Despite all of our pre-planning, the trip to the airport didn’t go quite as planned yet at the same time it all worked out surprisingly well. The first hiccup started almost immediately. The plan was to catch the 102 city bus just a couple of blocks away. When I first read the instructions from google to get to the bus stop I thought them odd because at one point it said turn right then make a U-turn. Why not just walk right to the bus stop? Well when we got to what I thought was the bus stop, 102 wasn’t listed. We had seen one go by but not the direction we expected. We were tempted to catch a cab but decided to first walk to the next bus stop. Fortunately, it turned out to be very close and not only was the 102 listed but the bus turned up moments later. From there it was about a ½ hour bus ride to the stop for the long distance bus. Remember on Monday how I had reported proudly finding the ticket office? Turns out it wasn’t the right ticket office but the right one was just a few doors down so no big deal and apparently we aren’t the only ones to make the same mistake. We bought the tickets, got solicited by a “taxi driver” who offered to take us to the airport in exchange for the tickets (we did not fall for this), got on the bus and off the bus went (we had allowed for at least an hour’s wait). 40 minutes later we were at the airport! We expected a much longer drive (1.5hrs). There was no line up at the counter so we got our boarding cards and were through security rather quickly. It seemed all too easy, all that buffer time we had built in to getting to the airport wasn’t needed but we were very happy to sit in a coffee shop and kill the time. The flight was on time (5pm departure), we had good seats, and even got food on the plane.
When I was planning the trip to Xi’an, getting around all sounded very complicated so we opted to go with a tour guide. This meant that when we got to the airport in Xi’an we were looking for a person with a China Highlights sign. There was a small crowd at the exit but no sign, we went outside but didn’t see anything obvious there either so we went back into the airport and were fumbling through our bags looking for phone numbers when a woman approached us with the China Highlights sign! Sometimes it’s nice to stick out in a crowd!
We landed at 7:20pm and from the airport it was roughly an hour’s drive into the city. Once we got all checked in we were curious about the city so Heidi and I headed out to do some exploring and I wanted pictures of the bell tower at night (we had passed it on the drive in and saw that it was all lit up). The streets were very busy with people, there was lots to see as we walked around.
We met the guide the next morning at 8:30. Because of the weather she suggested we change the itinerary slightly and start the day with biking on the city wall.
“When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.
After the extension, the wall now stands 12 meters (40 feet) tall, 12-14 meters (40-46 feet) wide at the top and 15-18 meters (50-60 feet) thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 kilometers (8.5 miles) in length with a deep moat surrounding it.”
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/citywall.htm
The guide suggested 2 hours to bike the 8 miles around the wall which Heidi and I thought would be plenty of time but you add in sightseeing and photo taking along the way and it ended up being 2 hours on the nose! Partly for entertainment and partly so I could take photos along the way we opted to rent a tandem bike. The wall wasn’t very busy (it did get busy later but either that is because most people don’t venture beyond the first gate or because we got an early start (well, early for tourists). Heidi was surprised at first to discover that the bike had shock absorbers but we soon learned why – some of the stones were broken and it was far from a smooth ride! We had a lot of fun making our way along the wall.
It was a long drive out to the terracotta warriors but there was lots to see along the way and it gave us a chance to cool down. We thought it was busy but apparently we don’t know busy! We went on a Friday and the guide (Cathy) told us that the next day it would be packed with people. And if we came on October 1st (their national holiday) the line ups would be hours and hours long and there would be no lingering at the rails and if you were stuck at the back and couldn’t see that was just too bad, you had to keep moving along. So we were lucky that although the front railing was packed, along the sides was lots of room and we could take as much time as we wanted. The sheer scale is hard to describe, and to think that they have only excavated a small portion was amazing. Plus to see the pieces and the work it must take to re-assemble each warrior is unbelievable. I was also very impressed with the facility that they built around the excavation sites and the various displays. It was all very well done and fascinating. We spent all afternoon exploring the site then it was time to face to long drive back to the hotel – this time in rush hour. Yes, it can be frustrating to drive in rush hour but at the same time the traffic is crazy here so I found it rather entertaining.
We had a half hour at the hotel to shower and change and then we were off again. This time for dinner and a show.
http://xiantangdynasty.com/Column.aspx?ColId=46
Dinner included 18 varieties of dumplings and well, I don’t even know how to begin to describe the show. It was a show about the Tang Dynasty and was a demonstration of the costumes and some of the legends from the time. It was…interesting.
First stop the next morning was the Shaanxi History Museum. It opened in 1991 and is touted as one of the first state museums. It was busy in the museum but if you could manage to time it between the big guided groups it wasn’t too bad. In the main hall was a display where you could buy postcards that when combined with your iPhone you could see the artifact on the front of the postcard in 3D. Heidi was very interested so we spent a lot of time checking out the “how” of it all and ended up buying some cards. The woman working the booth was so excited about our excitement that she asked if she could have a photo with us!
