Xi'an Adventures...

Hello friends!

Well, Martin and I have been in Xi'an for almost 2 weeks now (aaargh!) and the only sightseeing we've done was accomplished in 2 days! The reason we're still here is that we've been struggling to get a train ticket out of here... we refused to pay the Y40 surcharge the hostel asks so instead had to spend hours in fat queues (on different days), putting up with the stinky stale smokey air and fighting with locals for precious tickets. We eventually got a ticket - but not to the place we want!! So now we're off on Saturday to Lanzhou, the most polluted city in the world - quite a tourist pull hey?? When we arrive there, there are no plans for sightseeing, we're just going to hang in the train station until we can get tickets for an onward journey!

So, about Xi'an. We've actually been having a lovely time in this city. It's smaller and cleaner than others we've been to, and the youth hostel we're in is a nice place just to read books and relax. The area we're in is unfortunately a bit touristy, but by walking a little way out we've found sidestreets and alleys that ask us the local price for food and other things. If we were to eat in the restaurants around our youth hostel we'd be paying through the nose!! Too many tourists who come with too much money :)

The view from our hostel: (The Bell Tower)


The first few days we were here were rather manic, we met 3 Chinese guys (Gavin, Ben and Jiang) who were sharing our dorm room and got taken under their wings! They were really cool - students from Shanghai - but had a knack of spending lots and lots of money!! The first night we met them, they took us out for a really fancy meal with so much food we almost popped! Of course, in true Chinese style, they wouldn't let us pay anything. From that moment on they clearly decided we needed lots of help and company. The company was great, the help we didn't need, but it was still a fun 3 days.

Day 1:

I met the nice Chinese guys by chatting to them in our room, while Martin read his book outside. They were full of questions about foreign tourists and foreigners studying Chinese in Asia as they study marketing and advertising and wanted opinions and views on various matters. I was exhausted after hours of being plied with questions, so was quite relieved when Martin joined us and I could sit back and just listen for a while. That evening they took us out for dinner, which we ate with gusto (not having seen food like that since eating with our Zhengzhou family!).

Day 2:

We were woken at 7:30am with Jiang fully dressed and ready for the day of sightseeing. Luckily we didn't feel too bad about letting them down as Ben was still in bed, just as "lazy" as us! After a very quick shower, much to their amusement (Chinese people generally only shower/wash in the evenings), we were ready. Martin grabbed us a quick breakfast from a vendor at the bus station (sweet buns, boiled eggs and processed meat sausages), and from there we boarded the tour bus to the various sights around Xi'an.

First stop: Huaqing Hot Springs:



The Huaqing Hot Spring is famed for both its dainty spring scenery and the romantic love story of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) and his concubine Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It is said that King You built a palace here during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-711 BC). Additions were subsequently made by the First Emperor Qing (259 BC-210BC) and Emperor Wu during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24). During his reign, the Emperor Xuanzong spent dizzying amounts of his funds to build a luxurious palace, changing its name to Huaqing Hot Spring or Huaqing Palace. Over the course of 41 years, he visited the palace as many as 36 times. The palace thus has a history of 3,000 years and the hotspring a history of 6,000 years!



The hot springs were also the temporary residence of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party during the world-famous Xian Incidence in 1936. We found this the most interesting because of Chiang Kai-shek's connection with Taiwan. If you can't remember who he is, this will help: He was a Chinese military and political figure who led the Nationalists against the rising Communist forces and was driven from the mainland to Taiwan (1949), where he served as president of Nationalist China until his death.

Second stop: Terracotta Warriors:



The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometers east of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum, Lintong County, Shaanxi province. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had work begun on his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974. It caught the attention of archeologists immediately. They came to Xian in droves to study and to extend the digs. They had established beyond doubt that these artifacts were associated with the Qin Dynasty (211 --206 BC).



We thought the terracotta warriors were just amazing. I can't believe that some rich arrogant emperor just decided that he would be buried in the same style and magnificence that he was used to in life. Apparently, his tomb (which has not been excavated) was created with palaces, outhouses etc etc and he even had prisoners and place 'maids' buried alive with him.

After the exhausting day of rushing from place to place, we took the bus home. I was grateful as I felt that my brain was just too full of information and historical facts!! Again, we went out for dinner with our friends, and this time they actually let us pay for ourselves... we half-regretted it afterwards though - we could have eaten for 3 or 4 days with the total of our bill!!!

Day 3:

Today we finally convinced our friends that we were too tired to go sightseeing with them again (actually we just felt that we couldn't afford it!!), but agreed to have dinner with them and take a trip to the local supermarket.
Dinner was wonderful (so was the cost!!) and our trip to the supermarket ended in such a lovely suprise. When we got back to the youth hostel, the three boys whipped out presents for Martin and I, as well as a bottle of red wine and a birthday cake!!!
Such lovely guys. We went through to the restaurant area and proceeded to enjoy glasses of wine and vanilla sponge cake. Gavin gave me a watch-ring, and Martin got a Chinese flute instrument thing.

After our days with the Shanghai boys, we spend a few days simply reading books and catching up on emails. The western food in the youth hostel is so tempting - but we managed to only splurge on our birthdays :)

So yes, it was my birthday on Saturday August 26th. I didn't have the most spectacular of days, and managed to cry many times (feeling rather far away from home, family and friends), but wonderful Martin helped me feel better!! That evening was nice, we'd met some Dutch, French and an Australian guy earlier and we sat around chatting and having beers in the common room. Once they discovered it was my birthday they insisted that I have my own beer (I don't really like the stuff) and tried to convince me to come out with them to a club later on. I was the only girl among them all and felt that Martin would have a much better time without me (just some good old men-bonding time) so I ducked out of going and went to bed earlier (or that was the plan - instead I met a nice girl in the bathroom when I went for a shower at 2am, and we chatted for a good hour, and by the time I got into bed the noisy boys were home and I had to listen to Martin's account of the evening :)

Martin's birthday (Monday August 28th) was a bit more eventful, we spent the afternoon riding bikes along the Xi'an city wall, which was great fun. We also splurged on a wonderful fry-up breakfast and pizza in the evening.



The real treat for our birthdays is still to come however. Our wonderful parents have both given us some money to spend on a fancy hotel and evening meal. We've decided to do this in Xi'an as we were walking past the Hyatt Regency (oh yes darling!!) the other day and just couldn't resist. So this is where we'll be larney-ing it up tomorrow night:



We're so excited... its more than 16 times the price we usually spend for a night's accomodation, but we'er really looking forward to all the luxury! We get 24hrs free soft drinks, a cocktail and snack bar in the evening and breakfast in the morning. We're going to check in tomorrow morning really early and spend the whole day in the hotel!! I'm planning on waltzing around in my robe finding the swimming pool, spa, tennis court etc etc........ HORRAY!!! Thank you mum, dad, Jan and Frank - you're wonderful :)

So that's Xi'an for you. We'll be back after the visit to the hotel and the trip to pollution-ville!!!