Finally, after 5 days, I have recovered some kind of rhythm (even though I am on vacation) and I can start updating the blog again. 🙂
The flight went a bit better than I expected. My stomach recovered just on time, and I did not need to visit the lavatories too often. I enjoyed a couple of movies (Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the classic Shrek), some short series, I read a complete The Economist, and played some Sudoku and other games in the on-board entertaining system. By the way, I flew with Swissair this time and it was the best for this so far. Movies on demand, lots of games (you could even play Tetris against other people in the plane!), and lots of music CDs in it.
I sat next to a german guy, who after drinking one Campari, one bottle of wine, four beers and being disappointed for the lack of sake, opened up his laptop and started working. I do not know how he could do anything at all… but I guess it is still a good thing not to have Internet during the flights… Otherwise, companies should start considering implementing by default a feature like this one in Gmail to prevent people from sending e-mails, not being completely aware of what they are doing.
Since I landed in Spain, I have met a couple of friends, been to the office, and come to Alicante to enjoy a familiar weekend full of home dishes and lots of children (big family). I am also getting used to some of the differences between Japan and Spain. For example, my metro station is not prepared for people carrying (big) luggage, you need to be extra-careful with your belongings in public places (otherwise you get robbed) or how you are treated in the shops (this deserves a longer explanation in a separate post, I guess)…
I will be used to this in a few more days… (I hope)
In a few hours, I will be in Narita Airport, taking an Airbus which will bring me back to Europe, after six months in Asia.. In this ocassion, the intermediate airport will be Zurich, and I will be arriving pretty early to Madrid.
This time, though, will be a bit tougher, as I am a bit sick from the stomach and have temperature, and I am not sure of my condition for the 16 hours of aircrafts and airport… Wish me good luck… I’m gonna need it!
More posts in a few days, when I get recovered from the jetlag, and back to some kind of normality.
The Terracotta Army is the main reason for going to Xi’an, but most of us take another day to visit the rest of the city. One of the main spots of this city is the complete wall surrounding the old city, and with a total length of 12 km. They are also open for the public to walk or ride a bike on them.
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Apart from that, I liked the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in the south of the city, and the Drum Tower, an impressive building in the center of the old town. The Drum Tower was normally placed in the center of the ancient chinese citiies, together with the Bell Tower, and were used to announce the time.
 
 
 
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I found also people in Xi’an quite more talkative and funnier than in Beijing, and even more English-speakers. Of course, I guess the fact that there was some festival happening in the city on December 25th night helped me in having a nicer feeling about the citizens.
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But what I did not like at all, and will be difficult to forget about, is the pollution. In Beijing there was also pollution, but not at Xi’an’s level.
 
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An image is worth more than one thousand words, but I will say that at any time, you could actually see the pollution at a few hundreds meter distance from you. Just amazing, but easily understandable after seeing from the train or the bus the heavy industrial area around the city.
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Pollution is one of the hot topics China should focus on. It is well known in the world the issue with the pollution, and it has appeared in many occasions in the news, like its impact in the Olympics, but they really need to do something with it… for the planet, but mainly for the Chinese. It cannot be healthy when you actually feel and see you are breathing pollution.
Right after Beijing, I took a night train to Xi’an. In China, it is very common to find night trains between main cities, and it is a very convenient way of travelling for many reasons. You do not need to got the airport (normally far away from the city centre), you can sleep reasonable well, you do not need to sacrifize afternoons in going to the airport, and waiting times and so on, as the train departure is in the evening… And it is cheaper, and you save some accomodation nights. 🙂
Any way, I got to Xi’an. You might not know what Xi’an is, but it is one of the ancient capitals of China, and is now hosting one of the most important archeological treasures in the World: The Terracotta Army. This is important not only for the size of this army: more than 6000 thousand soldiers and horses, but also because of the quality of each sculture, and their uniqueness: there are not two equal soldiers. Each one has a different face, so the amount of work needed for this is even bigger.
I wondered what the origin of this army was, and here we meet again with our friend Qin Shi Huang. I wrote about him in the previous post about the Great Wall. He did lots of good things… and he also loved himself too much, apart from being afraid from death. So, as he was soooo great, even his tomb needed to be protected by an army… I guess he realized that maybe such a large army could not be a real one, so he created a fake one.
This army was found in the 60’s by some farmers from this area, and the excavation works are still on going in the three different buildings covering this amazing finding. It can be fully visited and lies a couple of kilometres from the actual tomb of the Emperor they are protecting…
Call me stupid if you want, but I would not be surprised if this is just a small part of the army..
The last weekend trip before leaving Japan was Hakone. Hakone is quite close to Tokyo, and it is a quite typical place for a weekend trip from Tokyo to enjoy the onsen on there, and get some fresh air. Of course, do not try to go there in autumn with the red leaves, unless you want to feel the crowd, and pay a lot for the accomodation.
The first thing you need here is the Hakone Freepass, which is basically a transport pass for the weekend for just 5000 yen, including the train (1 hour) from Tokyo. Quite cheap, especially when you realize of how it is organized everything there… Basically, you take a tour around the whole area (mountains and a lake) using different means of transport (train, bus, cablecar, ropeway and boat) so synchronized that you do not need to walk not even 100 metres in each connection… And people just love it.
I think by now you have discovered I did not really like it. I liked onsen (I always do), and I found quite interesting to see the smoky mountains and the sulfuric waters boiling in the ponds, due to the volcanic activity, as I had never been in a volcanic area before.
The lake was also a nice place, and the temples, the boat, and the cloudy-sunny day, also provided some nice shots…
… but it was not really a must from my point of view, apart from the although it is really popular due to its short distance to Tokyo… and probably due to the valuable black eggs, boilt in the hot ponds, which they say, give 7 years of longevity (I guess this is extra time) per unit… I got my 7 extra years, just in case. 😉
