China Journals 5: Indecent Exposure

Thursday; April 27, 2006

• Meet Julie, the Dominatrix
• Terracotta Warriors in iPOD
• Farmer Yang and the paparazzi
• Bell and drum tower
• Night Stroll
• Lotus feet

What really woke us up was the fact that the Chinese guy was undressing! He was changing his jammies in front of us! Something I saw made me wanna laugh even harder. He was wearing silk stockings! Hahahahaha! I dunno, maybe that’s perfectly fine in China.

As we get off the train (after doing some stretching exercise myself) we were welcomed by a smartly-dressed woman in her early thirties. She was dressed ala-anime teacher complete with glasses and snooty facial expressions. I thought this kind of person only exist in cartoons or Japan. Her name is Julia. She said it was her pre-school teacher who gave her that name. In China, if your parents did not give you a western name, your teacher will give it to you. This is why most western names given to Chinese are very common or sound old. Names like Frank, Allan, Tina, Joe, Mike, Johnny, Maggie to mention a few. The same thing goes here in the Philippines. My Chinese friends told me that their teachers also give them their CHINESE NAMES. Cool! What if you don’t like the sound of the name given to you by your teacher? (mas lalo na kung malakas yung trip ng prof mo) HAHAHA! Poor kid.

Julie led us first to a Terracotta Warrior souvenir shop. This is where we were briefed the history of the great archaeological find. One balmy morning, a farmer named Yang was digging a well for irrigation. He wanted to dig his well quite deeper than the usual when he struck something hard. He unearthed a figure of a man in an armor. Little did he know that what he uncovered would be one of the greatest heritage China has left for us to see.

The Terracotta Warriors Pit is considered as the 8^th Wonder of the World. Speaking of wonder of the world, doesn’t that title supposed to be for the Ifugao Rice Terraces, the Great Wall of China, Eiffel Tower, leaning Tower of Piza? SHIT! This is very confusing! My conclusion is every country has its own 8^th Wonder. Ego booster maybe? ( check this: http://wonderclub.com/AllWorldWonders.html )

After the short trip to the shop, it’s time to see the real thing. It took us another 1 hour drive to get there. There are three main pits of excavated terracotta warriors. This only meant one thing, WALK, WALK and WALK! It really wasn’t THAT impressive, the fact that each of the thousands of figures was unique (having different armors, facial expressions and features) and was actually replicas of the emperor’s loyal servants. After the draining march for history, we entered a 360 degrees viewing room. WHOOOPEEDOO! Terracotta warriors everywhere!

Lunch followed with extra tasty “THE USUAL”. We also had this sidetrip to an old community flea market. I got to try different street foods (don’t worry guys, I’m still alive). They were really tasty, and oily. From here, it was another walkathon. DONE!

We headed straight to the hotel after that for some well-needed rest. We were told by Julie to go to the city square at around 8pm. She said we could watch the biggest fountain show in Asia. Getting there wasn’t very easy. Yup, you guessed it right, another 2km hike from the hotel! Dane and I almost got lost getting there if it wasn’t for the loud speakers and the fireworks. IT WAS AWESOME! Too bad it only lasted for 30 minutes. After that, we had a taste of KFC in China. Side dishes are corn-in-a-cob and veggies. Their chicken burger has mixed veggies as filling! The Zinger was twice as potent as what we have here. Surprisingly, there were no complains that came out from our mouths. At least it’s almost western and doesn’t contain PECHAY!

After eating, the oldies and the young ’ems returned to the hotel. The cool and hip group of Francis, Dane, Jane, Jam and Droz opted to stay there for a stroll. Xian at night is cool as it is COLD. We saw Xian kids in Mohawk, blonde hair, studded jackets, rollerblades and who would forget those adorable bubble makers. We also saw opera singers, tattoo artists, accordion players, get-a-room couples and the other guys we see in Baywalk. (I’m starting to miss the Philippines) It got a lot colder so we finally returned to the hotel.

At the hotel, we stayed at Jane and Jam’s room to play cards. Dane was the perennial loser. Hahah! Feng Shui wasn’t by his side that night. OK, stop the cards, let’s have some good ‘ol Chinese ghost stories. What better story to tell than Kris Aquino and Lotus Feet! GOOD NIGHT.