Acrobats, Dumplings and a Very Long Wall - Week 11

Week 11 (China-Beijing)

8^th to 13^th of October

With a final farewell through the messy streets of UB (in our very friendly taxi-driver’s minibus…with and extra back window on top of our luggage…just for incase…you never know what you gona need in Mongolia!!!) we arrived at the Chinggis Khaan Airport. We were returning to Beijing for another little Chinese adventure. Only 5 nights this time!

We were booked into Aldorada Hostel in the Hutong (traditional court yard Chines house) district. We’ve been on the specific subway line before, so we were now like…experienced!!!!!! Arno was even caught out by another American tourist with the question: ‘Can you read Chines?”, as he was studying the subway map!! So funny. We then proceeded to help them to buy tickets and directed them to where they were aiming for! We were getting VERY good now at cramming ourselves and the bags into the overfull trains and shoving and pushing folk out of our way on our journey to disembark from the train at given station!!

Now overly used to (and irritated) by all the attention they receive EVERYWHERE they go, the kids also started to wear their zippers back to front. The reason for this was, when ever they saw paparazzi approaching us, they will pull their hoodies over their faces….to great annoyance of their mother…because of the tripping up hazard this was causing!! Nina had another approach, she will just turn towards me and hide her face against my legs. It was just getting a bit too much for them…

Our hostel was very convenient and very easy to reach from the underground, but we all agree that this was our least favorite hostel so far. It was all still going ok, until they charged us extra to use the kitchen… It cost us then nearly as much to bake our own eggs than to go into the street and buy 6 egg-‘batties’ (rolls) from a street vendor!!! We stayed here for 3 nights. Our 4-bedroom was a bit small, and since they were not that busy we got another double room next door. This was great for Arno and I to have a bit of privacy- chatting loudly to one another, not waking up kiddo’s and watching a movie with full volume!!! Luxuary!!

We used our time well by visiting the Zhongshan Park  (this is a former imperial garden and now a public park) right beside the Forbidden City and then also strolled over to the Emperor’s palace which is way way way back inside the Forbidden City. Man, you can not comprehend in what kind of scenario these Chinese rulers resided and reigned/ruled their nation. We decided not to use the services of a guide and just to wander through the place at our own leisure…but even just that took us (and there is not much to see inside the buildings…just walking from the front to the back) nearly 2 hours.

The Forbidden City  was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 hectares. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. The name ‘Forbidden City” translated means the “Purple Forbidden City’ with ‘purple’ referring to the abode of the Celestial Emperor, and ‘forbidden’ refers to the fact that no one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor’s permission.

Our exploration of this gigantic museum took up most of the afternoon. It was now close to sunset as we started off on our 30min+ walk back to the hostel. We were stunned by the color of the sun…bright red! Yes, then we realized, it was due to the shockingly high levels of pollution over the city. We faffed about a little bit to get some dinner…none of the restaurants close to our hostel ticked the boxes of what members in the family’s tummies might have been interested in… Eventually I decided on cold meats form the supermarket on some rolls. Pretty Western, yes, but at this stage I just needed people to eat something, to keep them from ‘starvation’ in an hours time!! We were booked to go on a girls night out and boy’s night out!!

Arno and Thomas opt for the Kung Fu show – telling the life story of a Kung Fu master, birth, training, love, rising up to be a Grand Master. The girlies and I went to an acrobatic performance. Good show, but I was a bit disappointed in the emptiness of the auditorium. Surprisingly, all the GREAT stunts of the evening were performed by boys!! (We were thinking of you Sam McDonald!!)

