Cultural shock

Hello everybody! I wanted to write yesterday but did not feel up to it. I don't really feel up to it now but will give it a try... bear with me.

We arrived in Xian yesterday at noon, after a 1 1/2 hour flight. We flew Air China and the flight was absolutely OK, nothing good or bad to report. We were met at the airport by our new guide, another Chinese woman. She speaks better English and seems to be much more knowledgeable than the guide in Beijing. We got a lot of information about Xian and Tibet on our way from the airport to the hotel. I had not had high expectations upon arrival but the reality was even worse. In my eyes, the city is the most communist looking city I have ever set my eyes on. Awful blocks of flats, very old and not taken care of, true prisons for the body and soul. Very few skyscrapers and modern buildings, way behind Beijing in this respect.

Very "encouraged" by what we saw on our way from the airport, we arrived at our hotel. There were large groups of children in various uniforms that arrived there at the same time. We were explained that these were children from Hong Kong that were on an exchange program with Xian children. The hotel lobby was consequently very crowded. The hotel itself is good (for China standards, mind you!!) , it's a 4 star (called very unimaginatively "Xian") and our room is on the 10th floor. We thought that maybe the view would be wonderful from the 1oth floor ... but all we can see is a very very busy main street, two really awful, grey skyscrapers in front of our hotel which obviously obstruct our view.

Ever since we got here, I have felt particularly depressed. I continuously feel tired, I hate everything and I feel the need to shut everybody out. I feel the need to sleep all the time, the more I sleep, the more I feel the need for additional sleep. On top of everything, I have woken up with an annoying headache today which has not left me yet. I am afraid that maybe I am sick or something but I am told that it's "cultural shock" that I am suffering from.

Last night Alex and I had our first disagreement... over China and the Chinese people... But everybody is entitled to an opinion so maybe I need to state here that this is my opinion only. He seems to be enjoying everything so far.

We did not do much yesterday. In fact, I did not do much. Upon arriving at the hotel, I suddenly decided that I needed to take a nap - which I did - while Alex went to have a walk in the hotel's neighbourhood. I slept for about 2hours and I woke up suddenly to the terrible traffic noise coming from beneath our windows...

We then had a traditional dumplings dinner. We were basically served tens of different kinds of dumplings, filled with vegetables, fish, beaf, pork, etc. We even ate sweet dumplings for desert!! These dumplings is a traditional Chinese dish - it's nothing really special about it, after a few such dumplings, you cease to tell the difference. After the interesting dinner, we had a walk in the hotel neighbourhood - made bearable for me by the darkness outside.

Today we made a private trip, the same Chinese girl that was in charge with airport pick-up and hotel arrangements was our private guide. The first place we went to was called The Wild Goose Pagoda, which is a Buddhist temple, built some 1,400 years ago. To me it looked quite similar to what we saw in Beijing, but quite nice. The weather was good today - it rained almost incessantly, making the air cooler and more breathable.

The second attraction was a kind of palace, residence of some of the emperors of Tang dinasty, built around some hotsprings. Apparently this hot water was considered very good for health and the emperor and his spouse would spend many days there, just to bath in this water. We, of course, were shown the emperor's bath, the empress's bath, etc. Nothing really impressive and the scenery (which was supposed to be beautiful) could not be seen due to the tick fog.

We then were driven to a place where we had lunch - again traditional Chinese dishes. These places are typically made of a restaurant area and a huge shop where tourist can buy all sort of trinkets and other objects of various values (statues, decorative objects, t-shirt in this case, other clothing items, jewelry, etc.).

The last objective on our list was the famous terra-cotta warriors. China had a rather mad emperor, some 2,300 years ago - the first one to unify China. He had this terra-cotta army made (30 to 40 thousand terra-cotta warriors) and burried with him upon his death, hoping that these clay soldiers would help him continue to rule after his death!! We visited 3 pits - like 3 huge holes in the ground in which these statues were exhibited. The first one was the biggest (there were some 6,ooo such statues discovered there). The exhibition halls were very crowded, you had to squeeze and make your way through rows of Chinese tourists to be able to catch a glimpse of the statues. As far as I understood, these statues were actually put together upon their discovery, as they were smashed to pieces during a pesant uprising just after the emperor's death. They were discovered in 1974 by a Chinese peasant who was digging a well.

The lack of air inside these exhibition halls and the crowd made my headache even worse so I could hardly wait to get out of there. I was extremely happy to be back in our van and, some 3/4 hour later, back to our hotel and in our room where I took my long awaited nap.

This city is so polluted you just feel in your nostrils all the time the smell of fuel. I had heard that China was polluted but I'm afraid the level is much worse than expected.

Andrew, thanks for your kind encouragement, I will try to compose myself and enjoy the trip. The thought that it has to happen only once and it will soon be over makes everything more bearable!!

I miss you guys, I miss Europe, I miss just walking down the street in Brussels and seeing European faces and familiar places... I miss the comfort of my flat in Brussels... I miss......