Stop 2, Xi'an
Ok the Beijing post was getting too big, so I’m going to break this trip up. So just before we left for Xi’an we had a little trouble with our train tickets. We were originally supposed to go to Xi’an via an overnight train but something happened to our tickets and we were transportation-less. Luckily for us there was a travel agent in the hotel in Beijing that booked us three tickets by plane to Xi’an. That way we could get to Xi’an in about 2 hours compared to 14 hours and we could avoid the biggest “concern” for us about the train.
When we told everyone that we were going to China, they all talked about how jealous they were. “They,” being the other JETs in Kyoto. Then when we would go over our itinerary they would always look at us funny when we told them about the overnight train. It turns out that some people have been on the train before and the train is pretty… nasty. For one thing the rooms were only available for 4 people. That means that there would be a good chance that we would not be alone in our room. Who knows what kind of person could have been bunking with us? Just the thought alone was kind of creepy. And there was an issue about the bathrooms. It turns out that the bathrooms are all pubic and unisex. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that you have to use these special boots that are laid out for you so that when you “go” you don’t get your feet wet. Supposedly the water splashes around a lot and due to this, many people “miss”. And not just the men but the women too. Oh and there is only one pair of boots. And after being in Beijing for 4 days I’m almost certain that it’s more sanitary to go barefoot than use the boots. Anyway we avoided that whole situation and had one more pleasant morning in Beijing and we were off.
Xi’an: First impressions, hot and dirty. While in Beijing the weather was a comfortable 22ish degrees C, about 75 F. But in Xi’an it got as high as 35 degrees C, that’s up in the upper 80’s maybe even 90 F! It was HOT! The shuttle bus from the airport to the main part of town was pretty smooth. I was getting a little worried because everywhere I looked I could only see small one story houses or shops that looked pretty run down. It looked like something out of a sci-fi post apocalyptic city, with dust clouds rolling everywhere, children in rags running around, and that one guy who’s wearing a wife beater and jeans with a cowboy hat. I saw no gas station, no Starbucks, no McDonald’s, and no KFC. I didn’t even see a convenient store. The only shops around were engine shops. It looks like they sold every single engine ever invented. You could get washing machine engine, car engines, moped engines, lawn mower engines, and more. It was really weird. But we were outside the main city and making our way directly to the center of Xi’an. After a good 45 minutes we started to see some evidence that there might be an actual city here. We started to breathe more relaxed when we did see the McDonald’s, KFC, and etc.
As soon as we got off the shuttle, we went in search of the hostel we were gonna stay at. In the middle of the city there’s a huge pavilion called the Bell Tower. It’s literally the center of the city as there are streets that got to the north, south, west, and east from the Bell Tower. And fortunately for us the hostel was right next to the Bell Tower. When we got to the hostel we, or I had to sneak around since Lisa only made reservation for 2 people since 3 people would mean we would have to get another room. So I had to sneak around and I noticed that the place was extremely nasty. There were a lot of rubbish, spilled drinks, and corners that smelled of urine. As this was all over the floor, all over the walls there were posters saying how good this hostel was. Pictures of previous guests during certain festivals and such were pasted everywhere. It was hardly believable that this hostel was rated really high. But then again we did have our “Asian Masks” on so we looked like any other Chinese threesome walking around Xi’an. So no tourist treatment…
I thought the lobby was bad, the rooms were worse. The floor, although carpeted, was full of stains and looked like it’s never been cleaned before. And it felt like there was so much foot traffic that the carpet was matted down. The beds were semi decent and so was the toilet. The shower didn’t have any kind of raise or slope so when you took a shower the water would just pool up in the bathroom. If you took a long shower, no doubt the water would have gotten into the hallway. We were only gonna stay one night so we just had to just suck it up. I was also the “illegal” guest so we couldn’t complain. Nevertheless we needed to be thankful for a working shower, toilet, and a place where we could keep our bags.
This was our hostel in Xi'an. Looks OK from the outside but it was pretty bad on the inside. So bad that we didn't even take any pictures.
It turns out the Bell Tower was still open after we settled down so we took a look. It’s just a huge pavilion where they rung a bell for times for prayer and etc. We had come at a good time because there was a show that demonstrated the use of the different bells and other musical instruments. It was pretty cool, but then as a finale they played “Jingle Bells” and that ruined the ambience.
