), they mentioned that there were only a handful of people (less than 5) that came before us for the night climb. We met a guy at the gate that told us that the typical time to climb was after midnight around 1 pm, usually people rest at the hotels or guest houses at the foot of the mountain until that time. Anyway everyone agreed that it was better to climb early and reach the East Peak early to wait for the sunrise and so we set off in the cold dark night with no idea what lies ahead of us. We also met a couple who made their way down and wishing us good luck for the night climb up.



At the main gate



This was taken by the patrol policemen with the 5 of us in it, me holding the Garfield cat that followed us for quite a distance on the way up. The cat was scratching my gloves probably disliked being held that way. From the right - the pair from Shenzhen and at the front, the 2 uni-students from Hong Kong.


Conquer Huashan, a peaceful and safe life will follow.


Our companion for the initial climb - Mr. Garfield, whom we were to meet again the next morning on the way down.


Me with the 2 Hong Kong students.
See the many locks on the chains? All were carved with names!


This was the one of the steepest and long section to climb.



Under the faint lighting, it looks ominous enough but....it looks even worse in daylight which I found out the next morning!


It was not easy doing the climb in the night with just torch light for the latter sections upwards, adding to that the colder the weather the higher we climbed. Also the air was thinning out too, at least I was gasping for air and I believe the ladies were too! We took a lot of rest stops on the way up which slowed down the pace considerably. We also learnt that the longer we rested, the colder it became so we tried to cut short the resting and fluid replenishment timing and opted for more stops instead. I was at the end of the line as some of the torch lights failed along the way. I slowed down considerably as we got higher, probably due to my age and fitness and recovery levels. We did took a long rest at the place of the night patrol's resting point where they had hot water and heater to keep warm. We reached there at about 10.30 pm I think. We ordered hot drinks and instant noodles. The prices were not that exorbitant. We rested for more than 30 to 45 mins before proceeding on. We were very close to the North Peak aleady - the lowest of the four peaks. The North Peak is also where the end point of the cable car station is located.
At about after 1.00 to 1.30 am I was so tired that I could hardly open my eyes and simply climb with my eyes closed! At one point we were so tired that we were resting with our backs on the gravel and admiring the constellation of stars above. Unfortunately none of our cameras could capture those amazing sights! We were left gazing at the stars and taking in the moments with our eyes and committing those to memory as much as we could. It was an unforgettable moment. We were all star-stricken!
We proceeded on past the North Peak and thereafter everyone was so tired that when we found a place with lodging, everyone agreed to rest until about 5 am before making the final ascend to the East Peak to catch the sunrise. The weather was terribly cold by then and the place came with beds, clean sheets and heater as well as thermal blankets (which I did not know until after I woke up in the morning!). I was simply so tired that I fell asleep instantaneously upon hitting the sheets!
We woke up at about 5.30am and hurriedly left the place after hitting the clogged toilets (due to the freezzing cold). We met 2 ladies from Shanghai who climbed up during the day and stayed at the same place we were staying. One of the lady mentioned that the staff at the resting place gave her directions to a certain nearer place to catch the sunrise instead of the East Peak and so all of us headed to that place instead as there was insufficient time to find the way to the East Peak in time to catch the sunrise anyhow.
We made it to that place just in time before the sunrise and these were what we saw:-

Unforgettable sights to behold!

After catching the sunrise, the 2 Shanghai ladies made their way down and we parted company. The 2 students from Hongkong was so tired that they did not want to climb anymore and also left thereafter. A pity though, because they would be missing the best parts of this trip! Having come so close too! Also we met another Hong Kong guy who also came up yesterday afternoon and had visited most of the peaks except the highest peak - the South Peak, so he joined in with us for the rest of the trip.

That place behind was the East Peak to catch the sunrise. A group did made it there, not sure if they caught the first light though. We were shouting back and forth to make some conversations with them.

East Peak - the one which we skipped!

This was the start of the plankway to the starting point for the dangerous 长空栈道(Plankway protuding into the air??).

Could not believe I paid RMB30 for this!

The makeshift stairs downwards that lead to the mid-air plankway cliff walk.

