May 16-22: Chengdu & Xi'an

May 16th marked our one year annivesary of unemployment.  We didn't do anything out of the ordinary to celebrate as every day is special, but it did get us thinking about coming home.  We've been increasingly excited the last couple weeks to get back into things.  I'm itching to start building things again and have been doing some preliminary designs for a couple iphone apps.  Allison's similarly eager to jump back into education reform.  This accompanied by the desire to try and find a house has made us change our travel plans and we're coming home a month early!  That means we're cutting out Western China and Mongolia, which likely would have been amazing, but we'll just have to save them for another trip...

From the Tibetan plateau we bussed down, down, down to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu.  Chengdu is famous for primarily two things, incredibly spicy food as it is the heart of Sichuan cuisine and as the home to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.  Since Indonesia our spice tolerance/addiction has gone way up, to the point where we're putting chili sauce on toast in the morning and are really looking for a spicy meal for every meal.  We finally met our match with the Chengdu hotpot, a steaming oily broth filled with hundreds of chopped chili peppers, in which you dip and cook your veggies or meat; a kind of massochistic fondue.  While incredibly delicious and fun, we did have to take a break from the spice the next day.

Giant pandas really are as cute as you think.  With only 1000 left in the wild, the breeding center in Chengdu is the most cutting-edge Panda research center in the world attempting to keep the species around for future generations.  Besides the obvious main problem of encroachment on their natural habitat, what makes things especially difficult is just how lazy these creatures are.  They get so little nutrition from the bamboo that makes up the entirety of their diet, that they barely move all day and don't have the energy even to procreate!  So the center is resorting to techniques as extreme as in vitro fertilization.  It's not looking good for the giant panda's future.  The less well known red panda is on the other hand decidedly not as cute, looking more like a raccoon's relative.  There appears to be concensus on this, as the Chinese who are very adept at pricing things based on market forces, charge $150 to take a picture holding a baby giant panda, and only $7 for the same honor with the red panda. 

We spent the rest of our time in Chengdu wandering through some serene temples and playing with a new mode we found on Allison's camera.

Xi'an, home to the infamous Army of the Terracotta Warriors, is one of the biggest tourist draws in China.  It's really hard to grasp the immensity of the undertaking without seeing the site in person, with over 6000 life-sized figures in full battle formation, exquisitely detailed with every body and face completely unique, and the layout planned out as if there was a real battle, from flanking brigades, to a headquarters with generals facing each other as if discussing strategy.  These were all so that Ying Zheng, the first emperor of China could rule in death as he did in life.  What I found most intriguing was the incredible ego and vast swath of power this man must have wielded.  Taking 40 years to complete and employing 720,000 people, his warriors and the rest of his mausoleum were only one of the gigantic projects he undertook.  Beginning with the unification of all of China, which involved defeating five other countries, to building the Great Wall, this guy got things done.  The fact that this vast citylike mausoleum was only discovered 25 years ago and by chance as a farmer was digging a well, must excite and inspire all fledgling archeologists, as they imagine what other treasures are still buried under modern civilization.  Allison was most fascinated by the vast crowds, fighting each other to get the best photo angle :)

Besides it's most famous site, Xi'an isn't a bad place to spend a few days, wandering the muslim quarter with it's delicious lamb kebabs grilled on the street, and hiking up Hua Shan, the most sacred Taoist mountain.  The latter is an incredibly steep ascent, all stairs for about three hours, sections of it so narrow and steep you are literally crawling on all fours.  We climbed up on a hazy day so were not afforded the views the peak is famous for, but it was fun to be part of an important Chinese pilgrimage, the Chinese huffing and puffing their ways up having a ball of a time along the way.

As we cut a month out of our travel, we've decided to up our transportation budget.  Here is us on the deluxe sleeper Z train, sharing a bottle of wine and slurping down some delicious and filling instant noodles.  The best night's sleep I've had in months...