Next stop was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda – the original one was built in 652. I just can’t get over the age of everything! It, of course, has been rebuilt several times but I still find the history and the legends interesting. For instance, how it got its name:
“As for the reason why it is called Big Wild Goose Pagoda, there is a legend. According to ancient stories of Buddhists, there were two branches, for one of which eating meat was not a taboo. One day, they couldn't find meat to buy. Upon seeing a group of big wild geese flying by, a monk said to himself: 'Today we have no meat. I hope the merciful Bodhisattva will give us some.' At that very moment, the leading wild goose broke its wings and fell to the ground. All the monks were startled and believed that Bodhisattva showed his spirit to order them to be more pious. They established a pagoda where the wild goose fell and stopped eating meat. Hence its name.”
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/bigwildgoose.htm
For lunch, we visited “a local” which turned out to be a family (husband, wife and 19 year old son). They invited us into their home which was in one of the many high rises we see all over China and they taught us how to make dumplings which we then got to eat! I really enjoyed the visit, they were very nice and it was interesting to see how this family lived and to learn about their lives. The son had taught himself English and was taking “Double E” at university. We think that means electrical engineering.
After lunch we were off to the Muslim quarter which was crazy. It has developed a reputation as a place you have to go see in Xi’an so everyone goes and as a result it is packed. Along the streets are various vendors selling touristy trinkets and food vendors selling all sorts of “delicacies”. It was great for people watching, full of photo opportunities and more than a little over whelming. In the middle of all this chaos is the Great Mosque. It was nice to step into the peacefulness of the mosque and of course it gets bonus points because there were cats! Then was the end of the planned activities for the day so they dropped us off at the hotel where we had showers and a rest before heading out on our own. Decided to go back to the Muslim quarter which was even busier than it had been in the afternoon. Fortunately because of the trip earlier with the guide we knew of a side alley that was less busy. We did some shopping, more people watching and build up the nerve to buy some food. We ended up ordering noodles and they were delicious – so fresh plus it’s fun watching them make it. We enjoyed the coolness of the evening and took our time walking back to the hotel.
Sunday we started a little earlier because we had another long drive, this time to the Qianling Mausoleum which is renowned for including the tomb of China's only governing female emperor Wu Zetian (r. 690–705)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianling_Mausoleum
We were very relieved when we got out of the car and the air was cool and fresh – we had a nice morning walking around the site and climbing the ‘mountain’. However, we got a lot more attention and several requests for photos. The guide would say that they thought we were “charming” – I wonder if she really knew what the word meant – I wouldn’t describe Heidi and I as charming on our best of days, then picture us red faced and sweating from climbing and well you get the idea. However, it was actually a lot of fun because we had the guide with us we could actually talk to the people and interact with them as opposed to just posing for pictures. In the photos that I uploaded to the blog I included a photo of a little girl in a stroller. She was so cute and when her parents saw us they encouraged her to say “Hello” which she did and when she saw our reaction she proceeded to repeat it – “Hello, hello, hello” and then her father said “Ping guo” and she said “Apple”! Turns out that she knew quite a few English words, we were very surprised. That morning we also visited the tomb of a princess and another of a prince both of which had been excavated so you could actually go down into tomb and see the relics and the casket which was a large stone box.
We had a very delicious lunch in a local village and then went to the Famen Temple
“Many temples house treasures and artifacts, but the sheer quantity and quality of treasures in the Famen Temple is rare in china. Famen Temple is a Buddhism Temple located around 120 kilometer west of Xiancity,Shaanxi province. The temple gained the name Famen (which means the initial approach to become a Buddhist believer) in the Tang dynasty when a wooden four-storey structure was built replacing the original Ashoka Stupa built in the Eastern Han dynasty. The temple with the "the Real Spirit Pagoda," in it enjoyed the reputation of being the "forefather of pagodas and temples in Central Shaanxi," because it held the finger bones of Sakyamuni - the founder of Buddhism.”
http://xian--travel.com/xian-attractions/famentemple.html
More information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famen_Temple
Beside the Famen Temple is a brand new complex built in 2009 – I can’t begin to describe how large the complex and all the buildings were. Wikipedia says it’s 150 acres and the building at the end – the Namaste Dagoba is 148m high. If you are like me, those numbers don’t mean much just trust me, it’s huge. The best way I could think to describe it is that it felt Olympic in scale. http://projects.sematic.com/location/namaste-dagoba/
It was a long drive back to the hotel and this time we were both tired so we opted not to go out and just had dinner at the hotel restaurant. For those of you following Heidi on Facebook you’ll already know that dinner held a bit of a surprise when our soup “the soup of the day” included a chicken’s foot.
Monday was nothing more than a ride back to the airport, check-in and security all went well. The flight was delayed, then the gate was changed – which we got wind of when everyone all of a sudden got up and left but eventually we made it back to Hangzhou. This time we opted to take a taxi, we hadn’t planned on this so communicating where we wanted to go was a little difficult but the pass card for the apartment came with a little map so we showed him that and he seemed to understand. To complicate things, there are several campuses for the University across the city. But with the wonders of technology we could follow his route on our phones and when we saw we were at the wrong campus we could show him the map on our phone and fortunately he understood despite it being in English and headed in the right direction. We were almost at our destination when someone cut him off and he hit the curb hard. He got out of the cab, yelled at the other driver, checked his wheel, yelled some more, got back in the cab and drove off.
And that is the story of our weekend in Xi’an
No comments:
Post a Comment