Here"s the famous Xi'an Bell Tower.
After the Bell Tower, we decided to go to a near by shopping mall but it turned out that it was a regular mall and after coming from a marketplace where you can haggle, a regular mall didn’t really cut it for us. So instead we took a stroll around the area. We realized that we were more tired than we thought we were so we decided to make it a KFC night and head back to the hotel to chill. The best thing about the hotel room was that it had a really good air conditioner. If not for that I don’t think we would have made it. We watched a little TV while chomping on our KFC (It tastes the same). After dinner we decided to play a friendly game of Rummy. Rummy seemed to be THE game of the trip. Anytime we had a few minutes to kill it was always Rummy.
The next day was our one day quest to get to the Terra-cotta statues of Xi’an. We were gonna get a tour at the hostel but in the guide book it told us to stay away from them since they take to all these other tombs and stay longer at tourist traps rather than the historical places．The best thing was to either find some kind of private chauffeur or catch a cab. The cab was going to be about 100 Yuan one way, which seemed kind of high. So went to look for a travel agent to book us just a driver. The best way to do that was go to a higher end hotel with all the luxuries in the lobbies and just walk in. We actually found one and she made friends with Lisa and got us a driver. This driver was going to take us there and then bring us back after 2 hours at the site.
The drive there was just a little over an hour and fairly uneventful. I fell asleep in the back seat almost the whole way. The thing that worried me was that I had the window down and I guess my mouth was open as I took the nap. I was chewing gum and when I woke up I started chewing it again and it seemed crunchy. Not a bug crunchy but sand crunchy. The air was still pretty hazy and nasty. And we were going into the country side where they found the Terra-cotta statues. So I said bye to the blueberry Extra gum.
When we got to the actual site the place was super crowded. There was so many people as well as cars, tour buses, and vendors all trying to get into the site. It’s a good thing we were on foot so we could weave in and out of traffic and make our way to the entrance. Eventually we got there and of course the RUDE Chinese people don’t understand the concept of “lining up.” This is pretty sad because anytime there’s a little bit of organization the people who disregard the concept of “lining up” spoil everything. After giving a really hard elbow to the girl behind me I made my way into the site grounds.
We headed straight towards the main site where they had the army of Terra-cotta Statues in battle formation all facing the East. It was pretty amazing when you first enter. Its kind of cool how they set it up with the entrance being at the east side so when you walk in an army of warriors are staring straight at you. We spent a good hour there just taking everything in and taking a lot of pictures. If you ignored the pushing, shoving, rude people walking right into your shot, and kids fooling around, the place was very haunting. I don’t know what it was but something inside there was… I don’t know. I wish I had visited the Terra-cottas like Bill Clinton. There was a section where they had pictures of famous people that came to visit the statues and one of them was the Clinton Family. I guess it was during his first term because they looked really happy. Anyway they were standing IN the tomb. They took an aerial shot of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea standing amongst the Terra-cotta Statues. I guess it’s good to be the President.
The Eighth W0nder of the World, The Terra-Cotta Statues. This is the first thing you see when you come into the main area.
I thought this was one of those "creepy haunting" pictures.
We still had some time so we went to a museum type place that had famous bronze chariot figures. We had to kind of zoom through there since we were running out of time and everyone stunk of crazy B.O. By this time we were all fed up with the pushing and the shoving so we were glad to get out. The walk back to our driver was peaceful since we knew exactly where to go and avoided all the big crowds. We were all on high after finding out that the Terra-cotta statues were the 8th Wonder of the World. Later I found out that the list only really goes up to 7 and that there are different lists for the Wonders. For example there are 7 Wonders for the Ancient World and 7 Wonders for the Medieval World, etc.
After we got back to the city we still had time before we took a flight out of Xi’an for Shanghai, so we went and checked out the Big Goose Pavilion. It was one of the main sights in Xi’an, which was a big pagoda for Buddhism. The landscaping was very nice but it looked like the other thousands of old Chinese pavilions we’ve seen so we took a break under shade until our bus shuttle back to the airport.
The Big Goose Pavillion at its finest.
When we told everyone that we were going to China, they all talked about how jealous they were. “They,” being the other JETs in Kyoto. Then when we would go over our itinerary they would always look at us funny when we told them about the overnight train. It turns out that some people have been on the train before and the train is pretty… nasty. For one thing the rooms were only available for 4 people. That means that there would be a good chance that we would not be alone in our room. Who knows what kind of person could have been bunking with us? Just the thought alone was kind of creepy. And there was an issue about the bathrooms. It turns out that the bathrooms are all pubic and unisex. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that you have to use these special boots that are laid out for you so that when you “go” you don’t get your feet wet. Supposedly the water splashes around a lot and due to this, many people “miss”. And not just the men but the women too. Oh and there is only one pair of boots. And after being in Beijing for 4 days I’m almost certain that it’s more sanitary to go barefoot than use the boots. Anyway we avoided that whole situation and had one more pleasant morning in Beijing and we were off.
Xi’an: First impressions, hot and dirty. While in Beijing the weather was a comfortable 22ish degrees C, about 75 F. But in Xi’an it got as high as 35 degrees C, that’s up in the upper 80’s maybe even 90 F! It was HOT! The shuttle bus from the airport to the main part of town was pretty smooth. I was getting a little worried because everywhere I looked I could only see small one story houses or shops that looked pretty run down. It looked like something out of a sci-fi post apocalyptic city, with dust clouds rolling everywhere, children in rags running around, and that one guy who’s wearing a wife beater and jeans with a cowboy hat. I saw no gas station, no Starbucks, no McDonald’s, and no KFC. I didn’t even see a convenient store. The only shops around were engine shops. It looks like they sold every single engine ever invented. You could get washing machine engine, car engines, moped engines, lawn mower engines, and more. It was really weird. But we were outside the main city and making our way directly to the center of Xi’an. After a good 45 minutes we started to see some evidence that there might be an actual city here. We started to breathe more relaxed when we did see the McDonald’s, KFC, and etc.
As soon as we got off the shuttle, we went in search of the hostel we were gonna stay at. In the middle of the city there’s a huge pavilion called the Bell Tower. It’s literally the center of the city as there are streets that got to the north, south, west, and east from the Bell Tower. And fortunately for us the hostel was right next to the Bell Tower. When we got to the hostel we, or I had to sneak around since Lisa only made reservation for 2 people since 3 people would mean we would have to get another room. So I had to sneak around and I noticed that the place was extremely nasty. There were a lot of rubbish, spilled drinks, and corners that smelled of urine. As this was all over the floor, all over the walls there were posters saying how good this hostel was. Pictures of previous guests during certain festivals and such were pasted everywhere. It was hardly believable that this hostel was rated really high. But then again we did have our “Asian Masks” on so we looked like any other Chinese threesome walking around Xi’an. So no tourist treatment…
I thought the lobby was bad, the rooms were worse. The floor, although carpeted, was full of stains and looked like it’s never been cleaned before. And it felt like there was so much foot traffic that the carpet was matted down. The beds were semi decent and so was the toilet. The shower didn’t have any kind of raise or slope so when you took a shower the water would just pool up in the bathroom. If you took a long shower, no doubt the water would have gotten into the hallway. We were only gonna stay one night so we just had to just suck it up. I was also the “illegal” guest so we couldn’t complain. Nevertheless we needed to be thankful for a working shower, toilet, and a place where we could keep our bags.
This was our hostel in Xi'an. Looks OK from the outside but it was pretty bad on the inside. So bad that we didn't even take any pictures.
It turns out the Bell Tower was still open after we settled down so we took a look. It’s just a huge pavilion where they rung a bell for times for prayer and etc. We had come at a good time because there was a show that demonstrated the use of the different bells and other musical instruments. It was pretty cool, but then as a finale they played “Jingle Bells” and that ruined the ambience.
Here"s the famous Xi'an Bell Tower.
After the Bell Tower, we decided to go to a near by shopping mall but it turned out that it was a regular mall and after coming from a marketplace where you can haggle, a regular mall didn’t really cut it for us. So instead we took a stroll around the area. We realized that we were more tired than we thought we were so we decided to make it a KFC night and head back to the hotel to chill. The best thing about the hotel room was that it had a really good air conditioner. If not for that I don’t think we would have made it. We watched a little TV while chomping on our KFC (It tastes the same). After dinner we decided to play a friendly game of Rummy. Rummy seemed to be THE game of the trip. Anytime we had a few minutes to kill it was always Rummy.
