When I was asked, after returning from my first visit to China, what was my favorite place there - my answer was always Xi’an. When asked why, I couldn’t really answer. So this time, when visiting Xi’an for the second time, I tried to focus and define what was it in this city that made me like it so much. The Chinese are very proud of the city’s long history but frankly, being someone who has lived most of his life in Jerusalem, it does not really impress me. So what is it? What is that different quality?

At some point I realized that the difference is in the people on the street. At first it was hard to put my finger on it, they just seemed to “cute”. Gradually I realized that it’s all in their body language and facial expressions - they all seem friendly, benevolent, well-at-ease, as opposed to the closed and guarded expressions that are usually worn by people in cities worldwide. The Xi’anish personality is simply kinder than other places, and this is expressed not only in words but also in actions. For example, whenever I entered a store on the street to look for something and they did could not sell me that product/service, the clerks would always direct me to some place that can. If that place was not very close, they would also write the address for me on a piece of paper. In one paticular instance one of the store’s clerks actually decided to take me to the other place himself, which resulted in a half-hour-long wild goose chase in which we went from store to store to store, stood together in queues, until we finally managed to change cash into my cellular phone (not a small feat, as it turned out to be).

During my first visit to Xi’an, when I had been here with Yifat, we had made friends with a local girl named Hu Yuan, with whom I’ve later irregularly kept touch through the Internet. During that first time we had severe language-barrier problems (she doesn’t really speak English and my Chinese, at the time, was very bad) and the truth was that I’ve had my doubts about meeting her again; I was afraid that, now that we could more or 
less communicate, we would find that we actually have nothing in common. Fortunately my fears were unjustified, and we had spent together two wonderful days in Xi’an before I boarded my pre-booked train towards Hangzhou. The end of the second day was particularly endearing to me:

During the late-afternoon we were spending time in an area in the northern part of the city, not far from where she lives. As evening approached, she warned me that the bus lines from there towards where I stayed were soon going to stop running. I said no problem, I’ll just take a cab, and she said that take a cab would be expensive: over thirty yuan ($4-$5, 15-20 shekel). I really didn’t mind paying that money for spending a few more hours together (the following day I was leaving town), and after explaining it to her again she grudginly agreed. And so we hung out a few more hours, until it became late and was really time to go. But, as it seems, she had still not come to terms with the fact that I’ll be spending 30+ yuan just to get home from where she lives, and thus she had reached a decision. First we went to a storage yard, which was already closed for the night, where she begged the nightkeeper to let her in and fetch her electric-powered bicycle. This bike is slightly larger than a regular bicycle so a second person, me in this case, can barely sit behind the rider. And so we rode for about half an hour, until finally reaching a bus stop from which a bus line arriving near the place I stayed was still supposed to be running. We then waited together for the bus. And waited, and waited, until we came to the conclusion that no more buses will be arriving until the next day, and there was no choice left but taking a cab. She estimated the cab fare to be, from that point, over twenty yuan, and was still not pleased. And so she ordered me to stay where I am and wait for her, while she approached a taxi driver and haggled with him until he had agreed to take me (with no meter running so the money would go directly into his pocket) for ten yuan. All this effort on my behalf, while it was obvious that I’m not exactly short on cash, had left me deeply moved.

People have been complaining that this blog does not have enough pictures, so here’s a picture of Hu Yuan and me together: