Notes From Xi'an 西安随感

Part I.

Before I take a summer sabbatical from life in Xi’an, and from checking into the world wide web, I will throw out a thought on Xi’an that has been nagging at me for a while.

The system here in China where cities are tiered in terms of their level of economic development has never been one I have liked. I have always felt that this system of stratification has sounded insulting, with the comparison it unnaturally makes between first, second, and third tier cities. (And, yes I do understand the reasoning behind the classifications.) Cities such as Xi’an, that are not first tier, are by categorisation inferior.

Xi’an was, in my opinion, always more than just an adjunct to those Chinese metropolises out East; it was a city with its own nature, its own identity and its own pace of life. Classifying Xi’an as second tier was always to say that it wasn’t quite what it could be, that it lacked something, the special something that would make it first tier.

Which, based on certain criteria, was greater economic development, with high levels of investment, a modern transport infrastructure, and so-called improved standards of living. But, in many ways Xi’an didn’t lack anything, it wasn’t nearly or not nearly something else, it was what it was and it was different to those first tier cities, and from my perspective better for it.

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Before I write this Note, I am going to make a bold statement about it. I am going to make the claim that it will become the definitive: “What Is It About Xi’an That Makes It Xi’an And Makes It The Place People Like To Live?” Note. However, before any of you think I have lost my humble marbles in a blur of blogging arrogance I would like to offer a condition and an invitation.

First, this is an invitation to all of you out there who live here, or have done so recently, to add your own brief note in the comments section below about what Xi’an is to you, and what makes it different from other Chinese cities, even different from other places on earth. Plus, simply, what you like about it, as well as some of the things that you don’t quite like so much.

Second, the condition. The condition being that this will only be the definitive Note if those of you out there with experience of living in Xi’an do share your thoughts with us. This certainly won’t be the definitive Note if it is just written from my perspective.

Hopefully, if we can get this thread going we can provide a good stop off point for people who want to get to know a bit about Xi’an. There are now a good number of people that find their way to this site from different parts of the globe, who have different ideas about Xi’an, and about potential reasons for coming here. We can hopefully offer them a few pointers in the direction, whatever direction they do end up going in. So, whether its personal impressions and thoughts on Xi’an, bits of historical knowledge, circumstances where expectations were changed, or times when they really weren’t, or just a few spots in and around the city that you think are worth checking out, feel free to write about them below.

Thanks in advance, I look forward to reading. First, my own contribution, which I will also kick off in the comments section:

these 4 great hdr images are from le niners’ photostream

I have been summered. It probably started when wandering around the Botanical Gardens last week, but it has really hit home this week.

It wasn’t long ago that I was taking on all comers when defending the locals’ wisdom for not only donning those almost magical long johns during the harsh winter months, but to also still be wearing them after the centrally governed heating was turned off and the outside temperatures remained low. Those arguments are now lying dead in the rapidly evaporating water of the Wei River basin.

Summer arrived this week, making its presence felt with a few smouldering temperatures and some perfectly blue skies. Not to mention a brightness of almost religious light that should help lift the soul of even the most disgruntled laowai, suffering from the China Blues. For me, and call me shallow, but a bit of sunlight makes all seem perfectly well here in the Middle Kingdom. My cheerful, but until recently hibernating, elderly neighbours have awoken; there is street after street of blossom-filled joy; and not a few summer beauties are to be found strolling happily arm in arm.

Now, given the right information and arguments, I might admit that under the surface of these quite probably government-inspired levels of sunshine and blue skies, all is not perfectly well. But, I am just going to have to savour the moment for a while longer before allowing myself to again dwell on some of the less-inspiring aspects of modern Chinese society, and before the days come where I am actually hankering for a cool autumn breeze. (more…)

I live not far from Xi’an’s Botanical Gardens [Zhíwù Yuán/植物园], which are located behind Shǎnxī Normal University, but I haven’t taken a trip over there for a while. This is not because I have anything against fine varieties of plant life, I actually had a couple of temporary jobs working on horticultural nurseries when I was younger, and if all else failed I would probably go back to it. There are not too many things quite as meditative and peaceful as watering plants on a glorious summer morning.

