Xitang

Xitang rough phonetic pronunciation (shee-tong) 

Chinese: 西塘; pinyin: Xītáng

I had the first Monday of April off from work for "Tomb Sweeping" day, which is a day for Chinese people to remember their ancestors. I was looking for places nearby Hangzhou to travel and I had decided to go to one of the water towns. A water town is normally an ancient town that is built around a series of canals with a lot of bridges and scenic views. There are a lot of famous places nearby, but some of the most famous are pretty touristy and would surely be packed to the brim during the holiday. After doing a little research, I decided that Xitang would be a good choice for authenticity and fewer crowds. Since most of the water towns are pretty small, we just did an overnight trip. Upon arriving at the bus station and seeing the mass of humanity there, I remembered my previous promise to myself to avoid traveling during the holidays, but it seems that is one of the lessons I have a hard time learning. Even when arriving in Xitang we could see that the prices were a bit inflated and there were a lot of people there. Since Xitang is quite small and not that developed, it's difficult to find a place to stay online and book before going there and a lot of places were full when we arrived. Luckily, we ran into a few young Chinese people who were looking for a place to stay as well and found a cheaper room just outside of the ancient river part of the city. Like all tourist places throughout China, you have to pay to enter the main site and then also pay again for some attractions within the main site. However, the Chinese people told us that it is possible to enter the river town for free after 4 pm and before 8 am, so we decided to wait until after 4 pm to go inside. The river town itself is all centered around the canals. There are ancient buildings and wooden walkways all around the city. Mostly there are little shops selling touristy stuff and small vendors with street food in the buildings, but many of the buildings also have beds where it's possible to spend the night.

Nice Bridge

Canal with Ancient Buildings

Canal

Wooden Walkway

Locals Making Some Snacks

It was fun to explore the side streets and try all the food. Most of the food was pretty tasty and we mostly ate street food for the dinner there. There weren't many foreigners in Xitang, but not many people staring or asking to take pictures, so there must be foreigners there somewhat often.

Side Street

Bridge

Bridge

Side Street with Shops

Wes Wildin' Out on Some Crawdad

Once it was dark, we wanted to do one of the boat rides along the canal. At night they have all the red lanterns lit up and the city is very picturesque. They have small boats that hold around 10 people and there will be a guy that will row you up and down the canals for about a half hour. It's pretty great and with a little bit of rain falling, I felt like I was in an old Chinese kung fu movie. That is until I saw the throngs of tourists hovering around the shops on the walkways. Since it was night time, a lot of the pictures didn't turn out that well, but a few look pretty good.

River at Night

River at Night

People on Walkways

Open Windows

Late Night Restaurant, or "Nighthawks" Painting, Chinese Style

The next morning we woke up early to enter the town before the 8 am deadline. It was not raining this day and the sun started peaking out early, which made for a new view of the river town.

Breakfast and Tea on Walkways

Wes and the Rising Sun

Canal and Sun Reflection

Something crazy to see while traveling in China is how even Chinese city dwellers will be surprised or interested about how some of the local Chinese people live. The disparity of lifestyles is just as great between the two groups of Chinese people sometimes as between some of us who grew up in the US or western countries and the local Chinese. It's impossible to guess what the locals think when another Chinese person will get up close to take a picture of them, like in the picture below. As a foreigner, I think we can only observe these things and can never really understand fully the dynamic between two people who are really so different, even though they are from the same country.

Old Local Man

We walked around the whole town again in the morning. Since the town is not very large, we had seen almost everything the night before, but it was nice to see it under the light of day with a little sunshine.