This was what waited for us at the other end, an observation post with sights to behold:

华山论剑!! Just look at our invisible swords and 剑气! Powerfool right?

Sitting on a tree trunk sticking out of the cliff into the open!

This was the start of the way back:

What lies below where we walked!

Probably the closest I got to sitting on the edge of a cliff! Wicked!!

After that amazing walk, we made our way to the highest point - the South Peak. It was relatively easy as compared to the climb up last night.

The totem pole of Huashan!

I made it to the top! 2154.9 metres!!

Just how cold it was? The mineral water had completely turned into ICE!

Mr. Garfield our old friend! We met again!

There was a legend about this axe and stone broken into 2 in the photos above.

A Taoist temple.

These were the couriers who had to carry supplies up to the various places up in the mountain. It sure was a tough and shitty job and this photo could serve as a "QUIT COMPLAINING" reminder should anyone ever complained about his or her job!

The lodging place where we stayed!

This was where we climb up last night! Looked even more horrendous from up down!

This was the so-called 天梯 (Stairway to Heaven?). A near vertical climb!

Behind was the place where we rested for warmth last night. The cable car station was just a short walk below! All within the proximity of the North Peak.

Scenes below from the cable car ride down.

DAY SIX - XI'AN (30 DEC 2009)...THE LONG LONG WAIT TO GET TO HUASHAN

Was going to book a day tour to Huashan but apparently the cable car was under servicing during this few days since it was off-season and all such tours were cancelled! It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The options were to wait until New Year's Day (if taking the day tour group) or to climb up the entire 2000-plus metres all on foot! As I had planned to leave Xi'an on 1 Jan itself to Chengdu, the first option was out of the question. So I checked out with the travel desk on how to get to Huashan by bus and then plan on doing it the hard way.

After breakfast, with all the necessities packed into my backpack I headed off to the Bus Terminal at the Xi'an Train Station, found the bus heading to Huashan and sat in the bus and wait...and wait, and wait. There was only about 6 passengers and the bus would not leave unless there were at least 18 to 20 persons! As the wait dragged on to noon, with no apparent increase in the number of passengers, I finally gave up the idea of going altogether. Checked with the bus driver on the last bus "leaving" for Huashan for the day (it was 5 to 6 pm) and decided to go somewhere else instead of this seemingly futile wait. Plan was to come back at about 5 to 6 pm and see if the bus actually will leave for Huashan with the requisite number of persons, if not would abandon the whole idea of going altogether. (It's really weird how things, as always work themselves out in the end!)

Checked out the 2RMB map I bought from a street vendor near the bus stop, looked for the stone slab musuem (西安碑林博物馆) the tour guide was mentioning the day before and headed straight there by public bus. Not too complicated and was quite surprised how close it was to the South Gate and it was in yet another fascinating street full of writing and painting materials and other stuffs called 书院门.

The musuem was full of rows after rows of stone carvings and it would take a lot of time if you want to read them in detail. There were volumes of literary works by Confucius and Mencius and many many others. It would be a different experience to read them on stone slabs instead of on paper. The characters and words would be much more pronounced and "jumping at you". I did not have that much time, hence could only browse through most of them and snapping some which I felt was interesting for later reading. They even sell tracing of the more famous stone carvings, some of which were carvings with paintings/drawings.







There was also a house with exhibits of Buddhist stone sculptures and statues. Definitely worth a visit, better if could spend an entire day here.






Next stop was to head to the South Gate to do the cycling round the whole city walls. I walked through the 书院门 street, browsing through some jade stuffs - specifically for Maitreya Buddha jade pieces. Always wanted to have one, not just any one, but one that would be a joy to look at and touch, especially the tummy! Went through a few stalls and settle on a rather large one, with a belly button!! The South Gate was just at the entrance to 书院门 at 南大街.


Bumped into a street stall selling spicy noodles so jumped in and had a bowl! It was Sichuan-spicy and very delicious, there was no meat, just vegetables but the soup was.......ooh la la! Superb!