Since us grown-ups have had our chance at deciding where to sightsee, we decided it was the kids turn to pick a destination…their choice was the Beijing Zoo. We were attracted to this Zoo, because of the opportunity to see panda’s. One of their dreams, since Scotland, was to see panda’s. We never managed to see them in the Edinburgh Zoo, Chengdu- close to Xi’an – also did not happen, so we were looking forward to the Zoo in Beijing!! We kept the best for last!! At a mere 30 yuan per person (£3), we felt quite happy about the ‘cheap’ day out. Well, the cheap entrance fee came at a price for the animals. Many cages were empty. The state of the animals were at a general neglect and the Chinese were feeding zebra’s and gemsbokke (Orinx’s) crisps form packets. I was raging!! I’ve never felt so helpless and annoyed with people, as I did on that day!! Praise God, the panda’s were behind glass, so at least no person could interfere with their eating habits and care!!! We watched them for ages eating bamboo…then had a sad farewell of a little 3(nearly 4!!) year old who wanted a BIG soft panda to cuddle. This girl and her soft teddy’s!!! ( When Philippa lost her new big-eyed-unicorn, she was so concerned for her, that she gave her own new big-eyed-unicorn to her sister!! She said that she still had Hippie Hippo to cuddle, but Ph did not have a teddy to cuddle. So cute and loving!! Hopefully we’ll find a cuddly panda for her as a birthday prezzie!!)

After the zoo we had one more stop to make before calling it a day: Tiananmen Square. In 1989 this square in front of the Chinese parliament, was the setting of and international accounted event. Not too much information is known about what really happened there on 4^th of June 1989. 7 weeks of protests of mainly university students (who gathered there to morn the death of a liberal former communist leader) culminated in the killing of hundreds (maybe even thousands) of unarmed civilians. The protesters called for government accountability, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the restoration of workers' control over industry. At the height of the protests, about a million people assembled in the Square. IF you want to read a bit more about the fate of the “Tank Man”, follow the link. 

For the last two nights of our Chinese adventure, we’ve contacted a friend of a our friends, Donna and Graham, the Dransfield family, who invited us to their home in north eastern Beijing. Not only that!!! They even sent a driver to come and pick us up, saving us the joy’s of dragging ourselves and our luggage through underground tunnels and down stairways and up elevators. We thought we would be ready early, so asked him to pick us up just after 8am. Unfortunately, this Saturday was a ‘working day’ (still the aftermath of the weeklong Chinese Moon-festival holiday) and the roads were gridlocked. It took us almost 2.5 hours to cover the 35km!! We were ready for that lovely cuppa coffee (with REAL milk) and awesome home baking!! We were welcomed by this family as if we were old friends. The kids disappeared upstairs (they’ve got 4 of their own too – similar ages to our 4!!) and the grown ups were left to actually have a peaceful conversation.

Malcolm works as a geologist for Shell. Marianne runs a craft/clothes making project, with the aim to provide a place for expat wives to connect and using their skills in ministering to the children and teachers of the migrant community school. All funds raised by selling their gorgeous clothes range (created upstairs in Marianne’s work/sowing room) get’s plowed back into training the migrant community to into having a skill in needle work. The migrants do not have government passes to obtain free schooling and medical funds inside Beijing city. On Fridays Marianne give sowing classes at the migrant school. During the last sale of their products, they’ve raised enough to buy 3 sowing machines for the school. Before moving away form Beijing, Marianne has the vision of creating a steady flow of income to make this project sustainable – she’s hoping to be able to fund the services of a local dressmaker teaching at the school on a continual basis. Wow. Besides raising 4 children and showering us with hospitality, this lady is making a real difference in the lives of local less fortunate Chinese people and giving purpose to the lives of a great number of expat ladies!! (Just thought I’d mentioned this amazing lady!!!)

Malcolm volunteered his ‘tour-guide’ services and we departed on our planned adventure to walk on the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!! 

The great wall was built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire from the nomadic tribes form the north (Mongolia) or from infiltration from warlike peoples or forces. Part of the wall was built as early as the 7^th century before Christ. Later it was rebuilt, fortified with watchtowers and joined together. The largest part of the wall was build during the Ming dynasty (14^th century), measuring 8,850 km!!

This was my dream number 3-come-true-day!! Since my granny visited China, al those years ago, I visualized myself standing on this ancient wonder. My dad had the opportunity to ride the cable car to the top and most recently, my cousin Marthe and her husband, Willie, visited the Wall in 2013.

