China Trip 2: Guangzhou and Xi’an (reposted with pics)

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fountainhall

China Trip 2: Guangzhou and Xi’an (reposted with pics)

Post by fountainhall »

Being in Hong Kong on business, it was easy to get one of the fast trains across the border to Guangzhou about 170 kms to the northwest. I was there to spend a weekend with a student I had been chatting with for more than a year, first on gay romeo and then on Skype. He was dutifully waiting for me at the crowded station where we found a long queue for taxis. Sadly the weather was lousy – low cloud and heavy rain – and the outlook for the following day was equally dreary. But an upgrade to an Executive Room from the Crowne Plaza receptionist partly made up for it. The room was huge and the bathroom had both a shower and an equally huge triangular bath. It could easily have accommodated three and was luxurious for two.

I first visited Guangzhou way back in 1980. I was then a guest of the first US Consul General Dick Williams. China was just getting over the Cultural Revolution and Deng Xiao ping’s economic reforms had hardly started. The Consulate had opened a year earlier and occupied the top floor of the old Dong Fang Hotel. Also staying was a diplomat based in Bangkok, Burton Levin, rumoured to be the CIA’s top man in Asia.

As I was only there for one night, on the following morning Dick took us down to the Pearl River and the historic part of Guangzhou close to Shamian Island. It was here that the 18th and early 19th century traders had their “factories”, the warehouses where they stored their goods and lived during the few months each year when the Emperor permitted them to trade. Close by on the banks of the river I noticed many fine old houses, no doubt the homes of some Chinese compradors, those middle-men without whom trade could not take place and whose “squeeze” on all parties involved in transactions made them incredibly rich men. Although it was a hot steamy mid-September morning many of the men were still wearing light Mao suits and the ladies drab grey dresses. Only occasionally would we see a girl in a 1950s style floral dress.

An old Painting of some of the “Factories” on Shamian Island
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My next visits to Guangzhou were nearly twenty years later. I was involved with a young man from Guangzhou who had been working in Hong Kong for two years. When he returned to Guangzhou I would go up to meet him every month and we would stay at the White Swan hotel on that same Shamian island. So I had already seen the few sights Guangzhou offers, including one of the main pagodas whose name I have now forgotten. My friend insisted we kiss on each of the 9 levels as we ascended!

Take away the history and I have never found Guangzhou nearly as interesting as the other large cities. But on this visit I had hoped to see some of the city’s exciting contemporary architecture, especially the late Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House, but the foul weather did not justify venturing out.

Guangzhou Opera House
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Photo: Iwan Baan

So we spent almost that entire weekend in the hotel and had a lovely time. On Monday morning, he wanted to join me in the cab to the airport and we hugged goodbye before I went through security. The 2-hour flight to the heart of the country was smooth and it was easy getting a taxi. The airport is 45 kms from town so I realised I’d be stuck paying almost RMB200 (then around US$32) for the ride.

Driving to the city my heart sank viewing acres and cares of modern housing estates. I hoped the city centre would still retain some of its old charm as the eastern end of the Ancient Silk Road. I certainly wanted to visit the Terracotta Warriors which are close by, but I had set aside three days and wanted to fill them with as much sightseeing as possible.

I need not have worried. As soon as we got to the massive city wall my spirits rose. Unlike the Great Wall, the Xi’an City Wall remains intact. Surrounded by a deep moat, the Wall has impressive statistics: almost 14 kms in length, 12 meters high and between 12 and 18 meters thick.

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Map of Xi’an within the Wall
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Spaced along the top are 98 small gatehouses originally constructed for garrisons to defend the city.

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In the centre of the four walls are huge gates which now allow traffic to enter and leave the city centre. There are also smaller gates where tourists can climb up to walk or cycle along the top – and many do. I didn’t!

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My taxi entered through the North Gate as I was staying on that side of the centre in the relatively inexpensive Mercure Hotel. The location was ideal, although getting to a subway station was quite a walk. If you are up to it, most of the main sights are within walking distance. I first walked along to the Bell Tower which marks the exact centre of the city. Built in 1384, it is impressive at any time of day but particularly so when lit up in the evening.

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Nearby is the equally impressive Drum Tower, notable for all the large drums you can see lining the first level of the structure.

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Off to the side there is a veritable rabbit warren of little alleys with houses, courtyards and, perhaps surprisingly, about 10 mosques, the largest being the impressive Great Mosque of Xi’an built in 742 AD.

