9/6 7:11am CST
http://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/9_6?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbcjZiRgsSKpAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZGsFqPBVNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F39cvUbfemk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs0i9Byz4ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDceo5LcLTo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhrCxEonSkM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWkvk2U20ZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR4kXtTSvWo
Woke up after heading to bed pretty early. Supposedly we are above 3000m now, but I don't feel any different. The sun doesn't come up until around 8am or so. All of China is on the same timezone, so officially, the sunrises get later and later in time as you move west. Some people around Urumqi in Xinjiang (the provice north of Tibet) use a time that's offset by 2 hours, but it's not official.
Even without the sun up, it's apparent that the landscape has evolved overnight. There are almost no signs of habitation out there. Very occasionally you'll see a flock of yaks or whatever these cowlike animals are. I plan to get some sweet pics and movies of the scenery. It's really really wild. I saw a little antelope by itself running around near the track, and also a hyrax-like animal running on the drainage ditch near the track. Really wish I'd gotten these on camera.
Managed to snap a blurry photo of 3 antelope running along. But then I also saw this pair of strange sloth/anteater looking creatures. They were either really shaggy or really fat. Finally, I spotted this tiny fox running around. It seems like every wild animal is conducting its business and then has to bolt when the train comes by.
My mom's got some symptoms of high altitude sickness -- a touch of dizziness, headaches, purple lips. I haven't really felt anything, but hopefully it'll get better before we get to Lhasa. My cold seems to be going away, though leaving me with a bit of a dry nose and sinus.
My mom is getting a bit worse. After some deliberation on how to deal with her adjustment, she hooked up to the car oxygen, to see if it would improve her condition. Seems to be helping so far. As for me, my fingers are a little purple and I'm a bit more lightheaded when I get up and move about. I would say I just feel extremely languid. We're at 4500m and will peak to 5000m for a bit, then slope back down into 3000m for Lhasa. Hopefully we'll all be adjusted by then. We're not supposed to shower right away, as all the drawing of blood to the surface vessels can cause fainting.
We were parked for almost an hour at one station waiting for another train to pass. It's so remote now that there's only a single track for both ways. That train was going to Shanghai. Must be a hell of a ride. While we were waiting, it started hailing with the sun out. I managed to get that on video. Pretty weird, given that it was 16 deg C.
One thing I've noticed is that the railway workers seem to be instructed to stand at attention when a train passes. Some salute, some just stand, others stand but face the other way,even when there is no train track that way. Not sure what it means. But it's interesting to see so many employed by the Chinese rail system. I guess it'd be kind of terrible to get fired when an official catches you shirking your duties from a passing train.
Most depressing thing I saw was this tiny village whose basketball court didn't have poles on either end. Cows were lounging around on it.
The final hours til Lhasa are agonizing. We keep taking stops at tiny stations to let trains pass. I guess we're very close at this point.
When we arrive, it's again very picturesque. The Lhasa train station is built to evoke the shapes of Tibetan architecture. Eventually we find our contact, a coworker of my mom's college classmate. He has with him a Tibetan tour guide that he's hired to take us around for the next few days. Tsenam has the very cheesy honors of putting on us these white scarves, which I assume at some point must have been traditional. We get in some Landcruisers and go over to the Xiongbala Hotel, which claims to be the best in Lhasa. Cars seem to observe whatever traffic laws there are casually. Once we drop things off in our rooms, we quickly turn around and head out to a restaurant.
The restaurant isn't a Tibetan restaurant, but specializes in Shandong cuisine. Shandong is a northern province that I would say offers very good seafood dishes.
On a more negative note, I'll comment on the special treatment we're getting here. Obviously, not everyone has the connections to get ushered around Lhasa virtually free of charge. I have no pretensions that this part of the trip is anything but highly privileged. While I'm sure we could have made arrangements to do most of the same things on our own, having it all planned for us ahead of time is extremely convenient. Sometimes I'd like to think that when I go back to China, I'm just an ordinary person, but occasions like this remind me that's far from true. On top of all that, there's the extreme deference of our Tibetan guides, which is causing me some discomfort. One of the drivers joined us at the dinner table, and he absolutely was not part of the conversation. I wasn't chatting much either, but I still found the way he was being marginalized to be quite upsetting. If he were a Han Chinese in the same position, I'm sure everyone would have been warmer to him. There was a brief discussion on Tibetan independence, and everyone at the table practically treated him as empty space. My mom, it shames me to say, voiced some nationalist-tinged rhetoric on how the Dalai Lama would be ineffectual at improving an independent Tibet's economic status and added that some Tibetans are swayed by their blind love for the Dalai Lama. She tried to negate what she said by telling the driver to feel free to ignore her misconceptions, which of course does nothing to blunt the venom of an attitude like hers, which is very common. I told her right then that it was rude even to be able to think such things while we were in the presence of a Tibetan. The politics bother me less than my mother's ability to treat someone as a non-entity incapable of having legitimate opinions. As for my own views on Tibet, I note only this -- all along the railway, I saw an unyielding march of eletric towers bringing in electricity, courtesy of central planning from China. I wonder if Tibetans want or need that? If they didn't have those towers and power lines all over the place, my pictures of the countryside would probably look like Tibet 1000 years ago.
