Tag Archives: Xi’an

Chinese Wife, Crazy Chinese People, Travels, Uncategorized

The time we actually travelled somewhere in China (Jianmenguan Pass)

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Remember all the times I wrote we never managed to go anywhere outside of Xi’an during all of our holidays there? I must admit that is not entirely true as we have visited many places around the city such as Mount Hua, the Shaanxi wild animal conversation research center and the Zoological Park. These places are not that far away from Xi’an however once we managed it even into another Province: Sichuan! I had nearly forgotten about it but untill I stumbled upon the pictures. This particular trip was at the Jianmenguan Pass which has much history behind it (like nearly every other place in China…).

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Jianmenguan Pass with the fortress

We got to that mountain area by bus which we took from Xi’an. I don’t remember anymore how long the trip was exactly but I guess it was round 6 hours.  It was a small bus filled with many other people from our tourgroup, nearly all of them were in their 60s to 70s. As many of you know some Chinese can be rather noisy when traveling and this meant no sleep at all during the entire trip. Thankfully the bus had a small TV and the bus driver was so nice to play some Stephen Chow movies which helped to forget about all the noisy non-stop chatter and food throwing around.  Sadly we didn’t had the best weather during that time but at least it wasn’t raining when we reached Jianmenguan Pass. There we had the option to go straight to the fortification by walking for 30min or take a cable car half way up the mountain and walk from there 45min to the fortification and the little town behind it.  Of course there was also an option to get to the mountain top  where now also a viewing platform made out of tempered glass is crowning the top but that would have costs an additional 30 Dollars per person and there was simply no time in the schedule for it (tour groups rarely leave space for going around on your own).

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Mountain

Nearly the entire tour group decided for the option to go half way up the mountain and then walk to the fortification with only few people deciding on the shorter way. To our surprise there was a little extra for the more adventurous people after the cable car ride, the Birdsway! Me and my wife took it of course as we had no desire to walk on a normal street around and I quickly regretted that decision. First of all this path went up some stairs, bazillion of stairs to be precise. But that wasn’t the bad thing yet, not even when the stairs started to go straight up the mountain side with only a chain to hold onto. No…it wasn’t the worst part though it was very exhausting. The worst part for a person like me with Acrophobia (fear of heights) was when the small path leading up the mountain became suddenly 30-40cm wide with only a chain protecting against falling down the cliff side! As I am so afraid of heights I can’t really say how high this cliff side was so it could be anything between 30-100m. Even though the view was stunning I was terrified up there and it wasn’t helping at all to see other Chinese tourists leaning over the chains to take some crazy selfies.  I was just so relived when the path ended and the normal way around the mountain started again. Mind you, it was still exhausting as there were still hundreds of stairs going up and down but no more cliff side craziness.

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My nightmare (of course I don’t mean my wife!)

The rest of the hike was going through a beautiful landscape full of old cypress trees and from time to time some small bamboo groves. Needless to say the wonderful landscape and peace was always interrupted by some food stalls standing in the middle of nowhere clustered with dozens of tourists enjoying their 10th cup noodle (must be some kind of challenge to stop at every food stall and eat noodles!). Funny enough people always assumed there that I am from Xinjiang, don’t ask me why. In the end we reached the famous fortress at the Shu Road which enabled small forces to hold against huge armies due to its strategic position. Afterwards we still had to walk for a few minutes until we reached a little village located there and have our lunch with the rest of the tour group. What I still remember about the food is that the tour guide “prepared” us for 15 minutes during our trip to the mountain that every dish will have tofu and is super delicious, repeating tofu and delicious about 100 times. But yes, it was indeed delicious!

Do you have a fear of heights?

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Crazy Chinese People, Travels

Entering another World

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For people like me who grew up in little towns the buzzy streets in China in the evening is like entering another world. Xi’an is by no means a huge city by Chinese standards with its 8 million inhabitants but that is already 3 million more than the entire population of Finland.

When I arrived for my first time in China I was amazed at the insane traffic and the amount of people on the streets. The streets would fill up with people already in early morning time and decrease only towards noon when the temperatures reached near unbearable levels. It took me a while to realize that each street was filled with shops and restaurants, something I only knew from shopping streets in Germany and Finland. No matter in which  street I went they were lined with hundred of shops next to each other and people all around. But it wasn’t till my first journey during evening hours around  the small side streets of Xi’an that it made click and I comprehended that I really arrived in another culture.

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Food and more food

You see in the little German city I grew up the stores closed latest at 8pm and already before that magical time the streets were abandoned as if they had rolled up the sidewalks. In Finland it was no different except the occasional partygoers at weekends in Helsinki. So what made me comprehend that I arrived in another world?  It was already dark and those little side streets were packed with people. Not so much as for trying to still get some late shopping done but to socialize at the restaurants and street kitchens. Everywhere people were sitting outside on plastic stools around small tables filled with food and more often than not countless bottles of beer. The ever-present mouth-watering smell of different foods all around overloading the brain for a decision on what to buy first.

In Finland were we lived back then it was near complete silence at evening time. Only the occasional car passing by or some animal sounds but nothing more. I was so used to the quiet of the night that I walked around the streets of Xi’an with utter disbelieve on what I saw and heard. Loud chatter coming from the groups of people clouded around those little tables, some vendors selling melons on the street praising the quality of their goods, silent death scooters cruising around managing somehow not to collide with anyone and of course the awkward tourist here and there.

