Somewhere on the Globe

Xian - Honor Thy Father

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:57:19 -0700

It was early Sunday morning and I heard Marge gasp in the next room and walk in, quite upset, and then I knew. Before leaving on this trip, I had accepted the eventuality of this happening, had calculated what to do if it came to pass, but nothing really ever prepares you. Last time we spoke, he sounded quite cheerful, asking where I was, where I was headed, what I was up to – the usual banter, while I again reminded him that we’ll be seeing him in September. He seemed happy as he described his adjustment to life at the assisted living facility, his new friends, and his daily exercise routines to strengthen his body both physically and mentally.

He also enthused about returning home, to the place he’s spent the last 60+ years of his life, raising 7 wonderful children with countless meals scrunched together in our tiny kitchen, with our dear mother cranking out meal after meal on this impossibly small oven. For 57 years he always picked up the phone ‘ hello Pfeffer’s’, a familiar and comforting voice through all my formative years wherever I happened to be.

From Dad I inherited diabetes, his signature and a penchant for sweets and second helpings. He loved his family, the Packers, a good brat, super sharp cheddar cheese, an occasional old-fashioned and Late’s burgers. Fondly, I have the same acquired tastes. And now I try to recollect that last time we talked, and so regret not having one last chat, to hang on his every word, to know it would be the last time we spoke, to say goodbye. 84 years in this world, I only hope I make it that far and know that now he sits on my shoulders, unburdened from his unwilling body, seeing all the wonderful things we now see, all the while safely guiding as we move around this world.

On Xian City Wall

Had not a farmer dug up pieces of a Terra Cotta Warrior rather than water, Xian would not be the major tourist stop that it is today. Undiscovered for centuries, it was only in the 1980’s that full scale excavation was undertaken, uncovering thousands of unique life sized warriors, intended to guard the emperor Qin Shi Huang on his journey into the next life. Tourist buses from the railroad station whisk you to the site in under an hour, and what an impressive site it is. Consisting of three locations, the largest is the size of a football field, with trenches dug throughout and stoic clay warriors stacked shoulder to shoulder in an everlasting and dutiful vigil. Just the many years of effort and the conscription of thousands of workers is quite in itself an impressive feat to ponder. The building housing the largest site is also marvelously engineered, spanning the entire excavation with not a single column of support.

Really Impressive in Size

Many people are disappointed because you are kept quite a distance from the figures, more of an aerial view rather than being able to stand next to them and have your picture taken (although souvenir shops will let you pose next to a replica warrior – for a fee of course). For a close-up, visit the Shaanxi History Museum where many of the restored figures are on display. Here you can get nose to nose to a patched together warrior and appreciate the effort that went into deciphering these ancient jumbled humpty dumpty puzzles.

As you navigate your way out of the grounds, you’re assaulted with a bloated inventory of stores selling cheap terra cotta warrior figurines – in all shapes and sizes. In keeping with the misguided Chinese business plan of ‘if we build more stores we’ll sell more products’, recent construction of blocks of uninspiring concrete storefronts sit empty, soon to be filled by even more merchants hawking – you guessed it – cheap terra cotta warrior figurines in all shapes and sizes.

Fractured Terra Cotta Warrior at Shaanxi Museum

Xian, famous for its Terra Cotta Warriors, should also be famous for its heat, with temperatures reaching upwards of 108 the few days we were in town. Actually, we cursed the first few days in town as we were besieged with torrential rain, once getting completely soaked as we trekked around the ancient city walls, with no easy exit. A couple of local gals generously lent us one of their umbrellas as we navigated around the 6 mile perimeter searching for a way out – after all, it was built to keep the invaders out, so why should it be easy for us to exit?

Since we were running short of time and couldn’t squeeze a trip to Tibet into our schedule, we ended up staying extra days and visiting some of the outlying areas. One of these is the mountain town of Hua Shan, a short two ride away. Known as the most dangerous mountain in China because of its sheer cliffs, you are shocked with an initial ascent in a cable car to a ridge clogged full of tourists jostling their way along narrow walkways thousands of feet in the air. On the way up I had a sort of panic attack as my pulse quickened and my breathing became shallow, claustrophobic in a metal box swaying thousands of feet in the air (my brave wife covered her head with her shirt). Incredibly beautiful and incredibly scary, it rained towards the end of the day making the granite steps slippery and requiring even more caution, with many passages single file and dangerously steep.