I have also always enjoyed visiting public gardens, from Kew and Wentworth to Brisbane’s own Botanics, via Córdoba and Marakesh. However, on my last visit to Xi’an’s variety of Botanical Garden it did feel as if a lot more could be done with the space they have. Now, this seems to have changed, although not quite in the way one would imagine.

This week, my camera-clicking sidekick, Sir G. Blackett of Wells, and I decided that we should put down our coffee cups and see if we could catch Xi’an’s short Spring in full bloom. It was not, though, a multi-coloured array of flora and fauna that ended up capturing our attention. It was a particular sub-specie of Chinese marital ritual that we observed, wandered around, pointed at, discussed and took pictures of. It was the ritual known as the pre-marriage photo shoot.

It is not an exaggeration to say that shrub, flower and tree life is no longer the focus of attention. Delicate planting procedures, rare plant species, and flowers in full seasonal bloom are now simply a backdrop for the more important business of getting young Chinese couples to create the most unnatural poses possible. For those unaware, as part of the wedding celebrations here in China, couples pay a few thousand yuan for a professional photo studio to snap exceptionally contrived poses in generally natural environments, the Botanical Gardens being one such location. (more…)

image from twentytwowords.com

Anybody who has followed my Notes here will know that I haven’t enjoyed watching Xi’an’s roadways move from a state of relative carlessness, though not a little carelessness, to their present state of frequent traffic jams (see here and here). Many people simply comment that it is just life, just development. But as Karl Gerth noted, it isn’t just life, it is a life chosen. Though, it is a choice that has been made to seem somewhat inevitable.

However, this Note isn’t intended to go over old ground or imagine for a second that it will be any different any time soon. That boat has surely sailed. It is just simply to observe, from anecdotal experience at least, that a few years ago not only was there a lack of cars, there was also a lack of cars going fast. Moreover, while there have always been many minor prangs on Xi’an’s roads due to the erratic nature of the drivers and pedestrians, there haven’t been too many serious accidents involving injured parties.

Both cases are now changing. I am seeing more and more people driving like the boy racers of our western provincial town centres, hough this is by no means the majority. But people are beginning to accelerate with force within any small gap that appears, and overtake at speed in more and more dangerous and pedestrian laden situations.

Further, and arguably more importantly, the lack of driving skills that the average Chinese driver possesses, which were previously offset by the lack of cars on the road and the low speeds that those cars were driving at, are beginning to be felt more widely and more seriously. At one time you could at least manoeuvre out of the way, or stop, as there was space on the roads to do so. Now, those options are limited by the sheer weight of traffic. Consequently, I am witnessing more and more cases of seriously and bloodily injured people. And, I have got to say, that really is very sad. (more…)

Sadly, the open air fruit and veg. market (the old cài shì chǎng) on Yáng Jiā Cūn, behind the clothes market on Cháng’ān Lu and just across the road from Shī Dà, is no more. A few screws loosened here, a bit of corrugated metal cut there, and the whole thing just collapsed to the ground. During the last few nights, a solitary overworked digger and a convoy of thundering yellow trucks have done their fair share of over time to quickly clear the last remnants and reminders of those busy market days, now passed.

For 4 years I lived overlooking this vegetable market and so I was saddened when I first heard about its impending demise. It was always an atmospheric place in which to do your fruit and veg. shopping; an easy reminder that this is a life in China that is being lived; with its own rules of hygiene, ways of bartering and friendly banter. The market was also a useful short cut for me and my bike when heading south. In short, it was a pivotal part of this neighbourhood, and thus for me, and for many more I have no doubt, it was a sombre moment to see it go.

However, just before the inevitable happened I got Master Blackett along and we snapped a few pictures for posterity. I will add some of them below, a couple of reminders of those happy ‘old’ market days. I thank Gareth, and also raise a mixed glass of ginger, peanut and chilli-eggplant juice in remembrance.  We’ll have to wait and see what the new market’s like, but hopefully it won’t price too many of the old marketeers out of their own market.