It was quite a challenge getting to the South Gate entrance of the city walls, due to the crazy roundabout-type of traffic flow. There was a race event held on the wall at that time, I was thinking they must be mad! - in this cold weather? Unfortunately when I went up to the wall it was nearly 4pm and the bicycle rental closes shop at 5pm! Needing at least 1hour and 45mins to make a complete round around the walls, cycling was out of the question, so instead settled walking a stretch of the wall as I needed to get back to the train station to check out the bus to Huashan around 5 to 6pm. I think I made a right angle turn on the wall, passing a number of smaller gates before dismounting the wall at 长乐门 gate. The weather was cold so a little brisk walking helped warmed up the body.








Took a cab to the train station but due to peak hour traffic, was dropped off by about a kilometre off the train station and had to go there on foot instead. Luckily I did not sit and wait, the bus did not move at all! Upto then, the number of persons still fell short of the 18 to 20 persons required for the bus trip to be profitable, only about 10 or 11 persons I think! The driver confirmed that the bus would still make the trip even if the number of persons was not enough as it was the last bus out for the day! So....finally I could make the trip to Huashan! Had no idea what I would do there, whether to climb in the night up to catch the sunrise or wait until the next morning.....absolutely NO IDEA! Just make the most of the dire situation I suppose?

The bus did not make the whole journey actually! We had to switch to another bus going in the same direction to somewhere further a short while along the road - there were 5 of us going to Huashan and another 4 or 5 going to other places along the same route. Chatted up with those 4 persons going to Huashan and everyone agreed that we would do it together as a group! See how things work out? The 5 of us were "dumped" on the main road and had to walk our way to the entrance of Huashan! No complaints, at least we were getting there. Just as well, we made our way to a general store and got the provisions we need as everyone agreed to find our way up in the night instead of waiting until early morning. As such we needed general use work gloves (the white kind), torch lights, masks (for the cold), some food etc. The guy from Shenzhen bought a lock with his name instantly carve on the spot which was to be locked at chains in some section near the top of the mountain, for eternal peace and safety I think! And so the gang headed out on our little adventure! There was another young lady, also from Shenzhen and a friend of the man plus 2 university students from Hong Kong.

DAY FIVE - XI'AN (29 DEC 2008)

Today followed a tour to the Terracottas. The bus leaves just outside the main road adjacent to the hotel at about 9am.
It was a fully guided tour. The first stop was 骊山(Li Hill). Took a cable car up and from there went down the hill on foot. From the top you could get a panaromic view of the whole area. The places of interest were all quite close by including the Terracottas.




This was a stone slab at a musuem at the foot of the hill. Kinda like the phrase formed around the word "口"(mouth) - "知足唯唔" - meaning "Knowing contentment is the enlightenment".



This is the holy relic 舍利子 collected from the remains of the ashes of Buddha. Not sure it was from which part of the body though.


Posing with the semi-nude statue of 杨贵妃。Not sure how close the statue was to her in real person, the statue made her look partially like a caucasian.


This was 杨贵妃's private bath/pool


This one was used by the Emperor.


There were many pools, there was even one reserved for the imperial chefs too!



These are the reservoirs for the hot springs. The water to the various pools were from these reservoirs.


This is the fountain where visitors pay RMB5 to get a feel of the hot spring water. I splashed the water all over my head and face, it was a wonderful feeling! Too bad there was no time to soak in the baths, would be good for the body and skin like the one I had previously in Tibet.

This was the place where Chiang Kai-shek used to stay and it was this place where he managed to escape from the Xi'an incident and went over to Formosa (now Taiwan). They even marked out the bullet holes in the walls! --







This was taken at the car park of the shopping stop. Not sure what game they were playing but looked interesting and all of them were having a ball of a time. They were all staffs of the shopping place.

This the mockup showcase of the underground tomb of Qinshihuang, too bad no photos were allowed inside. It was much more interesting than the Terracottas, not too sure how close it was to the original:


OK this was one of the entrance to the crown jewel (personally, I do not agree with that!) of Xi'an:


The photo of where the Terracottas were found. The underground tomb was confirmed to be beneath the hill but due to costs and probably very high risks of damage, there were no plans so far to excavate and uncover it.


