Nov 17- China Day 3- Xi'an

We’re sitting here at the airport waiting for our flight back to Shanghai. Overall my feeling about Xi’an is that it is a very interesting place that I’d like to get to know better. Being on a tour trip means you don’t get to meet many people that are local- our guide is from Xi’an but she is university educated, which is not the average for the population of the city. Xi’an is very much an industrial city, with lots of people working in what Yo yo called light industry, and some in heavy industry. She pointed out many streets to us where the rural people travel in to do work and they eat and live on those streets- pointed out from the car, but I would have loved to have time to go down streets like that with a local believer and learn more about the people there.

Today we visited the City Wall, the Bell House, the Great Mosque, Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and also a camera store and a bank. And the Shaanxi Regional Museum. My favorite was the streets outside the mosque- full of market type sellers and interesting foods. We didn’t have much time there unfortunately, but I hope to hit some night markets in Shanghai to make up for it. J I love markets- they are my favorite way to shop!

I was looking for a sort of wheeled camera bag to carry my camera kit, as I mentioned yesterday, so Yo yo took us to a reputable camera store. Alas they didn’t carry those bags because there’s no domestic market for them, but I did have a fun “conversation” with the camera guys who drooled a bit over my 5D Mark II (they had the 5D) and we talked about the difference in price between what I paid in the US and what it would cost there. Believe it or not I got a better price in the States than I could get here in China! We had a good time, and I ended up buying a monopod which I’ve been in the market for for ages, because the high quality light metal versions with nice ball heads are very expensive back home. I don’t know how I’m going to explain the Chinese receipt to my accountant. J

China has an interesting history of islm which was brought along the silk road long after the first C’s came and told people here the good news. The mosque we visited was built in 700AD. It’s still in use by the local Hui people who are mslm, and we couldn’t go into the sanctuary (especially not me as I’m a woman and women’s place in islm is very low) but we were able to take some photos. Apparently they offer sheep sacrifices (read they slaughter the sheep) around noon, so I’m glad we missed that.

We also got to see the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, which is where the first sutras (Buddism) that came to China along the silk road are kept. They came around 600 AD. The pagoda is surrounded by an enormous purpose built city, which just opened in September and has new shops and restaurants and apartments for people.

One interesting thing I have to tell you about is the toilets (aka bathrooms). I know this might gross a few of you out, but you really can’t get a good idea what daily life is like in Asia without being introduced to what we affectionately call the “squattie.” Squatties are the eastern style of toilets. Rather than have a large porcelain seat on which one sits, squatties are a porcelain sort of sunken bowl, level with the floor, which sometimes can flush and sometimes not depending on where in Asia you are. Now you can see why they’re called squatties. They function as the name suggests- ladies you can forget about the problem with the hover method, because squatties solve that issue completely. J Actually in places where hygene isn’t a priority I prefer squatties because you don’t ever touch them. Some squatties in airports even have a flushing mechanism as opposed to a bucket with water in it, or nothing at all. Here in Xi’an most of the tourist sites have automatically flushing squatties- amazing. There are little signs on the stall doors with a picture of which sort of toilet is in there, so if you’re a Westerner you can avoid the squatties. I prefer to use them- it’s all part of the experience. However, today I came across a situation where I thought perhaps I should have looked for a western toilet. You may remember that I mentioned that my backpack weighs close on to 45 pounds- you can put 2 and 2 together and determine that I would NOT want to set my bag (or anything else) on the floor in the toilet with the squattie. Can I just say in all seriousness that an additional 45 pounds on your back makes using a squattie very much more difficult. If you don’t believe me you can simulate the experience by loading up a ton of heavy books in a bag and putting in on your back, and try to squat down and touch the floor and stand back up. Let me know how you get on. ;)