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image from benmcdarmont

Mr. Hua:

Today is not my day. It is not my day in more ways than one. Today is National Day; it is the Nation’s day. I’m a small piece of that Nation, but maybe so small I am not really a piece at all. It is also not my day because today I locked myself out of the house. Worse, this is not my house, not my real house, not the one with my neighbours and friends. This is my new house, my new house in the new city, or the old city, it just looks new. Well, parts of it do. This is where I now live. As the last of the summer heat left, we arrived.

It is also now the city that I am left to wander around for hour upon hour. I am waiting for my son and his family to arrive back into the city this evening. My son lives here too. I live with my son. He is a good boy but I do wish he’d left a key around here someplace for me.

I am now sitting on one of those orange plastic-seated benches that they seem to have next to many of the main roads here. This one’s not far from the house. There’s a big tree right next to me; there are actually trees going all the way down the street. The road is busy, though. There are more trees than I thought, but there are also more cars too. In front of me are a lot of colourful shops. Maybe later I will go across and see what they sell. The buildings are tall here. Above the shops the buildings just go up and up, really tall.

I could go and talk to some of the neighbours. I ought to, but I am not going to. My son said I should go and see Mrs. Qin on the third floor. I should go, but I am not going to. Don’t ask me why.

I don’t want to sit here all day though. Maybe I will cross the road in a minute.

There are some birds chirping loudly above me. As I look up I can see there is one bird chatting away from inside a cage, while another is replying to it from a branch opposite. I watch as the leaves that surround them rustle and move in the breeze and, as the road’s noise reverberates up amongst the branches, I notice how remarkably still they both stay.

When finally one flies higher up into the tree, the other begins to hop and flutter agitatedly from its perch, in a sort of bouncing motion from the roof of the cage to the bars below, its wings flapping wildly. It repeats these movements again and again, moving faster and faster, getting more and more agitated.

A lady with loaded shopping bags in one hand and a daughter being pulled along by the other hurriedly brushes passed me, drawing my attention down from the tree and back towards the road. I can’t sit here any longer. I must get up. I must do something. I will cross the road. I stand. I walk towards the street. I feel anxious. I don’t know why. But I quickly realize, as my thoughts catch up with me, that I’m not sure if I can actually get across.

Rushing along in a sort of narrow side section of the street, just down from the curb’s edge but separated from the main road by a low white fence, are a collection of motorized bikes, pedal bicycles and san lun che. Even if I can get across and can get over the fence, what am I going to do about all those cars? There are really so many of them and they are going so fast.

It’s really not my day.

I also now see that the trees in the central area of the road have brick plinths built around them, and that a green wire fence runs the whole length of the central section of the street.

I sigh silently.

There is no way I can get across.

I sit back down and look out towards the shops opposite.

I will wait here for my son.

Whatever might be said by some and whatever some people might tell you, there is no question that this is an amazing country, at a particularly incredible stage of development.

Xi'an's New North Rail Station

Of course, no one really knows where it is all going, but when you are being zipped along by an immensely smooth 350km/h fast train and you look out to see still-underused, but ready-to-go wide-laned motorways, as well as gleaming new train stations, dissecting and standing out respectively from within the terraced fields that make up the majority of this new route, you think the future may not be too bad at all: those chuffing chimneys aside. Well, at least not too bad for those actually riding the train, may be less so for those still working the fields.

Although, when I was talking to a couple of village labourers recently they were seemingly very proud and excited about the new gāo tiě 高铁 (high-speed train), and were aware of its speed and the various destinations along this new route. Time will tell how long it takes for them to be riding it, but that may well be missing the point, or it might actually be hitting it straight on (more on this below when I move away from this unadulterated positivity and highlight some of the concerns that are surrounding this rapidly developed rail project).

This is a country whose people have historically travelled by train; there has been a boom in air travel recently, but if the government continues to play its cards right (or wrong, again see below), this may well be a people happy to return to the tracks, rather than continuing to take to the airways.

