sundogg99

Not sure if I just lucked out, or if it’s a commonplace thing, but when I visited the Drum Tower, I happened upon a great drumming performance from a group of about 5-6 musicians. It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon, and there were fewer people in the audience than on the stage.

I should have known better.

As the largest city in NW China, Xi’an isn’t a cow (or camel) town, but I was nevertheless startled at how modern and cosmopolitan it is. On many of the tree-lined major boulevards you’ll find expensive and stylish shops, hotels, and restaurants.

The other big surprise for me was the large size of the original walled city. The Inner City is surrounded by a wall which is over 13 km (8.5 miles) in total length. From where we climbed onto it (at the South gate), we could not see either end of the wall.

If you want to see more than a fraction of it, the best way is to rent a bike and ride around the wall.

A Chinese colleague suggested we visit this place, and I’m grateful for the recommendation. For 105 yuan, you can get tickets for three separate sites: the Confucius Temple, the Kong family compound (“Confucius” is an Anglicization of the name Kong Fu Zi), and the family cemetery, where over 100,000 descendants of Confucius’ ancestors have been buried.

The Temple is the largest attraction and the largest temple of its kind in the world. It’s a big compound of multiple gates, temple buildings, and ancient gnarled trees. Fascinating, both bustling with tourists and pleasantly peaceful. Many of the large carved stone stele were toppled during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but have been pretty well restored.

The family compound is a warren of buildings adjacent to the Temple complex. The warm brick buildings enclose something like 463 rooms in which ancestors of Confucius lived as local royalty.

Finally, the cemetery is a sprawling forest of junipers, cypress, and who knows what else – it’s an act of veneration to plant a tree in this place, and there are an estimated 100,000 species here. It’s a short drive from the other two attractions and is located just outside the northern gate of the city. The forest floor is a continuous mass of burial mounds, some with markers, but the great majority simply topped with the natural forest ground cover.

The only downside to the whole place is an abundance of extremely aggressive hawkers of guides, souvenirs, and assorted consumer crap.

Westerners with any kind of budget will want to stay at the New Century Grand Hotel, located overlooking a lake at the southern end of the city. Enormous, opulent, and ludicrously cheap (rack rate is less than $50 per night). Good Western and excellent Chinese restaurant on site.

One of the nicest hotels I’ve ever visited.

http://www.ncihotel.com/english/en/xuzhou/xuzhou_index_en.htm

One of the most worthwhile places to visit in Washington DC, and admission is free.

In order to protect the fragile environment in this area, you are not allowed to bring food or drink on the trails in the Reserve. Eat/drink your fill in the parking lot before hiking out to the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

For reasons that elude me, smokers seem to think it’s okay to throw their cigarette butts all over the trail, though. Disgusting.

We walked around and enjoyed the landscaping, but the tasting prices were high and the wines not very compelling. Glad we didn’t drive out of our way to see this place.

If you plan to hike up this incredibly narrow canyon to the punchbowl waterfall at its head, be prepared to get wet.

It’s relatively easy to wade in the chilly creek (and you won’t have to wade far… maybe 100 meters) – you’ll probably get soaked up to your waist, but that’s way better than trying to scale the sheer, moss-covered basalt walls of the gorge. Every year people end up getting hurt or worse after falling off the walls in an attempt to avoid the creek.

Put on your water mocs, balance your stuff on your head, and wade. The destination is worth it.

Read Tony Cohan’s description of Xalapa in “Mexican Days”: it’s utterly captivating.

A cool, misty city redolent of coffee, Xalapa is nestled at 4000’ of elevation in the mountains above Veracruz and below the volcanic dome of Pico de Orizaba. A lively cultural and intellectual center, this city of 400,000 sounds like the perfect place to experience Mexico without succumbing to beach culture.

Plus, in 2005 many residents of Xalapa reported seeing an invasion of UFOs. Even space aliens want to visit this place!

http://www.rense.com/general66/massive.htm

For me, the train is the best mode of foreign travel – it’s fast enough to satisfy my need for near-immediate gratification, yet pokey enough to allow for gradual immersion in a new place. The view out the window is usually interesting. Furthermore, (3rd class Indian bogeys are a notable exception to this) train travel is usually comfortable and conducive to reading/writing/sleeping/conversation/catatonia. I sleep like a baby on the train.

The TSR seems like the ultimate train journey, which is reason enough to go.