After a short break out of the country, there are always a few things that particularly strike me when returning to Xi’an. I find myself picking up on the easy bonhomie that exists between the locals here, the matter-of-fact directness within peoples’ everyday actions, and the fact that there is a noticeable sense of community: a feeling that peoples’ lives are genuinely interlinked.
1/3 from atop the city wall
These are just general impressions picked up from down here amongst the life around southern Chang’an Lu, but there were a couple of particular examples that did stand out this week; strangely, both came from the tennis court. My wife and I have taken to playing tennis once a week, as Ling is just starting to learn but does quite like the idea of making a game of it. However, as we were playing in our, for now, fits-and-starts manner, a small group of players next to us were confidently cracking balls back and forward to each other, while one of them – a quite determined looking chap in his early fifties – seemed to be offering the others some instruction.
Later, this same guy, noticing my wife was learning, just pulled her up every now and again to point out a few things she could do to improve. He wasn’t bothered that he didn’t know her, that it might offend her, or that it was none of his business. Ling also took it in the spirit in which it was intended: she paid attention and tried to apply his advice. This could of course happen elsewhere, but this situation was somewhat representative of the generally direct way in which people here do approach one another, and which I find really quite refreshing to be around. It is this directness and what I will refer to as a breezy kind of nonchalance that I have enjoyed feeling on the streets again here since my return.
2/3 from atop the city wall
That same week a mate of mine and I also decided to go out and whack a few balls around. When we arrived at Shi Da, we were fortunate enough to find a free court – something that is not always the case these days. Ever since Lǐ Nà achieved superstar status, quite a few more locals have taken to the tennis courts. Not long after we started playing, an elderly couple arrived – who we had met once before – and sat on the bench at the courtside next to us. Shortly after that, a group of young boys came over and started chatting animatedly with the old couple. The boys hung around for a bit and then wandered off with a few laughs and a couple of salutary waves. As soon as the boys left the elderly couple got to their feet and took to the court we were playing on, and proceeded to pretty much instruct us to play with them.
After knocking up for only a few minutes, they suggested we had a match. The lady played on my side, while the elderly gentleman joined my mate on the other side of the net. And so we played. The incredible thing, over and above the directness of their approach, was the fact that they were 76 and 79 years old, respectively, and that we ended up playing 2 sets together. Also, we two young chaps (relatively of course) found ourselves scrambling either to the net or to the backcourt in a floundering-like manner on more than one occasion. Amazing.
3/3 from atop the city wall
The long and short of all this, with the deliberate exclusion from consideration of the dreary and – depending on outlook – depressing sky that surrounds us here, is that it is good to back in Xi’an; I like it here and I like the Xi’anese. I’d been in two minds recently about staying or moving on, but I think I am leaning again towards staying, with the above anecdotes just being a couple of aspects of why. Plus, on top of all that, Spring is now not far away and for those of you unaware, Xi’an takes on a quite different hue once the flowers bloom, the sun comes out and those coal chimneys rest. So, as the old saying goes: All is well (even when it’s not).
Tags: Xi'an
A page of the more Xi'an Centred Notes
What Is It About Xi’an That Makes It Xi’an And Makes It The Place People Like To Live?
西安
I really enjoyed this post, and it explained something of the particular feel that Xi’an has. It wasn’t at all what had
imagined the city would be like. Bubbling, involved, cheery. Being a foreigner there was quite different from being a
foreigner in Zhejiang. Oddly perhaps, I felt much more accepted, or at least, just part of life. I was only in Xi’an briefly, but already miss it, my friends, and its people, terribly.
-Andy Patton, Toronto
Hey Andy,
I agree, Xi’an does have that way of never letting you forget you are a foreigner, but also strangely enabling you to feel at home and part of the life here.
I think the good thing, though, in relation to your own situation, is that whenever you do come back you will probably get that same feeling – no matter the superficial changes going on here, I don’t think the people are going to change that much.
Take it easy, wherever you end up.
Richard.李志