And if this experience is anything to go by, that’s no bad idea. I must say from a personal point of view, I would choose this 300-mile train journey in roughly 2 hours, with half an hour cab ride each end, over the shorter flight and longer airport waiting time and travel. These trains are comfy enough, the seats recline and the legroom is fine, they could be a bit wider, but then I could be a bit smaller, and the average Chinese person actually is. Plus, give me a choice of looking out at some fields through a landscape-wide window or a pokey view of some clouds from a plane porthole and I’ll take the fields all day long.

I have also come across quite a few Chinese people who are not actually that enamoured by the air travel experience. If you don’t have much of a choice and money isn’t a factor but time is, which no doubt it often is, then the plane is for you. But when you’ve got more of a choice then that decision is not so straightforward. Whether the majority are able to ride these trains or not, there is a lot of pride swilling about at present, and they have got a pretty amazing system in development to be excited about. These developments may well also have some considerable environmental benefits, if they are not too careful.

However, there are some logistical and quality concerns arising from this new system, a couple of which I will outline below these brief references to Xi’an’s new station: (more…)

My first New Year in China I spent in Xi’an, and I remember enjoying it. Subsequently, trips to the village and the capital have restricted my chances of spending another New Year here. I now realise why I had such fond memories. The streets are quiet and the people more relaxed.

Today, with the sun shining, I decided to just get out for a quiet stroll; instead of, as usual, striding as if in a hurry from one place to another, cycling at speed between rows of traffic or nipping about on an electric moped. It is a pleasure, and a peaceful pleasure at that, to be here right now.

There is always something pleasant about going for a stroll on a Sunday, or on a bank holiday, wherever one is, and finding those smiling faces, nodded greetings, laughter and bonhomie more prevalent than usual. The extra days here afforded by the New Year break just accentuates that feeling, and leaves me finding myself nodding greetings frequently and appreciably at passing strangers, some even, for a moment at least, seemingly able to do so in return as if I were not a laowai (foreigner). Community is community wherever you are, holidays are holidays, and the spirit of their combined effect always creates a freer and more pleasant sense of life.

Another positive aspect of Chinese New Year is the opportunity it gives to have a go again at some of those New Year plans and resolutions, that may be got off to a false start a month or so earlier. There is something priceless and amusing about that. Needless-to-say, I haven’t been running with the frequency I had intended, haven’t yet returned to reviewing new vocabulary with the diligence needed, and I am still not doing various things I planned to be doing or I am still doing things I resolved not to still be doing, but that’s alright because its all about Chinese New Year. In sporting parlance, I have just been warming up, simply readying myself for the real schedule that begins on the 3rd of February. Or at least I am certainly happy telling myself that, with the sun shining and cheerful greetings abounding.

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As I am becoming ever more embedded in local life here, in part from having lived here for nearly 5 years, in part from having gotten engaged to a great local girl, and now, and certainly somewhat more worryingly, by dipping a proverbial toe in the local housing market, I thought I would note a few of the matters-of-facts that seem to be involved in this close-your-eyes and hope for the best apartment buying process. We’ll kick off with a few of the hopes. There must be a hope that the building you are buying gets built, a hope that once it is built it doesn’t just fall down again, a hope that you will actually end up with the deeds to the flat you paid for so one day you will actually be able to sell it, and a hope that this potentially bubble-bursting market doesn’t lead to an all engulfing civic anarchy.

These are just a few of the concerns that have passed across my recent conscious and sub-conscious states of mind, whether in the early hours of morning or during the darker hours of night. So, it is with trepidatious steps that I continue on along this path today by holding meetings with a few honest, straightforward, salt of the earth, “no worries mate” housing agents.

There is a requirement here for the property developers to get 5 validating certificates before they can legally build and sell a property, the last two specifically giving them permission to actually construct and sell the apartments. However, although a seeming madness to even consider buying a home, with a reasonable deposit being paid in the region of at least 30%, without these certificates, it is not unusual and in fact seemingly quite common for people to take a gamble and pay a low price, per square meter, when the company doesn’t have any certificates at all, or, may be less of a gamble, only a few. But, then the price isn’t even that cheap.

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