Beijing Huanying Women (double post, backtracking)

So undoubtedly you've run across the little cartoon mascots for the olympic games by now- 5 little animal-type-things known collectively as the Fuwa. they are plastered over everything here. there is a water spirit, a panda, a red thing representing the olympic flame, a sparrow, and a gazelle, with doubled-syllable names like "beibei" and "huanhuan" that collectively spell out the phrase "Beijing Huan Ying Ni"- Beijing welcomes you. when we got off of the train Friday morning, a sort of theme song bearing the same message was blasted at us until we left(Xia Che- literally "down car", in this case "to get off/out of a vehicle")

In Xi'an we went through the large Islamic quarter- we ate lunch at a place run by a Hui woman wearing a light pink hijab and a seafoam green US 50's style apron. the dish to try was a sort of mutton stew whose name escapes me, volumetrically mostly composed of cubes of soaked flatbread and crystal noodles, which was excellent- then a little fried patty of dough filled with a sweet paste that tasted like sesame and honey but had more colors in it than correspond to those two flavors.
we got some pomegranite juice (at least, i think that's what it was). people were selling the usual trinkets- also terra cotta warrior statues of all sizes, small birds in cages, art and combs and all sorts of things. we went through a meat market- halal killing, but a strong smell. we didn't manage to find the great mosque, but found another, and also went through a small daoist temple.

we went to see the Terra Cotta warriors- on very short schedule. i'd wanted to go in the morning to make sure we had enough time but that's not how things played out. we got on a bus and drove for an hour- most long distance buses here take on double roles and provide shorter public routes for the surrounding rural areas. the warriors are a tourist trap- we missed the ticket booth in our eagerness to escape the swarms of English speaking guides offering their services (we weren't going to have more than an hour and a half there to get back in time for our 6 PM train) and wound up walking up a fire lane to the exit, then back through the awful tourist market- a depressingly thorough display of commercialism. after a bit more wandering we found our way in. the tombs were worth seeing- thousands of clay men standing guard, unbeknownst to anyone, for hundreds of years. the detail was incredible.


the bus back took longer than the bus there. we got back to the train station- where we had to go back to the hostel to get our luggage, then return in a matter of about 30 minutes- and the rush hour traffic kicked in. i ran to the hostel from the bus stop and carried the two backpacks back while jorgen (unsuccessfully) tried to hail a taxi. we wound up yelling at a motor rickshaw (cart built around/pulled by a motorcycle) driver over the price 5 minutes later- the train was set to leave in 10 minutes. he did manage to get us there in 12, which was impressive and terrifying. we missed the train. however, we exchanged our tickets, with no hassle, for the next train- 8 pm, faster (Z class), and slightly cheaper hard sleeper bunks (we'd been ground level, we now had middle and top respectively, which were fun to climb to)- so we got some money back. we also were let into the soft seat lounge, evidently because we spoke chinese and the lady helping us was amused.
the train ride was uneventul- made friends with a 15 year old beijing native who'd spent a year abroad in Minnesota, were fascinated by the soft sleeper facilities on the cars connected to us (soap?! luxury.), and wound up sleeping through most of the ride (which had not been possible on our last trainride, and thus was also novel)- i read for a bit and then passed out, to be shaken slightly by the boy in the top bunk across from me climbing down as we started the slowdown approaching Beijing Xi Station at 7:30 the next morning.
Jorgen lost his guidebook in Xi'an on a conveyor belt security check, but we are able to handle things without it for the most part- plus shao bo is with us now. His father has been very generous to us- they actually got some olympics tickets- on saturday we watched the Rowing octo- and quarter-finals with Chengwei.
Friday night we went out to dinner with Shao's father, "uncle", and father's girlfriend at a buffet restaurant where you fry your own food at a charcoal-heated griddle at your table. got some squid- also some watermelon soup- watermelon, cucumber, noodles, cilantro, vinegar. actually quite delicious. we then started walking towards the stadium to watch the fireworks as the ceremony started- but stopped at a random electronics store, where a crowd watched the opening ceremonies on a huge screen TV. I think it was more interesting to watch China watch the ceremony than it would have been to be sitting in the stadium. the people cheered at the technical prowess and artistic creativity of the display- cheered at national stars (pop stars, Lang-lang the pianist, others i didn't know)- cheered as the national flag was brought forth by children in minority dress and cheered again louder as it was handed off to strictly marching uniformed guards- stood in awe as the fireworks seen heading towards the stadium on the TV became visible over the treetops on their way to the city center.

When the countries started to enter, we continued on our walk, and wound up eventually on the 4th floor of a hospital awaiting the view (for something like 2 hours). Red Guard officials that couldn't have been older than me were everywhere, including occasionally checking on us in the building. A few others (a couple, an old woman) awaited the display next to us. Beijing held its breath, and then cried out- we could see 3 of the displays from our location- the stadium, two street corners. I think Chinese displays are better composed than any i've seen. It was beautiful. Or maybe it was 4 years of anticipation. Either way.