Incense for Dad at Lama Temple, Xian

While walking home to our hotel after the hike, we met up with a group of college bound young adults, 17 of them to be precise, who invited us to join them in dinner at a local restaurant. Although only four of them spoke broken English, we delightfully shared a dinner of hotpot, a delicacy of boiling spicy brew where various meat and vegetable products are boiled then dipped in a spicy peanut/tofu pasty dip – then were surprised when they told us it was their treat! It was really a magical evening after an exhaustive day of hiking. Then, walking back to our hotel, we met up with a person we met on the bus, whereupon, we sat down and proceeded to indulge in a couple more local brews, engaging in conversations and enjoying all the locals milling around the food stalls under balmy Chinese skies – very magical and very memorable.

Marge and Olympic Torch

With 3 million+ people, Xian is a rightly popular stopover on the Shanghai to Beijing route, and it certainly has sites to see beyond the obvious and world famous warriors. The area is littered with archeological sites with new ones being discovered and developed every year. We ended up staying 7 days and were delightfully entertained and relaxed the entire time, despite the trying and sobering situation that developed during our stay.

Xian will always be a bittersweet destination on our trip, the place where we received the news that our father had passed away quite unexpectedly. You never really know when your last talk with a loved one will occur, far easier to take for granted that many more will follow, but nothing is so guaranteed. Delight in every conversation as the precious gift that it is and appreciate every word and moment as though it may be the last. Carry on all aspects of your life to make your parents proud, remember to hug your loved ones whenever possible, respect your mother and especially honor thy father. Rest in peace Pops………

This Part of the Trail Was Way Too Scary For Me

Colorful Temple, Xian

Hotpot With College Kids

This is Common Chinese Look

Candied Apples Anyone

Common Slit Pants on Chinese Babies

My Wife Enjoying The Scenery

Nice Group of Kids

Xian Terra Cotta Warriors

Very Scary Cable Cars

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Shanghai - Some Days Are Better Than Others

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:34:03 -0700

On the Bund, Shanghai

We knew something was amiss when the conductor came on board the subway car blowing his whistle and telling everyone to get off. Standing on the platform trying to decipher where we were, we located our destination on the Metro diagram and realized we were at least 20 stops from it. While pitifully figuring out how to backtrack, a friendly lady pointed to the platform on the other side of the terminal, indicating we should go there. Humping our way down the steps, under the platform, and up the other side, we waited for the subway, tired after a day of wandering on a couple of misguided adventures.

Nanjing Street At Night

Waking early, we headed out to take the elevator to the top of the third tallest building in the world, only to discover upon arriving there that the building was closed, only to discover later in the day that the building we went to was the wrong place (soon to be the tallest building in the world), that the third tallest building was actually next door, but of course no one spoke English, so no one could explain or direct us there (and of course, in my haste I did not carefully read the guidebook).

My Official NFL Jersey for $12

Then we took the Metro out to the suburbs to go shopping, which was relatively productive, although we spent too much time trying to find the discount eyeglass shop, which didn’t seem to exist where it was supposed to be. This was followed by a rather frustrating taxi ride back, where we explained to the driver where we wanted to go back to the Metro stop – ‘METRO’ we pronounced slowly, enunciating every vowel, inflecting each syllable slightly different – my hand producing a diving motion to indicate underground. Mattering little, the driver called his friend and Marge attempted to explain to him in broken English where it was we intended to go – again to no avail. Finally, Marge found a crumpled Metro map, located our stop and pointed to it on the diagram. Miraculously, the driver started exclaiming ‘Metro’, ‘Metro’, and did a quick U-turn in the middle of the street, the both of us wondering what magical, neglected synapse suddenly fired off in his brain – sometimes you just have to shake your head.