With Malcolm, the expert’s, help, we decided to walk up and down. On our way up we took a less known path through a lovely garden and rock museum, to reach the wall between the 8^th and 9^th watchtower. Due to the polluted air (also the reason why Marianne and the children did not join us on the walk) we could not see to far ahead of us, but to be honest, I did not care. I was just so thankful to be standing on top of this amazing work of generations!! We spend about and hour or two, walking towards the 14^th watchtower. Some sections a bit steeper than others. Then we took the million stairs back down again. It all passed WAY too quickly. Once down in the valley again, I had to pinch myself…was I just on top of the GREAT WALL OF CHINA??!! When I return here, I would like to hike a few sections of the wall over a couple of days…or even, just maybe… attempt to run the Great Wall of China marathon (like Malcolm did last year – by the way – Malcolm, you are my new hero now!!!)

Back home with our hosts the children just relaxed in the toy heaven and learned to make dumplings from their Chinese Ah-Ee who came in to cook us a traditional Chinese meal!!

The amazingly calm Maw-Maw (Golden Retriever) added to the warmth and welcome we experienced here. Alana discovered the sowing room upstairs and she was lost to the world…. Fabrics galore, buttons, ribbons, 3 sowing machines…(Ouma Leta, hint hint…Christmas is coming…..!!)

I went for an early Sunday morning run with Malcolm and caught up on the Chinese culture and the challenges of living as and expat, in this interesting foreign culture. As he told me, even though they’ve been living in China for just over 2 years now, they are still surprised (almost on a daily basis) by a new reaction or behavior…just as they were starting to think they understood the culture!!

We were blessed to join them at Capital Congregational Church and witness another baptism!! I was contemplating the fact, that even though Christianity is under severe persecution in China, according to our hosts, the underground Chinese church is growing exponentially!! The Chinese economy is experiencing an exceptional growth spurt too… Funny that??!!  

Back at home another lovely lunch was dished up and the 12 of us were sitting around their dinner table together. So homely!!

Alana disappeared upstairs again while the boys went to walk Maw-Maw. It was after 6pm before we saw her again. I started to wonder if she had not fallen asleep somewhere. She was busy creating a whole new wardrobe for Philippa’s Barbie doll. She also made herself a new soft cuddly owl.

I can not express enough thanks to the Dransfields for welcoming us into their home. We were dropped off at the airport (very) early on Monday morning and had a bag of goodies to see us though the first stage of our journey to Vietnam. Sometimes you just meet people you can relax with. No pretense, no awkward silences!! We can not wait to welcome you in our home in South Africa…who knows, maybe sooner than we think!!!

Our Chinese experience was one of very mixed feelings…not a culture that is too easy to settle down into, just because it is sooo different. I found people to be very self-minded, pushing you out of their way to get to the front first…but then also so loving and caring, getting out of their seats on the subway so the children (and I) can sit down. Not to many happy smiley faces going around, but then exuberant excitement when they see our four children and loud chatter in the process of getting to the front to take a good souvenir photograph of them! Clearing their throats and spitting everywhere (!!) but then riding on the backs of calligraphy giants and former rulers of most of the world. Complex, diverse for sure, vulnerable… created by an all loving Father, just the same!

A Red Flag with 5 Golden Stars - Week 9

Week 9 Vancouver, China (Suzhou, Xi’an)

21^st to 28^th of September

After 8 weeks, exploring known territory-previously visited and/or where we could still understand and be understood-the time has come for us to finally step out of our comfort zone BIG TIME!!!

Sweet Sally dropped us off early at the airport and we were well prepared for our 12h flight across the Pacific Ocean. China, Shanghai…here we come!! The kids were well excited to the prospect of 12h’s of watching movies!! Hee hee! Always on the scavenging for an opportunity to bribe them into some Maths and Afrikaans reading/writing, I insisted on them finishing their schoolwork for the day, before they could settle down in ‘screen’ mode. A wee encouragement always gets things done!!

We departed at 11:30am on Monday and arrived on Tuesday afternoon, 3:15pm. So this implies that we actually went across the International Date Line. We ‘lost’ a few hours, while in the air. This also meant that we did not sleep (or could not….) as much as was needed. This also meant that the kids were now under serious attack from the jet-lag monster!!!