Boats Cruising Down Canal

Canal

Canal with Cherry Blossom Tree

Rooftops

Black and White

After spending the morning and lunchtime in the city, we decided to head back home. When we got to the bus station, we found out that there weren't any buses for several hours because all the earlier ones were sold out. To kill some time, we decided to go get a massage. Since it's a pretty small town, we figured the prices would be pretty cheap. When we found a place, it looked a little suspicious, since a lot of massage parlors double as brothels in China. However, the prices were indeed quite cheap, so we decided to try it out. They took us to a normal room and it was just a normal massage with no funny business. However, when we finished and went to go pay, they charged us double the prices they said beforehand and that were displayed out front. At first, we were refusing to pay and asking why they were charging more. They said that they had given us the special "massage" and that we should just pay it. Since we had gone in at the late afternoon, not many people were there, but now we saw some girls in fishnet stockings and some shady characters hanging around, so we could definitely tell this place was suspect. They started being more aggressive and yelling at us a little, so I finally said that let's just pay and get out of this dump. Right as I got the money out and slammed it on the counter, I instinctively put up my middle finger and flipped them all the bird right in their faces. I'm not normally one to get angry and haven't really done something like that before, but being frustrated in not being able to speak Chinese well enough to defend myself and them treating us that way really made me mad. I hadn't planned to do that at all, but just did it at the last second. I have to say it got my point across quite clearly. After we walked out, the boss came out of the shop and started yelling at us some more, but we just walked away. I have to say that I felt much better after flipping them the bird and I felt we came away on the winning team, haha. My friend said that I've been in China too long if I'm arguing so much about less than $10, but it was more the principle. For the most part, things like that don't happen too often in China, at least from my experience, but every once in awhile someone will try to take advantage of you like that. Later, when we went to the bus station, we had a really nice, humble Chinese guy come and try to speak English with us, which is always nice. It goes to show that for every bad experience you have, you have a few more good experiences with Chinese people being very friendly to you, so you have to keep that in perspective. I have to admit that now it's all over, it's more a funny story and it's funny how you might surprise yourself in certain situations. After all the side story, I'd say that Xitang is very pretty and there are a lot of beautiful things to see there. It's not so big, so you only need a day or two there, but if you want to see some ancient buildings, bridges, and local life, it's a good choice.

Xitang River Scene

As always, more pictures on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/Xitang#

Gulang Yu

On the third day of my trip, I came back from the tulou buildings and toured Gulang Yu. Even though my hotel was on the Gulang Yu island across from Xiamen, I had not yet had a chance to check it out. It's a relatively small island so you can walk across the whole thing in not too much time. The famous part of Gulang Yu is that it used to be occupied by Europeans, so a lot of the buildings are European in style.

Gulang Yu at Night

During my stay, the number of tourists at Gulang Yu was a little unbearable for my taste, especially after spending such a fun day seeing the tulou in Yongding. While a lot of the sites were pretty interesting and there were some great views, there were at times so many people that it was difficult to really enjoy it. You can pay 80 RMB (~$12) to see all the main tourist sites on the island, so I just bought that ticket and spent the day walking around. The first one is a large statue of a famous Chinese hero.

Statue of Zheng Chenggong

Statue of Zheng Chenggong

In that park there is also a good view of one side of the island and the ocean.

Gulang Yu Ocean

The next main site is a piano museum and a surround garden. Gulang Yu used to be knows as piano island when it was under European control, as their used to be a lot of piano bars at that time. The pianos were interesting, but the garden was the best part.

Piano Museum

Ocean Meeting the Garden

Rocks in the Garden Just a Few People Swimming

After that, I hiked up to the highest point of the island, which is probably the best main site because the view is really nice. However, the crowds were terrible at the top. A lot of times in China the concept of a line doesn't exist and people were constantly cutting to the front. Also, the amount of personal space people expect is much less. It was really annoying and I got really tired of being crowded and pushed constantly the whole time to the top. Honestly, this is one of the worse parts of traveling to really popular tourist sites like Gulang Yu. I know it is China and there are a lot of people, but even after the amount of time in China I've spent so far, I can't get used to people jumping in line in front of me and giving me no personal space. Despite all that, though, the view was pretty amazing and you could see the whole island and across the bay to Xiamen. The weather was perfect that day, so the views were that much better.

The Peak

Crowd at the Top

Gulang Yu with Xiamen Across the Bay

Gulang Yu

After the peak, you can take a tram to another part of the island to see an aviary. They had some interesting birds there.

Tram

The best thing about Gulang Yu, in some ways, is not the paid tourist sites, but just walking down all the narrow alleys and streets. No cars are allowed on Gulang Yu, so you can just walk around at your leisure without having to dodge cars and crazy drivers like in most places in China. There are a lot of European style buildings, houses, churches, shops, and everything else. In the end, Gulang Yu does have a lot to offer, with great views, parks, interesting streets, buildings, and all those other things. However, as I mentioned, I've never been a huge fan of seeing Europe in China, so I probably wouldn't go back to Xiamen/Gulang Yu unless I wanted to see the tulou buildings as a day trip again. Unfortunately, I think that I visited the island during the peak time of Chinese New Year, so there were an especially large number of tourists, which made it less enjoyable as well. If I had gone another time, maybe I would have liked it a lot more. Another installment of pictures of Chinese people is in order. I'm not sure if I'll have pictures for every post like this, but it is interesting to show some local Chinese people.

