China On A Budget - Xi’an

Part 2 - Xi’an

Sunday 20/6/2010

Our cab arrived on time at the hotel to take us to Bejing Airport for our flight to Xi’an, about an hour’s journey southwest of Bejing. On arrival at Xi’an (the ancient capital of China) a tout approached us inside the terminal (we had targets painted on our backs) and offered to drive us into the city in a private car for the price of 180y ($30). My wife beat him down to 120y ($20) which we found out later was the same amount a normal taxi would charge. The tout took us outside to his car and driver for the one hour and twenty minute ride to the city. This trip proved very eventful indeed.

There is massive development on the road into Xi’an. We drove past hundreds of half finished high-rise buildings which form part of the Xi’an Economic and Technological Development Zone. About twenty minutes from our hotel the driver pulled up at a service station to re-gas his car. He couldn’t speak any English but motioned for us to pay him the fare then and there. I refused and pointed to our hotel address. He continued to gesture but I held my ground. I noticed that there were a few taxi cabs filling up so I got out and gestured to him to open the boot and give us our suitcases, and pointed to the nearest cab. Faced with the prospect of no passengers and no fare, he quickly opened his glovebox and found some money to pay for the gas. I often wonder if we’d paid him whether he’d have driven off and abandoned us at the service station.

Our hotel was situated inside the old walled section of Xi’an, but most of it consists of modern buildings. The driver had some trouble tracking down the address but eventually pulled up on the opposite side of the busy road. We didn’t complain as we were just happy to see the back of him, although he did help us carry our suitcases across to the hotel. We vowed never to hire a tout again and just stick to the legitimate taxis. The Ibis Hotel at 59 Heping Road was a fairly new establishment with nice clean rooms and friendly and helpful staff, one of which at least spoke some English. It seemed to be a busy and well-run establishment with people checking in and out quite regularly. It also included a bar and a buffet breakfast area which we intended to try out the next morning. Thats the buffet breakfast, not the bar. I must add that all our hotel bookings were done online with only the aid of website photos and readers’ comments from the review site at TripAdvisor. So far, so good. The only downside to accomodation in China is that the hotel rooms don’t supply English tea or coffee satchets, only green tea. Apart from the beds being as hard as a rock also.

After booking in and freshening up we went in search of lunch. This exercise proved to be a pain in the butt as every restaurant had their menus written in Chinese only. And there were no little pastry shops like we had found in Bejing, not yet anyway. So it was into McDonalds for a dreadful chicken burger made from some sort of pressed meat covered with mayonnaise. On the brighter side, the sky was actually a reasonable colour of blue and the weather was sunny and hot. After lunch we wandered the streets and poked around the local shops to acquaint ourselves with the area.

We showed one of the locals a picture of a shopping centre with the word “supermarket” written in Chinese from our little red book. He pointed in the traditional Chinese way with his arm outstretched, and, if we needed to cross the road, his hand bent at the wrist. As is common in Chinese shopping centres, there’s nowhere to sit and indulge in my favourite pastime of ‘people-watching’ as in Australia, so I was forced to follow my wife around the aisles and discretely check out how pretty the young female shop assistants were … someone has to do it. On the way back to our hotel I noticed a bottle shop, and as it was getting towards happy hour, I purchased a couple of 600ml bottles of local Hans beer for 2.5y each (under 50c per bottle). Back in our hotel room whilst enjoying a beer, my wife remembered that she’d read something on the internet about a place called the Golden Hans Microbrewery located in the same street as our hotel. It also served hot food so we decided to check it out, hopefully for our evening meal.

We found the Golden Hans Microbrewery about five minutes walk from our hotel. How we failed to notice it on our walk that afternoon remains a mystery. All I can say is, our evening meal problems are now solved. What a fantastic venue! Inside consists of two floors with tables and chairs, a bar and an all-you-can-eat buffet on each floor. For the measly price of 42y ($7) per head for the food, she was in heaven, and 6y for a pint of beer, I was in heaven. Here’s the procedure: on entering you are shown to your table and given a plate and eating utensils, then immediately attacked by roaming waiters with skewers of roast lamb and pork, all wielding long knives like swordsmen to cut off slices of freshly cooked meat. Then it’s a visit to the buffet where you can add fried rice, prawns, fried or curried vegetables, salads, pasta and an array of Chinese food. As soon as your plate looks empty, the swordsmen appear again and more slices of delicious roast meat land on your plate. And if you still haven’t had enough, you can go back to the buffet for puddings and cakes. And maybe a last pint.

