The last four days...

Well, I've walked the Great Wall of China (a small segment of it) and it definitely lives up to all the hype. It's really an amazing experience. The views from the wall are incredible, of the surrounding landscape. The same day we also saw the Ming Tombs, and went to an amusement park called Nine Dragons or some-such. The bus ride there was... interesting. We're still getting used to the driving--Pan-Pan especially. The lanes are more suggested than official, it seems, with rick-shaws pulling everything from rags to babies swerving and veering in front of each other, in front of oncoming buses and trucks and bikes. Like I said in my last post, you definitely have to be sharp to be on the road. If you aren't sharp, you WILL get in an accident.

Beijing is a great city and I'm going to miss it. We spent a lot of our last day with Yan-Yan, Pan-Pan's cousin, and she showed us around the University of Beijing. We even had a meal in the cafeteria--it was really interesting. Yan-Yan was extremely helpful. She came to the train station with us at night, which is an utterly massive, baffling structure, and even went into the train with us to make sure we were settled ok. The crowds waiting for the trains were simply overwhelming. We arrived in Luoyang yesterday morning, at 7:40, after taking an overnight sleeping train from Beijing. The sleepers are comprised of rooms of six bunks each, with three bunks stacked on top of each other on either side. It was a very interesting experience, and worked out really well, because we didn't have to spend the 10 hour train trip awake.

Luoyang isn't the prettiest of cities, but it's still relatively green in some places. Actually, it's arguably just as attractive as Newmarket or a place like this--it's sprawling, with none of the central planning of Beijing (it seems), but there are still the wide boulevards with green space in the middle. And everything is vibrant as usual. The people are only marginally impressed by me, probably because this city is a fairly hot tourist spot (relatively speaking). Still, people stare, and seem to find me (and particularly me walking with Pan-Pan) interesting. We're both getting used to the spitting. People are always horking and spitting--it's just natural. Last night at the restaurant, somebody even spat on the floor right in front of us. Nobody cared or notice, except poor Pan-Pan who lost her appetite.

Luoyang has possibly had my favourite sights. The Longmen Caves, with the giant Buddhas carved into the rock cliff, were spectacular. We went to the first Buddhist temple in China, which is still active, with monks strolling around or tending the lush gardens. And yesterday we went to the Shaolin temple, famous for its martial arts. This was my favourite sight so far. We saw some martial arts performances and legions of youngsters training in giant fields. The martial arts performances were out of this world--I have some great video of it (my camera is working fantastic). And we were driving by some half-pickup truck, half-rickshaw thing to the foot of a small mountain, or hill, and climbed for about an hour (it seemed) to see Bodhidharma's Cave, who was said to have brought buddhism to China from India in 100 AD. He is said to have sat in the cave in meditation for nine years, and then he taught martial arts styles to the monks at the Shaolin temple. It was really significant for me because I have studied Bodhidharma (first patriarch of Zen) and of course knew the story about his cave, so to have seen the cave, to have been inside it and have lit incense at the foot of his bronze statue, with a couple monks strolling around outside, or reading texts, was an incredible experience for me. I never thought I'd see his cave, let alone be inside it, lighting incense.

Pan-Pan and I are having a great time and still loving the food. The dinners are amazing but we both have a soft spot for the cheap (a matter of cents), greasy things you get from little places in the alley ways.

Today (in half an hour) we're taking a five hour train to Xian and beginning the next leg of the journey. The pace of travel is very quick, it seems that as soon as we get familiar with a place we're leaving. But that's ok. I'm excited for Xian but more excited for the boat we'll be taking on the Yang-tse river, and for meeting PP's family in Chengdu. Then we'll be able to relax for a little while, eat some delicious food, do some reading, and do a wash!