he last few days have been kind of a whirlwind. On Sunday morning, Chris went to pick up the suits that we had “special-ordered” from the tailors in the somewhat-shady part of Shanghai we went to on the first day. Let's just say that if we all put on the sport coats together and went out at night, we might be mistaken for a trio of jugglers from a traveling circus – yea, they don't fit so well. However, the pants look fine and will be wearable with minimal adjustments.
The last and perhaps most notable thing to mention about our time in Shanghai is that we went to the Shangri-La for their Sunday brunch on Chris’ recommendation. The hour we spent there was without question the most diverse, delicious, and impressive culinary experience of my life. The room is set up in ultra-modern style and has around 15 different buffet stations, including Indian, traditional Chinese, Chinese brunch (dim sum), Western, Sushi, other Japanese, Pan-Asian, European, Fruit, Desserts, etc… It was absolutely incredible.
We decided to leave Shanghai a day early (read: we weren't yet running at full mental capacity from the night before, forgot the date of our flight, and mistakenly went to the airport a day early… yea, I know). We went to the airport via train – but not just any train. We traveled on the fastest train in the world (top speed 431 km/hr or 260 mph), which was very special.
Here's Mike on the train pointing to the speedometer:
When we arrived in Xi'an a day early, we had to find a hotel on the fly in the airport, which was not a problem. As soon as we walked out of the terminal, it was clear that Xi'an was a much different city than any in China that we (Mike and I, that is) had been to. Xi'an is a city of 7.2 million people (mid-sized by China standards) that lies due west of Shanghai (3.5 hr flight). It's basically one huge industrial complex, the main industry being power production – and in China, that means coal.
The pollution was absolutely suffocating. It was the kind of smog that you can literally feel when you breathe the air. On the highway into the city, I would say that the visibility ranged in the 200-300 yard range – past that, anything was almost entirely obscured by the thick, mustard gray haze that was probably a combination of dust and pollution. Chris asked the cab driver whether today was a typical day air quality-wise, and he replied that it was close to the norm. We had to bargain aggressively with him on the price because he would not turn on the meter for the drive into town. We had been warned that Xi'an was somewhat of a sketchy place and to be aware that this might happen.
I can't really begin to convey what it looked/felt like, but it was kind of like driving through an endless fog bank that smelled like diesel exhaust. Yea, not so nice. Though it sounds unpleasant (and believe me, it was), I was glad that we were able to see a part of China that many tourists forgo due to its remoteness and, well, unaesthetic setup. But at least in my mind it was eye-opening to see the true underbelly of development. Places like this have to exist for places like Shanghai to exist the way they do. It was pretty grounding.
I'm going to wrap this up here pretty quickly because I don't want to turn this into a novel. Our next day in Xi'an was spent exploring the underground preserved museums of Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses, the real (and only) reason we went to Xi'an in the first place. Simply put, the attraction is a series of three underground tombs (the largest being roughly the size of a football field) with rows upon rows and underground rooms upon rooms of life-sized soldiers and horses constructed out of clay and earth dating back to around 2300 years ago during the Qin dynasty. It was amazing… lots of culture and history behind it that I don't really have space to go on about, but it was well worth the trip to Xi'an to see them.
Here's just one picture of the place - we will get more up soon - even the teeth on this horse have been molded (the horse weighs almost 500 pounds!):
When we get to Hong Kong and have better internet, we'll update this with more pictures.
We walked out of the museum at 1:45pm. Sitting on the curb waiting for our driver to come pick us up, we looked at one another and came to the realization that we didn't really have anything left to do in that city. So after we called Chris' Chinese friend for the phone number for China Eastern Airways, Chris changed the date of our flight to this afternoon on the fly. Meanwhile, we convinced our driver to just take us directly to the airport, and we barely made the last flight out to Lijiang. So the end result is that we cut out a day in Shanghai (inadvertently) and then a day in Xi'an (intentionally) and we are in Lijiang a day early.
Lijiang is absolutely incredible, but you'll have to wait until the next post, because it's time to grab a shower and head out for the night. Hope all is well with friends and family, and please know that we are happy, safe, and having a wonderful time. Alex
Main clocktower in Xi'an
1 comment:
read and be envious :) Please share some pictures about Lijiang, thanks for writing!
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