"A miracle of the world, the pride of a nation and its people." - this is how they refer to the Terracottas.


The discoverer of the Terracottas, however he was not the actual farmers that found the first bits of the remnants and did not know what a big discovery it turned out to be. Wonder if those farmers were properly honoured as well. They should be accorded as such.









See how life-sized they were?



Just look at the sole and marvel at the attention paid to the intricate details in the course of this massively outrageous constructions!

There was no "WOW" for me visiting the Terracottas, unlike say Jiuzhaigou where it was simply breathtaking! For me I think the historical significance outweigh the Terracottas themselves in terms of the allure and appeal. Probably also the advanced technology available at that time, other than that I could not pin down why anyone would want to see this place more than once.

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For the night, went to catch the 8pm water fountain show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (大雁塔) open square. Billed as the largest water fountain show in Asia, it did live up to its billing. A must see!

Some amazing night shots of the Pagoda from across the square!

2008 into 2009 in Xi'an, China "I WAS HERE" shot

BEN(T) ON BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE!

Etc's X's Cassettes gig at Prince of Wales - 29 Jan 09

Don't really know what happened with the camera, the first 52 mins was "lost", unrecoverable with any data retrieval softwares that I tried! Only left with the last 4 songs among the set , missing out on Etc's cheeky "wo-ai-ni"-ing (我爱妳) cover of Tokyo Square's "Within You'll Remain" - rebranded as "Within You'll Ramone" and their cover of The Oddfellows' "Riding In Your Car".
Etc. was Ben(t) on bringing the house down that night with a decibels-breaking set, "assisted" in part by the fact that Ben was playing without the aid of any monitor and could not hear what he was churning out with his e-guitar and putting on the memorabiliac polka dot shirt that goes back all the way to his first gig as the Deadbeats! That shirt was put on specially for X!

Anyway here's a clip of "Will Until"........enjoy!

DAY FOUR - XI'AN (28 DEC 2008)

Took the morning flight from Beijing to Xi'an - the 2nd stop for this trip. Originally Xi'an was not in the plans because I thought the only thing to see there was the (overrated) Terrcotta Warriors. How wrong I could be! I ended up coming back here a 2nd time on this trip!

OK first the reasons why I opted for Xi'an and not another city, in pictures:


This "crazy" fella!
Originally was supposed to meet up with her in Beijing (hence skipping Xi'an altogether) to do the Great Wall together but she had to leave Beijing for home (Yes, she lives here!) earlier than I could make it to Beijing, so instead meet up with her here and also to pre-celebrate her birthday (more than 2 weeks in advance!).
She is really something special! Free-spirited, wears her heart on her sleeves and a joy to be with!
I count my blessing to have her as a friend.


Mount Huashan!
I had no idea what an experience this turned out to be! Details in an upcoming post.
The "SURPRISE" highlight of this trip.


The Muslim Quarters!
Why I love this place so much?
The FOOD!! I could literally live off this street, there are so many things to eat that you will be spoilt for choice. The problem was you could snack so much that by the time you reach the other end after the turn, you probably no longer need dinner at all!

Of course the colours and atmosphere of this stretch is truly unique - a cross between chinese and middle east cultures. Don't ever leave Xi'an without coming here and be a glutton! Never mind putting on some weight, it will be worth it! Take lots of prune drinks (they call it prune soup!), hot or cold - both just as good.

>>>>>>>>>>> OK here are the photoblogs:


At the Bell Tower - posing with the main bell.


The Bell & Drum Towers Hotel in the background.


What's with the claws? Oh! I got it now...she wanted a cat and got one as a birthday present!


Traffic at this roundabout at the Bell Tower is -- manic!
During peak hours you can forget about getting any cab to come to this area!



Many constructions around the city - mainly for the upcoming subway.
That will make it even more easier to move around this city.


She looks great even in the worse circumstances!


One for keeps! (to add to those from Jiuzhaigou!)


Another one! YES!!


The Bell Tower in the background.



