"On the tracks to Shanghai" After a few days I left the tranquil and peaceful city of Xi'an, for a much more busy Shanghai. With that said, I have to admit that the Xi'an train station was a bit hotter than pleasantly. There were so many people there, that I barely could get inside. Much less getting anywhere close to my gate. I started asking people around me if someone were going on the same train as me. One man reading his newspaper turned out t...

"The Terracotta Army" In 1974 a few farmers digging for a well found some baked clay in the earth they pulled up. Archeologists were quick in their respond when the unusual find was reported. This was in the area of an Emperor's tomb. There was no evidence in the old inscriptions documenting the Emperor's funeral that there should be anything there, but excavations started, and the site was already opened to the public in 1976. By then the archeolo...

"I love the Muslim Quarter! " In the reception of the hostel, a cozy hangout area that would later be full of backpackers from all over the world, I met a German guy who came with the same train as me. We decided to hang out in Xi'an. He had not slept very well on the train and needed to lie down a little. I decided to try to catch up on some e-mails and the blog. It was already 6 in the morning. When we went out I was really hungry. We had some s...

"Meeting with Ben" After we got down from The Great Wall, we had dinner with Ben, my contact in Beijing, and his friend David. Ben is a businessman who lives part time in China, part time in California. He is Chinese, and it was very interesting for us all to hear his opinions on China. David is an American, married to a Chinese girl and working in Beijing now. He has studied Chinese for one year, thought English for six months, and spent a total o...

"Heart shaped Mao Zedong necklace" Today there is not much that indicates that China has recently been a communist country. Capitalism is even more evident here than in Norway or even the USA. In Beijing you cannot go down any street without having people trying to sell you whatever they have (Even their babies!). What follows is a serious round of bargaining and negotiating as you look through the different stores/street vendors. Then you settle o...