"For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization."
-Robert A. Heinlein

On my second day in Xi’an I hooked up with an American backpacker (the first I have met in China so far) named Jason. We met at the lounge of the hostel. The TV was on and they were showing some Chinese woman signing “Garota de Ipanema” in a very heavily accented Portuguese. It was a pretty ridiculous scene. We looked at each other and started laughing, and the typical backpacker’s chat followed right after. Jason is from LA and he has been in China for a few weeks now. It is his second trip and he plans to stay for a total of 4 months. Unlike me, he has been able to learn some Chinese, so he can speak a few sentences, understand even a few more and recognize many characters.

So we decide to go together to Mt. Huashan in the morning. Mt. Huashan is about 2 hours drive from Xi’an, so we head to Xi’an train station, where (according to the Lonely Planet guide book) we can hop on Bus #1 and be on our merry way. I mean, it does not get easier than this: All he had to do was to find Bus #1 (how hard could that be, I mean, it is Bus #1 after all). But as with everything else, things in China are not always as easy as them seem at first. You see, once we got there, we realized that the train station lot is PACKED with buses of all sizes, makers, states of conservation and degrees of legitimacy. You can find everything ranging from very modern and comfortable Korean made road behemoths, to very shady (and I mean SHADY) vans that one could swear would fall apart when hitting the first road bump. So, the Xi’an train station bus lot is nothing less than a labyrinth of HUNDREDS of those buses, and there are no signs or indicators of where the buses for each line park. It is a completely random arrangement that keeps changing at the whim of the drivers. So, we have no other choice but to go straight into the maelstrom of buses in order to find the one that will take us to our desired destination. Very quickly the situation deranged into two jackasses (wearing large backpacks) literally dodging dozens of maneuvering buses (where the drivers really do not give a damn about pedestrians) in a desperate search for the fabled Bus #1 that would take us to Mt. Huashan. Countless times we had to jump and dodge away from buses reversing, dashing out of the parking lot, or simply maneuvering to drop their passengers. At the same time, we were being chased by a bunch of very persistent “bus pimps” shouting to us, in very bad English, the destinations in which their clandestine buses would take us for a “small fee”. After barely escaping being run over by maneuvering buses a couple of times, we decide to go to the main train station and ask for information on the so far elusive “Bus #1”. Jason, using his broken Chinese, managed to ask one of the station’s employees where we could find “Bus #1”. The employee made a baffled face and explained that there was no Bus #1. There was a Bus #2 and above, but there has never been a Bus #1. It is said that every man has its breaking point. I guess Jason had just reached his, after learning that almost getting killed at the bus parking lot, there was no line #1 to Mt. Huashan, the man simply lost it. In absolute amazement, I witnessed Jason, in a fit of anger and rage, tear his Lonely Planet book guide in front of everyone at the station, as he yelled “what a worthless piece of shit!!!!”. I believe that such display of pitiful frustration and despair was enough to soften the heart of the coldest, most ruthless and unsympathetic Chinese public employees. The train station worker was so moved by the scene, that he started to ask around to see if there were any buses that would pass through Mt. Huashan. It seemed that there was indeed a “reputable” clandestine bus that had Mt. Huashan as part of its route. So, once again we went back into the maelstrom of the parking lot looking for the “reputable” clandestine bus that was recommended to us. After dancing around maneuvering buses, smelling the diesel fumes and so on, we were able to find the bus we were looking for. The “bus” was actually a very large and very beaten up van, with lots of rust, bad tires and no license plate. It was managed by a “gentleman” (I am using the term very loosely here) that looked more like a white slave trader than anything else. The man had a long mustache, blood red shot eye and the few teeth he still had in his mouth were mostly brown or black. So, that was the “reliable” transportation that we offered. The “gentleman” offered us passage to Mt. Huashan for the outrageous sum of 26 Yuan (about $3) each, non-negotiable. After some debate between Jason and I, we agreed to hop into the bus. The interior of the vehicle was absolutely filthy. The head rests (which at one point used to be white) were now completely darkened. The seat cushions were covered with dust and the bus floor was sticky. Summoning all of our courage and