At the Drum Tower - posing with the biggest drums.



At the Drum Tower - posing with a row of auxiliary drums.



Inside the Drum Tower


The Bell Tower by night.

Dinner was at.......where else but the Muslim Quarters! We had muslim food - BBQ, noodles, 8-treasure porridge etc. Washed those down with prune drinks! Tried a couple of local sweet bites too!
Thereafter adjourned to Haagen Daas for desserts. Later on went to a music pub with a fabulous live band rocking with western music together with some of her friends and played some wicked games over whiskey! Crazy fellas...all of them, me included too! What a first night in a new city!

DAY THREE - TRIP HIGHLIGHT NO. 1 : THE GREAT WALL HIKE (27 DEC 2008)

Breakfast at Lido's Starbucks, the meetup point.

A sketch map of the route

A message on a sign board at the starting point of the 1st ascend to the Wall.

Nicely reflecting the spirit of this hike.

Leftover snow could be seen along the path

At the first resting point on the Wall

No! I did not graffiti "2008" on the wall, someone else did, so might as well used it for a memory shot, right?

Quite a steep and difficult climb at some sections.

This is one of our guide - the lovely Huijie, she is really really super fit, don't let her small frame fool you!

Okay, I could now claim I that had tried supporting a part of the crumbling Great Wall of China!

A shot with the family from America at the 2nd resting point on the wall.

Yes! These are the guys - the 2 guides that led this hike.

Huijie on the left and Hayden in the centre. Hayden is from New Zealand and he whipped up a marvellous salad and pasta for us to savour at the end of the hike! He propped up the rear of the group with the GPS that kept all the data of this hike.

A village at the foot of the Wall

Crumbling walls!

The final tower that we reached for this approx. 10km hike.

This is the section of the final descend from the wall. The winding road path below leads to the village where we would have our delicious X'mas lunch!

BBQ trout! Marvelicious! A heavenly treat indeed!

Everyone digging in and enjoying the X'mas spread prepared by 2 cooks from a Korean restaurant in Beijing (who accompanied us here as our chefs!) together with the local cooking team of this place. Notice the 2 tupperware boxes of salad? They were prepared by Hayden, the guide the night before and they were very delicious! Thumbs up for you, Hayden! You're the MAN!

This is the heated bed where the locals slept on. They allowed us to "intrude" and keep us warm because the weather was getting really cold.

The finale of this hike - the dumpling making contest!

I was appointed the official time keeper with my Casio digital watch!

There were 2 winners - one for the most number of completed dumplings and the other for the nicest dumpling.

I added in my 2 cents worth by mentioning that it was not a case of having the nicest dumpling but the best one should be the one which will not disintegrate when being cooked! Everyone agreed including the judges (the local cooks!) With that the nicest dumpling contest became the best dumpling contest!

After that, we ended the trek and headed back to Beijing. We reached Beijing a little later than planned as the trek took longer (5 hours instead of 3~4 hours) than was scheduled but everyone was happy with the entire trip nevertheless! The lowest point reached was 520m, the highest point - 850m, the ascend was about 757m.

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The hike had a difficulty level of 3 but it was overall a relatively comfortable hike with 2 rest stops in between. We did a total of 2 climbs and 2 descends. This was a trip worth every RMB paid! We were the only group in the entire area, we saw the Wall in its unrestored conditions, we took in sights and great photos of the long stretch of the Great Wall, completely isolated and untouched - what more could we ask for? This beats those touristy and easy trips to Badaling where one had to contend with the crowd and the souvenir peddlers, let alone take a good photo without framing strangers in it. As for the Simatai-Jinshanling route - the walls there are partially restored hence it probably lose some of its original authenticity and it was an easy route.

I enjoyed this hike thoroughly and would do it all over again if I could. Going up on foot, you could imagine what people went through and had to endure during the lengthy construction of the walls as well as those who perished in that time. When I was up on the wall, at certain sections, I was thinking why on earth would anyone want to build this wall to keep out the enemies when the terrain itself leading up to the walls would have killed the enemy in any case? Puzzling! Imagine the lives and resources wasted!