Guardian angels working overtime

I've said before that my guardian angels I got before leaving on my trip were working out very well for me, keeping me safe throughout my trip, but I think they have been working overtime lately.

As I'm sure you are all well aware by now, a major earthquake hit China earlier this week. The epicenter was near Chengdu, which I'd left just a few days before. I was staying in Xi'an when it hit, which is a 1000 km or so away from Chengdu, and still the earthquake could be felt and even damaged buildings in the area. Robyn, the American woman I saw the pandas and Giant Buddha with, was actually at the Chengdu airport at the time of the earthquake, and while she didn't see anyone get hurt and she herself was fine, it seemed like a very chaotic and scary situation that I'm glad I didn't have to go through. My luck hasn't run out yet.

I ended up spending 8 days in Xi'an, which is way longer than I'd planned to. A bit of bad planning and a minor dose of bad luck left me somewhat stranded there without really wanting to. All this because I needed to extend my Chinese visa by 2 weeks, so that I could make the most of my time before heading off to South-Africa to meet my niece Melissa at the end of May. To extend your visa, you need to visit a Public Safety Bureau (PSB) and fill-out a form. The processing of your visa extension is variable, from same-day to 5 days, depending on which city you apply for it. Without my Lonely Planet (yeah, that again), I didn't really have all the information I needed to make a good choice as to where to apply for the visa extension. I could have done it in Lijiang for example, I've now read that that is a good, fast place to do it in. I knew I had to do it before Beijing, as processing delays would be longer there (why? I don't really know. Something to do with the Olympics, as with everything in China these days). Why didn't I do it in Chengdu, when I was taking that nice long break? Umm, maybe because I'm a procrastinator? Yeah, that's probably why. No other good reason.

I got to Xi'an on Tuesday May 6 after taking a cheap flight, the same one my new friend Jennifer was taking. She was scheduled to be in Xi'an for a day and a half, so I changed my plans from taking a train to taking a plane to be there the same time as she. We walked around the town on that very hot first day, and I made a point of looking for the PSB office as soon as we got there. The PSB office was very clearly located on my map of Xi'an, so it should have been an easy place to find. But no, even after asking a few people, we could not find it anywhere near where it was supposed to be, so I gave up. I figured I'd ask for clearer directions at the hostels.

The next day was my 'Terracotta warriors' day (more on that later), so I couldn't go to the PSB. Finally, on Thursday morning I ask for directions to the PSB at the travel desk at my hostel, only to find out that it has only just recently moved to a totally different area of the city, which explained why I couldn't find it on that first day. I amazingly managed to get there without getting lost, which is quite surprising with all the mistake possibilities that ensue from taking a bus to go somewhere in China. First of all, I was told I could take bus #6 or #311 to get there, and was pointed in the general direction of the bus stop. As soon as I got to the bus stop, I saw a bus #6 stop, so I got on and showed the driver the name of the street I wanted to stop at. At first he didn't even want me to show him my paper, cause he assumed it would be in English and he couldn't help me, but when I insisted, he eventually took a look at it and shook his head no. He used the hand signal for the number 6 and kept pointing it at my face until I somehow understood that he was telling my that there was another bus #6 and this wasn't the right one. Ooookay, that makes things simple. Same number buses that go different places? (It turns out one #6 bus has a Chinese character after the number. So it's something like bus '6b' or 'tourist bus 6' instead of just plain 6)

With some good luck and a little bit of help from a Chinese lady in my bus, I eventually got off at the right stop. But it's amazing how every little thing become difficult when you can't read the signs around you or you don't have references to help you find your way. The directions I got at the hostel said: "Get off the bus, turn right, walk 2 minutes and you will see a large building on your left. That's where you want to go." So I got off the bus, turned right and walked a few minutes until I decided that something was not quite right. I went back to the bus stop and started over. I will save you the long boring details, but about 45 minutes later I found the place. The actual directions I should have gotten are this: Get off the bus, turn left, walk to the next street corner, cross the street, turn right and it's the first building on your left". It sounds close, but it's not quite the same thing.