Arriving in Shanghai airport opened the door to the Orient. New cultures to be explored, new sounds, smells, food, sights to be experienced…we were slap bang introduced to this as we were pushed and shuffed by neatly dressed men and ladies to get the first spot at the escalator!! Here, nobody has their own personal comfort zone..you just go for it. Nobody even cares if they drag their suitcase over your foot or pushes a child out of the way in the process of getting to where they aim to go. Crazy, but if you in China…you need to think  like the Chinese!!! So with that approach, we were on our bus towards Suzhou by 5:50pm. Pretty impressive for a non-Chinese speaking family…with heavy bags!!(Luckily we are now down to 2 BIG back packs, 2 smaller one’s and 1 carry bag….plus the hand luggage…still a lot though!!!)

In the fading smog-filled evening light the bumpy bus ride took us further into the unknown heart of China. It is so hard to describe the roadside sights. This will hopefully give you a small mental picture of what I saw through that bus window: a scene from a science fiction movie, where a big blast has wiped out all traces of life…the eerie big high concrete towers, unfinished, were left…with a few savaging left-behinds trying to stay alive.(Yes a bit like, Wall-E..I guess) Ok, I guess this is not what it is REALLY like, but that was just my first impression…and my heart was starting to be overwhelmed with compassion for all these people…

Back to reality: next phase-finding a taxi-man willing to take us to the SuZhou Water Town Youth Hostel, just outside the Old city. Nobody seemed to keen to help us, so at the taxi-rank we were forced again into Chinese mode…be proactive…and go for it!!! (That attitude actually help us a lot now to manage to cross a road!!) Two taxi’s later and a mere 25Yuan(or ‘Kwai’…this is slang like in ‘bucks’)(exchange rate is £1=10Yuan) we were only still a little walk away form our hostel. All good so far. Got there by 9pm.  I booked this hostel through the Hostel International’s website. We paid 10% upfront and had till the day before arrival to cancel if our plans might have changed. Our 6-bed dorm with bunk beads were clean, the aircon was working and the showers were amazingly hot. The resident staff keep it all very clean and tidy and were so helpful in their broken English. We really appreciate this, since only a handful of these China men and women can actually grabbed a few words together to converse in English. Bizzarre, yes…nobody can speak English, but all the road signs and information writing…that’s except the bus stopps(??)…. are written in Chinese caracters AND in English. I am so thankful for this, but it is a bit weird, since they do not even learn English in school!!

A biggy to introduce the kids to, were the pit/standing/squatting toilets!! AND beside that…not to drop your used toilet paper into the loo, but to place it in the waste paper basket! Yes…this place is such a mixture of the ancient and the modern..there is not even a line to draw between the two. It’s just meshed into one another.

We were really tired, so we were not so concerned when we realized that beds in China are made out of wood, with a thin duvet-tickness of matress…or that’s what it felt like!!! What did disturbed our rest was the jetlagged children waking up at 3:45am…..

So for breakfast in Suzhou, you walk out the front gate of the hostel cross over the street(2m wide in Old city center) to a wee shop, complete with hot oil in a BIG pot, on wheels. There the shop owner fry, to order, your little long bread. No more pizza and cornflakes for us!! We also had to get used to the water- machines (yes..like the one’s you will find in the UK with the upside down replaceable water bottle at the top) provide you with an option for boiling hot water or luke-warm(their ‘cold’) water. This is for all the pot noodles that everybody eats (as we would have tucked into a lunchtime sandwich) all through the day. On street everybody is also walking about with their tea-bottles (our equivalent of water bottles) with tea leaves of some kind floating in it. So as mentioned already, bread is not featuring and so is finding milk….absolute mission. Arno found a 300ml box equivalent of long-life milk…on my attempt, I brought a bottle of drinking vanilla yogurt home!!! By the looks of it, all Chinese eat off the street vendors themselves. They will have bowls of soup and these fried ‘breads’. I’ve also spotted buckets of boiled eggs, laying in a brownish colored water…but have not been brave enough to buy one…yet!!!! All the food actually looks very appetizing. Something else which we found to be a sweet delicatessen here, is a skewer with all sorts of fruit (including mini-tomatoes!!) that’s dipped into a caramel clear syrup. When left to the side, it solidifies to produce fruit candy on a stick!

