Day 7 - Xi'an - Get Me Out of Here!

My spirits are low today. Very low. Xi'an has completely taken the wind out of my sails. Maybe it's partly to do with the weather again, but there's something about this city and the people that I haven't noticed elsewhere. Nobody is smiling, there's no hope in their eyes, no look of life. I felt it, too, as soon as I got here and before I noticed anyone else's expression. It's not the poverty, either, really. This level of poverty exisits everywhere, but in Beijing, at least, the people seemed happy and content. There was light in their eyes. For living in such a huge city, the residents of Beijing kept a sense of community. The neighborhoods were like families. Here the neighborhoods are housing developments or run down apartment blocks. There are "massage" parlors on every street, and there's a seediness I hadn't noticed elsewhere while traveling.

I'm sitting on a street corner watching people go about their day, and there's almost no interaction among them, similar to the way New Yorkers walk to and from work, but here's it's done at about half speed, with no purpose or determination. It's almost as if they're walking because there's nothing else to do and no real place to go. Even the traffic is lethargic and I don't hear any car horns.

Xi'an is an ancient walled city and the walls, for the most part, are still intact. I feel trapped here. If you look down most streets in the city, through the thick curtain of smog, at the end of the street you'll see a brown, impassable stone wall. I get the impression the locals feel it, too. A lot of people passing me on the street regard me with a blank curiosity, as if to ask, "What are you doing here and how did you get in?"

I really just want to leave.

After a frustrating time tring to book a ticket to Hanoi (no, dumbass, I don't want to fly via Frankfurt, Germany ten days from now), I decided I should try to give the city a second chance. The focal point of the town and my first tourist stop was the old town bell tower, which is impressive to see from across the street, but quite lacklustre to walk around in. Just on the other side of a park is the 'sister' tower, the drum tower. It looked so similar to the bell tower that I took a picture from across the street and didn't bother paying the $2 to walk around inside.

But just past the drum tower I found the Muslim Quarter of the city and my spirits lifted a bit. Finally! Here was the humanity I had been looking for all day. Busy street vendors, the smell of food wafting from road-side stalls, neighbors helping eachother fix a shop door, smiles!! I'm a little sorry I was so hard on Xi'an this morning. After haggling for some art and trying lots of little food stalls, I toured the Grand Mosque and relaxed in its beautiful courtyards, trying to listen in on some passing tour groups.

After the mosque I found some more food vendors and then caught a cab to the Shaanxi History Museum, supposedly the newest and best museum in China. It had an impressive collection of artifacts from all periods of China's history, but unfortunately I wasn't in much of a historical artifact mood. I decided to eaves drop on tour groups and to people watch instead, which was much more fun. If nothing else, the architecture of the museum is quite impressive.

I had the cabbie drop me off at the south gate of the city. With the sun getting low in the sky I was hoping I could catch a sunset from atop the city walls, but I couldn't find any stairs to the top so I wandered around the South Gate district of the city. I couldn't believe it! More shops, antique and art stalls, interesting architecture, and busy with people! Happy people! As opposed to the seedy North, South Xi'an is a vibrant, clean, delightful place. This city is really growing on me. After some time in an internet cafe and finding some more street food and meats on sticks, I caught a cab back to my seedy hotel in the seedy north part of town. I'll be changing hotels tomorrow.