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Oh guess what, more food!

The city was full during day time and alive but it all paled in comparison to what the city was like during evening hours. It got dark by seven pm and this would mean in my hometown that it is dark except some street lights. But there in Xi’an it wasn’t dark, no it bright everywhere. Colourful signs at each shop and restaurant and nearly all buildings illuminated by lights reminded me on those old Hong-Kong movies I used to watch in my youth. Each small street felt like a treasure to be discovered as each one had their unique feeling and groups of people. Later on my travels to China I would always enjoy going out for a walk around the streets in the evening as it somehow felt special to me.

I know that this description of Xi’an fits basically most cities in China or Asia however that city has been the place I spent most of my time in during my holidays in China for the past years. Each time before traveling to China I get excited about the holiday itself but I am especially looking forward to those small evening walks and enjoying the food from the street kitchens.  This blog post has been existing already for a couple of years but somehow I never got around posting it. This post is pretty much different than my usual stuff as there is no Nathan, MIL or anything about my crazy family, just my experiences and feelings when thinking about time spent in China and enjoying the time there.

What do you connect with Asian cities during evening hours?

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Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Family, Mom in Law

Our Crazy Chinese Photoshoot

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Yes, we had also one of these photo shootings in China. Ours happened in 2011 during my first trip to China and I must say it was a very interesting experience. Not that it was such a  terrible day but neither was it such a wonder for us two to have it anytime soon again.

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It all started several months before our trip to China as suddenly my back then to be mother-in-law wanted us to have such photoshoot.  I wasn’t so against it at first until my wife told me how exhausting it will be and that we will have several trips to the office of this company in order to select clothes, surroundings, how many pictures we want, what frames and and and. I think you get an idea now what a hassle such photoshoot is. It gets actually even worse, when we finally arrived in Xi’an MIL took us the next week everyday to visit different photo shooting companies around the city to find the one offering us the best deal.

After one exhausting week of going around the city both MIL and my wife settled in the end for one company. After seeing so many of those companies with their sample pictures I could not even tell anymore any difference because, and I swear, all those sample pictures had the same models and themes so it all looked the same to me. I guess they just copy pasted them from some Korean company as all of them had some Korean text in the pictures. Sadly I do not have any example right now but the Chinglish they put in some of the photo albums is just hilarious.  The company we used gave us no weird Chinglish in the album however some rather unfitting English descriptions of the pictures. For example one picture in which we are standing out on a green field next to a tree it say “Narrow Alley in Chengdu”, alright Chengdu must be damn huge if that open field is a narrow alley!

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On our first journey to the office we decided on the themes we wanted, an about idea for the clothes, the price, how many pictures we want and other smaller details. The second visit few days later was for chosing the dresses for my wife. This took perhaps only two hours so it wasn’t that bad. Sure, those clothes were not the cleanest around but what you expect after hundreds of people have been wearing those before and for that price…then came the third visit which was also the photoshoot day. We had to be there at 7am to get ourselves ready. This meant even for me makeup! Whaaat makeup for me? They did something with my face for roughly 30 min and then I was apparently ready. However I did not dare to check the mirror in fear what I might see. The whole makeup session for my wife was a bit longer, about one hours of something hapenning, I really did not comprehend what they did but in the end I was able to see that  something had happened. Now the bad part is coming, chosing the clothes for me. You see, they had to find me the extra extra large ones so they fit on my shoulder and then fit them around my waist with tons of pins  as it was too big there. It was rather depressing and after this I also realized that I will probably never find suitable clothes for myself in China (and I have not find anything there to this day).

After all this madness we set out with a company van to drive to the countryside around Xi’an with the mountain range in the background. That day was of course once again terrible hot but we had at least blue sky, a real rarity during all my trips to China. During the outdoor photoshoot we had to change clothes a couple of times, do our wonderful fake smiles, fix makeup nonstop as the heat was melting everything but after half day we were finally able to go back to the city. Pretty much everyone fell asleep on the trip back except me as the seats were a bit too small in that van so I lost feeling in my legs within mintues of sitting there.

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No, we were not done yet with the picture madness. We still had two sets to go through. One was inside the studio with all kind of weird backgrounds and one was on the roof of the studio with some fake wooden structures. They even gave me a guitar to hold for a few pictures however this guitar wasn’t in the best shape anymore as it had only few strings loosely hanging and a hole in the side, someone must have really not liked this guitar. But after those seemingly neverending sets we were done for the day. After over 12 hours we were able to go back home. Some days later we went back there to select the pictures we liked/ MIL and my wife were selecting, I just sat around, out of the thousands they had taken and which ones should be further edited. I really like those edited pictures as first time since my childhood I have white teeth again!

After all this trouble I was just happy that this all is over. I really hope that I never have to go through this again as I am clearly not build for such horrors. However I am fearing that during our next trip MIL will have this great idea to get a photoshoot together with Nathan…

 

Did you go through a Chinese photoshoot madness as well? Do you perhaps know what is the thing with all the Korean in those photo shooting companies?

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