5June2009
Old capital adventure
Posted by oulin under: travel.
The uplifting railway broadcast music accompanied our train pulling into Xi’an station. It’s early in the morning, but the sun was already high warming the city. The city is surrounded by ancient city wall. Many old streets and buildings are well preserved unlike some overly done preservations in other historic cities. Buses were going in and out through the arched gates as if they were traveling through time. We wandered along the foot of the South Wall. People carried birdcages and practiced calligraphy on the streets. It’s easy to realize how laid back Xi’an people’s lifestyle is. We walked into some quiet streets shaded by old trees and vines. It’s very different from most of the major Chinese cities. By sunset, we went biking on the old wall. I was stunned by the view up there. The wall is about 10m wide on the top where we got a good look over the city. When riding on the bumpy bike, I imagined 3000 years ago how Qin Emperor over looked his people on top of those walls. When the sky turned into royal blue, red lanterns were lit up along the wall. I took a couple glamorous shots there lol…
After a good two hour walk in the Muslim food street, a big bowl of 羊肉泡馍 (lamb soup with small noodle dough inside) and a few local desserts, we went back to our 4-bed dorm. One of our roommates was an energetic light hearted young Dutch girl named Fem. She’s been traveling through south east Asia and China for 7 months all by herself. She also just arrived in Xi’an that afternoon. We all thought going to visit the terracotta warriors together the next day wouldn’t be a bad idea. Bus 306 took us to the area where they found the warriors. The bus conductor convinced to get off a couple stop before the terracotta museum and visit the Underground Palace of Qin Emperor to learn more about the history, culture, etc. We paid 20rmb to enter and saw a model of the Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum. Well, why not take a look at the real thingie as it’s on the way? 40rmb was requested at the Mausoleum’s entrance. There were a few hundreds of steps leading to the Mausoleum on the top of a hill. When we finished climbing all the steps, we were on top of a concrete platform without any gate or indication of the entrance to the tomb, just a few local hawkers selling souvenirs. We looked at each other with a huge “?” hovering over our heads… I looked to one of the hawkers for some explanation. It’s probably not the first time he saw bewildered tourists like us. He smiled and said, “This is it! The tomb has never been opened. No one knows what’s like inside.” I believe >_< was how I looked like at that moment. How often we told ourselves not to be a foolish tourist to visit popular sightseeing spots?? I complained about this at the exit to the ticket collector. We cracked up when he responded: “The whole Xi’an’s tourism industry is a scam.” We headed toward the terracotta warrior museum hoping there will be a “Wow” there. The most interesting thing I found out was that the warriors were painted when they were dug out. 
The colors were oxidized shortly after they were exposed and became the light gray color. Imagine standing in front of a warrior and seeing his color fade away. What a magical moment… 3000 years’ glory and magnificence elapse upon waking up from a 3000 year old dream.
Fem and Abram certainly share the same passion for adventure and excitement from extreme situations. Abram found a blog written by an American dude who climbed Huashan and was scared the hell out of himself walking on the plank on top of the Huashan South Peak. There’s no use to resist Fem’s passion and sweet encouragement. I was talked into doing the same things that American did the next day, even though my throat went dry from just looking at the photos on the blog. I am afraid of height. I have never been on a roller coaster in my life before. And now I’m going to challenge myself by hanging my body on a harness on the 2000 plus meter high cliff. Hmmmm…
An Austrian guy Roman joined our adventure the next morning. After some complication, we finally arrived at the foot of that epic mountain. It looked a lot like Huangshan from distance. The scenery on the way up was breath taking. We got to the first challenging spot (鹞子翻身)on the East Peak where we hiked down a 95 degree cliff perhaps 10m high from the ground. I was doing fine. It wasn’t as hard as we imagined because it wasn’t that deep and we used the harness that made it almost easy to do. I felt more comfortable about the plank then. Same at the plank (长空栈道), we stored our bags and put on the harness, hiked down another 95 degree cliff. Voila! A few holes carved into the rock in order to get you over to a thin wood board about 30cm wide attached to a huge rock. The rock was overhanging above the valley about 2000m deep! No safety net. All we could hold on to are our harnesses and the safety rope hooked on the rock. It was definitely one of the most “scary” and exciting moment we have experienced. My legs were shaking when I stepped on the board. I looked at Fem who’s in front of me. She was already leaning backward hanging her body outside of the board. Her feet were half way out in the air, pushing at the edge of the board. Her eyes were close and her face reveled in the late afternoon orange sun light with a heart melting smile as if she’s flying freely in the air. I envied that. I wanted to be able to enjoy it as she did! But no matter how much Fem was encouraging me, I just couldn’t move my legs even just one center meter closer to the edge of the board. I shook my head and grabbed my harness even tighter. She came over to put her arms on my back: “Don’t worry. I have you. Just hold on to the harness and lean back! Nothing will happen. You will be just fine!” “Damn it! I’ve got to at least try!” I think. I closed my eyes, slowly leaned out then leaned backward. I felt Fem’s arms supporting my back firmly. I opened my eyes and noticed Fem’s face was turning, I saw the tip of trees on the side, half of my body was outside of the board!!! I couldn’t help pulling myself back to the rock immediately. But, WOW!!! I DID it! Hahahaha… Although my legs were shaking and my heart was pumping so hard as if it would burst out of my chest, I felt HAPPY! 
I wanted to do it again! And I did! Hahaha…At the end, we might have spent an hour just on that board, hanging ourselves out in different poses taking tons of pictures. The height and danger no longer feared us. Instead, we had so much fun! We were laughing and cheering so much. It was definitely a highlight of the trip so far. I was so happy we did it! Especially thanks to Fem！
Our overnight train to Lanzhou was leaving at 1030pm that evening. We had just enough time for a quick shower and exchange of thousands of photos from the mountain after we got back to the city. We waved goodbye to our new friends and got on our journey again.
* for more photos please go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621891998808/
