Finishing off in Xian (and through Chengdu to Mount Emeishan)
So on Friday I did the Terracotta warriors as previously covered. Saturday I am trying to remember why I had a late start. I think it was sorting out dull stuff like laundry and looking at practicality of flying to Chengdu if I needed to. Reports were continuing to be bad on the nature of the train line... I got to the Shaanxi Museum of History at about 1-2ish though and was a bit confused if I was in the right place. The guide book said the displays were in English as well as Chinese but there was no signs on the outside in English so I was a little confused for a while if I was even in the right place...
The only English I saw was a sign saying tickets and then I realised there were about 200 people queuing and no sign of people going through at a decent pace... So I decided to instead walk down the road to where I knew the Big Wild Goose Pagoda was that I intended to see. It was a horribly hot day and the half mile walk was quite overwhelming. Walking in China has taught me to seek out shade wherever possible...
The plaza outside the pagoda and temple complex was a nice place. I was initially confused by the area marked as "music fountain" or similar on the map. It looked wet and I wondered if it was supposed to be pools of water but then I noticed there were drains at the side. I thought no more of it though until later...
I made my way to the entrance to the pagoda. It was an old temple complex that was still active in parts. I wandered around the buildings (I'm a fan of temples, I've discovered) and took in the atmosphere. I found a place that allowed you to write wish/prayers on a thin piece of wood which would later be prayed at/with/something by some very holy Buddhist types and then burnt to make your wish come true... At least I think that's what they were saying. The upshot was though that I paid 30 RMB (profits to charity that builds children's schools) and wrote a wish and left it there with all the others.
Then I had a quick wander around some of the more active buildings in the temple. No photos allowed in many of them and although I'd be willing to ignore that in museums and such like it seems very wrong to do so in holy places... :)
Then I paid the little extra to go up the pagoda itself. As I was wandering around the low levels I was much perplexed when I saw something in the sky ahead of me evaporating into nothing. I'd only caught a glimpse of it and was a bit confused until it happened again and I realised it was a jet of water coming up from below. It was as I climbed the tower and got a better view that I realised what was going on. The music fountain I'd seen mentioned was loads of water jets that sprayed in time with the loud classical music that I could hear booming out in the background. I got some nice photos from the tower but it was a shame that I wasn't able to be watching it from closer.
The tower itself was uninteresting. They hadn't bothered to translate most stuff into English so it was some pretty pictures of other pagodas and then the views from the top of the tower. Which were, I have to admit, very impressive (though as with everything obscured by smog/mist/whatever). So after that I made my way down and wandered out of the place and back to the museum which shut at six. Or so I thought...
I did get to the museum later than I intended but it was still just before 5. Unfortunately it looked like the ticket office and indeed the museum in general was shut with barriers pulled across the entrance. I wasn't that upset since as I said the outside seemed very non-English friendly so I was a bit dubious about the inside...
So I got a taxi back to the hostel, or near enough anyway. Just down the road was the big drum tower. This was used for marking out time during the night (the bell tower being used during the day). I wandered in there and had a look around at the enormous drums and tapped them a couple of times with my hand. They would have let me hit them properly but it was silly expensive (something like 50RMB to hit it three times) so I didn't bother. There was a stage area on one level where they put on performances several times a day but there was none any time soon so I didn't bother hanging around. The top level had an external balcony that you could walk around for nice views (including being able to see across to the bell tower).
I'd bought a joint ticket for the drum and bell tower but decided that after the drum tower (and my hot day in the sun) that I could do with some cool down time. So I headed back to the hostel for cold drink and aircon. And in fact after being there for a while some dinner. The bell tower didn't shut til 9 so I decided I had plenty of time for food. I didn't anticipate a 45 minute wait for my food though so I didn't get to the bell tower. This turned out to be good in the long run...
The evening was spent writing the last blog while chilling with people as mentioned before.
The next day I got up and pretty much first thing I did was to ask reception to check if the train was going to be running. She phoned the station and confirmed that the previous day's train had run fine so chances are mine would too.
So I then had some time to kill so I went to do the bell tower. The dual ticket I bought wasn't dated at all so I didn't expect any problems and I was right. Once in there were some big bells (and again I could pay to ring them if I wanted) and a similar kind of structure to the drum tower. Including the stage where they put on performances.
Having checked the time of performance there wasn't one for another hour and a half nearly. I dismissed it as too far away until I realised I had nothing else to do with the time. So I found a seat in the stage area and got my book out my bag and started reading. The next hour or so passed quickly and the show started. There were people in proper costume (no idea how traditional it was but it impressed me) and they played bells and other strange instruments - mostly string but there was at least a flute and another instrument that I couldn't really see from where I was sitting but I think was a wind based one...
They played many songs, had a girl dancing with fans for one of them and much to my surprise I realised a little way in that I recognised one song - Auld Lang Syne. It made me smile and I assume the girl announcing each song (in Chinese of course) had made a joke about it since there had been a laugh before the song started.
I'm really glad I hung around for it since it was very nice and I doubt I'd have seen it if I'd been there the night before instead. So fortuitous luck there.
After that it was getting to time to head to the airport. I headed back to the hostel where my main bag was being looked after and after a final e-mail check popped into Subway to get some provisions for my 18 hour train ride. I got the bus to the station and found my way in just about. Headed to my train and once at the platform began the long trek down to where my carriage was.
I had been after Soft Sleeper - the first class of sleeper services - but I'm not sure if the train didn't have them or if there was some communication problem while booking but I found myself in a hard sleeper. I'd already worked out from the ticket that I was in the top bunk but I hadn't realised it was the top bunk of three. The layout of the carriage was a corridor down one side and on the other side 11 bays each containing a bunk of three on each side. I stowed my big bag and took my little one up into my relatively cramped bunk with me. I then put my prodigious sleeping skills to work and probably slept for about 14 of the next 18 hours. The remaining time being spent eating my sandwiches and listening to my mp3 player (I have "American Gods" unabridged audio book on there which is pretty cool).
When I got to Chengdu I'd arranged for a pickup from the station which made things nice and easy and got me to the Mix Hostel with ease. Once there I checked in and started making plans. After a little while the plans changed to checking out of the hostel and getting on a bus to Teddy Bear Hotel at the base of Mount Emei.
So I managed that successfully and so now here I am. I've just spoken to one of the people who works here for advice on my route up. The route I've picked is apparently 5 hours of walking. This is the least you can do short of just driving straight up to the top (a 2 hour bus ride).
The suggestion is to get up nice and early and get the cable car up part of the mountain. Then walk from there. The suggestion is to leave here at 7AM so I can get the cable car about 8AM and then make my way up from there, hopefully before it gets too warm. Apparently its quite cool at the top though, about 16-17 apparently which strikes me as much more pleasant than the 35 odd I've been wandering about in recently...
Anyway, if I'm up at 6ish tomorrow I should head to bed nowish. Next update will likely be from Chengdu after a couple of days of mountain, many temples and so on. I suspect that Thursday will be a bit of a day of rest after early starts tomorrow and the day after. I'm not that good at early mornings, usually because I find myself going to bed as late... Though hopefully tomorrow night will be an early night since I can't imagine the Buddhist monks partying late or indeed there being much to do up there. I'll take a book to read or something but otherwise I'm mostly I think just taking food and water...