China (4)

I left you last, having visited the Terracotta Warriors, but it is perhaps also worth while saying a bit about Xian; the region around Xian is very fertile, and is probably the richest part of China. Crops include vines, wheat, pomegranates and persimmons. The scenery is flat, with hills not far away in the haze. Burial mounds were much in evidence and we wondered how much more remained to be found, as the Terracotta warriors apparently did not come from the richest tomb.

Our local guide told us that in 3 years they should be using “their” gas instead of coal, so pollution should improve. Beijing got “their” gas first (sounds just like Scotland’s cry about North Sea oil!)

We left Xian by air for Shanghai.

{We had a National guide who came with us for the whole trip, and at each stop we were met by a local guide. The national guide not only knew about the sights we were visiting, but also acted as a trouble-shooter for the whole party, and the more paranoid among us reckoned that he was there to make sure we saw nothing except what we were supposed to see.}

Of all our guides, the Shanghai one was the least successful. He spoke excellent English, but seemed bored by it all and a bit unhelpful (especially crossing busy roads). We were there for less than a day, and saw only the Jade Buddha Temple, then went on to the Bund, a lot of which looked so like Edinburgh’s George Street used to look.

If you look at the building on the left towards the back of this picture, you will see what I mean.

We then saw our first garden, the Yu Garden; it has an artificial mountain and is quite small with a pond, rocks and greenery. After this we were taken to visit an exhibition of paintings and crafts. It was very hot and the guide would not let us stop for a drink; however we were starting to hit our metaphorical stride now, so we all rebelled. To spite us, the guide dropped us at the railway station early, with dire warnings not to leave until the train came.

Of course we ignored that and some of the men went off for goodies, particularly water or soft drinks.