Shanghai Natural Museum

Shanghai is one of the most amazing destinations in this wonderful world we live in – home to 13 million people (surprisingly the 3^rd largest city in the world), with historical sites, the best shopping, skyscraper punctuated skylines, top of the line (and free) museums, colorful old neighborhoods, a splendid waterfront promenade (Bund), an exciting high speed train and efficient transportation - a curious and intriguing blend of old and new China, this is one of the most famous and entertaining cities we’ve been to so far. If you only have one week to spend in China, spend it here. In fact, to us, it would appear to be the most prosperous city we’ve visited so far – this folks is a booming town, with construction everywhere, a brand spanking new luxurious airport, malls on every block chock full of shoppers, pedestrian streets that go for miles lined with merchants, always packed, always festive. All through China you see prosperity, but here in Shanghai it’s taken to a new level. And still, we’re the only Westerners around – here roam the great well to do middle class of China, affluent shoppers with money to burn, where everyone comes to shop and have a good time.

Statues From 5000 BC

When we looked out from our hotel room, in all directions there was ongoing construction, more so than any other Chinese city we’ve been to so far, with dozens of skyscrapers in the process of rising in the air. Where we stayed - Sheraton Pudong - is on the East side of the Huangpu River, the newer and more modern section of Shanghai, conveniently located 50 feet from the metro stop, where everything seemed to have been built within the last 5 years or so. There are many things to do in this city, but number on everyone’s list would be shopping.

Pudong International Airport, Shanghai

There are three levels of shopping in this city – the high end, with Armani, Rolex, Gucci and the like – the ‘real’ middle, with legitimate Western name brands like Adidas, Nike, Timberland and so on – the ‘fake’ middle, with unimaginative copycat brands and lastly, the locally owned and low end totally cheap malls – places where you can buy fake Clark shoes, pretty darned good Rolex copies and Gucci handbags. Tucked away off the main roads, these low end malls deal in counterfeit DVD’s, and copy and sell anything and everything. We purchased two really nice Rolex watches for $70, a bunch of Louis Vuitton stuff and a knock off pair of Clark shoes. Honestly, stuff here is so cheap, it’s probably less expensive for you to book an airline ticket to Shanghai, spend a few thousand dollars and fly home – you’ll end up with more good things at less cost than if you bought back in the states.

East Nanjing Street, Shanghai

When we purchased our Rolex, we were given the name of a reputable ‘dealer’ from the manager of the Sheraton in Suzhou. Tracking him down took a little bit of doing, but when we did, he led us into his secret back room behind a rack of clothes, where he unscrewed a section of sheetrock and uncovered his stash of grade ‘A’ watches locked in aluminum boxes. Knowing what to expect to pay, we quickly got down to business and went thru his surprisingly large selection – many of them quite gaudy - finally settling on a nice set of gold Rolexes – hey why not.

Shanghai Skyline

But Shanghai, where to start – walk along the Bund, the historic waterfront promenade that separates old colonial buildings from the Huangpu River, and which historically served as a levee against the floodwaters of the surging river. Stroll along pedestrian East Nanjing Street past every imaginable name brand shop, with many side alleys leading past old merchants. Stop by People’s Square, visit the wonderful Shanghai Museum and the small but very impressive Shanghai Art Museum. Take the efficient subway to 50 Mogershan Road, a haven for local artists living and working in converted textile factories. Take a quick trip up Jinmao Tower, the world’s 3rd tallest structure, and gaze upon the new Financial Building right door, soon to be the tallest structure in the world. Hop on the hi tech magnetic train to the Pudong International Airport, reaching a top speed of 260 mph in the 8 minute thrill a minute trip. Walk at night among the neon lights along Nanjing Road and enjoy the balmy evenings with thousands of locals, wander through the French Concession and window shop at the multitude of shops lining the avenues – there’s so much to see and do and breathe in Shanghai, a week is not enough time to do it justice. We absolutely loved it here and were kept busy from early morning to late at night every single day – this is a city not to be missed.

Marge and These Crazy Mascots

From here, we’re on an overnight train to Xian, home to the world famous terra cotta warriors with a brief side trip up to the mountains of Huan Sha, finishing with an overnight train to Beijing to catch a little Olympic fever. We were hoping to tour some of the venues, but reading in the papers, it seems that due to increased security, they are now off limits to everyone – too bad for us. We’re still going strong and look forward to every new and exciting day, although at times China has wore us down…

Sci Fi Skyline of Shanghai

Ancient Grecian Pottery From 2500 BC

Mogenshan Art District

Old and Very Old

Perfect Little Porcelein Vase From 1400 AD

These Cute Gals Kept Taking Our Picture

Hot Day on the Bund

Tallest Building in the World

Hi Tech Maglev Pilot - Lo Tech Ventilation

Shanghai High Speed Maglev Train

Maglev Top Speed - 260 mph

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Nanjing - Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Chinese Blues Again

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:58:20 -0700

Marge At China Mobile

With the blue China Mobile sign seemingly on every other storefront in every town we’ve been in, you’d think it would be a rather simple matter of adding minutes to our cell phone. But such is not the case as Marge continues to struggle trying to ‘top off’ her phone. After all, there’s really only about three things you can do in these China Mobile stores – buy a cell phone, buy a cell phone plan, buy minutes for your cell phone – it’s really that simple, yet it continues to confound and befuddle the people behind the desk.

