On the road to Xi'an

When I came out from the airport in Beijing, it felt like I had come home again. At the same time, I could not have felt more different from last year: then, I was worried about how to get on the right bus to downtown Beijing; now, I did it the Chinese way and asked about seven people who pointed me in the right direction. Since I had done my research about how to get to the hotel very carefully, the trip over there was very smooth. The hotel staff wouldn't let me check in at first (sincethe booking was made in Pravit's name), but after I had given some convincing arguments and some renminbi, they were more than happy to provide me with the hi-tech key-card. (Pravit arrived about 8 hours later, having walked around the streets of Beijing for about 2 hours, as a result of dedicating his pre-departure research to his South Korean layover exclusively... read about this in Pravit's blog).

The second day in Beijing, we went to visit our old school. They seemed to have more students than last year, now approaching 20 or so. Pravit's favourite teacher (I think he fancies her a little bit...), seemed very happy to see us, and offered to cook us dinner for the evening. We politely declined the offer, since we were set for a genuine 烤鸭 (Beijing roast duck) experience at 全聚德 (Quanjude, the most famous 烤鸭店 in Beijing).

However, since it was only about three o'clock in the afternoon when we left our school, we felt that this was the right time to get a modern haircut Chinese style. Having heard that they do 10 kuai haircuts in our school's xiaoqu, we decided to seize the opportunity. Although wage levels in China are quite low, it's obviously quite difficult for the large number of hair salons to go around if had they been doing 10 kuai haircuts exclusively. Thus, when a foreigner with a different hair type walks in, they will also suggest that you do a deep care treatment using the exclusive German 威拉 (Wella) brand products, for about 250 kuai (which in my opinion is not really worth the money even after a competetive 20% discount. Pravit, on the other hand, seems to be quite happy with his 70 kuai perm, which does make him look more like the average Chinese on the street. Today, perms seem to be the norm in larger Chinese cities, as opposed to during the Cultural Revolution, during which asking for anything other than a plain cut was deemed Bourgeoisie.

The duck at 全聚德 was okay (but not better than any other roast duck we've tried). The portions were rather French, so for once we walked out from a restaurant rather comfortably full.


In the evening, we left for 大同 (Datong), with a slightly delayed train from Beijing West Railway Station (itself another example of quite magnificent socialist architecture). The trip itself was quite horrid, but since we're young and vital, we managed well. Having realised that the trains between Datong and Xi'an (our final destination) were few, slow and only offered 无座 (no seat), we started discussing the possibility of going back to Beijing to take a Z-train to Xi'an. In despair, we got in touch with the CITS (China International Travel Service, another great socialist institution), whose staff seems mostly preoccupied with playing card games on their computer and never really managed to help us before. This time, however, the CITS guy got us (slightly overpriced) coach tickets on a sleeper(!) coach to Xi'an for the same afternoon. The sleeper coach was unexpectedly comfortable, and the communal TV screens provided a mix of Mainland, Hong Kong and Thai(!) entertainment (all dubbed into Mandarin), most of which dated back to the early 90s.


We arrived in Datong around 5am. The town itself is quite picturesque, possibly a role model for other medium-sized cities throughout the People's Republic (based around the coal-industry, with huge squares and a shining town hall decorated with Mao quotations urging the people to struggle in Marxist-Leninist spirit).





However, the main reason we came here was to visit the 云冈石窟 (Yungang Caves). The place is absolutely magnificent, and anyone having the opportunity to come here should definitely do so. (The beauty of this place simply does not come out on picture...)