Back in Beijing with a big snafu

The Great Firewall of China may have stopped me from logging into my blogger account but it's the Great Wall of the United States that I may have to fight harder with.  For those of you that don't know, I'm not American (surprise) and I don't even have a green card.  Every 3-years (sometimes every year), I need to renew my US work visa to even be permitted to enter into the United States.  The fun part is that they want you to renew the visa outside of the US (such as in Taiwan).  The other fun part is that one needs to schedule for an interview about a month ahead of time.  Well friends, I missed my golden week by 1 week (since I couldn't do it while I was traveling), and so there is a chance I won't be back in the US on time for my climbing trip.

Max is going to KILL ME.  I can hear his RAGING SCREAMS through the core of the earth.  This will also affect two other people (Adrian and Carlos) that we are meeting up with.

But don't fret yet - there is still a chance that I will be back in time.  I am going to try to schedule for an expedited interview so that I can still be back in time.  No guarantees, but there is no point in freaking out at this point.  If this plan fails, plan B would require me to change 4 different flights, which is a shitload of flight.  Only one flight currently has open ticket, and this means that I will have to pay at least $100 per ticket change for the other 3.

The internet connection in Chengdu was slower than I liked, and it caused a lot of pain for me to log on to any type of network outside of China.  Even the work internet was slower over there.  So what else did I do for the last two days?  On my way back from Chengdu I stopped by the city of Xi'an, which is rich in history and definitely worth the visit. 

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This was the main reason I went to Xi'an - to see the terra cotta soldiers that were buried underground for more than a thousand years.  Discovered by a farmer while digging for a well in a small village outside of Xi'an in the 70s, what was originally one larger than life terra cotta soldier turned out to be a whole army of them.  The first batch of them were excavated and kept in relatively good conditions, though they claim that the original glaze colors have been lost.  There is still a whole area yet to be uncovered by archeologists.  The new excavation method would try to retain some of the original colors, which is quite an amazing process.  One soldier would on average take about 2 years to excavate, clean and piece together. 

Right next to the terra cotta soldiers lies the tomb of the very first emperor of China Qin.  This guy was a hero and also a tyrant.  He united China during the Warring States Period where there were several regions in China, creating the majority of what is called China today.  To fight the Xiongnu (Iranian, Turks, Mongolians, etc.), he ordered the creation of the first  great wall.  When he died, he was buried in fashion, along with all his favorite concubines, servants, and even some less important relatives (thousands).  A huge mausoleum was built for him, with full size buildings surrounding the large tomb, which took years to complete.  Unfortunately, the buildings were destroyed 2 years after completion by a great fire (this happens a lot in Chinese history), and what is left today is just a mound of earth.

Another famous dynasty that resided in the Xi'an region is the Tang dynasty.  Unlike Qin, Tang was really accommodating of different religions and culture, resulting in a cosmopolitan culture.  Near the center of the city is a large Buddhist Temple from the early period of Buddhism in China.  During this period, a notable monk named Xuanzhang who traveled from Xi'an to India in pursuit of Buddhist scripts along what is now called the Silk Road.  Along the way, he met a lot of people that helped him get to India (along with some bad guys).  His journey took 17 years to complete, resulting in one of the best Chinese classics of all time called Journey to the West.  There is an abbreviated English version called Monkey if you are ever interested. 

Along with Buddhism, there are a lot of Muslims in Xi'an even today from the Tang era.  Their worship spaces look similar to the Buddhist temples, although the writings are different and they do not burn incense.  There are little streets filled with Muslim-owned restaurants serving Halal food, kebabs and so on.  There are women wearing headscarves and men with their caps, right a long with other Chinese without these accessories.

The oldest religion of all of them in China is Taoism, which also has temples all over Xi'an.  This is where Yin and Yang and Feng Shui come from, along with all the crazy superstitions that we Chinese have.  The original text for Taoism is actually not as complicated as what it is today, and quite beautiful.  Supposedly written by Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching is a long poetic piece of work describing the basis of "going with the flow."  Very anti-authoritarian, for those of you on that path.  It is one of my personal favorite.

On that note, I will let my fate go with the flow.  If I cannot get to the US in time for my climbing trip, then let it be a lesson for me.  And I can, then it was meant to be ;)