Every time we go into one of these stores, we show the phone, show the SIM card, and make gestures to indicate we want to add more minutes. We even show them the old cards we bought along the way and indicate ‘same-same’. We would undertake to do this ourselves, except for the fact that the instructions are all in Chinese, so someone at China Mobile needs to scratch off the serial number and call it in. More times than not, the people behind the desk shrug or shake their heads – ‘no no’ they say – cannot do, until we finally find someone nice enough to help us out.

Too Hot To Work - Chinese Pedicab

Nanjing (‘Nan jing’) is a nice little city in China (5.2 million), famous in prior years as a former capital and seat of power, with the founder of the Ming dynasty laid to rest in a nearby mausoleum. There are enough interesting sites to keep you occupied for a few days, and we were never lacking for sightseeing opportunities for the 5 days we were in town. Most importantly, we were able to stop at the Public Service Bureau (PSB), where we successfully acquired 30 day extensions for our Chinese visas at the rather exorbitant price of $130/each. Even though it’s just a piece of paper they glue into your passport, they still require the keeping of our passports for three days, something that’s always worrisome for me, since I don’t like to see our passports sitting on a shelf in some government office for that long. This completes our final visa hurdle, as we’re now allowed to stay in China through 23-July, and we’re leaving on the train through Mongolia and Russia on 19-July.

Each Little Cage Contained One Grasshopper - This Made The Loudest Racket - Who Buys These Things

Negotiating visas over the last few months has been relatively painless, although the costs do add up quickly – our advice is get the longest amount of time on your visa as you can up front when you apply – it may cost a little more, but it’s more efficient that way, and they certainly don’t care if you leave the country early. Within the last few months, due to the upcoming Olympics, it’s become difficult to get Chinese visas for new entry into the country, which seems strange since aren’t there a boatload of people coming here for the games?

So, what’s to do in Nanjing you ask? For starters, the must see site is the newly opened ‘Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre’ (free admission), a sprawling and well designed site detailing the horrific events of 1937, when the Japanese invaded China, seized the town of Nanjing, and proceeded to cruelly slaughter 300,000 innocent civilians. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this memorial is the site placement – built directly on top of the actual killing grounds of the victims, the burial pit is exposed and hundreds of skeletons lay about, a grim testament to this senseless act of savagery perpetrated by the invaders. Chilling photographs archive the horror of the siege, the events leading up to it, and the trial after the war of those responsible. The cruelty perpetuated by the invading Japanese is particularly offensive, with victims killed for sport (daily kill contests to see who could kill the most people) or used for bayonet practice, while many of the women were consigned to comfort stations where they were repeatedly raped. It’s no wonder the Chinese hate the Japanese – this memorial gives 300,000 reasons why.

Daily Card Game With The Guys

On a lighter note, there is a wonderful wooded park just on the outskirts of town that contains the mausoleum of Dr Sun Yatsen ($10), the George Washington of China. Early in the 19^th century he led the movement to overthrow the feudal dynasty that had ruled China for hundreds of years, replacing it with a new government for the people, with many forward thinking projects, including building of canals and reservoirs, transportation networks and public schools. Spend a few days wandering around on the well signed paths and check out the other sites – Linggu temple, the Beamless Hall, and the somewhat disappointing 14^th century Ming Xiaoling Tomb, unfortunately, closed for renovation (although they still took my money - $9 - and did not mention this fact).

Very Old Statues (3000 BC)

Closer in town is another free attraction, the Nanjing Museum, containing a notable collection of antiquities, including earthenware, porcelain, bronze, silk, gold and jade objects. We’re continued to be awed by the amount of cultural history that China possesses (and which wasn’t destroyed by the inexplicably revered Chairman Mao), with many articles dating back to 5000 BC, some of which I managed to get pictures of, although just about all of the museums prohibit taking of photographs. Well worth spending few hours at.