The next day was our one day quest to get to the Terra-cotta statues of Xi’an. We were gonna get a tour at the hostel but in the guide book it told us to stay away from them since they take to all these other tombs and stay longer at tourist traps rather than the historical places．The best thing was to either find some kind of private chauffeur or catch a cab. The cab was going to be about 100 Yuan one way, which seemed kind of high. So went to look for a travel agent to book us just a driver. The best way to do that was go to a higher end hotel with all the luxuries in the lobbies and just walk in. We actually found one and she made friends with Lisa and got us a driver. This driver was going to take us there and then bring us back after 2 hours at the site.
The drive there was just a little over an hour and fairly uneventful. I fell asleep in the back seat almost the whole way. The thing that worried me was that I had the window down and I guess my mouth was open as I took the nap. I was chewing gum and when I woke up I started chewing it again and it seemed crunchy. Not a bug crunchy but sand crunchy. The air was still pretty hazy and nasty. And we were going into the country side where they found the Terra-cotta statues. So I said bye to the blueberry Extra gum.
When we got to the actual site the place was super crowded. There was so many people as well as cars, tour buses, and vendors all trying to get into the site. It’s a good thing we were on foot so we could weave in and out of traffic and make our way to the entrance. Eventually we got there and of course the RUDE Chinese people don’t understand the concept of “lining up.” This is pretty sad because anytime there’s a little bit of organization the people who disregard the concept of “lining up” spoil everything. After giving a really hard elbow to the girl behind me I made my way into the site grounds.
We headed straight towards the main site where they had the army of Terra-cotta Statues in battle formation all facing the East. It was pretty amazing when you first enter. Its kind of cool how they set it up with the entrance being at the east side so when you walk in an army of warriors are staring straight at you. We spent a good hour there just taking everything in and taking a lot of pictures. If you ignored the pushing, shoving, rude people walking right into your shot, and kids fooling around, the place was very haunting. I don’t know what it was but something inside there was… I don’t know. I wish I had visited the Terra-cottas like Bill Clinton. There was a section where they had pictures of famous people that came to visit the statues and one of them was the Clinton Family. I guess it was during his first term because they looked really happy. Anyway they were standing IN the tomb. They took an aerial shot of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea standing amongst the Terra-cotta Statues. I guess it’s good to be the President.
The Eighth W0nder of the World, The Terra-Cotta Statues. This is the first thing you see when you come into the main area.
I thought this was one of those "creepy haunting" pictures.
We still had some time so we went to a museum type place that had famous bronze chariot figures. We had to kind of zoom through there since we were running out of time and everyone stunk of crazy B.O. By this time we were all fed up with the pushing and the shoving so we were glad to get out. The walk back to our driver was peaceful since we knew exactly where to go and avoided all the big crowds. We were all on high after finding out that the Terra-cotta statues were the 8th Wonder of the World. Later I found out that the list only really goes up to 7 and that there are different lists for the Wonders. For example there are 7 Wonders for the Ancient World and 7 Wonders for the Medieval World, etc.
After we got back to the city we still had time before we took a flight out of Xi’an for Shanghai, so we went and checked out the Big Goose Pavilion. It was one of the main sights in Xi’an, which was a big pagoda for Buddhism. The landscaping was very nice but it looked like the other thousands of old Chinese pavilions we’ve seen so we took a break under shade until our bus shuttle back to the airport.
The Big Goose Pavillion at its finest.
One of the few groups shots we took on our trip in China.
Then we had another stressful situation at the airport. Lisa had gotten us e-tickets online of the flight from Xi’an to Shanghai. We get to the airport and look for the atm-ish e-ticket machines but there are none in sight. We ask one of the check-in people and she directed us to the Shanghai Air counter. The man could speak English so we were pretty safe and he went to look for our tickets. It turned out that they don’t have a machine but they do have a lady that checks her computer and makes sure that we indeed paid online. Expect that she wasn’t there. She had already left for the day. WTF!? The man is frantically making phone calls and even had a different lady for a different airline helping as well. But he does eventually confirm the purchase and gives us a ticket. After that it was smooth sailing to the Shanghai, which seems likes its going to be another post.
posted by Chris at 5:02 AM
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