Homeschooling in the SuZhou Hostel courtyard

We were enjoying the sweet courtyard of our hostel, totally unaware of the street chaos that we were about to expose ourselves to. So when we arrived it was dark and I guess, after a few China folk’s bedtimes already, but next morning they were ALL awake!!  It was after rush hour, so the traffic officer has already left his position (no one knows how those officers manage to stay alive…and if all that whistle blowing has any effect anyway… but these traffic officers are my new hero’s…they understand the principle of excising authority by position and not by demand!!) So we were left to negotiate the after-rush-hour traffic…thank goodness for that!!! Now do not get me wrong here, it was still a nail-biting afare to cross the road of 2x2 lanes with no many restrictions for electric scooters, peddle-3-wheeler-carrier bikes, normal bikes, busses, cars (old and new) BIG dumper trucks…and the rest!!! I think you get the picture. So we decide to just follow the locals…walk when then walk and stop where they stop!!

Not only this…. We totally attracted the curiosity of the nation!! Everybody stopped in their tracks, turn their heads (even those on scooters!!); then after the initial shock of seeing westerners AND with 4 CHILDREN (!!!!!!!!) they would stick four fingers in the air and wave them into the faces of Arno and I. They would start babbling in Chinese…first to us…who will shake our heads to indicate our lack of ability to communicate, then to their friends and to all around them asking (presuming…) “ Did you see THAT??They’ve got 4 children!!!”!!!!

So while we were walking towards the old city, we were smiling a lot with people and assuring them that: “Yes, they were all ours”, and “No, Arno has only one wife…” and “Yes, I am the mother of them ALL”!!! We found this so funny, but also just soak up the joy of this 4 little blessing bestow upon us!!!

We stopped for some juices and then looked for a bench in the pedestrian street to sit down. As soon as we placed our behinds on that bench, we attracted a mini crowd off the street. People were a bit more confident now and started taking pictures of us(Nina and Alana defo the favorites)..some from a distance, like true paparazzi, others came forward and wanted to pose with the children!! So that is what we give China…we give them a little bit of color and fun, a little bit of the West in their streets, shops and lives.

Our kids are getting stronger every day…we walked quite a bit to get to the Humble Administrator’s Garden. A National Tourist Attraction of Grade AAAAA, this garden is also one of China’s four most famous gardens.

Originally build during the Ming Dynasty in 1509 the garden still provides a lush of  waterways, small hidden pathway’s, exquisite buildings and luxuriant(I found this word in the pamphlet…but I do not think anything else can describe the beauty of this place better!!) vegetation. I can only imagine how beautiful it can be in the spring, with the fragrance of all the lilies; the autumn with it’s warmth of color and how delicate the scenery might be in winter…… We beat the crowds with a fraction, but as the afternoon progressed we found ourselves a bit trapped. Time to go and find dinner on the street….

We tried a few interesting looking dumpling/treats at a vendor, but it was a bit Chinese… We walked into a traditional buffet restaurant. The staff were absolutely falling over their feet to help us to decide what to have, while (behind the counter) everybody was rummaging through their bags to find their phones to take pictures. (We were wondering if we might make it onto the local evening news…)

Back at the hostel (we walked the whole way again..pfeew!!) I settled the children, while Arno was starting his adventure trying to buy tickets for the sleeper train to Xi’an. I’ll let him tell you about his. It turned out to be a night time drama….

I was slowly falling in love with SuZhou and could not wait for our next adventure down to the old city. After a bit of faffing about, we got onto a bus and then just trusted that we understood Chinese and sign language correctly. We were aiming for the free SuZhou Museum.

Carved peach stone from BC

We totally enjoyed our hour there. We were exploring the history of the area and realized that this town has been the center for cultural development and economy of southern China during the Han Dynasty (207BC to AD220). It was also during this time that the Silk Road was built. It’s original purpose was to move armies overland and for diplomatic missions. Later the Silk Road became a trade route, connecting the Imperial Court of China with the Roman Empire….with main export product: silk!!

Can you believe it….the Chinese were already refining their calligraphy (Chinese symbol writing with ink on paper),while the Vikings were still chasing each other around with clubs!!

The little girlies were particularly interested in the BIG fishpond in the court yard and were starting to dream about their own Koi-pond in Riebeek Kasteel!!

