The first sight I really got to experience in any meaningful way was on the THIRD day, the Big Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, Ed and I free and easy on our speedy legs.
Xi'an was the first capital of united China (221 BCE), and the beginning of the Silk Road connecting China to Rome.
It was the capital till about the 10th century, so has a lot of interesting and famous Chinese firsts, like the Big Goose Pagoda, which was built to house Buddhist Sutras brought from India in the 7th century CE, and translated in the photo below
These are some images of statues around the pagoda, and near the temples surrounding it as well:
The next day we went for the Terracotta Warriors, 10 000 individualized soldier statues meant to protect the first Emperor Qin in the afterlife.
This woman was pretty badass, and could probably protect Qin all by herself.
There was an awesome documentary shown before we went to the sight, which was awesome because it was
300 and 60 degrees!
Okay so now I've seen Xi'an, I've climbed a mountain, I've lost the bank card for my Japanese bank account,* and, because of the lovely people I met on the last hard sleeper, I've slept about 3 hours in 24. Its 8am now, and what must I do back in Beijing? Forbidden City, Tianneman Square, AND the Great Wall all in one epic day.** So, first a check in to hostel and facebook to my dear Japanese friends John and Ai who sort out my bank account, a fine shower and an expensive coffee, and then Forbidden City.
Ever since hearing about a forbidden city as a young boy, I've wanted to go. Forbidden City was built in 1406 for the Ming Dynasty's Ruling Class, and was off limits, to varying degrees for 500 years (Anglo-Franco forces occupied it in 1860; the outer section was opened in 1912, and in 1924 finally the whole thing). Although wikipedia says that the Starbucks built in 2000 closed down, it has definitely re-opened. Anyway, the FC, as I affectionately call it, was really great.
Most of the buildings were actually just one huge room, with one or two purposes. Its really puzzling that the emperor would have one building just for revising his announcements, and
then another to make the announcements. Especially since the Forbidden City is quite big to get around.
With our limited time we only made it halfway, to this garden
with pretty modernist looking rock sculptures/statues. It was neat, but we really had to go.
A guard told me not to take this photo, so this one's for Tibet.
Across from the City, is Tianneman Square
which was filled with many many people not really using it as a square but just taking photos
and I was of course going camera frantic too and had to stop myself to actually appreciate what has gone on here
and also to haggle over the price of a little red book by Chairman Mao, and to be asked to have my picture taken by these 2
Okay, so now, rush rush rush, find a taxi, get on the subway, get on a bus for the Great Wall (started in the 6th century BCE with about 2.5 million dead in the end from it) and then fall asleep on the bus for an hour or so, miss the stop, arrive in some town an hour from the Great Wall at 4:15 (and the last bus back from the Great Wall is 6:30pm OMG), rush for a bus, angry and frustrated that we're going to miss it again. Then trying to justify missing it. Getting off the bus at 5:40 and the return bus is actually 6:2o. Seeing ticket gates boarded up. Running past them, running running running in circles and up stairs and down other stairs until there is a ticket agent and its open. And we have 30 minutes for the Great Wall of China, and every justification I had for missing it would have been a total lie because it was the best thing.
We panted up the stairs on mountain tired legs trying to cover as many of its 6 400 kilometres as we could. But it didnt take long for us to break down and just had to stop and look at it all.
*dont worry dad, everything worked out fine
**true fact: I slept a personal best 8 scattered hours out of 57 in the end, those first 24 Xi'an to Beijing, than big Beijing day and then just not wanting to sleep for fear of missing anything and having to leave to the airport by 5:30am. I was running on rapture and necessity.
Okay, so I'm back from Hokkaido where the G8 summit was carrying on, and I joined many activists and professors and media to shout and scream and carry on as much as we 3000 could against those 21 000 police.
I travelled there with Jon
from Haneda airport in Tokyo where we fell asleep
to Sapporo where we awoke in mid air.
We drank delicious Sapporo Classics
and tried to get oriented around the city centres where activists would congregate. We had bought a tent and sleeping bags but ended up sleeping at a media centre
and showering here.
We stayed for the biggest protest in Sapporo
where police smashed the window of a soundtrack blasting Bjork's "declare independence" for the fierce dancing crowd, and pulled out the driver and wrestled away the DJ for no fucking reason but to kill our spirits.
Later the police protected a soundtruck blasting right wing nationalist hate, and when I was filming them up close for the G8Media Network, I was privy to the exceptional fear of standing in front of a 100 police who suddenly all push down their face masks in one sudden action, and appear ready to charge. So I stepped back for this photo.
where I promptly fell asleep amidst the din. In the morning light we headed back for the media centre where we were told there was going to be a police raid with fear of deportation.
Jon needing to come back to Japan some day for his lovely girlfriend Ai, and me to stay to keep working decided to wander back to the great park in the centre of town and sleep till
our bus for Hakodate
And then Tokyo again.