The driver and our waitress (also Tibetan) were beseeched by our host to speak some Tibetan and teach us a few phrases.
Tujin na -- thank you
Kalasa suo -- eat!
Tashi deleh -- something like aloha
My hotel room looks like a scene from Uncharted 2 and I have a picture to prove it.
Showing posts with label train. Show all posts
Showing posts with label train. Show all posts
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
9/5
9/5 6:56am CST
http://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/9_5?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPPovr7-aGzZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIf3FEzhtJo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvaf8sYM-So
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yo8ZRyX1QI
Woke up on the train. We're probably an hour outside of Xi'an in Shaanxi, which I believe is Bo's hometown. That'd be only a quarter or so of the way to Lhasa, but still decent progress for one night's sleep.
Fortunately, there is an outlet on the train, so I can document everything en route. I forgot to mention that we got tickets on a bed car. Each room has 4 bunks in it. So some random teenager got the 4th bunk. Between his questionable background story and the natural suspicion with which Chinese treat strangers, I think my parents were pretty wary of him. He got off at Xi'an. We'll see if someone replaces him.
One thing'll I'll note about China -- bathrooms are dirty. In general, public and shared places are dirty. It's like no one cares to clean them. So even our friends' nice new apartment complex -- the lobby and outside areas were just filthy. The same is true of the train bathrooms. No one really respects the cleanliness of the space so it gets nasty fast. But, because everything is so dirty, you don't see many people loitering about, so there's not much graffiti. Between the smell of ammonia and some colorful remarks by bored stall sitters, I'd rather take the graffiti.
On the topic of water -- fresh drinking water is a precious thing in China. It's not something that a restaurant can readily serve for you. You could certainly get some bottled water, at a huge markup. But it's something you should bring with you. On the train, each car has a boiled water faucet, and each room has a pitcher that you fill up. The water comes out close to boiling, so you have to fill up at intervals and let it cool off before you can drink it. Even now, it is still customary to drink hot tea at restaurants and warm boiled water at home with meals. I can live with it, but I'm still pretty used to having drinking water at hand at all times.
Now we're riding through Shaanxi. It's a very hilly country. As we get out of the urban areas, all you are the insides of tunnels, and emerging from them, swollen streams and wet riverbeds. There's steep hills lining the countryside, and nestled between them, by the waters are small and extremely rustic villages. There's plenty of houses without windows even doors. The people seem to be making a living off of farming and mining. While the urban centers of China have made a marked improvement toward middle class, I don't think much has changed here. 50% of Chinese people are still farmers barely making a living selling their crops.
That said, the country side is extremely picturesque. There's fully green hills, terraced hills, dirt cliffs that look like they would collapse at the first hint of heavy rain. In a few spots, I even seen primitive dwellings dug out into the hillside. These would were probably occupied in modern times before Communism liberated and modernized the country. I suspect the view won't change much in the hours and hours until we hit the high plains. Just millions of average northernr Chinese leading a lifestyle that hasn't changed much in decades. And yet progress is still coming. You can see various projects being built up. The buttresses of new highways being poured from concrete, and earthen ramps leading to new developments on the hillsides. I'd like to see what happens to these places in another 10 years. I've got a few pictures and videos, but I don't know how representative they can be. It's best to remember that China is a big country, and that much of it is like this, and not like in the cities. Any scene you can picture, I probably saw -- a boy playing by himself on rocks in the middle of a turbid stream; a broken down 3-wheel truck on a dirt road; a few cows grazing on the slope of a hill; railworkers piling up bags of fertilizer to be shipped eastward; a peasant girl taking a piss just outside of her village; a stone-lined drainage ditch plunging down a hill at 70 degrees, leading rainwater into an irrigation canal; a cemetary not but 5 meters next to a small cornfield; a huge trashpit fire being tended by a few locals; a precarious wooden suspension bridge.
All of this linked together by the Chinese rail system. I can't imagine how things would be further out from the rail.