Some fun on a peddled-taxi followed. We had to hire two, which resulted in a very exciting race to get to the Lingering Garden. Our wee fellow stopped to wait for Arno’s taxi, and then we lost each other. Now we were taken down a small little inner-city (reminded me of the little streets in the Fes medina, Morocco) cobbled street to get to our point or rendezvous. Lots of banter followed with happy shrieks!!

The Lingering Garden also counts under 4 Most Famous Gardens in China and also carries the AAAAA grading of National Tourist Attractions. It was also constructed during the Ming Dynasty. We listened to some traditional Chinese harp (?) music performed by a beautifully dressed lady. (Was sad to see that not even she had a smile on her face…) This garden had so many secret passageways and hiding places. The kids were on cloud number 9..loadsa space to hide form the paparazzi!!!

I took the family back through the wee alley and we encountered some interesting ‘shop’ sights: buy your own (live) chicken for dinner, and do not forget the fish flapping about in a few buckets…fresh produce!!!! We got to the most beautiful little hide away, complete with lit-up red Chinese lanterns along the water canals. I’ve never been to Venice, always wanted to go, so I was totally in awe and wonder. It was just picture perfect!! We were welcomed into a wee off street café. They were so happy to have us, jumping around us (we were the only patrons) serving in all our needs(spoons and even a few old bended forks were dug out of drawers….), but we were determined to use chopsticks…Nina is the most skillful of us all!!

Now, just on a wee side note: a while ago I was having some chatting time with God, discussing our plans to settle in Riebeek Kasteel in South Africa. I asked for a few more confirmations. I just love to tell you this story.

Now back to where we sat ourselves down in a small insignificant café in old town SuZhou, Arno started having a wee look around (this was after we went through the palava of order something that everybody might want to eat). His eye caught a line of bottles of red wine perched on a small shelf against the wall. 6^th bottle along the line was produced at the Riebeek Valley Wine Celler in South Africa!!! We do not believe in coincidence, we believe in Divine guidance… Love it!!!

After Arno’s ordeal, trying to buy train tickets gone wrong…we changed plan to purchase flights between Shanghai and Xi’an. So this meant that we had to get a bus from the hostel to the SuZhou train station, then a train to Shanghai, then underground (a few step-overs) to get to the Maglev(Magnetic Levatation train…fastest train in the world) to eventually get us to the airport in time for our flight at 13:30. Leaving our hostel just before 8am left us with PLENTY of time…or so we thought…… Not going into too much details, but two significant things went wrong, which resulted us arriving at the airport at 13:15.. We were praying that there might be a godly intervention getting us onto that plane…because the tickets were not cheap… Well, God answered our prayers…which resulted in the plane departing almost an hour behind schedule (yes, they were actually waiting for us!!! And then we had to wait for a new departing slot.) It was also the lowest point of my RWT, where we had to rush through security with ALL our luggage (because we were so late) and then were forced to leave Arno’s Swiss army knife and his Leatherman(I gave it to him as a wedding gift 15years ago…) at the x-ray machine. At this point I was seriously considering the cost of this trip…Is it worth it all?

We arrived (I pre-booked a taxi-pick-up provided by the Youth Hostel, from the airport) in Xi’an round 7pm. What a day travelling….hopefully never to be repeated in such a  fashion!!

Hang Tan Inn  (with sister hostel Hang Tan House a few yards down the street) is VERY recommendable!! The staff were sooooo helpful and could speak very good English. They helped us to buy our train tickets (and Arno was singing hallelujah praises!!!) We made a few new friends and enjoyed the lovely coffee’s and cooked meals the little restaurant at the Inn was producing. Now this was a totally world-travellers hub. So many like-minded people and stories to share.

Saturday brought us the opportunity to visit the site where the First Emperor Shi Huangdi were buried (237BC). It was discovered in 1974 when a farmer was digging for water on his land. He unearthed a clay-made body part of a Chinese warrior. With further investigation, up to date, 3 different ‘pits’ has been discovered with nearly 8000 of these Terracotta Warriors. Emperor Shi wanted to take a big army with him into the after life. All the workers were executed by the end of the project, so they made sure that their image were kept forever by creating a warrior with their face. Result each warrior has a different face! There were infantry, cavalry, archers and officers.

