Pandora's rocks?

     We were in Beijing when demonstrators roughed up Ambassador Gary Locke's car outside the U.S Embassy recently. The hoo-ha is centered on some tiny islands in the East China Sea that Japan, China and Taiwan claim territorial rights over. Japan is the lead villain in China, but America has been accused in the official press of "using the China-Japan dispute to strengthen its military presence in the Asian-Pacific region." Some observers worry that a war could break out over these uninhabited rocks.
     Most of the vandalism and threats were aimed at Japanese businesses and products. No one got worked up enough to attack just any American they could find. (It only seems like the average motorist is out to run you down, but their aim is indiscriminate.) On the day Locke's car got pummeled with a few water bottles, Margaret was safely stuck in meetings at her employer's Beijing office, while I was watching for Mongol hoards at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. 

Chinese to the left. Mongols to the right. No Japanese in sight. P.S. The climb to this tower from the wall 
below is every bit as steep and high as this picture makes it look.

     The only Mongol I met that day was my guide, Lisa. She told me her Chinese name but I failed to grasp it. That's why she goes by Lisa when escorting ignorant tourists like me around Beijing. Lisa is from Baotu, a mid-sized industrial city (2.65 million people) in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. She says I could live well there if I opened an English-language school. I might be able to live well, but I'm thinking this good life would not include Margaret.

Not every guide will climb the wall with you, but Lisa was game.

     The Chinese are awesome wall builders and the Great Wall is pretty darn great. Most of China's important cities over the past two millennia built walls around them. After leaving Beijing, we spent the weekend in one such city, Xi'an, before Margaret had to be in Shanghai for more meetings. 
     Xi'an is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit and it didn't disappoint. In the 3rd century B.C., China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang had the life-size fake army buried with him, along with most of the real laborers on the project. (That is not living well.) It was discovered by a local farmer in 1974 and only a fraction of the site has been unearthed to date. 

Every one of the 8,000 soldiers resurrected so far has a one-of-a-kind face and physique. The horses are 
all the same.

     There's more to Xi'an than ancient clay statues. It has the best preserved of the ancient city walls in the country. 

The Tangs started it all in the 7th century A.D. The Mings enlarged it in the 14th century.

     Xi'an is also home to the historic starting point for the northern route of the Silk Road that led to the Middle East and Africa. The Chinese traded their fine silks for frankincense and myrrh. Screwed again . . .

Silk Road monument: you can't see it too well here, but the road starts with a fork in it. Fortunately, as Margaret noted, there's a gas station in the middle of the fork where silk traders can get directions.

      The Silk Road was responsible for bringing Islam to Xi'an, where China's largest population of Muslims still reside. The old Muslim Quarter is another of the city's main tourist attractions. But Gerry, our guide to the Terracotta Warriors and the city wall, was warned not to take American tourists into that part of town. Though no one seemed too riled up over Japan in Xi'an, some residents were unhappy about that anti-Islamic movie trailer that triggered anti-American demonstrations across the Middle East.

Gerry entertaining us at Emperor Qin's overkill of a tomb. 

     Of course, I ignored Gerry's warning and went to have a look around the Muslim Quarter while Margaret was catching up on some email on Sunday afternoon. 

Just another busy weekend in Xi'an's Muslim Quarter.

     No one paid much attention to me, except for a woman in a butcher shop who held up a "No Taking Photos" sign when I aimed my camera at her. I complied mainly because she was wielding a bloody meat cleaver. I encountered no such problems entering China's oldest mosque, founded in 701 A.D. I even met a friendly couple there. They were born and raised in Xi'an, but were visiting the old mosque for the first time.

The guy spoke pretty good English and was eager to use it. We chatted for awhile and posed for pictures. 
No Muslims got offended.

    To my untrained eye, the mosque looked more like a Buddhist temple. But still cool to explore.

More peaceful than most temples I've visited in Asia.

     We moved on to Shanghai on Monday. Our hotel was located in the heart of the French Concession at Xintiandi. This is about as international a spot you will find in China. Many of the world's leading financial companies have offices here. Plenty of business deals are surely sealed in the cafes and restaurants in this leafy part of town. If you need to get an announcement up quickly on your website, you can always pop into one of the handy WiFi booths.

Would Superman change in one of these?

     There was never a hint here of anti-American outrage. But not too far from Shanghai, you can get a good idea of why China so deeply distrusts Japan. Thanks to a high-speed rail line, it's fairly easy to make a day-trip to Nanjing where one of the 20th century's worst massacres took place. If you've read "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang, you know what I'm talking about. 
     The memorial to the hundreds of thousands of defenseless citizens who were murdered, raped and tortured in Nanjing in 1937 should be more than enough to shut up any deniers left in Japan. It's built on one of the many killing fields around Nanjing. The skeletal remains of the dead are laid bare in solemn displays for all to see along with detailed evidence of when the murders took place and who did them. It's one of the saddest places I've ever been. I'll spare you the gruesome stuff. The art around the site is enough to make you pause and reflect.

     Let's hope both sides figure out a peaceful solution to their latest dispute.