Apparently, the railroad through to Lhasa was only completed in 2006. The high elevation made it hard for the railworkers to maintain a decent pace of progress.
Another anecdote -- my dad still remembers his college student id: 776307. 1977 for his entering year, 63 for his submajor -- uranium geology, and 7 for his number in his class (everyone in a submajor is in the same 'class').
3:36pm
We get off for a 30 min break at the Lanzhou station. From the architecture and landscape, we've definitely moved further out west. I get some food, since the lunch in the dining car was so expensive (discussing it would be beneath me). One of the items I get is one of my fave hot dogs, the Shuanghui brand hot dog. It's just a very mild a familiar taste. I would say in between a regular American hot dog and a vienna sausage. We also got some cucumbers, which I'm not so hot on eating. We'll just wash them a lot with boiling water, I guess.
Now's a good time to talk about class. The meal I had on the dining car was only $4, but that comes out to a lot of money in China. On top of that, my family is comfortably ensconced in one of the soft bed cars. Obviously it's worth the extra cash for us to have something resembling privacy and being able to sleep on a bed. For a fraction of the price of our ticket, you could get to Lhasa in the same 46 hours in one of the hard-seat cars. Imagine living, eating, and sleeping for 2 days from the same spot. You'd have access to a nightmarish bathroom shared among 50 people, and, to save money, whatever food you brought with you to last the trip. Instant ramen is a gimmick quick meal for the average college student in America, but it's very nice convenience for the typical poor Chinese rail traveler. It's fairly compact and light, and all you need to do is fill up your mug at the boiling water faucet to prepare it. Of course, the poorest travelers wouldn't waste their money on instant ramen. Most of the cars in the train are hard- and soft-seat cars. I wish I could take a photo of how people are seated in those, but it'd be a bit rude to run back there and snap a shot.
8:26pm
An uneventful afternoon. Both my parents fell asleep, unable to cope with the jetlag. I was way ahead with my 4am sleep schedule from back home. I spent most of it reading and watching the scenery change a bit over the miles. The conductor came by to drop off what amounted to a liability waiver for passengers entering the 3000m+ elevation of the high plains. I puzzled out how to fill it out with my limited reading and writing capability. Hopefully I'll remember how to write Lhasa
From the cultural tutorial playing over the PA: "...Tibetans do not look kindly upon killing cats, frogs, turtles..." I guess the stereotypes are true about us Han Chinese. The tutorial also advises against drinking, as the high altitude is a conduit to getting incredibly wasted (as well as incredibly hung over the next day). The altitude sickness is getting preached a lot. With lots of old people on this train, I can't say I'm that worried about it. It ranks somewhat higher than seeing a Yeti on a mountain pass. Which according to Uncharted 2, can definitely happen. But I am curious where in the spectrum I'll fall. I'll just pretend the whole first day that I'm between rounds in kickboxing and try to gulp down recovery air.
http://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/9_5?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPPovr7-aGzZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIf3FEzhtJo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvaf8sYM-So
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yo8ZRyX1QI
Woke up on the train. We're probably an hour outside of Xi'an in Shaanxi, which I believe is Bo's hometown. That'd be only a quarter or so of the way to Lhasa, but still decent progress for one night's sleep.
Fortunately, there is an outlet on the train, so I can document everything en route. I forgot to mention that we got tickets on a bed car. Each room has 4 bunks in it. So some random teenager got the 4th bunk. Between his questionable background story and the natural suspicion with which Chinese treat strangers, I think my parents were pretty wary of him. He got off at Xi'an. We'll see if someone replaces him.
One thing'll I'll note about China -- bathrooms are dirty. In general, public and shared places are dirty. It's like no one cares to clean them. So even our friends' nice new apartment complex -- the lobby and outside areas were just filthy. The same is true of the train bathrooms. No one really respects the cleanliness of the space so it gets nasty fast. But, because everything is so dirty, you don't see many people loitering about, so there's not much graffiti. Between the smell of ammonia and some colorful remarks by bored stall sitters, I'd rather take the graffiti.
On the topic of water -- fresh drinking water is a precious thing in China. It's not something that a restaurant can readily serve for you. You could certainly get some bottled water, at a huge markup. But it's something you should bring with you. On the train, each car has a boiled water faucet, and each room has a pitcher that you fill up. The water comes out close to boiling, so you have to fill up at intervals and let it cool off before you can drink it. Even now, it is still customary to drink hot tea at restaurants and warm boiled water at home with meals. I can live with it, but I'm still pretty used to having drinking water at hand at all times.
Now we're riding through Shaanxi. It's a very hilly country. As we get out of the urban areas, all you are the insides of tunnels, and emerging from them, swollen streams and wet riverbeds. There's steep hills lining the countryside, and nestled between them, by the waters are small and extremely rustic villages. There's plenty of houses without windows even doors. The people seem to be making a living off of farming and mining. While the urban centers of China have made a marked improvement toward middle class, I don't think much has changed here. 50% of Chinese people are still farmers barely making a living selling their crops.
That said, the country side is extremely picturesque. There's fully green hills, terraced hills, dirt cliffs that look like they would collapse at the first hint of heavy rain. In a few spots, I even seen primitive dwellings dug out into the hillside. These would were probably occupied in modern times before Communism liberated and modernized the country. I suspect the view won't change much in the hours and hours until we hit the high plains. Just millions of average northernr Chinese leading a lifestyle that hasn't changed much in decades. And yet progress is still coming. You can see various projects being built up. The buttresses of new highways being poured from concrete, and earthen ramps leading to new developments on the hillsides. I'd like to see what happens to these places in another 10 years. I've got a few pictures and videos, but I don't know how representative they can be. It's best to remember that China is a big country, and that much of it is like this, and not like in the cities. Any scene you can picture, I probably saw -- a boy playing by himself on rocks in the middle of a turbid stream; a broken down 3-wheel truck on a dirt road; a few cows grazing on the slope of a hill; railworkers piling up bags of fertilizer to be shipped eastward; a peasant girl taking a piss just outside of her village; a stone-lined drainage ditch plunging down a hill at 70 degrees, leading rainwater into an irrigation canal; a cemetary not but 5 meters next to a small cornfield; a huge trashpit fire being tended by a few locals; a precarious wooden suspension bridge.
All of this linked together by the Chinese rail system. I can't imagine how things would be further out from the rail.
Apparently, the railroad through to Lhasa was only completed in 2006. The high elevation made it hard for the railworkers to maintain a decent pace of progress.
Another anecdote -- my dad still remembers his college student id: 776307. 1977 for his entering year, 63 for his submajor -- uranium geology, and 7 for his number in his class (everyone in a submajor is in the same 'class').
3:36pm
We get off for a 30 min break at the Lanzhou station. From the architecture and landscape, we've definitely moved further out west. I get some food, since the lunch in the dining car was so expensive (discussing it would be beneath me). One of the items I get is one of my fave hot dogs, the Shuanghui brand hot dog. It's just a very mild a familiar taste. I would say in between a regular American hot dog and a vienna sausage. We also got some cucumbers, which I'm not so hot on eating. We'll just wash them a lot with boiling water, I guess.
Now's a good time to talk about class. The meal I had on the dining car was only $4, but that comes out to a lot of money in China. On top of that, my family is comfortably ensconced in one of the soft bed cars. Obviously it's worth the extra cash for us to have something resembling privacy and being able to sleep on a bed. For a fraction of the price of our ticket, you could get to Lhasa in the same 46 hours in one of the hard-seat cars. Imagine living, eating, and sleeping for 2 days from the same spot. You'd have access to a nightmarish bathroom shared among 50 people, and, to save money, whatever food you brought with you to last the trip. Instant ramen is a gimmick quick meal for the average college student in America, but it's very nice convenience for the typical poor Chinese rail traveler. It's fairly compact and light, and all you need to do is fill up your mug at the boiling water faucet to prepare it. Of course, the poorest travelers wouldn't waste their money on instant ramen. Most of the cars in the train are hard- and soft-seat cars. I wish I could take a photo of how people are seated in those, but it'd be a bit rude to run back there and snap a shot.
8:26pm
An uneventful afternoon. Both my parents fell asleep, unable to cope with the jetlag. I was way ahead with my 4am sleep schedule from back home. I spent most of it reading and watching the scenery change a bit over the miles. The conductor came by to drop off what amounted to a liability waiver for passengers entering the 3000m+ elevation of the high plains. I puzzled out how to fill it out with my limited reading and writing capability. Hopefully I'll remember how to write Lhasa
From the cultural tutorial playing over the PA: "...Tibetans do not look kindly upon killing cats, frogs, turtles..." I guess the stereotypes are true about us Han Chinese. The tutorial also advises against drinking, as the high altitude is a conduit to getting incredibly wasted (as well as incredibly hung over the next day). The altitude sickness is getting preached a lot. With lots of old people on this train, I can't say I'm that worried about it. It ranks somewhat higher than seeing a Yeti on a mountain pass. Which according to Uncharted 2, can definitely happen. But I am curious where in the spectrum I'll fall. I'll just pretend the whole first day that I'm between rounds in kickboxing and try to gulp down recovery air.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)