Shop Owner

In China, it is very common to see some poor Chinese man carrying, pushing, biking, pulling, etc. huge loads. Sometimes I am not sure how they are strong enough to do it and I am almost positive it can't be worth the little amount of money they get paid.

Chinese Men Pushing Big Shipment

There are more pics on picasa for those interested: http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/GulangYu#

Yongding and the Tulou Earth Buildings

On the second day of my trip, I did a day trip to Yongding, which is a rural area about two hours outside of Xiamen. I was more nervous about this trip than any of the other places I went. Since it is in the countryside there would be few English speakers and I had very little information about what to do once I arrived. To plan the trip I had been using a combination of my Lonely Planet book, www.wikitravel.com, and any local resources or tourist maps available when I would arrive in a city. For most places, that was plenty, but for Yongding all I had was the name of the city and some basic information. It was really just a sidebar in my book with no maps or anything too useful. Traveling alone there with shaky Chinese skills was certainly going to be a challenge. The main draw of Yongding is what they call tulou, "earth buildings", or Hakka houses. The tulou were mostly built by the Hakka tribe, which still live there today. The tulou are basically large circular structures with an outer ring with rooms where the residents live and an interior circle that is a common area. They are literally built of out "earth" or, according to wikipedia, earth, sand, and lime. The tulou contained an entire community and often were essentially self-sufficient, with some crops, livestock, wells, and even temples all inside. This would allow the residents to live their lives without leaving the safety of the tulou. Since a lot of the tulou are around 300-500 years old, it is easy to imagine how this type of protective structure would be popular in the country that sealed itself in with the Great Wall. While the tulou can vary in size, the largest can hold over 600 people, so you can imagine how large they can be. Without giving away the ending of the story, here are some pictures to give you an idea of what they look like.

Tulou from Outside

Tulou from Inside

Well inside Tulou

Livestock in Tulou

Cooking and Cleaning

Family Eating in their Room

Temple inside Tulou

Taking the bus to the countryside from Xiamen was an interesting experience. I have not spent too much time in the countryside and you definitely start to see a lifestyle there that does not exist in the big cities in China. There were some other foreigners on the bus in the beginning, but they had gotten off at an earlier stop than I did, so I was basically left alone to fend for myself. The bus finally arrived in a small city center and the remaining people all got out. It seems everyone besides me knew where they were going and immediately dispersed. Soon I was left alone in this small city with no map or any clear signs of where to go, not even in Chinese. I started walking down a road that looked like it might have something, but to be honest, I really had no idea. As very few foreigners go to this area, the local people were staring at me even more than normal in China. They seemed to be quite shocked to see the presence of a "Laowai", or foreigner, walking confusedly down the dirt road. The people all seemed to congregate in small groups outside, often around a small fire since it was a little bit cold that day. There were chickens, cows, and other livestock just wandering around. I would have to say at this point I was probably further outside of my comfort zone than I have ever been. There are definitely more seasoned travelers than myself who have been in a lot crazier situations, and I found at as the day went on how friendly of a place Yongding is and how many Chinese tourists go there, but in those first moments I really had no idea what was going on and I wondered what I had gotten myself into. After a short while walking, a local guy on his motorcycle pulled up and asked if he could help me out. As the roads were pretty narrow and rough, most everyone was riding on motorcycles in this area. The man had a map and said he'd take me to some tulou for a small price. Now, I'm not normally in the habit of going with strange men who ask me if I want to take a ride on their motorcycle, but in this situation, it seemed I had no choice. So I hopped on and he took me to a group of smaller tulou. They were definitely interesting to see in person and since this was a less frequented tulou, some of the people living there were again pretty surprised to see me there.

Tulou from the Top Floor

Tulou Side

Some Dude

After that first group, the driver offered to drive to some of the better ones. I ended up riding with him the whole day, for around 6 hours or more. The only fee he required was around $25, which is probably more than he normally gets. To be honest, I couldn't have gotten luckier with my driver. He was very good-natured and spoke quickly in a series of staccatos. He basically served as my tour guide and helped me all day long, even helped to buy my bus ticket back home since I had no idea where to get it. I could tell he was somewhat happy to be driving a foreigner and took any occasion to show me off to his friends or other Chinese people we met.

Riding on the Motorcycle My Driver

There was a traffic jam through the center of town, so my driver took me on a shortcut and we stopped by his tulou. He beamed with pride with a big smile on his face when he pointed out which tulou was his. His tulou is unique in that it's a square instead of a circle. While he was taking care of a few things, I chatted with an old women living there who was saying how her room was very large and let me take a look. She asked what country I was from and then started listing out all the countries she knew. The room was actually relatively small and I didn't even see a bed around. I didn't know whether to pity her for her humble situation or to feel jealous about how happy and proud she is with what she has, when I need an ever increasing quality of life to be happy it seems.

Driver's Tulou

Tulou Hall

Old Woman's Room

Child in a Crib

One of the highlights of all the tulou is the Chengqi tulou. It is the largest, with over 400 rooms and as mentioned could house over 600 people. It was pretty loaded with Chinese tourists and had a market inside selling souvenirs, but was still really great to see.

Chengqi Tulou (World Heritage Site)

Inside Chengqi

Chengqi Side

While driving between the different groups of tulou, I was able to see a lot of the countryside. Since it is China, even in rural areas there are still a lot of people walking around in the villages and farms. They had a lot of terraced farms and old buildings everywhere. While driving around, people were all quite curious and were always staring at me. As often happens in China, the people will say "Hello!" to you wherever you go, then run away shyly, since they're a little unsure about foreigners and that's all the English they know. It's so funny sometimes to see Chinese mother's advising their kids to say hello when they see me.

Larger Village along River

Terraced Farms

Probably the best tulou grouping is Tianluokeng cluster. Basically, there is a group of five or so tulou altogether on a hillside in the midst of terraced farms. There is really a dramatic view from above and below.

Tianluokeng from Above Tianluokeng and Me

Tianluokeng

Tianluokeng from Below

My Driver and I

With very few foreigners in the Yongding area, there were, of course, a lot of Chinese people trying to talk with me. Normally, when I said that I am able to speak a little Chinese, they would get so excited and start speaking so quickly that it was impossible for me to understand. A lot of them wanted to take pictures with me, which is another pretty common thing in China. After this trip I have a very simple barometer to determine how many foreigners have penetrated the area. It's based on the number of people staring at you and how many people ask you to take pictures with them. In Hangzhou, I've only had people ask to take pictures with me two or three times after living here around six months, but in Yongding in one day I had at least 10 people ask. I sometimes asked them to take a picture for me as well.

Some new "pengyoumen (friends)"

At the end of the day, the driver asked me to eat dinner with his family. It was pretty interesting, but once they started speaking the local dialect, I couldn't understand anything. They poured some concoction from a Sprite bottle that ended up being some kind of moonshine as far as I can tell. Try turning down some people as eager to please as they were, even with the obvious health concerns of drinking some mysterious alcohol from a sprite bottle. They invited me to stay the night and had a nice room for guests that even had a western style toilet! It is possible to stay inside of the tulou and I wanted to try that, but I ended up staying in the guest room that was in another building as to not disappoint my driver. I know this blog ended up to be pretty long, but I wanted to write as much as I could remember since it was one of the most interesting travel experiences I have had. To be honest, there are a limited number of years left for people to still have a similar experience. Currently, there are still a fair number of people living in the tulou, but with each passing year there are fewer and fewer. Most have lived in the tulou their whole lives and don't really know any other way of living, but as the older generations go away so will the lifestyle. These days, young people will leave the villages to go to the big cities for more opportunities and who can blame them. While the living situation is interesting, I don't know a lot of people who would be content living that lifestyle the rest of their lives. Most of the people remaining are old people and young children, since as the parents will be so busy working in the cities, the grandparents will watch the children until they are old enough to go to school. It is truly one of the last generations to live that lifestyle. I imagine that in the future it will turn into a purely tourist attraction and you can already see tourism has cleared out most native people at the most popular tulou. Probably it will end up being like some of the pioneer villages, mining towns, or old colonial towns we have in the US, where people dress up in old clothes and pretend to live the lifestyle, but in reality it's just a show. It is sad, but as they say, there is no progress without change. Now I will step off my soapbox. To lighten the mood, here are a few more pictures of Chinese people doing what Chinese people do:

It is Necessary to Use an Athletic Stance to Take Pictures

Young Boy Lighting a Firecracker with a Lit Cigarette

Some More Enthusiastic Photographers

For those interested, here is a link to all my pictures on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/Tulou