Liu Xiaobo, the dissident who fights against Chinese dictatorship, has won the Nobel prize for peace: Beijing obviously says it`s a scandal because he`s criminal. I`m not surprised about that, just read couple of posts below. Everyone who doesn`t agree with the government is labelled as criminal and his mouth be shutted, in a way or the other. I`m writing from Xi`an and I arrived here by train with a night service from Pingyao lasting 11 hours. When I got the ticket all the seats were already booked so I bought a `standing` ticket: my naive mind thought the meaning of the word standing was synonymous of taking the available seats without a reservation... Well, I`ve never been so wrong. Standing meant REALLY standing all time long, packed like animals among thousand people into an overcrowded wagon where moving was impossible. After staying there for a while I decided to move to the restaurant car in search of an available seat allowing me to rest. Honestly, I don`t remember how long it took moving there. At restaurant there were available seats and many other people wanted to sit down there but the waitress, in a very rude and violent way, said everybody to move out that car as it was `closed`. We looked her spending the next 2 hours talking into the empty wagon to her friend just for feeling the taste of power and not allowing people inside there. After 2 hours, those guys waiting like me for a seat, said me to go taking a seat as they proabably wouldn`t have said nothing to me `cause they`re `scared of foreigners`. Still have to understand what they`re scared about. Anyway, they were true, after a while, one by one, everybody took a sit there and we spent the night and slept inside the restaurant wagon. In the morning, when I took a picture of the wagon, the officer came to me forcing to delete it. Obviously I tricked him and I didn`t delete the photo at all, but a question`s still in my mind: why this conspiracy of silence? Why nobody kicks the government ass?
Xi`an was the ancient capitol of China as well as the endpoint of the Silk Road. Nowadays is a huge metropolis with more than 4,5 millions population and some outstanding archeological sites. I`ve come here, at the very heart of China, mainly to see the world-ranking Terracotta Army: I`ve seen it, but I wasn`t particularly impressed. I mean, it`s cool but the entrance fee is ridiculously expensive for European standard, I don`t wanna even imagine for the Chinese one. On the other hand, I really enjoyed strolling around the muslim area in Xi`an, the Big Goose Pagoda and a funny cycling tour all along the 14 kilometres of the ancient city walls. The weather is hot and tomorrow I leave to Shanghai with an overnight bus.
Liu Xiaobo, the dissident who fights against Chinese dictatorship, has won the Nobel prize for peace: Beijing obviously says it`s a scandal because he`s criminal. I`m not surprised about that, just read couple of posts below. Everyone who doesn`t agree with the government is labelled as criminal and his mouth be shutted, in a way or the other. I`m writing from Xi`an and I arrived here by train with a night service from Pingyao lasting 11 hours. When I got the ticket all the seats were already booked so I bought a `standing` ticket: my naive mind thought the meaning of the word standing was synonymous of taking the available seats without a reservation... Well, I`ve never been so wrong. Standing meant REALLY standing all time long, packed like animals among thousand people into an overcrowded wagon where moving was impossible. After staying there for a while I decided to move to the restaurant car in search of an available seat allowing me to rest. Honestly, I don`t remember how long it took moving there. At restaurant there were available seats and many other people wanted to sit down there but the waitress, in a very rude and violent way, said everybody to move out that car as it was `closed`. We looked her spending the next 2 hours talking into the empty wagon to her friend just for feeling the taste of power and not allowing people inside there. After 2 hours, those guys waiting like me for a seat, said me to go taking a seat as they proabably wouldn`t have said nothing to me `cause they`re `scared of foreigners`. Still have to understand what they`re scared about. Anyway, they were true, after a while, one by one, everybody took a sit there and we spent the night and slept inside the restaurant wagon. In the morning, when I took a picture of the wagon, the officer came to me forcing to delete it. Obviously I tricked him and I didn`t delete the photo at all, but a question`s still in my mind: why this conspiracy of silence? Why nobody kicks the government ass?
Xi`an was the ancient capitol of China as well as the endpoint of the Silk Road. Nowadays is a huge metropolis with more than 4,5 millions population and some outstanding archeological sites. I`ve come here, at the very heart of China, mainly to see the world-ranking Terracotta Army: I`ve seen it, but I wasn`t particularly impressed. I mean, it`s cool but the entrance fee is ridiculously expensive for European standard, I don`t wanna even imagine for the Chinese one. On the other hand, I really enjoyed strolling around the muslim area in Xi`an, the Big Goose Pagoda and a funny cycling tour all along the 14 kilometres of the ancient city walls. The weather is hot and tomorrow I leave to Shanghai with an overnight bus.
ah ah, io mi sono azzardato a massimo 3 ore di viaggio in treno con "standing ticket"... tutta la mia ammirazione!
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