Next stop on our itinerary was the historic town of Suzhou (‘Sue joe’), famous for its centuries old gardens and nearby canal towns. We spent 3 quality days here and could have stayed longer - it’s more condensed than Nanjing, with many fanciful ancient gardens and old temples to wander through. One day we went to the village of Tongli ($11), a colorful and heavily touristed attraction just outside of town, containing an interesting assemblage of old buildings built on a series of canals that course through the town. Centuries ago, Marco Polo observed that it was the ‘Venice of the Far East’, certainly a fair description and worth a day to wander around. One of the attractions is the notorious yet fairly tame ‘Chinese Sex Museum’, containing a collection of things related to erotica through the ages – statues, porcelain paintings depicting, well you get the picture. I got a good shot of Marge with one of her favorite statues, hidden down at the bottom. One of the local artists in town was quite delightful, thrilled to be talking with American tourists, with quite a large selection of silk paintings for dirt cheap prices. We bought two, and then bought two more, then he painted our name in Chinese characters, then a welcome sign, then we bought another, him laughing and giggling the whole time.

Wish They Would Stock These Bamboo Ladders At Home Depot

Scattered throughout this lovely city are many very old gardens, previously owned by the wealthy citizens of the town, at one time, there were many hundreds, today a few dozen survive. The most impressive is the ‘Humble Administrator’s Garden’ ($10), set amidst 30 acres of wonderfully manicured gardens and bamboo forests, with water lily ponds tucked next to traditional pagodas and granite bridges spanning tinkling ponds packed with colorful carp – if only you could have the place to yourself – the trails are impressively packed with visitors, somewhat detracting from the peaceful atmosphere. There are other smaller gardens around town, although choose carefully, after a while they really are all the same and you could drop a lot of money visiting them since few are free. What is free is the fresh and modern Suzhou Museum right next door, containing a lovely and immaculate collection of ancient artifacts from the 3rd-5th centuries BC, very impressive and well signed in English.

These Sweepers Are Everywhere - Good Thing, Otherwise China Would Be A Dump

Every bit of news about America is really doom and gloom over here, while China sits amidst unparalleled prosperity. Editorials in the Chinese paper extol their new place in the world order, rejoice in the upcoming Olympics and sympathize with a decaying America. There’s a certain smugness in the Chinese papers that kind of pisses me off, like all of a sudden America is second rate and there’s a new leader of the world, and that’s China. I’m thinking of devoting an upcoming blog to nothing more than pictures of Chinese businesses and you can guess who they have ripped off for the name and idea. Marge said the other day that the Chinese have taken everything from Westerners but manners, and she’s right. We just wish they would have more regard for their environment – especially the common practice of littering by everyone, young and old – it just really frustrates us to observe everyone just drop their garbage or throw it out the bus window. More on this later…

Bamboo Baby Carrier

In this issue we’ve added pictures of both common and unusual Chinese day in the life, the ubiquitous electric bike and the guy selling grasshoppers in little bamboo cages, a typical broken sidewalk and so on. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, it’s kind of tough to travel around China (though very rewarding), and we’ve been fortunate to see so many great attractions, with so much history and rich cultural experiences to sample, each new Chinese adventure seems to percolate into the top five favorite places of our fabulous trip. Now in Xian, we’ll have more to report in a few days as we sprint into the last month of our trip through China – Xian and Beijing, with a side trip to another one of China’s sacred mountains – Hua Shan. I’m back to having poor connection problems with our blog, so updates have become spotty – when I do get it to work, I’ll probably post multiple entries just to stay current.

Ming Xiaoling Tomb

Scenic Canal Town of Tongli

Typical Chinese Old Garden

Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre

Relaxing in Tongli

Someone Else Is Shocked

They'll Be Replacing This Concrete Sidewalk Next Month

Zijin Mountain Botanical Gardens

Funny Artist on Tongli - Just Painted Welcome Sign For Us

Building a Wall - What, No Rebar

Canals of Tongli

Suzhou Museum and Bamboo Grove

Confucius Temple, Suzhou

In China ! - I Am Shocked

Electric Bikes Like This Are Everywhere

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