The City of Western Peace

A few days ago if you had asked me to predict what Xi'an would be like, I'd have guessed my time there would be pretty mild. Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors were kind of cool, and so were some of the other landmarks we went to, but to quote my friend Dan, they were basically "go see and say that's amazing take some pictures and then leave" kind of places, which, unlike the Great Wall, the Catacombs of Paris, the Batays of the Dominican Republic, or some of the other amazing places I am fortunate enough to have visited, were exactly as I expected. But our stay in Xi'an definitely was not mild, unless that's the word you would use to describe my and my friends' being encircled by thousands of rampant Chinese nationalists waving "Death to Japan" signs before attacking a police car and setting fire to a nearby store.


That's right, I was lucky enough to witness a Chinese protest first-hand. Let me explain. One of the coolest souvenirs I saw in Xi'an were these really, really long kites (just wait till you see pictures... these kites are so long), so yesterday morning I decided I wanted to buy one before we left for Beijing later that afternoon. In the hotel lobby I ran into my friend Xiao Mao, who said, "Let me guess, you're going to go watch the protests." I had no idea what he was talking about, so he took me outside. The enormous crowd of people I saw when I stepped outside was nothing at all like what I imagined. The crowd of people stretched farther than I could even see.



Outside, my roommate and I ran into some other ACC students who had come across the marches after doing some sightseeing. We don't know exactly what caused the uproar, but it certainly wasn't random--vendors nearby were selling flags and stickers, and the police were watching closely but not interfering. My friend guessed that the protest might have been caused by disputes over ownership of the Senkaku islands near Taiwan.

Obviously we decided to get closer. I was nervous that the crowd might not be very welcoming, given that the United States is supportive of Japan (this fear was not baseless... some nearby people even shouted out that my friend's camera was a Sony), but two of the girls with us bought some small China flags to show our "support," and we were fine. In fact, we were more than fine. People absolutely loved us. We must have had hundreds of pictures and videos taken of us. At one point were completely surrounded by Chinese youth taking our pictures and asking for our contact information. But the weirdest part of it all was when one Chinese guy asked my roommate, Taylor, to help him hold up an anti-Japanese banner (one that read, "Take Out Your Knives"). Taylor didn't think it was a very good idea to refuse, so he took hold of the banner and the crowd went absolutely wild. The people erupted in applause and shouts of gratitude. What appeared to be TV cameras ran towards us to film the scene. I very halfheartedly chanted "Zhongguo, jiayou" along with them, but I was definitely uncomfortable.

Afterward, the crowd noticed a Japanese athletics store nearby and people stampeded forward, banging the glass and throwing things at it. That was our cue. We ran away, but not before seeing smoke coming from the store.







The crowd surrounding us.



At the very end of this clip you can see the people begin to clap for my roommate.


The protests made driving in the streets impossible, so when we got back to the hotel all 60 ACC students had to walk two miles, all of our baggage in hand, to the train station, in the middle of traffic. Talk about a 地地道道 experience. I have another fun story about Xi'an but I'll save it for my next post.