At the end of this week, the 31st to be exact, I will have been in China for 2 months. The last two months have been a lot of fun and a good learning experience, but I just don’t feel like I’ve seen enough of China yet! So this past weekend Jinfei and I decided to take another trip, this time to the Guanshan Grasslands.
The trip to the grassland was pretty interesting in and of itself. It began with a bus ride to the bus station at 7 AM on Saturday morning. A pretty uneventful ride, and an empty-ish bus so I could sit for the 45 minutes. After arriving at the bus station and figuring out where to buy the tickets we purchased a pair of tickets to Baoji, another city in Shaanxi about 2.5 hours away. It was a nice ride on a double-decker bus, and I was happy because I came pretty close to finishing Dan Brown’s newest book, The Lost Symbol, on audio-book.
It was already 11 AM when we finally arrived in Baoji, now we needed to find the local bus station, and get some lunch. A bowl of dao xiao mien later we were walking along the same road where the bus station was supposed to be, and not finding it. We were a bit frustrated. Jinfei decided she wanted to buy a cooked sweet potato from a street vendor, while she was making her purchase I glanced around, taking it all in. What did I find right behind our exact location? The bus station entrance. It looked just like one of the dozens of shops lining the street, nearly hidden, the only thing giving it away were people walking in and out with what looked like luggage in their hands. Jinfei was impressed by me finding it and asked “How did you know where it was?! You’re so smart!”. Honestly, her being impressed is probably warranted, you see, I can barely read Chinese, I can’t tell the difference between the characters for bus station and, well much of anything, they usually just look different on the outside. Ten minutes later, about 1 PM, we’re on another bus to the much smaller town of Long Xian only 55km from the Guanshan Grasslands.
The bus ride from Baoji to Long Xian was a much more interesting ride. The first hour or so was pretty typical, I actually slept for an hour or so. I was awoken from my nap because I could nearly fell out of my seat, I passed it off as some erratic driving. Then I crushed Jinfei in her seat and half a second later nearly fell out of my seat again, I was awake now. We we’re careening around corners, passing big trucks and people on their gas-powered rickshaws, all while going up a mountain. Actually looking out the window this didn’t look as bad as I had thought. On the way down the other side of the mountain we we’re again flying around corners, passing trucks left and right. This bus driver either had a death wish or he had driven this road a few times. I hoped it was the latter. Near the bottom there was a line of trucks along the right side of the road, I figured there was some kind of traffic jam in this narrow road, so what do we do? Pass it on the left. Well that had worked well for the whole trip so far, but not this time.
This traffic jam was pretty legit, there were three huge concrete blocks in a zig-zag pattern on the road in front of a bridge. Now, as an aside, construction materials of any kind just laying on the road in China is pretty typical, but these blocks were huge, probably 8 feet cubed. The blocks were positioned close enough together that a car or small truck could drive through easily, but a large construction truck or a bus? Not so much. So, how do we pass this? Like I said before, this is in front of a bridge, we can’t go around. All these drivers in large vehicles trying to get through here and no one seems to be in charge. Eventually the driver figures he can drive between the first two blocks and out into a field. Half-way through. The bus makes a U-turn in the field and makes an attempt to drive through the second and third block. Can’t make it, there are too many vehicles in the way. With no one in charge they all stupidly drive right up to the blocks and try to get through, if only someone could devise some system where this could be done efficiently… but that’s not exactly the Chinese way. Eventually we wait long enough for a few trucks to move out of the way that we’re able to squeeze between the second and third blocks. Finally after about 30 minutes, we’re on our way again. Another 45 minutes, and many little villages later, we arrive in Long Xian.
Due to our traffic jam and late start when we arrive in Long Xian there are no more buses out to the grassland area for the rest of the day. Fortunately, there’s always people willing to drive you nearly anywhere. For a price of course. We secured a ride to the grassland, 55km one way, and admission included for 150 yuan, not terrible. This drive, fortunately, was uneventful. Upon arriving our driver took us to a campground run by people he probably knew, this was nice, but clearly he’s bringing them business in return for some payment. We get a tent, which actually looks like a mini circus tent with nothing but a bed, a lamp hanging from the ceiling and a shoe rack inside it. After putting our things inside Jinfei takes to ordering some food for dinner, she proceeds to negotiate with the people about the price of the meals and what will be included for the next 10 to 15 minutes. I’m impatient and just want to go ride the horses before it gets too dark and cold. She comes back unhappy about the price of our meals, but I’m just thankful she’s done. Although negotiating over the cost is typical in China, sometimes it seems to get pretty heated and angry, however, I’ve been assured this is normal. It still seems very foreign to me, and I try to be much more polite about it when I do it. Finally we go ride the horses, we don’t take them very far, and they don’t seem to be trained as well as horses I’ve ridden before, but still very rideable. After about a half hour the sun is setting and my hands are getting cold, time to go back. Upon returning we sit around a small fire in the large community tent, it is then that I realize, we’re literally the only people staying here besides the owners. Apparently it’s too cold for everyone else, which, in all honesty, it’s seriously freezing out, I wished I’d brought warmer clothing. We sat around the fire listening to some music and just chatting until our food was delivered. The meal tasted good and my pangs of hunger subsided, however I still felt a little hungry, for the money spent I wasn’t too impressed. Not having much of a choice as to get food elsewhere and with no where to really keep warm, we decided it was bed time. At least we might be warm there. It was.
Our bed wasn’t the most comfortable thing I’d ever slept on, but it was warm and in the morning I didn’t want to leave it. One 8 AM rolled around, I was really hungry and figured the sun might be out enough that it wasn’t too cold anymore. I stepped outside, the air was brisk, but not freezing like the night before, as soon as I got some breakfast I’d be happy. We took a short walk around the area while waiting for breakfast, when we returned 20 minutes later it was ready. Breakfast actually turned out to be a much better meal than the dinner had been, some delicious bread, eggs, and potatoes. After breakfast we hiked to the top of the largest hill nearby and took in some scenery. It really reminded me of the badlands in western North Dakota or maybe the black hills in South Dakota, a beautiful sight indeed. Mid-morning we decided to head-back to find a bus back to Long Xian, if the return trip took as long as the trip here, we’d better get going. Upon paying the owner’s of the camp the money owed, they told us that the next bus didn’t come for another three hours, but they’d drive us there for another 120 yuan, uh… no. We’d ask someone else, or get some lunch in the little village while waiting for a bus. If we actually had that much time, I really wanted to ask someone if I could take their motorcycle for a spin. The mountain roads were nice and windy and I was pretty sure someone would let me for a few yuan. Most of the motorcycles people ride around here are just little 125cc things, but who said you can’t have fun on that? Ring it’s neck and she’ll go! Unfortunately, and fortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity because just as we reached the main road, a bus pulled in! The bus was dirty, smokey, and nearly full of Muslim Chinese (the predominant minority in this area) on their way to Baoji, we could take this bus and not even stop Long Xian.
On the way to Baoji we took a different route that the first time, it seemed we we’re taking all highways and the ride was pretty soon. I got as comfortable as I could and tried to take a nap. Apparently I just have bad luck with naps and buses, as soon as I fell asleep I was awoken by the bus rumbling. We we’re driving up a mountain road, that was busy with buses and trucks, narrow, windy and beaten beyond belief. This was a little scary, some of the turns we’re pretty tight for a bus to be driving around. Not someone I would want to drive a bus, that’s for sure. The windy roads only last for about 20 minutes though, must’ve been a “shortcut” because we we’re back on the highway again and soon pulling into Baoji.
The remaining leg of the trip from Baoji to Xi’an was relatively uninteresting, another double-decker bus, nice and comfy. I finished listening to The Lost Symbol, not the ending I had expected, but a good book nonetheless. I didn’t really understand the movie that the bus was showing, nor could I see it well from my seat so Jinfei and I watched the movie “Monsters Vs. Aliens” on my iPod. She liked it because it was funny and easy for her to understand and I just thought it was a pretty decent animated movie. A good choice to download! Finally we arrived back in Xi’an, sadly, we we’re one more bus ride away from home, but it was a short one.
Even though I spent about equal time traveling as I did enjoying the destination I would say the weekend trip was a success. The grasslands weren’t that exciting, and really expensive to boot, but traveling through the rural areas of Shaanxi was something I hadn’t seen much of, and quite interesting. Be sure to check out the pictures for yourself.
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