The visa extension application process was really an entertaining look into Chinese bureaucracy. I first had to fill in a form (in Chinese, but with an English translation posted on the wall that you could refer to) and give them 1 passport-sized photo. I then had to get my passport id page and visa photocopied, so that meant braving the hordes of Chinese fighting for the next chance at the photocopy machine. It's an amazing site to see and the pushing and shoving these relatively small men and woman can do is almost scary. When I first saw the 'line' at the photocopier, I actually laughed out loud. In this very small area no bigger than a toilet stall, a dozen or so people were coming dangerously close to trampling each other. I took a deep breath, figuratively rolled up my sleeves and dove right in. I used my size and my elbows to make sure that no one would cut in from behind me, and made it out alive only to realise after leaving the room that the girl didn't photocopy the right pages. Doh. I turned around, went back in and lo and behold! there was now an actual line, with people standing respectfully one behind the other! I could not believe it, as I was there 2 minutes before and it was chaos! I get in line to wait my turn, and after a few minutes, chaos starts up again. I realised that the ladies working the photocopier try very hard to get people to respect a line, but that it is a constant struggle and if they stop yelling at people for 2 seconds, the pushing and shoving starts again. The concept of lines, or queuing as it's known elsewhere in the world, is very new to the Chinese and will definitely take some time before it becomes common practice.

After the photocopies, I go back to the lady taking my visa extension application and she then takes my picture. Why did I have to give them a photo if they are only going to take another one anyways? Who knows. And why the photocopies when they have the original passport? Again, who knows. Next up: go back to another scary 'line' to pay for my visa extension. Once that is all done, I sit in front of the lady while she types away at her keyboard for what seems like 10 minutes, thinking 'Wow! This is cool, she's probably processing my visa extension right away'. It's taking so long and she seems to be working hard, so she must be getting everything done then and there, right? Wrong. I only get a little receipt that says I can pick up my passport on the 14th, a whole WEEK later. I simply couldn't believe that I'd have to stay in Xi'an a whole week just waiting for my passport. I sat there in shock for 5 minutes, with the lady just ignoring me while I absorbed the news...

It's not to say the Xi'an wasn't a nice place to stay, but still, a whole week seemed a bit much, especially since I had already seen the main thing I wanted to in Xi'an, which was the Terracotta warriors. And doesn't it defeat the purpose, getting a 2-week extension only to have to spend 1 of them waiting for the passport? Whatever, these things happen and there are worse things then spending a week in a Chinese city, like actually working for example ;-)

Like I said, my main reason for going to Xi'an was to see the Terracotta warriors. Since my friend Jennifer only had 1 day to see all the sights, we decided to make the most of it by booking a day tour. Even if I hesitated a bit before booking (it would have been cheaper to do on our own), I was sooo not disappointed with the tour, as we had an excellent guide and a nice gang of people. Our guide gave us a bit of the history of Xi'an before we started seeing the sights, so we actually understood what we were seeing for a change. We saw the ruins of a prehistoric village (pretty cool), a replica of the 1st Qing Emperor's tomb (a bit cheesy, but still OK), and then the piece de resistance, the Terracotta Warriors. Now some people say they are disappointed when they actually get to see them, because you can't really see them up close, but I don't get the disappointment. It was a very cool moment for me, one of the moments I get chills just thinking how amazing it is for me to actually be there, seeing these warriors that I'd heard about back home, just sitting on my butt, watching TV. Are the warriors themselves worth traveling half-way across the world to see them? It's hard to say, but probably not. But for me, it reminded me that what I'm doing this year is very special and exciting. And the story behind the actual warriors is pretty cool too. To think that a human being (the Emperor) is believed to be so important and has such a huge ego that he built an actual life size army to protect him in his afterlife, and then buried them and the real people who made them at his death, is unbelievable. Gives my goosebumps.

I will eventually post the pictures I took of the warriors, but as usual, they don't really do the moment justice. At least they'll help remind me of that great day I spent in Xi'an.