Xian

Xian, 2 October.

I thought smog in Bejing was bad. What an ignorance! the sky there is blue. One hour out of Bejing by bullet train and you can hardly see 500 meters with a dark grey sky that resembles an early setting sun. Farmers are working in the fields still pulling a plough with two persons, no animals.

This morning we revisited Tienamin square to taste the atmosphere while the 65th birthday of the communist rule was celebrated. Much more people out now with a nice sun and people superficially looked happy and joyful. Making pictures and buying trinkets for the occasion. Security was not slacked, on the contrary. We felt a bit claustrophobic in the queue for security check into the square, while we still had found the least busy queue (others were about 1 km long). Old people dressed in their Mao blue dress could be seen, disabled persons in wheelchairs with medals around their necks and groups of people from the countryside. Obviously poor farmers judging by their clothing, total lack of mobile phone or any other electronic gadgets. But still all wanting to see the wonders to be seen in a likely once in a lifetime trip to the centre of power of their vast country. Outside the hall of the people, we decided not to join that queue due to even more severe restrictions to leave all bags behind and warning not to carry pamphlets or any other dangerous materials. In stead we people watched and saw one weathered farmer, lonely waiting for something. At that time we guessed he had lost his family and was contemplating how to get reunited with them. 10 minutes later we learned the real reason for his ambling, only after we had already been checked by some secret police coming out of some alley and alerted through the many cameras that a couple of foreigners were suspiciously staying in one spot (everyone else moved on).

A whoosh sound and our lonely farmer had managed to spread about 100 pamphlets in the air and spread them over about 10 square meters right in front of us. Within seconds the whole area was swamped with police arresting our protesting farmer, collecting the pamphlets, while i managed to make some pictures and grab one of the leaflets and push it in my pocket, naively thinking to be unnoticed. However when all had returned to normal, in 30 seconds, a guy dressed in a blue unsuspicious jacket had grabbed a policeman and pointed me out as the dangerous foreigner in possession of the dangerous leaflet. When they threatened to take me to the bureau out of sight I gave in and handed them the leaflet, much to my regret. I got away with that, but for precious little effect the farmer may get years of imprisonment. Julie and I both had enough for the moment of this regime.

This was the guy who pointed to me with a policeman at his site insisting I gave up the leaflet.

Below the arrested leaflet thrower (hghly illegal to photograph, now I cannot come to China anymore).

Xian, 8 October 2014

The massive walls of Xian, at the top 12 m wide, surrounding a big inner city.

Family planning in China gets a macabre aspect: one child policy enforced by fines of 6-year salaries for having more than one child, forced abortion... However twins are not fines.

Communication in China is excelent (apart from the eavesdropping). Here someone is making splices in fiber optic cables in the streets.

The terracotta army was: as expected..

But the crowds were there too..

Humanity's history is following a crooked path. The terracotta warriors here in Xian are evidence of a magnificent craftsmanship and an early well organized state. The young rulers at that time could only have achieved these feats by having an open eye for the well-being of their citizens. After thousands of years, humanity has gained a vast amount of knowledge but states seem not to learn from history. At least if you measure a state by their ability to improve the overall well-being of its participants. Communist China has re-purposed the imperial power structure for the well being of the elite and sharing just enough with the masses to keep them from revolting, the USA has made a mockery of democracy by setting it up for sale to the elite and corporations that shamelessly pursue their own interests.

Traveling does open your eyes but I am not sure if I want to see. There is so little time to avoid disaster of climate change and depletion of our resources, so much has to change -still possible-. But I do not believe in miracles.

Evolution is also called survival of the fittest. And survival it will be.

Xian is a huge city, stretching out for tens of kilometers around its old and massive city walls already protecting a large space to European standards. Julie counted 57 unfinished skyscrapers on the 24 km ride to the terracotta army just on one side of the road.

A little anecdote: as usual in any new country, I bought a sim card for local internet (100 Yuan). Not realising that it contained some eavesdropping code from the Chinese secret police I did get a lot of strange things happening on my Ipad when that sim card was inserted. Regular disruption of my VPN link or any connection I tried to establish, these I attributed to a bad quality internet. Strange as the speed was at times very good. Only when data on my Ipad itself was changed did I get suspicious (the expiry date of offline maps of Googlemaps all of a sudden had triggered). When I took the Chinese SIM card out, the connections were very much more stable, the expiry date of my off-line maps was back to its old date and in general the speed increased! We feel sorry for the many Chinese who have to live with this surveillance, some not realizing it and others in real fear of actual and nasty prosecution.

Xian, 8 October 2014

Most old things in China have to be uncovered, either from under millennia of clay deposits or from under the building frenzy that laid layers of concrete housing blocks over ancient palaces. An example of the last is the Tang dynasty's capital and forbidden palace, equal to Bejings forbidden palace. From the metro we walk along a kilometer long wall topped with 'Nato barbed wire' on the inside and manned watchtowers; obviously a prison. The next block should be the Daming park which houses the capital of the Tang dynasty, 1 km wide and 3 km long. The area was home to many hutongs (urban villages) until 2008. Then the party decided that the glorious history of Xian should be restored and all Hutongs were removed and this new park was opened in 2012. Now a vast empty area with some young trees, sculptures and very little visitors. Two rows of buildings, kilometer long, intended as restaurants or shops were unused and falling in disrepair, a large childrens playground was eagerly expecting its first child. And we had to walk half a mile to find an opening in the fence to get into this park. An educational experience to see more people raking falling leaves, just before autumn started, than visitors were in the park. We enjoyed many modern sculptures made to revive memories of the past, missing the irony of modern art. Now it became a industrial sized Disneyland a la mode China. Julie could not resist playing games with the environment and, as nobody noticed, we had a fun time.

At the edge of the park the people from the hutongs around it that had survived the bulldozers were enjoying themselves playing music and singing traditional Chinese opera songs with more passion than talent. To our ears it sounded like fighting cats so we refused to present our western version of opera, fearing it would sound similar in Chinese ears. Nonetheless from both sides we had great fun despite the fact that we did not understand a word of each others language.

Cameras everywhere

and heavy smog

Communication is always possible, even without a common language.

Xian, 9 October 2014

There are those days.... It felt like someone had punched me hard in the stomach this morning after a night with little sleep and much time sitting on the toilet. I do not need to explain further I guess. You expect it in countries like China but this did not come from the many street stalls we used to buy food but from a respectable western youth hostel. Ah well, I am lucky it did not happen earlier.

So today was a day of relaxing. No extensive walks through endless parks. In stead a visit to the calligraphy market of Xian, a place with no western tourists and an astonishing amount of shops and stalls all selling brushes, ink stones, paper and paper weights or anything a wannabee calligrapher needs. I can now announce that Julie is such a one however I doubt that we will see much Chinese characters coming from her brush.

Tomorrow will be dedicated to a bus ride to the Wudang mountains; an exciting trip of half a day riding to hopefully less smog pollution and some nice sights and new insights of China and its culture.