Monday 21/6/2010

Nobody travels to China without seeing the Terracotta Warriors. Again we shunned the guided tours and climbed aboard a local bus which took us to the bus depot outside the old city wall where we caught another local bus to the Terracotta Warriors Museum. Using local buses in this way also allowed us to observe how the local Chinese people go about their daily lives. The bus trip took us out of the city and into the countryside. Rows and rows of houses, some in good condition and some not so good condition, dominated the scenery as we drove through the inner and outer suburbs. Further along, the journey took us through small farms with little shacks here and there to house the workers. Arriving at our destination, the introduction to the Terracotta Warriors museum site was a huge parking area full of tour buses. After a walk through this and a market stall area selling souvenirs we entered the main museum building which housed the biggest diggings, pit number two.

An amazing scene unfolded as we looked down from the walkway above into a huge area of row upon row of sixteen foot deep trenches housing about 1,300 terracotta warriors arranged in battle formation, 80 war chariots, and weapons all uncovered from under the ground. A group of peasants discovered the site while digging for a well in 1974. Archeologists have established beyond doubt that these artifacts were associated with the Qin Dynasty (211-206 BC). The warriors, wooden chariots and bronze weapons are still in perfect condition, with the swords still very sharp and smooth. The local bus to the site cost 7y and the entrance fee was 45y each. If we’d taken a guided tour the cost would have been 305y each, and we’d have been subjected to all kinds of tourist traps and souvenir shops.

In the afternoon we caught another local bus to a city landmark called the Bell Tower. It is a large stately building of Ming-style architecture and marks the geographical center of the ancient capital. Inside we watched the ringing of the bell ritual with young girls dancing in traditional costumes and playing flutes and singing. Quite colourful.

Tuesday 22/6/2010

The breakfast buffet at the Ibis Hotel consisted of the usual Chinese fare, so made do with fried rice, toast and coffee. I defy anyone (except the Chinese) to handle seaweed and bean sprouts at 7.30 in the morning.

We’re just about on a first name basis with the local bus drivers by now as we jumped on board and travelled to the southern end of the city to visit the Big Goose Pagoda, an ancient building and a holy place for Buddhists. The pagoda is surrounded by walls on four sides with a public square in front and market stalls selling touristy stuff along one side. The pagoda is a huge tiered structure 64.5 metres high with internal stairs through the seven storeys to the top for magnificent views of the city. Inside are engraved statues of Buddha and other religious relics from the Tang Dynasty. The grounds house several smaller pagodas inside.

We managed to find a restaurant nearby that served pizzas for lunch while waiting for the fountain show to begin in the public square in front of the pagoda. By the time we got back to the square crowds of people had gathered around the lake waiting for the show. As the show began more water was pumped into the lake causing it to run over a series of spillways. A large number of fountains then bubbled up through the lake surface spurting water through the air. As it was a very warm day, children and adults took advantage of the cooling water by removing their shoes and walking across the spillways under the cascades of water. Security guards chastised the first few kids but soon realised it was a lost cause and left them to it. My wife and I sat in the shade and marvelled at how the Chinese enjoy such simple pleasures.

The night before we left Xi’an for Yangshuo, the Golden Hans Brewery reverberated with the sounds of,

“HUBBA HUBBA HUBBA — HOI HOI HOI”

The age-old game of scissors, paper, rock being played out by a noisy party of about thirty young Chinese in full voice. They were having more fun than a cat in a dairy, and good luck to them. It seemed a fitting farewell to this wonderful establishment where the food is excellent and the swordsmen always put on a fine show of meat slicing.

The Terracotta Warriors

The Big Goose Pagoda

And so to Yangshuo…

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