flying home tomorrow, which means time for an update!

  • the air in the beijing got considerably better after a few days. it turns out that

    farmers were burning their wheat straw after the harvest, because they don’t have the means to till it back into the soil. so the normal air quality in beijing is merely “staggeringly” bad, instead of “i just lost 20 years off my lifespan” bad.

  • saw an old industrial district that is now being transformed into an arts district. good people-watching. it seems that hipster artists look and act the same no matter where you are. common themes in the art: mao, communism, industrialization.
  • took the train to xian, which is like riding on a time machine, because shortly after you leave the beijing outskirts you see ramshackle shacks and peasant farmers bent over, working their crops.
  • xian is a neon tourist trap, but you can get to the terracotta warriors from there. the first emperor of china decided that he needed an army to defend his future tomb, so he press-ganged 700,000 people to build an army out of terracotta. so far they’ve found 7000 soldiers, but there’s more being uncovered.
  • train to datong where you can see the hanging monastery. in 500AD some monks got tired of being flooded out, so they rappelled about 100 meters down a sheer cliff, drilled into sandstone, and erected a monastery.
  • also saw the yungang grottos, where some other people got the idea of carving some caves out of sandstone, building huge buddhas (about 20ft high) inside, and then carving thousands and thousands of little buddhas into the walls of said caves. this was maybe the most impressive site we’ve seen.
  • hiked part of an unrestored section of the great wall. most of the wall is crumbling: the pictures you see of the wall are parts that have been rebuilt using modern materials. the wall crops up in strange places. we stayed at place where someone was sitting on some rocks, fishing. turns out he was sitting on the wall.
  • we’ve generally eaten very well, and for little money. i did get sick near the beginning of the trip. note: when having mongolian hotpot (which involves actual fire, like burning hot charcoal fire being brought to your table) be sure to cook your mutton thoroughly.

that’s about it. you can see some photos of it all here: www.flickr.com/photos/dalelum/