manhood, we managed our way into the back of the bus and sat on the unsavory seats, waiting for the departure. And we waited…and we waited…and we waited…all the while, enjoying the pleasures of the second hand smoke from the other native passengers. After waiting for about 1 hour sitting in a germ and tar infested van, we realized that the “gentleman” would not depart until he had filled all the seats on the bus, and right now, after 1 hour wait, we were only half full. After a brief conversation with Jason, we concluded that we had taken enough punishment for a day, and unless Mt. Huashan was full of horny and beautiful bisexual playmates ready to satisfy all of our fantasies, the trip was really not worth the suffering we were going through. Since the prospect of the bisexual playmates seemed quite remote, we jumped off the bus (with the “gentleman cursing at us) and walked away from the train station as fast as we could. With Mt. Huashan now completely eliminated from out list of activities, we decided to explore the city of Xi’an in further detail. We went to the nearest bus stop and waited for a city bus that would take us to the South gate (Xi’an is surrounded by a huge and ancient city wall). Deciphering the signs at the bus stop, we figured out that we needed to take bus #40. We did not have to wait for long. In less than 2 minutes, bus #40 came speeding down the avenue. It blasted thru the bus stop, completely ignoring the waving passengers and it came to a halt at about 100 yards down the road. A whole crowd of waiting passengers (about 30) raced to the stopped bus on a mad stampeded (me and Jason included). When we got there, the bus was empty and the doors locked. Some of the natives got really pissed off and began kicking the bus. Others would just shout something (I take those were curses). After a couple of minutes, the bus driver emerged from a nearby store (he was buying cigarettes), opened the bus and began letting passengers in. And the anger from the Chinese passengers vanished as sudden as it had appeared. They started boarding the bus as if absolutely nothing had happened. We boarded the city bus, found a place to stay sit and began enjoying the trip. A few minutes into the ride, Jason pointed to one of the more bizarre scenes I have seen in China so far: Inside the bus (right in the middle, between the roll of seats) a kid that was about 5 years old was peeing in the floor, while his dad, sitting nearby, had a proud grin in his face that was somewhat like “That is my boy”. And no one else inside the bus seemed to think much of it, as the yellowish liquid began to spread across the floor of the bus. At that point, Jason stared at the magnificent wall of Xi’anChina will recover the level of social refinement that it was once know for. Bit right now, that social refinement is simply not there. I can only hope that this will be a priority for the government in the future. and said: “I think something really went wrong in this country at some point between the end of the Ming dynasty and now. I mean, it is hard to believe that the people who now piss on buses, are the direct descendents from the people who could build a wall like that”. I think it was a harsh statement from Jason, but there was some truth into it. The Chinese at one point were a very refined, advanced and cultured people. But now, many of the Chinese we met had very poor hygiene. Spitting on the floor in public was widespread, people here never washed their hands after using the toilet and seeing children as old as 7 shitting and peeing in public was not uncommon at all. I consider myself to be a pretty open minded person, ready to accept other cultures and ways of life. But I think that basic levels of hygiene and cleaningness are simply non-negotiable. Maybe, part of the root cause of the problem were the several cultural disruptions that china has suffered over the ages, from the opium wars, to the Japanese invasion, the cultural revolution an so on. If that is the case, maybe

So the rest of the day in Xi’an was pretty uneventful, with me and Jason strolling thru the streets, checking out stores and temples. Nothing very eventful happened until we strumbled upon a Chinese goverment official building. It was the building of the "Department of Tobacco and Alcohol", which is the Chinese equivalent of the ATF (Alcohol, Tobbaco and Firearms) agency in the USA. But there is a little twist. Not only does the Chinese "Department of Tobacco and Alcohol" regulates the sales and use of this products, but they also SELL IT too!!!! In the buidling, besides their offices where the burecrats work, the department also has its own shop where they sell the products they regulate. How clever! How Chinese! Here are the pictures as evidence.

At the end of the day we parted. Jason took a train to Beijing, while I hopped on a plane to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province, where I am to meet Zhang one more time.