Arabic writing on an archway of the Great Mosque
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Of the city’s other attractions, a taxi through the South Gate will take you to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda complex, so called because further west there is the less impressive Small Wild Goose Pagoda! The park here is usually packed with people, many dressing up in rented costumes for photographs.

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Xi’an was the capital of China since its unification by the First Emperor for the better part of a millennium. And it is Emperor Qin’s Terracotta Warriors that are Xi’an’s main attraction. These are located in three “pits” surprisingly close to the city, just under an hour away. You can get there under your own steam, but you might well have difficulty finding a taxi to take you back or having to queue for ages to catch a bus. There are so many half-day tours available that I thoroughly recommend just booking one, especially if it has a hotel pick-up. This also has the advantage of an English guide for there is not much translation once you are at the site.

This presently covers over four acres. Pit 1 is the largest and by far the most impressive. Here more than 6,000 of the life-sized warriors are displayed more or less as they were found.

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In the other two pits, there is a lesser number of the figures and horses, some of them still broken. Emperor Qin who had come to the throne in 243 BC aged only 13 made it his mission to unify the various warring states to create the core of the nation of China. Being afraid of death he believed that this army of warriors would become animated in the afterlife and help protect him there. The whole project took 700,000 labourers almost 40 years to complete. A small exhibition completes the tour.

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Thereafter you will no doubt be dragged to enormous shops with costly souvenirs. Avoid them! To one side there are a couple of headless bronze warrior copies so you can have photographs taken.

There is only one tourist spot I suggest you avoid. The evening Cultural Dinner Show at the Tang Dynasty Theater Restaurant is touted almost everywhere. Packed when I was there with older American tourists, it gives you a second rate dinner and a second rate performance. There are better and less expensive ways of seeing the country’s culture.

Some tourists fly in from Shanghai or Beijing in the morning, “do” the Terracotta Warrior pits in the afternoon and then fly back in the evening. That is a shame for the city is well worth at least two full days if you are energetic; three if you like to explore more of its history and take things more easily.

As a postscript, I met my student friend a couple more times when he came to Shenzen and I popped across the border to spend weekends together. And then as these things go, no doubt he found someone with whom he could be together more often. It was nice whilst it lasted!
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Re: China Trip 2: Guangzhou and Xi’an (reposted with pics)

Post by Gaybutton »

One thing you haven't said much about - the food. I've always heard the Chinese food in China is not very good. What can you tell us?
fountainhall

Re: China Trip 2: Guangzhou and Xi’an (reposted with pics)

Post by fountainhall »

It probably depends to a large extent how much you enjoy Chinese food outside China. It is often said that the best Chinese food is to be found in Hong Kong, with Taipei not far behind. Yet even here in Bangkok there are some excellent Chinese restaurants.

It's important to remember that there really is no such thing as Chinese cuisine, apart from its being consumed with chopsticks! The Cantonese cuisine that you can enjoy in the south has evolved as a mixture of Chinese with European characteristics. Yet China boasts no less than eight very different cuisines - Cantonese, Szechuan, Shandong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan. Even then there are still regional variations, like Chiu Chow. The south of the country consumes rice with meals. Since not much rice was grown in the north, steamed bread dumplings accompany most meals instead.

So when you are in China, unless you can afford to dine in expensive restaurants, it's best to eat more or less as the locals do. Even the spicy Szechuan cuisine has some dishes which are more bland. As in Bangkok, some restaurants can be excellent; others less so. To answer your question, I have rarely been disappointed in China, but then I have usually been taken to restaurants by friends or business colleagues. Not by any means expensive places. When I am on my own or with friends who have no knowledge of the city we're in, I love snacking - lots of dim sum, the Muslim snacks in Xi'an, dumplings in Shanghai - and variations elsewhere all washed down with the various types of tea. The Shanghai dumplings with minced pork floating in a soup inside paper-thin wrappers are orgasmic- literally. The art is to get the dumplings into your mouth with chopsticks before puncturing them and letting the soup drain out.

As everywhere, ask around for the best local restaurants. If you have friends where you are travelling, have them take you to their favourite restaurants. Check with concierges and travel sites like TripAdvisor and specialist newspaper columns. If you decide to trust to pot luck, you may find the meal is little more than average. But rarely less so. Certainly not as bad as seemed to be served at that tourist Cultural Dinner Show in Xi'an!
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