Horses and their chariots were also excavated. It took the emperor 33 years to create this clay army. Unfortunately, his successor was not a good man, revolution forces discovered this secret location and demolished the clay peloton, burned the wooden structures and stole all the bronze weapons. The roof fell in and the whole site was forgotten underneath layers of sediment for almost 2000 years!!

Emperor Shi Huangdi was advised that by taking some mercury tablets everyday he will secure long levity…well, needless to say he fell down lifeless at the age of 55 and was buried in a man-made hillock tomb. Nobody know what were buried with him, because it’ll take another 20 years or so before the mercury levels (presently 1000 time above normal!!!) inside the tomb, has dropped low enough for the archeologists to start investigation!!

I dreamed of seeing this 8^th Wonder of the Ancient World since I was a little girl (my granny, Ouma Helie, told me about it when I was still in primary school), it was just the bestest day ever!!!

Last day in Xi’an arrives with excitement of meeting up with Arno’s school Maths teacher!! Yes, she is working at an international school in Xi’an now!! First we got dressed in waterproofs for our first proper wet travel day. Xi’an’s city wall is the best preserved, all in tacked city wall in all of China! Felt so privileged to be exploring this. Arno rented a tandem and the kids had so much fun taking turns on the back seat. I even got a wee lift too!! He did 16km carting us about between different gates on the southern section of the wall.(If you would cycle around the old city you’ll do 13km!!)

 Another bus ride (yes a trip on a public bus, anywhere cost you between 1 and 2 Kwai…that means 10 to 20pence!!) to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, where we were supposed to be meeting Anneke. Our family expedition of the Old city wall on bike, took a bit longer than expected, but Anneke was waiting patiently…we were nearly 2 hours late!!!!! All tired and frantically hungry, we found a little noodle bar…the normal chaos to order behind us, we could settle down chatting. It was so good for me to get to know her and for Arno to walk down memory lane.

A last note of interest: (remember I prayed for confirmation…) Anneke has also started day-dreaming about settling down in Riebeek Kasteel..(huh??) She’s even been there recently……SO since we left Scotland, we’ve had 3 encounters with ‘Riebeek Kasteel’ from people and places we’ve NEVER in a million years expected it from!!! I think God is confirming his calling!!! What do you think?

Xi’an exceeded my expectations!!! I was very sad to leave our lovely hostel and the sweet street vendors outside the front door. Lady Jhe-Jhe, our tour guide to the Warriors, and our new Spanish friend, Cesar, our British friend, Katie and our friend form the Netherlands: Christal!! Do not forget Matt from Australia!! Hope to see you all soon!!!!!

‘If You believe in a dream and have the courage to try, anything is possible.’ Rick Hansen (Canadian Man in Motion)

How to (not!) buy train tickets....

A: How to buy a train ticket in China.
1) get yourself to the main station in Shuzou after navigating the metro for the 1st time.
2) try the counter with the shortest queue.
3) proceed to designated longer queue where the clerk could maybe speak english.
4) wait a bit.
5) get to the front and explain that you want to buy train tickets to Xi'an.
6) sort of get the message that there are not any sleeper berths left to Xian.
7) buy 4 tickets to Xi'an
8) go back home and wonder why 'Xi'an' doesnt look like 'Xi'an' on the ticket, maybe the spelling is different.
9) get home and ask friendly and helpful hostel staff why the spelling is different.
10) realise that ticket is not for Xi'an but somewhere else in China.....get a note in Chinese saying you want your money back.
11) go back to said station and find same counter.
12) stand in line.
13) Smile to helpful clerk and show that these tickets dont go to Xi'an.
14) get smile back and acknowledgement that these tickets wont take you to Xian and that there are not any other tickets left.
15) refund not possible with friendly clerk.
16) go to north side of station and repeat steps 2 to 5.
17) repeat steps 13 and 14.
18) get refund.
19) phew.
20) go back to hostel and find alternative means of transport to Xi'an.
21) find that all google related websites have been blocked by the Great Firewall.
22) have a nice cold beer with friendly Canadian at hostel.
23) all is well with the world......

(until he had to tell me in the morning that we still were going no where the next day - M)